Free Republic

Mozart "Prague" Symphony 38 First Movement with Orchestral Score. For all you budding conductors out there.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, christened Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was born January 27, 1756. He died December 5, 1791.

The Symphony No. 36 in C major, KV 425, (known as the Linz Symphony) was written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart during a stopover in the Austrian town of Linz on his and his wife's way back home to Vienna from Salzburg in late 1783. The entire symphony was written in four days to accommodate the local count's announcement, upon hearing of the Mozarts' arrival in Linz, of a concert. The première in Linz took place on 4 November, 1783. The composition was also premièred in Vienna on 1 April, 1784. The autograph score of the "Linz Symphony" was not preserved....

Mozart finished his last symphony, no. 41 on August 10, 1788. It was nicknamed "Jupiter" after his death. Certainly it is the loftiest and most magisterial of Mozart's symphonies, with a formal and ceremonial quality in keeping with its key of C major. Although today we think of C major as the plainest and most basic of keys — all white notes on the piano — in the late 18th century it was usually associated with court and high-church pomp since it was well suited to the valveless trumpets of the period. And we find two of them adding brilliance...

On July 25, 1788, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart completed his Symphony No. 40 in G minor, the second to last of his symphonies. To Robert Schumann in the 19th century, the symphony was a work of "Grecian lightness and grace," while for a later writer, Alfred Einstein, there are passages that "plunge to the abyss of the soul." Such ambiguity is perhaps apt for one of the greatest works of a composer whose music so frequently defies adequate description. The symphony is cast in the usual four movements; the opening Molto allegro immediately announces something unusual by starting not with characteristic...

It is 30 years since Amadeus swept the board at the Academy Awards. Miloš Forman’s 1984 film of Peter Shaffer’s 1979 play, took home eight statuettes that night, including best film, best director, best actor and best adapted screenplay. Arguably the finest movie ever made about the process of artistic creation and the unbridgeable gap between human genius and mediocrity, it has taken its place in motion picture history and is invariably described as a masterpiece. All this is despite the fact the film plays shamelessly fast and loose with historical fact, taking as its basis a supposedly bitter rivalry...

The greatest musical genius in the history of the world was born 259 years ago today. Here is a silent toast to the magical music of Mozart. From Wikipedia: He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, operatic, and choral music. He is among the most enduringly popular of classical composers, and his influence on subsequent Western art music is profound; Beethoven composed his own early works in the shadow of Mozart, and Joseph Haydn wrote that "posterity will not see such a talent again in 100 years."

The Holy See’s archives contain scrolls, parchments and leather-bound volumes with correspondence dating back more than 1,000 years. High-quality reproductions of 105 documents, 19 of which have never been seen before in public, have now been published in a book. The Vatican Secret Archives features a papal letter to Hitler, an entreaty to Rome written on birch bark by a tribe of North American Indians, and a plea from Mary Queen of Scots. The book documents the Roman Catholic Church’s often hostile dealings with the world of science and the arts, including documents from the heresy trial against Galileo and...

Mozart Bond

A rake seduces women and murders their male relatives with impunity until the statue of one of his victims invites him to supper and drags him to hell. It sounds silly, but for two centuries it was the most-favored plot device in Western literature. Don Juan was the invention of Tirso de Molina, a Spanish monk from a family of converted Jews. Concealed in its puppet-theater plot is a Jewish joke: Don Juan exists to prove by construction that a devout Christian can be a sociopath, and by extension, that the Christian world can be ruled by sociopaths. The Enlightenment’s...

VIENNA, Austria (BNO NEWS) -- A previously unknown musical piece by Mozart was discovered inside an eighteenth century music book in Austria, local media reported on Saturday. The Mozart Foundation in Salzburg reported that the piano piece was discovered in a music book from 1780 in the western state of Tyrol, according to the Austrian Independent newspaper. University lecturer Hildegard Herrmann-Schneider, from the institute for Tyrolean music research at Innsbruck University, discovered the handwritten piece while gathering pieces for the international organization "Répertoire International des Sources Musicales," which catalogs music sources around the world. Experts and the 'Stiftung Mozarteum' have...

DETROIT (AP) - The Detroit Symphony Orchestra has launched a webcast player that will allow music lovers to enjoy an upcoming performance of Mozart's Horn Concerto No. 4 and other concerts online for free in the comfort of their homes.

Happy 256th birthday, Mozart! Try to give him a listen today. :)

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart has died a hundred deaths, more or less. Here's a new one: darkness. Doctors over the years have resurrected the story of Mozart's death again and again, each time proposing some alternative horrifying medical reason why the 18th century's most celebrated and prolific composer keeled over at age 35. A new monograph suggests that Mozart died from too little sunlight. The researchers give us a simple theory. When exposed to sunlight, people's skin naturally produces vitamin D. Mozart, toward the end of his life, was nearly as nocturnal as a vampire, so his skin probably produced very...

HERE goes. This article completes my two-week project to select the top 10 classical music composers in history, not including those still with us. Left, 1. Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750). From top left, 2. Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827), 3. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 — 91). 4. Franz Peter Schubert (1797-1828). From middle left, 5. Claude Achille Debussy (1862 — 1918), 6. Igor Stravinsky (1882 — 1971), 7. Johannes Brahms (1833 — 97). From bottom left, 8. Giuseppe Verdi (1813 — 1901), 9. Richard Wagner (1813 — 83), 10. Bela Bartok (1881 — 1945). I am about to reveal my list,...

YOU know that a new year has truly arrived when critics stop issuing all those lists of the best films, books, plays, recordings and whatever of the year gone by. These lists seem to be popular with readers, and they stir up lively reactions. snip... Yet in other fields, critics and insiders think bigger. Film institutes periodically issue lists of the greatest films of all time. (“Citizen Kane” seems to have a lock on the top spot.) Rock magazines routinely tally the greatest albums ever. And think of professional tennis, with its system of rankings, telling you exactly which player...

In recent years Britain has become the "Willy Wonka" of social control, churning out increasingly creepy, bizarre, and fantastic methods for policing the populace. But our weaponization of classical music - where Mozart, Beethoven, and other greats have been turned into tools of state repression - marks a new low. We're already the kings of CCTV. An estimated 20 per cent of the world's CCTV cameras are in the UK, a remarkable achievement for an island that occupies only 0.2 per cent of the world's inhabitable landmass. A few years ago some local authorities introduced the Mosquito, a gadget that...

A new European study says it wasn't bad pork chops or a jealous rival: There have been a lot of theories about what killed Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart at age 35, said Doug Stanglin in USA Today. Was it kidney failure? Undercooked pork chops? Poisoning? But a report in the Annals of Internal Medicine suggests the composer may have died from a simple case of strep throat. This will come as good news to fans of Mozart's "jealous rival, Italian composer Antonio Salieri," said Sue Michaels in Chattahbox. Salieri, after all, is the one rumored to have poisoned Mozart back in...

MONDAY, Aug. 17 (HealthDay News) -- It's one of the enduring mysteries of classical music: What -- or who -- killed Mozart at the age of 35 when he was at the height of his creative powers? Now, there's a new theory: He died of complications of strep throat. The latest hypothesis lacks the inherent drama of murder by a rival or suicide, which have both been suggested as causes of Mozart's death. But Andrew Steptoe, co-author of a historical diagnosis published Aug. 18 in the Annals of Internal Medicine, said an infection makes the most sense, considering medical records...

(PARIS) — A French museum has found a previously unknown piece of music handwritten by Mozart, a researcher said Thursday. The 18th century melody sketch is missing the harmony and instrumentation but was described as important find.