Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was a better composer than Richard Wagner

Sometimes agreeing with the other side can make it fun! Let's begin.It is undoubted that both Mozart and Wagner were excellent composers who made great contributions to music of their time, as well as helped shape the music of today. But I believe that Mozart's music had many things over the writings of Wagner, which will be summarized by a few points.There are a few pieces I'll reference in this round, but there are two I will focus on, specifically Mozart's Don Giovanni and Wagner's Tannhäuser.1. Length of TimeThe composer William Lloyd Webber (father of Andrew) would often ask his composition students "Why write six pages, when six bars will do?" In his mind, as well as in mine, there is no point in wasting notes in music. Wagner nearly achieves this, but his pieces are simply too long. That sounds like a major complaint, but let me ask you: what purpose does an overture that lasts a quarter of an hour serve? Tannhäuser is one of his shorter operas, one that's only three hours long. Others go on four times as long, such as The Ring Cycle. But then you have Mozart, who wrote Don Giovanni's overture with just as much grace and majesty, perhaps even more, and it only took six minutes! Not only that, but Mozart himself wrote it the morning it was to be performed, supposedly with a huge hangover, and it was still as excellent as anything anyone else could have written. It doesn't mean everything has to be short, but getting a message across quick, even in music, is often very important, something that Wagner seemed nearly incapable of. 2. The InstrumentationWagner tried something revolutionary by overloading the lower brass in his instrumentation and sending the higher strings to the stratosphere. A creative and important step, but did it really improve his music? I would like to argue that it didn't. Wagner's music can range from being very muddy sounding in the lower end to piercing in the higher to almost messy sounding in the middle. Mozart, on the other hand, has a perfect balance, putting everything to its best use. The Tannhäuser overture is showy and boisterous, much as Wagner was himself. Wagner was a great showman, but it didn't always help his compositions. Mozart's Don Giovanni overture succeeds in being beautiful without overloading the ears. Wagner's instrumentation is great for short, instrumental climaxes, but it's too frequent to come out that way.3. The EmotionThere isn't much to say here that hasn't been said, like the fact that Wagner is so intense in his high highs and low lows. What I'd like to examine is the common argument that Mozart only wrote happier music, and was incapable of writing sad music full of grief. As Milton Cross wrote in Volume II of his Encyclopedia of the Great Composers and Their Music, "It is quite true that a great deal of Mozart is delightful without being profound . . . However, the greater Mozart - the Mozart of the best symphonies, quartets, operas, and concertos - is a profound artist as well as an aristocratic craftsman" (page 524). A great example of this is his Requiem in D Minor, a piece written, but not completed, by a dying, saddened Mozart, who worked himself to fainting at his desk while he worked on it. There is a haunting, depressing air surrounding pieces like Requiem aeternam and Lacrimosa, with intense pieces like Dies irae and Confutatis sprinkled about. It is an excellent example of Mozart at his best, and proves his virtuosity and flexibility.Back to Con.