I am a professional composer myself,having studied composition and music under world wide known authorities./Peter Van Grob,Zdenek Bilek,ao/
Some of topics discussed here are showing misunderstanding of common composition principles and issues.
Anybody familiar with compostional process and process of developing ideas ( especially in means of counterpoint and instrumentation,which are topics that require vertical compositional thinking ) understands,that :
Mozart coudnt "need piano to compose" ,and that writing such type of music indeed requires memoral capabilites of ordinarily unparalleled extent
The existing letters do not show his need to compose by sitting in front of keyboard,they show what we know as need for sort of "musizieren" /german word for making music on the spot,but not improvising / By the very nature of his works ,one could easily see ,that basically this type of music cannot be written sitting by the piano,when one takes into consideration the inner flow and very specific logic of his music. If hed try to composer behind the piano,it would cause considerable amount of limitations.
One can to some extent determine if a composer was working on piano while composing.This is possible especcialy in realm of tonal music.For example,Betthovens music is easilly readable in these terms.His instrumentation and harmonization proportions are into large extent influenced by piano,which inst observable in any of Mozarts works,possibly with exceptions in early age. Mozarts music is " ready" from beginning to end,which is easilly observable on nature of his decisions in concrete compositional situations.
There are two things to support this claim : if records about his improvising on fugues and fugato styles are relevant,then this makes "romantic " claims on his memory absolutely valid.Such an improvisation ( that relies on perfect,realtime manipulation with two,three and more voices in total harmony) requires several times greater memory and logic capabiliteis than composing sonata or symphony from begging to end completely in head.There are some other hsitorical records about him improvising fugas with high number of voices.We also know about his pleasure in mathematic and logic riddles and games ,that undoubtly points to his capabilities in areas of memory and logic.
Adam Kuruc
--195.91.79.181 (talk) 10:11, 29 August 2008 (UTC)Adam Kuruc--195.91.79.181 (talk) 10:11, 29 August 2008 (UTC)
- Hello, Adam, and thank you for your comments. Here at Wikipedia we try (at least in principle) to limit ourselves to transferring information from published reference sources to our articles. So if you think the article is unbalanced or inaccurate, then I have two suggestions: (1) check to see if it is accurately reflecting the sources already cited; (2) find new reference sources that give a diversity of opinion. Yours very truly, Opus33 (talk) 16:06, 29 August 2008 (UTC)
Hello ,
Well the only reference source that I can give as source of opinion diversty is that of mine,and Im ready to stand behind it anytime and cover it with necessary scholar and scientific facts,in terms of composition psychology /and large composing practical experience /.
As I already wrote,it is not matter of interpretation of these facts,because they point very clearly to the conclusion I have made - first of all,as I wrote ,if one is capable improvising fugues for some amount of time,it really takes absolutely unparalleled memory ,and composing tonal and mainly non-counterpoint based music in head from start to end ,isnt such a problem as it may seem.I know it very accurately,because it is also composing method of mine,and I am willing anytime to take it to the test or demonstration ,under defined conditions /if needed to support my claims/.
Cheers,
Adam Kuruc
—Preceding unsigned comment added by 195.91.79.181 (talk) 06:19, 30 August 2008 (UTC)
Hi Adam-
I am a fellow composer and I would have to disagree with you. The article pretty accurately describes the basic human compositional method and provides evidence to show this is indeed how Mozart composed (at least part of the time). It is a very common thing for non musical people to embellish or set apart composers like Mozart as 'genius' and to give him certain qualities, almost deify him to the point where he seems truly different from other composers and therefore must have composed in a very "divinely inspired" method. Truth be told, no one composes like this. Inspiration strikes at any time, yes, but it takes very hard work and dedication to coax development from a kernel of an idea and to turn that into a piece of music. It is almost certain that although Mozart could hear the notes in his head (as most composers can) he did need a piano to work them out (as most composers do). It kind of seems like you are taking this "Divine Genius" view of Mozart and trying to apply it to yourself, basically saying "I am a genius too and compose in this way and therefore I believe Mozart did as well". Mozart's music is beautiful and above all has an inevitability which is a hallmark of "classical music". From a listeners stand point it is easy to hear a piece that sounds 'inevitable' and think "wow these parts must have been composed all at once and what a genius it would take to hear all these parts" but the truth is, he worked out each part, each melody the same way everyone else does- one part at time over a period of time.
-Simon Cleveland.