This song was finished in Vienna on August 10, 1787, around the time Mozart was working on the second act of his opera Don Giovanni.
I wonder what he would think of these versions?
Check out this cool cat:
I was looking at the download stats for this site, and noticed a song I apparently made during the 2021 “World Music” period.
Here is a song that we all know. Can you Name That Tune?
Here is a song written in 4/4 time
Some might say it sounds sublime
It’s really quite a work of art
And it was written by our friend Mozart
This version is different from the first
It’s not the best, but not the worst
It has percussion, this is true
It’s the latest gift, from me to you
“View of a Port in the Morning”, 1774, painting by Claude-Joseph Vernet (Museum: National Museum in Warsaw):
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born in 1756. That means that when he wrote this well-known sonata in 1774 he was just 18 years old. Wow!
Yesterday’s Mozart song sounded so good I thought I would follow it up with two more songs today. Number 71 in the countdown of 100 classical songs is titled Eine kleine Nachtmusik (A Little Night Music), written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791).
And number 72 is Sonata in C Major by the same composer. It is the sixth and final song in the list that was written by Mozart (or, ‘da Man’ as he is sometimes known):
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791), baptised as Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period.
Born in Salzburg, in the Holy Roman Empire, Mozart showed prodigious ability from his earliest childhood. Already competent on keyboard and violin, he composed from the age of five and performed before European royalty, embarking on a grand tour. At 17, Mozart was engaged as a musician at the Salzburg court but grew restless and travelled in search of a better position.
While visiting Vienna in 1781, he was dismissed from his Salzburg position. He chose to stay in Vienna, where he achieved fame but little financial security. During his final years in Vienna, he composed many of his best-known symphonies, concertos, and operas, and portions of the Requiem, which was largely unfinished at the time of his early death at the age of 35. The circumstances of his death are largely uncertain, and have thus been much mythologized.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfgang_Amadeus_Mozart
Today’s song was written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) and is titled Alleluia. It is number 70 in the countdown of 100 classical songs, which means there are only 30 songs left.
This religious solo motet was composed when Mozart was staying in Milan during the production of his opera Lucio Silla which was being performed there in the Teatro Regio Ducale. It was written for the castrato (huh?) Venanzio Rauzzini,who had sung the part of the primo uomo Cecilio in Lucio Silla the previous year.
While waiting for the end of the run Mozart composed the motet for his singer, whose technical excellence he admired. Its first performance took place at the Theatine Church on January 17, 1773, while Rauzzini was still singing in Mozart’s opera at night. Mozart made some revisions around 1780. On May 30, 1779, a Trinity Sunday, a revised version was performed by Francesco Ceccarelli at the Holy Trinity Church in Salzburg. Another revised version was intended for Christmas. The manuscripts of the two Salzburg versions were discovered in 1978 in St. Jakob, Wasserburg am Inn.In modern times, the motet is usually sung by a female soprano.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exsultate,_jubilate
And here is a Bach Fugue with new instrumentation:
The latest song from the Countdown of 100 Classical Masterpieces is entitled Piano Concerto No. 21 in C Major by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791).
Mozart, or George Washington?
Here is more about Mozart:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfgang_Amadeus_Mozart
Number 38 in the countdown of classical music is a version of a 13th century song that was written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
(1756-1791). It is called Ave Verum Corpus.
According to wikipedia.com, “Ave verum corpus” is a short Eucharistic chant that has been set to music by many composers. It dates to the 13th century, first recorded in a central Italian Franciscan manuscript.
During the Middle Ages it was sung at the elevation of the Eucharist during the consecration at Mass. It was also used frequently during Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.
Musical settings include Mozart‘s motet Ave verum corpus (K. 618),[2] as well as settings by William Byrd and Sir Edward Elgar. Not all composers set the whole text. For example, Mozart’s setting finishes with “in mortis examine”, Elgar’s with “fili Mariae”. Marc-Antoine Charpentier composed three versions: H.233, H.266, H.329.
Mozart’s version, with instruments only, was adapted by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky as one of the sections of his Mozartiana, a tribute to Mozart. From the 21st century there are settings by the Swedish composer Fredrik Sixten[6] and the English composer Philip Stopford.[7]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ave_verum_corpus
You learn something new every day. Hopefully.
We continue on the magical classical musical journey with a song by Mozart (1756-1791), entitled “Lacrymosa” or “Tearful.” It is from his Requiem opera.
According to wikipedia, The Requiem in D minor, K. 626, is a requiem mass by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791). Mozart composed part of the Requiem in Vienna in late 1791, but it was unfinished at his death on December 5 the same year. A completed version dated 1792 by Franz Xaver Süssmayr was delivered to Count Franz von Walsegg, who commissioned the piece for a requiem service to commemorate the anniversary of his wife’s death on 14 February.
The autograph manuscript shows the finished and orchestrated Introit in Mozart’s hand, and detailed drafts of the Kyrie and the sequence Dies irae as far as the first eight bars of the Lacrymosa movement, and the Offertory. It cannot be shown to what extent Süssmayr may have depended on now lost “scraps of paper” for the remainder; he later claimed the Sanctus and Benedictus and the Agnus Dei as his own.
Walsegg probably intended to pass the Requiem off as his own composition, as he is known to have done with other works. This plan was frustrated by a public benefit performance for Mozart’s widow Constanze. She was responsible for a number of stories surrounding the composition of the work, including the claims that Mozart received the commission from a mysterious messenger who did not reveal the commissioner’s identity, and that Mozart came to believe that he was writing the requiem for his own funeral.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Requiem_(Mozart)
The Write Stuff 