Mozart's music, like that of Haydn, is the very best of what is known as the Classical style. At the time he started to compose, the Baroque period was just coming to an end. Tastes were changing in music. Form, balance and elegance were thought of as more important than counterpoint. Mozart was the first great composer to write music for the piano, an instrument which had only just become popular. He wrote almost every kind of music: symphonies, operas, solo concertos, chamber music, especially string quartets and string quintets, and the piano sonata. He also wrote a lot of religious music, including masses, as well as popular music like dances, divertimenti and serenades.
When Mozart was young a symphony was usually a short, simple piece for entertainment. Mozart made the symphony into a carefully worked-out piece lasting up to half an hour. His last three symphonies are especially fine masterpieces. His concertos, especially his piano concertos, are far more advanced than anything that had been written before. Although Mozart behaved in truly childish ways at times, he was good at understanding human character. This is clear in his operas, where he introduced many subtle effects to describe the characters in the story.
Mozart's operas are among his greatest works. He understood people's characters very well and was able to write music which tells us everything about the personalities in the operas. The three operas in which he set words by Lorenzo Da Ponte: "Don Giovanni", "Le Nozze di Figaro" ("The Marriage of Figaro") and "Cosi fan tutte" each include some very clever ensembles in which several characters are singing at once, each one showing his or her view of the situation.
As well as many great masterpieces, Mozart wrote many pieces in a more popular style, including some tunes that everybody knows today. His serenade "Eine kleine Nachtmusik K525" is known everywhere, as is the "Turkish Rondo" from his "Piano Sonata in A K331", the opening of the "Symphony No. 40 in G minor K550", and the birdcatcher’s song from "The Magic Flute K620."
Some time after Mozart’s death a man called Köchel studied all Mozart’s music, tried to put them in chronological order, and gave them a number. The number helps us to know exactly which work is meant, for example "Symphony in G minor K183" is not the same piece as "Symphony in G minor K550" (K stands for Köchel. Sometimes it is written "KV550" standing for "Köchel Verzeichnis" i.e. "Köchel Catalogue"). The highest Köchel number is 626, his requiem mass.
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach (31 March 1685 in Eisenach – 28 July 1750 in Leipzig; pronounced "BAHK") was a German composer and organist. He lived in the last part of the Baroque period. He is most famous for his work "Toccata and Fugue in D Minor", "St. Matthew Passion", "St. John Passion", "Mass in B minor", and the "Brandenburg Concertos". He spent several years working at courts of noblemen. Here he wrote most of his chamber music and orchestral music. Most of his life, however, he worked in a church where he was expected to write church music. Bach wrote almost every kind of music except opera. During the last part of his life most composers were writing in a new style called the Classical style, but Bach always wrote in the Baroque style. That made some people at the time think he was old-fashioned, but today we know that his work is the very best of Baroque music. Along with Mozart and Beethoven, Bach is regarded as one of the greatest composers who has ever lived.
Bach came from a highly musical family. His father, Johann Ambrosius Bach, was a trumpeter at the court of Saxe-Eisenach. Many of his relatives were professional musicians of some sort: violinists and town musicians, organists, "Cantors" (Directors of Music in a church), court musicians and "Kapellmeisters" (Directors of Music at a royal court). Most of them played several instruments. Of his twenty children, several became quite famous composers, especially Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714–1788), Johann Christian Bach (1735–1782), Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach and Wilhelm Friedemann Bach (1710–1784).
When he was fifteen, he went to the small town of Lüneburg. At first he sang treble in the choir and was said to have a very fine treble voice, but his voice very soon got lower, so he made himself useful playing instruments. He learned by listening to famous organists like Reincken (1623–1722) and Dietrich Buxtehude (1637–1707). Bach got his first job in 1703 in Arnstadt. It was a well-paid job for a young boy who was 18 years old. There was a new organ in the church, and Bach already knew a lot about organ building as well as being a brilliant organist. They asked him to examine the new organ, and then they offered him a job. Bach spent four years as organist there. He composed some organ works. Unfortunately, the congregation were not musical enough to like it. They did not understand the ornamental notes he added to the hymn tunes. Bach got rather fed up with the priests who were always complaining about it, so he resigned and took another job in Mühlhausen, not far away. After a year there, he gave up that job and went to a big town called Weimar.
Johann Sebastian was made organist to the Duke of Saxe-Weimar. At the Duke’s court there was a chapel with an organ. Bach composed many of his great organ works at this time. He became very famous as an organist and was invited to play in other big churches and to give advice on organ building. He was extremely good at improvisation. On one occasion he was in Dresden at the same time as a French organist named Louis Marchant. There was going to be a competition between the two men to see who was better at improvisation. Bach was practicing the day before and Marchant heard him. He realized that Bach would win, so he left.
In 1714 the Duke made Bach "Konzertmeister" (Concertmaster, a job that paid more money.) He had to write cantatas for church services. In 1717 he was offered a job in the town of Cöthen, where he would earn an even better salary. The Duke was angry and did not want him to go but Bach insisted, so the Duke put Bach in prison for a month. In the end he had to let the musician go.
At Cöthen, Bach worked for Prince Leopold. The Prince was very musical and a wonderful man to work for. Bach was "Kapellmeister" (Director of Music) and was treated well. The organ was not very good, and it was not used much, so Bach did not write any organ music during this period. The Duke had an orchestra, and Bach was in charge. Nearly all Bach’s orchestral works were written in Cöthen: the Brandenburg Concertos, the violin concertos, the orchestral suites, the solo music for violin and for cello, and a lot of keyboard music for harpsichord or clavichord.
During 1719, the great composer George Frideric Handel, who had moved to England, came to Germany to visit his mother. Bach wanted to meet Handel, who was only 30 km away, but these two famous musicians never met. Handel wanted to spend his limited time in Germany with his mother who was old and frail, knowing that it would be the last time he would see her.
Bach’s first wife, Maria Barbara Bach, died in 1720. The couple had seven children. Soon afterwards, he married Anna Magdalena with whom he had another thirteen children. However, several of his children died young.