Mozart's compositional method: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 15:19, 30 March 2020

Revision as of 03:07, 31 March 2020

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A surviving letter of Mozart's to his father [[Leopold Mozart|Leopold]] (31 July 1778) indicates that he considered composition an active process—the product of his intellect, carried out under conscious control:

<blockquote>You know that I plunged myself into music, so to speak—that I think about it all day long—that I like experimenting—studying—reflecting.</blockquote>

==Sketches==

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About 150 of Mozart's surviving works are incomplete, roughly a quarter of the total count of surviving works.<ref name="Solomon 1995, 310" /> A number of completed works can be shown (e.g., by inspecting watermarks or inks) to be completions of fragments that had long been left incomplete. These include the piano concertos [[Piano Concerto No. 14 (Mozart)|K. 449]], [[Piano Concerto No. 23 (Mozart)|K. 488]], [[Piano Concerto No. 25 (Mozart)|K. 503]], and [[Piano Concerto No. 27 (Mozart)|K. 595]], as well as the [[Clarinet Concerto (Mozart)|Clarinet Concerto]] K. 622.

It is not known why so many works were left incomplete. In a number of cases, the historical record shows that what Mozart thought was an opportunity for performance or sale evaporated during the course of composition.<ref>See Konrad 106 for instances.</ref> {{harvtxt|Braunbehrens (|1990)}} observes: "Most pieces ... were written on request or with a specific performance in mind, if not for the composer's own use. Mozart frequently emphasized that he would never consider writing something for which there was no such occasion. Indeed, hardly a single work of his was not written for a particular occasion, or at least for use in his own concerts."<ref>{{harvtxt|Braunbehrens (|1990, |loc=147)}}. The same point is argued by Zaslaw (1994).</ref>

==Improvisation==

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Braunbehrens and other scholars infer that Mozart could not conceivably have opened a movement with a completely unadorned melody line, and instead improvised a suitable accompaniment for the left hand. Similar passages occur throughout the concerto.

The work was published only in 1794, three years after Mozart's death, and the publisher [[Johann André]] found some other composer (whose identity is unknown) to fill in the missing passages; these interpolations have become the standard for performance.<ref>This section is based on {{harvtxt|Braunbehrens (|1990, |loc=5–7)}}. For further discussion of the incomplete piano part in this concerto, see the [[Piano Concerto No. 26 (Mozart)#The_unfinished_piano_part|relevant section]] of this encyclopedia's article.</ref>

==Mozart's memory==

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==References==

*[[Volkmar{{cite Braunbehrensbook|last=Braunbehrens, |first=Volkmar|authorlink=Volkmar]] (Braunbehrens|year=1990) ''|title=Mozart in Vienna: 1781–1791''. |___location=New York: |publisher=Grove Weidenfeld.|ref=harv}}

*[[Otto Erich Deutsch|Deutsch, Otto Erich]] (1965) ''Mozart: A Documentary Biography''. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press.

*Irving, John (2006) "Sonatas", in [[Cliff Eisen]] and [[Simon P. Keefe]], ''The Cambridge Mozart Encyclopedia''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.