THE 100 MOST INFLUENTIAL MUSICIANS OF ALL TIME

7 The 100 Most Influential Musicians of All Time 7

Idomeneus, king of Crete, and the librettist the local cleric
Giambattista Varesco. In the resulting Idomeneo, rè di Creta
Mozart depicted serious, heroic emotion with a richness
unparalleled elsewhere in his operas. It includes plain
recitative and bravura singing, and, though the texture is
more continuous than in Mozart’s earlier operas, its plan
is essentially traditional. Given on Jan. 29, 1781, just after
Mozart’s 25th birthday, it met with due success.

Vienna: The Early Years

Mozart was still in Munich in March 1781, when he was
summoned to Vienna to join the celebration of the
installation of the new archbishop, Joseph II. Mozart
was treated poorly by the new archbishop, and, after only
a few months of service, he requested his discharge and
set about earning a living in Vienna. He also embarked on
an opera, Die Entführung aus dem Serail (The Abduction from
the Seraglio), and in December 1781 he married Constanze
Weber, daughter of a music copyist, albeit without his
father’s blessing.
Musically, Mozart’s main preoccupation was with
Die Entführung in the early part of 1782. The opera reached
the Burgtheater stage on July 16. Stylistically, the work
has fuller textures, more elaboration, and longer arias
than other German repertory. It uses accompanying fig-
ures and key relationships to embody meaning. Other
noteworthy features include Turkish colouring, created
by “exotic” turns of phrase and chromaticisms as well as
janissary instruments; expressive and powerful arias for
the heroine; and comic musical passages. The work enjoyed
immediate and continuing success.
Later in the year Mozart worked on a set of three piano
concertos and began a set of six string quartets. He also
started work on a mass setting, in C Minor, of which only