Posted on 03/25/2017 6:45:56 AM PDT by CharlesOConnell
A fussy, effete lttle man, whose own character is well expressed by that of the protagonist in Don Giovanni, going through life transfixed with his own navel (but that's too high).
In violin concerto no. 5 in A major, he's using the noble instrument of Stradivarius, Guarneri and Amati as his own pudenda, a prolonged act of cultural onanism. His failure even to attempt to approach God in emulation of the Blessed angels, shows how granting the boon of total, infused knowledge is casting pearls before swine to a corrupt little human.
He lived as if his genius had been his own invention, as if the gift of glimpsing God's music with his angelic children (see Music of the Ainur, Silmarillion, Tolkien), instead of a being a supreme gift, personally justified and legitimized him.
At first I was mystified that Wagner despised Mozart. But Wagner regarded his own musical gift a negligible, just a platform for his dramatic presentations.
Your talent is God's gift to you. You can't become autonomous by straining against the traces, trying to use genius to become your own god. The greatest creature, Lucifer, the light bearer, came to think of himself as The Light.
Listening to all of Mozart's piano sonatas in order of composition, you see the shock of his discovery of Sebastian Bach, a man who lived humility in his motto Only For the Glory of God, soli Deo Gloria. Mozart started composing the most stilted, artificial piano sonatas in Sebatian's style, veering off course from his own path to seeing God's course for his life. The minuetto of the Jupiter, his last symphony, beneath the facile elegance of the greatest classic polyphony, shows the eyes of despairing, pathetic little man who couldn't live up to the singular gift which had been granted to him, because he tried to use it for self-worship instead of its true purpose, glorifying the Almighty.
My personal favorite of the opera composers!
What a great musical journey!
Same here.
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Larry 'n Curly's art's pretty good too!
>> Wow. Who do you like?
Did I commit a sin?
This list should give a sense of preferred style... but not limited to, and in no particular order...
Paganini
Brahms
Rimsky-Korsakov
Saint-Saens
Rachmaninoff
Berlioz
Schubert
Tchaikosvky
Donizetti
Borodin
Scriabin
Shostakovitch
Sibelius
Borodin
Puccini
Mahler
Grieg
Wagner
>> What a wonderful age of music that was.
But unfortunately not readily available to the World at the time.
That wasn’t necessary.
Very neccesary.
Wrong. You’re slamming a FReeper and enlisting others to do the same because you don’t like his critical opinion of a Mozart. That doesn’t help to further discussions of the arts which I regret doesn’t occur more frequently.
Agreed.
I wasn’t slamming anybody.
I was using idiot Charles O’Connell’s own insane words to describe him, which they do perfectly.
What a poor excuse for a freeper.
I am not saying Mozart did not achieve the highest manifestation of art.
I am saying of all the geniuses, he stirs no positive energy in me. And many other male classical/opera fans that I know.
The only good tune he had was Requiem. One of his few ventures with a minor key, or a bass note.
I didn't say there was anything wrong with Verdi, he was a great composer, but to me Puccini has created the most memorable lyric operas. Certainly the music from Rigoletto has been used for themes in movies and college fight songs but after listening to “LaBoheme” it is difficult to ever appreciate in the same league any other composer for opera. Puccini knows how to pull at your heart strings, after seeing Butterfly many times it still pulls at the emotions.
Saying all that does not mean I don't appreciate others goodness knows that the music of Figaro is impossible to forget and while the story with its cruel sad ending is striking the music too is wonderful. I would say that Figaro, Don Giovanni and The Magic Flute are among the most well know operas of all time, certainly among the most often performed.
Puccini had the advantage of being able to write after learning from the romantic masters. I think the romantic masters probably learned from Mozart. Mozart was the most “emotional” composer to come along until well after his death. I think if you listen carefully to Rachmaninoff or Brahms you can hear traces of Mozart. While Mozart wrote very much music of the age he also wrote music of the future. Puccini had the advantage of an added 100 years of musical history to work with.
Since Bach was mentioned earlier it is fun to listen to the influence one master had on another. When you listen to the work of Chopin who in many ways had a life similar to Mozart you can hear the work of Mozart and Bach in his compositions. I'm not saying he plagiarized, but he did copy some of their styles.
Those were wonderful years for music say from 1750 to 1850 or so but now we have rap. How in the world did we go so far down hill?
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