W. A. Mozart and His K.310

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart embodied the ideals of the Apollonian Order in hisdarker Piano Sonata No. 8 in A Minor; he utilized the dominant aesthetics of the Classical period even inspite of a turbulent character that vaguely foreshadowed the humanistic whirlwind period of Romanticism.

Mozart was born on January 27, 1756, the younger of two out of sevensurviving children to Leopold Mozart and Anna Maria Pertl. He exhibited extraordinary prowess on the harpsichord by age four, and ultimately became a professional artist by the age of six with his sister, Nannerl, through Leopold’s European court tours. Leopold Mozart desired to demonstrate a showcase of his children as a way of receiving funds; thus, “The Empress of Austria later called thetours of the young Mozarts, ‘the begging tours.’”1 The first trip began upon the evening of Mozart’s sixth birthday, and the first of the many important audience members was the Elector of Bavaria located in Munich, Germany. Eventually the Mozarts traveled all over Europe and included performing for the French and English royal families. In 1769, “'Lafinta semplice' was presented at the court of the Archbishop and in early December, Wolfgang earned the post of concertmaster [of the Salzburg court],under which title he was authorized to travel.”2. Wolfgang’s career as a composer and a young virtuoso flourished, especially in Italy; however, his return to Salzburg on December 16, 1771, was the same day his patron—the Archbishop Sigmund—passed away. Leopold strived to become the choir-master of the newly appointed archbishop, but to no avail. The post was denied to him and Wolfgang remained concertmaster with a stipend “of one hundred fifty florins.”3. Leopold and Wolfgang remained in Vienna for not too long, and thefather finally decided to see to his son’s greater glory by requesting a leave of absence for him and allow the mother to accompany the common-senseless Mozart in the father’s place. As a result, Leopold gathered enough funds to send them off to Munich on September 23, 1777.

From Munich the Mozarts traveled to Mannheim, where Wolfgang spent four months teaching lessons and ultimately became enamored by Aloysia Weber, one of four daughters of Herr Weber. In a letter composed by Wolfgang to his father on January 17, 1778, “If all goes well, we shall soon have the honor—Herr Weber, his two older daughters and I—of visiting my beloved father and sister.”4. Aloysia possessed everything Mozart desired in a woman, but in the end she did not return his feelings. He was crushed, and thus traveled with his mother to Paris in hopes of establishing many commissions; yet things would not remain the same of the so-called Parisian “excursion”. While in Paris, Anna Maria Mozart suffered from typhoid fever and passed away on July 3, 1778, after fifteen days of suffering. On July 3, 1778, a torn Mozart wrote to the Abbot Bullinger in Salzburg,“'When the illness grew worse, I asked two things of God: that mymother be granted a few minutes of happiness at the end, and that Imight then have strength and courage...'”5. Mozart despaired upon the loss of his mother, and at some point afterwards Mozart returned to the Weber household, married Constanze Weber, and arrived back in Vienna by 1782, where Wolfgang remained for the rest of his life. Mozart passed away on December 5, 1791, with rheumatic inflammatory fever.

Mozart remained true to the Classical ideals established by the Apollonian Order, namely simplicity, order, clarity, balance, symmetry, and objectivity. The Enlightenment saw to greatly increasing intellectualism of the period, and with the excavation of Pompeii and Herculaneum the driving hunger for recapturing Greek aesthetics led to the Classical period for music and Neo-Classicism for art. Music began to center upon several of Plato's theories of celestial harmony, of how the planets generated mellifluous sounds due to the simple balance incorporated in the universe. Harmony became a form of self-agreement with the soul, and music took hold of another definition where music was not only for just inducing pleasure. Hence the term “Classical” was given to the eighteenth century due to the revival of the Grecian Classical principles, and composers predating Mozart—such as Josef Haydn and Johann Christian Bach—inspired Wolfgang, especially in his sonatas, symphonies, and concertos. However, the artistic influence of Grecian Classicism partially differentiated from the eighteenth century music; artists utilized only an influence of Classical ideals rather than conforming completely to the historic aesthetics. This type of painting became known as Neo-Classicism, and came into being after the excavated Roman cities and Johann Joachim Winckelmann's The History of Ancient Art. The Neo-Classical style comprised especially of severe, distinctly drawn figures; simple compositions; contained no exact illusion of depth; and reflected aspects of balance as seen in Classical music, namely control, symmetry, and often noble content. The art contributed with great force, “in the mid-18th century that would eventually overthrow the notion that music existed to 'flatter the ear' (but not its corollary about 'touching the heart').”6 Neo-Classicism in art thus created an effect upon Mozart's compositions – especially due to his constant traveling all over Europe – to not just simply please the audience members, Classical musical values of Greece were partially assimilated intothe art itself. Indeed music gradually became less about physical content and more intellectual primarily because of the eighteenth century's high intellectualism that is known as the Enlightenment, or the Age ofReason, which later led to the period of revolution. This rang trueof the musical Classical values, and ultimately Mozart's compositions: music steadily morphed to be more enlightened. The Enlightenment can be characterized as an emphasis on natural law, and“continued the previous century's advocacy of natural law and sought to make moral standards the basis for judicial and political decisions.”7 Monarchies of Europe embraced the Enlightenment ideals; when Mary II and William III of Orange recognized citizens' rights and parliamentary in 1689, Britain was considered a model of constitutional government with its newly established constitutional monarchy. A rapid growth in academia brought about an integration of science as a central piece in the development of culture, as well as a democratization of scientific knowledge, which included a rise of scientific journals. A scientific “revolution” was well underway by the mid-eighteenth century. Revolution in natural law and science was not alone; revolution between nations began to occur, and the American Revolution flicked the first spark unto a mound of dry-wood that would ultimately ignite into what is known as the French Revolution. The United States of America desired to break free of the clutches of Britain; after the execution of the Declaration of Independence by the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia in 1776 and the defeat of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown, Virginia in 1781, independence was achieved. The French did assist the Americans in the American Revolution, but France itself was occupied with issues consisting mainly of the monarchy and the state of the lower classes. French King Louis XVI sought after an increased decadence of the nobility, and along with an increase of lighthearted music and frivolity in music this period was known as the Rococo. In fact, “Mozart was unhappy with Paris: he claimed to have been offered, but to have declined, the post of organist at Versailles, and his letters make it clear that he despised French music and suspected malicious intrigue.”8 The French Revolution opposing Louis XVI began in 1789 which was about eleven years after Mozart ended his excursion in Paris.

Between June and July of 1778 that Mozart began and finished composing his Sonata No. 8 inA Minor, K310, producing a character much darker than his other compositions that reflects roiling emotions related to the condition of his mother under the Apollonian Order aesthetics. His father, Leopold, caused several conflicts with one another, which could have contributed to why Mozart chose a minor key—the only other piano sonata in a minor key is his Sonata in C Minor. “These events triggered another round of incriminating letters: Leopold accused Mozart of indolence, lying and improper attention to his mother; for his part Mozart defended himself as best he could.”9 The relationship eventually resulted as irreparable as both Wolfgang and Leopold could not cometo grip such an overwhelming family tragedy.

Mozart's Sonata in A Minor is the overall structure of a sonata cycle, albeit missing one movement—the dance-like fourth movement–-as was typical in his piano sonatas. The movements left are as follows: allegro maestoso, andante cantabile, and presto. The first movementof the piece resides in the key of A Minor—according to Einstein, “The key of A Minor—and sometimes A Major as well—was the 'keyof despair' for Mozart.”10 Despite an interesting chord pattern atthe very beginning, the first movement constitutes a sonata form plain and simple: Mozart clearly begins with the first theme and states the second theme in the key of C Major, along with a closing theme at the end and a repeat sign about a third of the way into thepiece, signaling the end of the exposition. The second part gives a development of the first theme, but is cut short quite early and resumes to a recapitulation of the first theme followed by the second theme, and the recapitulation of the closing remains and ends the first movement in A Minor.

The second movement of the Sonata cycle in A Minor is the slow movement of andante cantabile, and is found in the primary key of F Major. It is the only movement that centers around a major key, but the reason Mozart chose such a key can be reinforced with Christian Schubart's list of keys in his Ideen Zu Einer Ästhetik Der Tonkunst. According to Schubart in 1806—about 15 years after the death of Mozart—F Major is the key of calmness and complaisance.11 Since the condition and passing of Anna Maria heavily influenced this work, Mozart could have been attempting to describe a bit of what his mother was like in life as a way of easing his despair: content and calm. The andante cantabile is also in a sonata form, with a few quirks. Mozart begins with the first theme in F Major, and after a transition proceeds to the second theme which has modulated to C Major, which is the key of innocence, naivety, and purity according to Schubart.12

At m.22 the closing theme is stated, and the exposition comes to an end and remains in the key of C Major. In the development section, however, Mozart brings about the development of the first theme in a mini series of theme and variations. He utilizes about three variations of the first theme before coming back to the recapitulation in F Major, and the second theme in C Major. Towards the end, the closing theme is re-stated but with a few virtuosic flourishes in the last couple measures before the end of the piece. The second movement has a potential to be seen as in the galant style, since Johann Christian Bach did influence Mozart earlier in his life on composing, but Wolfgang held a clear distaste of the Rococo music in France in contrast.

The third and final movement of the sonata cycle is perhaps the most intellectual of the three movements. It's set as a rondo form; however, the little pieces spread throughout the movement together give hints at a bigger picture of the form, since by themselves thesections appear to be a messy form of rondo. The movement begins in A Minor with the first idea, and progresses to a second idea in the key of F Major. Then a variation of the first idea is introduced in C Minor, followed by another variation of what is now dubbed “A”with descending fourths, which clearly signals at this point that the piece is not in sonata form. A “B” variation occurs right afterwards, and “A” is repeated once more in its pure form, but not for long; a third idea is found right after the repeated “A”part, which centers around no specific key, but is significant enoughto be dubbed as “C.” The latter is followed by two more variations of “A.” In the middle of the piece, Mozart dedicated a simple binary formstationed around the key of A Major, the key of trust in God as well as hope to see one's beloved once again. It begins with a variation of “A,” and ends at the first end repeat in the dominant, or E Major. In the second set of repeat signs, the tonic is achieved andended with in the second half, but the first half modulates and is not in a specific key; thus, the simple binary form is achieved withtonic going to dominant, and then an unknown key driving back to thetonic. After the simple binary form, the piece resumes with “A”in its pure form, followed by “B” and another variation of “A.” “C” comes up again at m.226, and is followed by more variations of “A” and an ending of the piece in A Minor. When notated, thesequence is ABAABACA, simple binary form section, ABACAA. However,the simple binary form section can be seen as a general “B” as opposed to the other sections, which are close enough to be considered in an overall picture as “A.” In generalizing, thewhole third movement is characterized as “ABA,” the standard form of rondo. Mozart did satisfy the dominant aesthetics of the time with his Sonata No. 8 in A Minor, especially in the forms of balance, symmetry, clarity, simplicity, and order. The form of the first movement is given to the point where the balance and order of the progression is clear, and the symmetry of the movement in general satisfies the Apollonian Order. The second movement held simplicity, order, and clarity, especially with the nod to theme and variations in the development section and balance the piece in general; the modulations were consistent and clear when the first or second theme came around, and the endings were clear and concise. The third movement satisfied balance and symmetry, since the rondo not only had a simple binary form to go between the two overall “A” sections, but also had nearly identical smaller parts making up the “A” sections. The rondo's simplest form is the epitome of symmetry; it can be even in any shapeor form, so long as the “B” section stays between the “A”sections. Mozart's Sonata No.8 in A Minor is absolute music, however; even though the condition of his mother heavily influenced him at the time, he did not specifically writeabout nor dedicated the piece to Anna Maria in any shape or form. Adevout follower of Classical aesthetics, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wasnot without prone to composing off of emotions, as is seen with the devastation of losing his mother to an illness in Paris. The dark overtones seen throughout his Piano Sonata No. 8 in A Minor as the heavily influential result of his mother's condition would signal a period of music centered upon emotionalism and a gradual lessening of the Grecian values of harmony.

Works Cited:

1JacquesBrenner, W.A. Mozart,(Paris: Editions Minerva Genève, 1969), 4.

2JacquesBrenner, W.A. Mozart,(Paris: Editions Minerva Genève, 1969), 8.

3JacquesBrenner, W.A.Mozart,(Paris: Editions Minerva Genève, 1969), 9.

4JacquesBrenner, W.A.Mozart,(Paris: Editions Minerva Genève, 1969), 15.

5JacquesBrenner, W.A.Mozart,(Paris: Editions Minerva Genève, 1969), 18.

6Heartz,Daniel and Bruce Alan Brown, “Classical,” TheNew Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians,2ndedition, ed. Stanley Sadie (London: Macmillan, 2001), vol. 5.)

7Adams,Laurie Schneider. Exploringthe Humanities: Creativity and Culture in the West, (London:Publishing Ltd., 2006) 467.

8Eisen,Cliff and Eva Rieger, “(Johann Chrysotom) Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.” TheNew Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2ndedition, ed. Stanley Sadie (London: Macmillan, 2001), vol. 17.

9Eisen,Cliff and Eva Rieger, “(Johann Chrysotom) Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.” TheNew Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2ndedition, ed. Stanley Sadie (London: Macmillan, 2001), vol. 17.

11 12Himpe, Stefaan. "A Touch of Music." :Musical Key and Mood.Blogger, 27 Dec. 2012. Web. 14 Nov. 2013.10Einstein,Alfred, Arthur Mendel, and Nathan Broder. "The Clavier."Mozart,His Character, His Work.New York: Oxford UP, 1945. 244-45. Print.