Joseph haydn, another great classical composer who was contemporary with Mozart, was praised as "the father of symphony" by later generations. So how much has Mozart, who has always been considered to be far more talented in personal creation than Haydn, achieved in symphony creation? Mozart wrote about 50 numbered symphonies in his life, only half as many as Haydn, but his life span was less than half that of Haydn. Mozart's first symphony was written in 1764, when the composer was only 8 years old, and Haydn was 25 when he wrote his first symphony. ...
It is obviously unfair to think that Mozart's achievements in the field of symphony are no less than Haydn's. Although he began to compose symphonies when he was a teenager, the overall number was quite large, and most of his works were Mozart's works in his youth, which was not mature in art, but when he entered the mature stage of his own creation, he was less exposed to this form of symphony. Therefore, Mozart's overall achievements in symphony are not very outstanding compared with his achievements in other fields; Haydn has more outstanding achievements and works in the field of symphony. But at the same time, it is undeniable that Mozart's last six or seven symphonies, after drawing lessons from Haydn's experience and skills and integrating their own unique creativity, glow with incomparable vitality, making them surpass Haydn's later works in popularity! Let's review the special course of Mozart's symphony creation.
I. Overview
Symphony is developed from Italian overture. At first, it was usually a fast-slow-fast three-movement structure, and later, a minuet was added after the slow movement, which became a four-movement structure. Mozart was not a pioneer in this form of symphony. The basic framework and structure of this form were relatively perfect in his time, and Mozart was a strict executor of tradition rather than an innovator. At the same time, the symphonies of18th century were mainly used for court entertainment, aristocratic gatherings or church ceremonies, and most of Mozart's symphonies were basically created for this original intention. However, because of the above two points, it is obviously wrong to draw the conclusion that Mozart's symphonies are lackluster. The composer's outstanding musical inspiration and extraordinary melody creativity make the symphony form glow with diverse brilliance in his hands.
Mozart's symphonies followed the most standard musical form at that time. The first movement usually adopts the most popular sonata form in classical times, that is, the structure of presentation department, expansion department and reproduction department. Adagio and minuet movements used to be in trilogy form, and the last movement occasionally took the form of Rondo, otherwise it was sonata form. Some of Mozart's early symphonies are composed of three movements, while most of them are composed of four movements in the middle and late period, with occasional exceptions (such as Prague No.38). In terms of space, the early works are usually short, and the middle and late works are relatively huge. By the way, here is a little common sense to appreciate Mozart's symphony. The audience is likely to encounter such a problem. Why is the same movement of the same Mozart symphony (especially common in later works) so big in recording A and relatively small in recording B? In fact, this is because the conductor and orchestra of recording B did not play the repeated paragraphs in the movement. These repeated paragraphs are usually indispensable if the requirements of scores are strictly followed. However, in order to reduce the length of the track and include more songs in the record, many records will consider discarding the repeated paragraphs in the movement.
It is not easy to accurately count the number of symphonies created by Mozart. Friends who usually know something about classical music know that Jupiter No.41in C major is Mozart's last symphony, which is correct! But some people may ask: Why can I see a larger number of Mozart symphonies? This needs to be discussed in detail. Musician Breitkopf-hartle arranged the numbers of 4 1 symphonies composed by Mozart in his life. In fact, three of these 4/kloc-0 works were later identified as "fakes", including No.2 (K. 17), No.3 (K. 18) and No.37 (K.444). Among them, the situation of Symphony No.37 is somewhat special-Mozart only wrote the introduction of Adagio, while others continued to write the rest. The actual situation is that the symphonies created by composers are far more numbered than those by Breitkopf-hartle, and there are a lot of missing and uncertain works, such as Mozart's six symphonies successively created in 1767- 1772, which are typical examples. However, because the original serial numbers are deeply rooted in the hearts of the audience, if we renumber these new symphonies, we will inevitably break the original habits, so we will associate these six symphonies with the serial numbers 42 -47 later. We must understand that although these works have larger numbers, they were created earlier, and Jupiter's objective position as Mozart's last symphony has not changed.
Then, excluding three forgeries and six newly discovered works, it should be exactly 44. Is this number authoritative? In fact, there are still four original works by composers, which are still controversial in academic circles. If you add them, it should be 48; If you add some symphonies adapted from other themes, the total number will exceed 60; Many symphonies have been proved to exist, but the original score was lost in the long river of history. In fact, we don't have to be serious about numbers. We haven't found particularly outstanding creations in those uncertain works and adapted tracks. The outstanding symphonies that truly belong to Mozart are all included in the previously determined 4 1 directory.
At present, there are many complete symphony recordings of Mozart in the record catalogues of major record companies. The earlier recording time was the version recorded by the master Carl Bohm for DGG in 1969. The Complete Works contains 46 works, and its simple and peaceful style has been highly praised by many music lovers of the older generation. DGG released a CD version for this record, with a total of *** 10 discs. To commemorate the 200th anniversary of Mozart's death, DGG cooperated with James Levin and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra to present Mozart's complete symphony (1 1CD) again, but the interpretation style was rather heavy. Mozart's works played by Sir Sailor are very popular. He recorded a complete set of Mozart's symphonies in Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, which was arranged by himself under the command of Philips and included in the Complete Works of Mozart released by Philips in that year. 12 CD contains 53 works, which is undoubtedly the most complete version among many works. TELARC, a famous American fever recording brand, also published Mozart complete symphonies, and Mackerras conducted the Prague Chamber Orchestra. The performance is simple and the recording is excellent, but it is expensive. The complete works of Mozart's symphonies recorded by Naxos are a good choice and the price is very low. Although it was not a continuous recording, and it was performed by different conductors and orchestras (Wade conducted the Northern Chamber Orchestra to play the early and middle works, and Wordsworth conducted the Istropolitan Orchestra to play the middle and late works), the overall quality was still very good, but the recording effect was slightly inferior to that of large companies. Among the playing versions of antique musical instruments, The Complete Works published by Aqif and recorded by the Qin Bing British Concert Orchestra in Pinnock is undoubtedly the most "original" of all recordings so far, with a total of 50 works. The latest environmentally-friendly carton version will contain all the tracks in 1 1 CD. Another important antique version comes from Hogwood. Mozart's complete symphony recorded by the Orchestra of the Classical Music Research Institute under Deka is the most famous authentic interpretation outside Pinnock, but all works are included in 19 CD, which is not cost-effective.
Bohm conducted Berlin Philharmonic's version.
Philip & #183; Mozart's two complete symphonies, with the sailor conducting Academy of St. Martin in the Fields.
Two most famous authentic explanations-Pinnock edition and Hogwood edition.
Second, early symphony creation
An eight-year-old child wrote a symphony. This story sounds incredible now, but it really happened to Mozart. We must admit that composing music is a very difficult thing for an eight-year-old child, but there is no need to be too mysterious. In fact, some symphonies created by Mozart at that time had quite a lot of imitations, and their main themes were johann chrisiian bach and Karl ——J.C Friedrich Abel (karl friedrich Abel), the son of Baroque master J.S. Bach, are pioneers in the field of symphony creation, and have played an important role in the formation and development of classical music style. Bach had a great influence on Mozart's early years. The composer's first four piano concertos were adapted from J.C. Bach's works. The aforementioned Third Symphony (K. 18), which was identified as a fake, is actually Abel's work, because Mozart copied it, and later generations mistakenly thought it was Mozart's own creation after discovering the manuscript. At that time, in the late summer and early autumn of 1764, Mozart's father Leopold was leading a pair of "gifted children" to perform in London, where Mozart happened to be exposed to the works of J.C. Bach and Abel, which contributed to the birth of his earliest symphony.
Symphony K. 1 6 in E-flat major written in London is obviously immature, but can you expect more from an eight-year-old composer? Even though there are many references, imitations and even plagiarism in the writing process, and it is likely to get a lot of help from his father, this work is still considered as Mozart's first attempt in the field of symphony creation. In fact, Mozart wrote more than one work during that period. Except for K. 17 and K. 18, the fourth symphony in d major sounds much better than K. 16. The first movement of K. 19 is regarded by critics as "radiant, swaggering and full of vigor". Although the whole work still has obvious J.C. Bach color, the amazing brushstrokes occasionally revealed are enough to make people feel the unusual joy of this talented boy.
Soon after, the Mozart family returned to Vienna from London. Because their two children were ill one after another, they had to stay in The Hague, the Netherlands. The young composer completed two symphonies here-Symphony No.5 in B flat major and Symphony K.A22 1(45a) in Leimbach in G major. In these two symphonies, we can clearly find that Mozart's ability to use musical elements is better than the previous symphonies.
1766165438+10, Mozart's family returned to Salzburg, set off for Vienna nearly a year later, but finally arrived in Bruen. According to historical records, Mozart completed two works in F major in this small town-Symphony No.43 K.76(42a) and Symphony No.6 K.43 However, the peculiar style of Symphony No.43 made many experts doubt its true origin, which deviated from Mozart's consistent style in many places. In contrast, the Sixth Symphony will not arouse any doubt, because it is a work full of the composer's own characteristics in melody, rhythm, harmony and many other places.
176865438+1October, Mozart's last symphony, Symphony No.7 in D major, came out. In this work, the composer used the trumpet and timpani in his symphony for the first time, but there is nothing special about the melody and creative techniques in this work. The next symphony K.48 in D major was published at the end of this year, and symphony K.45b in B flat major was also considered to be written by 1768. Both works have very strong Viennese characteristics, especially the Eighth Symphony, which fully shows that the composer absorbed rich nutrients in the city of music during that time. Many music critics recognized this work as one of the best works in Mozart's early symphonies!
1769 At the end of the year, Mozart and his son started their trip to Italy, where they met the famous Italian symphony writer Samartini. During this visit, the composer created a large number of symphonies, among which four works in D major are considered as the main representatives of Mozart's symphony creation in this period: Symphony No.44 K.8 11K.84, Symphony No.45 K.95 and Symphony No.47 K.97, From these works, we can see that Mozart in his youth was very easily influenced by his own environment when he was writing-at this time, he mastered the traditional instrumental composition and orchestration techniques, so these Italian symphonies have become more and more clear in music direction, and their forms are also very clear and crystal clear.
177 1 At the end of March, Mozart and his son returned to Salzburg from Italy, and went to Italy again in July and August, and did not return to Austria until the end of that year. In this rough year, the number of symphonies created by composers is still not small, among which the most famous is Symphony K. 13 in F major112. Experts believe that from this symphony, we can hear the beauty of symmetry in details that Mozart's early symphonies did not have, and there is also a lot less noise and excitement.
The next 1772, Mozart stayed in Salzburg most of the time and didn't go out. During this period, he wrote about eight symphonies, which was the most concentrated year in the composer's life. It mainly includes: SymphonyNo. 15 K. 124 in G major, SymphonyNo. 16 K. 128 in C major, SymphonyNo. 17 K. 129 in G major and SymphonyNo./kloc in F major. Symphony K. 19 in E flat major, Symphony K. 132 in D major, Symphony K. 133 in A major, Symphony K. 134 in A major, among which16-65434. 1772 Mozart 16 years old, this talented composer's creative techniques have become familiar with his age and experience. He already knows clearly how to extract the essence elements from various musical styles and integrate them. These symphonies are both elegant and elegant in Italian style and rigorous and powerful in Vienna style, which shows that the wings of this talented boy have gradually matured and will be a landmark symphony in the future.