I’m sat here in our lounge on my own, tapping away at the laptop, and I have a Mozart CD in the player.
As I put the disc in and started listening, it struck me how memorable his music is, and then I had to remind myself that the reason his music has endured so well is not so much that he was any kind of genius - rather that his music was the most successful popular music of it’s period.
Yep - you heard me right. I think Mozart’s music was pop music. Think about it. In his own era you had all kinds of chamber music and serious(ly boring) church choral music being written. Then along comes this upstart that starts writing hummable music that everybody likes. To top the story off, he gets into serious money trouble living the high life, and ends up having to write musical comedies that will appeal to the masses on purpose. Where do you think pieces like the “Barber of Seville” come from? They were the produced chart music of their day.
Mozart’s range is astonishing. I just mentioned the various stage music he wrote - the stuff that has been used as the backing for advertisements ever since television and cinema was invented. But he also wrote really moving, slow music - like the Requiem.
I bet you never knew I was into “classical” music, did you. Of course Mozart isn’t my favourite composer - that title is reserved for Mr Beethoven, but I’ll shut up before I bore you to death.
In closing this evening, I’ll recount a quote I once heard about Beethoven…
“The finest blades are the most easily blunted, bent or broken”.