‘As a born pianist ... Mozart understandably wanted to own the very best concert grand
available. His instrument, still extant and now exhibited in Salzburg in the house in
which he was born, remains the best fortepiano of the period, an excellent concert grand,
precious, not only because Mozart gave his many subscription concerts on it, but also
because of its quality. Anton Walter’s best instruments were indeed the most expensive
in Vienna ... but as concert instruments they were also apparently superior to all the
others.’
Mozart style
Mozart’s style, like Haydn’s, stands as a leading example of the classical style. The
central traits of the classical style can all be identified in Mozart’s music. Clarity,
balance and transparency are hallmarks of his work.
His works spanned the period during which that style transformed from one exemplified
by the style galant to one that began to incorporate some of the contrapuntal complexities
of the late baroque against which the galant style had been a reaction. Mozart’s own
stylistic development closely paralleled the development of the classical style as a whole.
In addition he was a versatile composer and wrote in almost every major genre, including
symphony, opera, solo concerto, chamber music including string quartet and string
quintet, and the piano sonata. While none of these genres was new, the piano concerto
was almost single-handedly developed and popularised by Mozart. He also wrote a great
deal of religious music, including masses, and composed many dances, divertimenti,
serenades and other forms of light entertainment.
From an early age Mozart had a gift for imitating the music he heard. His travels
provided him with a rare collection of experiences from which to create his unique
compositional language. In London as a child he met J.S Bach’s son, J.C. Bach, and
heard his music. In Paris, Mannheim and Viennna he heard the work of composers active
there, as well as the Mannheim orchestra. In Italy he encountered the the Italian overture
and opera buffa, both of which were to be hugely influential on his development. Both in
London and Italy the galant style was very popular: light, simple music, with a mania for
cadencing, an emphasis on tonic, dominant and subdominant to the exclusion of other
chords, symmetrical phrases and clearly articulated structures. This style, out of which
the classical style evolved, was a reaction against the complexity of late baroque music.
Some of Mozart’s early symphonies are Italian overtures, with three movements running
into each other. Many are ‘homotonal’ with each movement in the same key and the
slow movement in the tonic minor. Others mimic the works of J.C. Bach and others
show the simple rounded binary forms commonly being written by composers in Vienna.
One of the most recognisable features of Mozart’s works is a sequence of harmonies or
modes that usually leads to a cadence in the dominant or tonic key. This sequence is
essentially borrowed from baroque music’s phrygian style, especially J.S. Bach, but
Mozart shifted the sequence so that the cadence ended on the stronger half, that is, the
first beat of the bar.