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The music of Wolfgang Amadeus
Mozart is as canonical as Shakespeare, no longer a matter of taste but a
statement of musical fact. However, as
with Shakespeare, this is a double-edged sword, since once anything becomes a
museum piece we begin to lose our connection to it. The nervous, mercurial energy of Symphony No.
40 becomes background music in Panera Bread, and the bitersweet lamentations of
the Requiem floats through a car commercial.
It’s a sad fact that even the most inspired music, if played too often—and
in the wrong context—can become a cliche.
So how do we rediscover the Mozart that his contemporaries heard, the
one that made Haydn (arguably the greatest composer of his age) to exclaim, “I
tell you before God and the world, he is the greatest composer known to me”? In the end, you have to “unhear” every
musical cliche and start from scratch, listening to the music of his
contemporaries and work your way forward to the musical masterpieces. Or, perhaps more simply, you could listen to
the lesser-known works of Mozart which, for one reason or another, have escaped the broad brush of cliche. Here are 5 works which I think represent
every facet of Mozart’s genius: his melody, his harmony, his orchestration, his
eccentricity (especially his penchant for the minor mode), and his
forward-thinking appeal to modern audiences (at times you really think Mozart
is a Romantic). There is no good reason
these works have not passed into the public domain, so to speak, but I’m glad
they haven’t. When you listen to them,
you almost go, “my God, what music—who composed it?” and then remember, right, it’s
Mozart. Then you start to realize why
great composers become great; not just because your teachers said so, but
because you, too, can hear this greatness.
Just don’t tell the people who supply music to on-hold services and
Panera Bread!
