A concerto (from the , plural ''concerti'' or, often, the anglicised form ''concertos'') is a musical work usually composed in three parts or movements, in which (usually) one solo instrument (for instance, a piano, violin, cello or flute) is accompanied by an orchestra.

The etymology is uncertain, but the word seems to have originated from the conjunction of the two Latin words ''conserere'' (meaning to tie, to join, to weave) and ''certamen'' (competition, fight): the idea is that the two parts in a concerto, the soloist and the orchestra, alternate episodes of opposition, cooperation, and independence in the creation of the music flow.

The concerto, as understood in this modern way, arose in the Baroque period side by side with the concerto grosso, which contrasted a small group of instruments with the rest of the orchestra. The popularity of the concerto grosso form declined after the Baroque period, and the genre was not revived until the 20th century. The solo concerto, however, has remained a vital musical force from its inception to this day.

Baroque concertos

The concerto was established as a form of composition in the Baroque period. Starting from a form called Concerto grosso introduced by Arcangelo Corelli, it evolved into the form we understand today as performance of a soloist with/''against'' an orchestra.

The main composers of concerti of the baroque were: Tommaso Albinoni, Antonio Vivaldi, Georg Philipp Telemann, Johann Sebastian Bach, George Frideric Handel, Pietro Locatelli, Giuseppe Tartini, Francesco Geminiani and Johann Joachim Quantz. The concerto was intended as a composition typical of the Italian style of the time, and all the composers were studying how to compose in the Italian fashion (all'italiana).

The baroque concerto was mainly for a string instrument (violin, viola, cello, seldom viola d'amore or harp) or a wind instrument (oboe, trumpet, flute, or horn).

During the baroque period, before the invention of the piano, keyboard concertos were comparatively rare, with the exception of the organ and some harpsichord concertos by Johann Sebastian Bach. As the harpsichord evolved into the fortepiano, and in the end to the modern piano, the increased volume and the richer sound of the new instrument allowed the keyboard instrument to better compete with a full orchestra.

Cello concertos have been written since the Baroque era if not earlier. Among the works from that period, those by Antonio Vivaldi and Giuseppe Tartini are still part of the standard repertoire today.

Classical concertos

The concertos of the sons of Johann Sebastian Bach are perhaps the best links between those of the Baroque period and those of Mozart. C.P.E. Bach’s keyboard concertos contain some brilliant soloistic writing. Some of them have movements that run into one another without a break, and there are frequent cross-movement thematic references. Mozart, as a boy, made arrangements for harpsichord and orchestra of three sonata movements by Johann Christian Bach. By the time he was twenty, Mozart was able to write concerto ritornelli that gave the orchestra admirable opportunity for asserting its character in an exposition with some five or six sharply contrasted themes, before the soloist enters to elaborate on the material. He wrote one concerto each for flute, oboe (later rearranged for flute and known as Flute Concerto No. 2), clarinet, and bassoon, four for horn, a Concerto for Flute, Harp, and Orchestra, and a Sinfonia Concertante for Violin, Viola and Orchestra. They all exploit and explore the characteristics of the solo instrument. His five violin concertos, written in quick succession, show a number of influences, notably Italian and Austrian. Several passages have leanings towards folk music, as manifested in Austrian serenades. However, it was in his twenty-seven original piano concertos that he excelled himself. It is conventional to state that the first movements of concertos from the Classical period onwards follow the structure of sonata form. Mozart, however, treats sonata form in his concerto movements with so much freedom that any broad classification becomes impossible. For example, some of the themes heard in the exposition may not be heard again in subsequent sections. The piano, at its entry, may introduce entirely new material. There may even be new material in the so-called development section, which in effect becomes a fantasia. Towards the end of the first movement, and sometimes in other movements too, there is a traditional place for a cadenza. The slow movements may be based on sonata form or abridged sonata form, but some of them are romances. The finale is sometimes a rondo, or even a theme with variations. The music of the concerto is fast slow fast.

In the classical era, the cello did not receive nearly as much recognition as a solo instrument as it did later; however, Haydn provided us with two surviving examples, C.P.E. Bach three and Boccherini several.

Romantic concerto

In the romantic era, the concerto largely narrowed to three genres: the violin concerto, the cello concerto and the piano concerto. Virtually no major composer wrote concertos for wind instruments.

Violin concertos

In the 19th century the concerto was a vehicle for virtuosic display flourished as never before. It was the age in which the artist was seen as hero, to be worshipped and adulated with rapture. Early Romantic traits can be found in the violin concertos of Viotti, but it is Spohr’s twelve violin concertos, written between 1802 and 1827, that truly embrace the Romantic spirit with their melodic as well as their dramatic qualities. Beethoven’s Violin Concerto is unique in its scale and melodic qualities. Recitative elements are often incorporated, showing the influence of Italian opera on purely instrumental forms. Mendelssohn opens his violin concerto (1844) with the singing qualities of the violin solo. Even later passage work is dramatic and recitative-like, rather than merely virtuosic. The wind instruments state the lyrical second subject over a low pedal G on the violin – certainly an innovation. The cadenza, placed at the start of the recapitulation, is fully written out and integrated into the structure.

The great violin virtuoso Niccolò Paganini was a legendary figure who, as a composer, exploited the technical potential of his instrument to its very limits. Each one exploits rhapsodic ideas but is unique in its own form. The Belgian violinist Henri Vieuxtemps contributed several works to this form. Édouard Lalo's ''Symphonie Espagnole'' (1875) displays virtuoso writing with a Spanish flavor. Max Bruch wrote three violin concertos, but it is the first, in G minor, that has remained a firm favorite in the repertoire. The opening movement relates so closely to the two remaining movements that it functions like an operatic prelude. Tchaikovsky’s violin concerto (1878) is a powerful work which succeeds in being lyrical as well as superbly virtuosic. In the same year Brahms wrote his violin concerto for the virtuoso Joseph Joachim. This work makes new demands on the player, so much so that when it was first written it was referred to as a "concerto against the violin". The first movement brings the concerto into the realm of symphonic development. The second movement is traditionally lyrical, and the finale is based on a lively Hungarian theme.

Cello concertos

Since the Romantic era, the cello has received as much attention as the piano and violin as a concerto instrument, and many great Romantic and even more 20th century composers left examples. Antonín Dvořák’s cello concerto ranks among the supreme examples from the Romantic era while those of Robert Schumann, Carl Reinecke, David Popper, and Julius Klengel focus on the lyrical qualities of the instrument. Beethoven contributed to the repertoire with a ''Triple Concerto'' for piano, violin, cello and orchestra while later in the century, Brahms wrote a ''Double Concerto'' for violin, cello and orchestra. The instrument was also popular with composers of the Franco-Belgian tradition: Saint-Saëns and Vieuxtemps wrote two cello concertos each and Lalo and Jongen one. Tchaikovsky’s contribution to the genre is a series of Variations on a Rococo Theme. He also left very fragmentary sketches of a projected Cello Concerto which was only completed in 2006. Elgar's popular concerto, while written in the early 20th century, stylistically it is of the late romantic period.

Today's 'core' repertoire which is performed the most of any cello concertos are by Elgar, Dvořák, Saint-Saëns, Haydn, Shostakovich, Tchaikovsky and Schumann but there are many more concertos which are performed nearly as often (see below: cello concertos in the 20th century).

Piano concertos

Beethoven’s five piano concertos increase the technical demands made on the soloist. The last two are particularly remarkable, integrating the concerto into a large symphonic structure with movements that frequently run into one another. His ''Piano Concerto no 4'' starts, against tradition, with a statement by the piano, after which the orchestra magically enters in a foreign key, to present what would normally have been the opening tutti. The work has an essentially lyrical character. The slow movement is a dramatic dialogue between the soloist and the orchestra. Concerto no 5 has the basic rhythm of a Viennese military march. There is no lyrical second subject, but in its place a continuous development of the opening material. He also wrote a ''Triple Concerto'' for piano, violin, cello, and orchestra.

The piano concertos of Mendelssohn, Field, and Hummel provide a link from the Classical concerto to the Romantic concerto. Chopin wrote two piano concertos in which the orchestra is very much relegated to an accompanying role. Schumann, despite being a pianist-composer, wrote a piano concerto in which virtuosity is never allowed to eclipse the essential lyrical quality of the work. The gentle, expressive melody heard at the beginning on woodwind and horns (after the piano’s heralding introductory chords) bears the material for most of the argument in the first movement. In fact, argument in the traditional developmental sense is replaced by a kind of variation technique in which soloist and orchestra interweave their ideas.

Liszt's mastery of piano technique matched that of Paganini for the violin. His concertos No. 1 and No. 2 left a deep impression on the style of piano concerto writing, influencing Rubinstein, and especially Tchaikovsky, whose first piano concerto's rich chordal opening is justly famous. Grieg’s concerto likewise begins in a striking manner after which it continues in a lyrical vein.

Brahms's ''First Piano Concerto'' in D minor (pub 1861) was the result of an immense amount of work on a mass of material originally intended for a symphony. His ''Second Piano Concerto'' in B major (1881) has four movements and is written on a larger scale than any earlier concerto. Like his violin concerto, it is symphonic in proportions.

Fewer piano concertos were written in the late Romantic Period. But Grieg-inspired Sergei Rachmaninoff wrote 4 piano concertos between 1891 and 1926. His 2nd and 3rd, being the most popular of the 4, went on to become among the most famous in piano repertoire and shining examples of Russian musicianship.

Small-scale works

Besides the usual three-movement works with the title "concerto", many 19th-century composers wrote shorter pieces for solo instrument and orchestra, often bearing descriptive titles. From around 1800 such pieces were often called ''Konzertstück'' or ''Phantasie'' by German composers. Liszt wrote the ''Totentanz'' for piano and orchestra, a paraphrase of the ''Dies Irae''. Max Bruch wrote a popular ''Scottish Fantasy'' for violin and orchestra, César Franck wrote ''Les Djinns'' and ''Variations symphoniques'', and Gabriel Fauré wrote a ''Ballade'' for piano and orchestra. Tchaikovsky's Variations on a Rococo Theme for cello and orchestra have an important place in the instrument's repertoire. Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini is widely considered to be structured similarly to a piano concerto.

20th century

Many of the concertos written in the early 20th century belong more to the late Romantic school than to any modernistic movement. Masterpieces were written by Edward Elgar (a violin concerto and a cello concerto), Sergei Rachmaninoff and Nikolai Medtner (four and three piano concertos, respectively), Jean Sibelius (a violin concerto), Frederick Delius (a violin concerto, a cello concerto, a piano concerto and a double concerto for violin and cello), Karol Szymanowski (two violin concertos and a "Symphonie Concertante" for piano), and Richard Strauss (two horn concertos, a violin concerto, ''Don Quixote'' —a tone poem which features the cello as a soloist— and among later works, an oboe concerto).

However, in the first decades of the 20th century, several composers such as Debussy, Schoenberg, Berg, Hindemith, Stravinsky, Prokofiev and Bartók started experimenting with ideas that were to have far-reaching consequences for the way music is written and, in some cases, performed. Some of these innovations include a more frequent use of modality, the exploration of non-western scales, the development of atonality, the wider acceptance of dissonances, the invention of the twelve-tone technique of composition and the use of polyrhythms and complex time signatures.

These changes also affected the concerto as a musical form. Beside more or less radical effects on musical language, they led to a redefinition of the concept of virtuosity in order to include new and extended instrumental techniques as well as a focus on aspects of sound that had been neglected or even ignored before such as pitch, timbre and dynamics. In some cases, they also brought about a new approach to the role of the soloist and its relation to the orchestra.

Violin concertos

Two great innovators of early 20th-century music, Schoenberg and Stravinsky, both wrote violin concertos. The material in Schoenberg’s concerto, like that in Berg’s, is linked by the twelve-tone serial method. Bartók, another major 20th century composer, wrote two important concertos for violin. Russian composers Prokofiev and Shostakovich both wrote two concertos while Khachaturian wrote a concerto and a Concerto-Rhapsody for the instrument. Hindemith’s concertos hark back to the forms of the 19th century, even if the harmonic language which he used was different.

Three violin concertos from David Diamond show the form in neoclassical style.

More recently, Dutilleux's ''L'Arbre des Songes'' has proved an important addition to the repertoire and a fine example of the composer's atonal yet melodic style.

Other composers of major violin concertos include Jean Sibelius, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Walton, Benjamin Britten, Frank Martin, Carl Nielsen, Paul Hindemith, György Ligeti, Philip Glass, John Adams, and Kan-no.

Cello concertos

In the 20th century, particularly after the Second World War, the cello enjoyed an unprecedented popularity. As a result, its concertante repertoire caught up with those of the piano and the violin both in terms of quantity and quality.

An important factor in this phenomenon was the rise of virtuoso cellist Mstislav Rostropovich. His outstanding technique and passionate playing prompted dozens of composers to write pieces for him, first in his native Soviet Union and then abroad. His creations include such masterpieces as Sergei Prokofiev's Symphony-Concerto, Dmitri Shostakovich's two cello concertos, Benjamin Britten's Cello-Symphony (which emphasizes, as its title suggests, the equal importance of soloist and orchestra), Henri Dutilleux' ''Tout un monde lointain'', Witold Lutosławski's cello concerto, Dmitri Kabalevsky's two cello concertos, Aram Khachaturian's ''Concerto-Rhapsody'', Arvo Pärt's ''Pro et Contra'', Alfred Schnittke, André Jolivet and Krzysztof Penderecki second cello concertos, Sofia Gubaidulina's ''Canticles of the Sun'', Luciano Berio's ''Ritorno degli Snovidenia'', Leonard Bernstein's ''Three Meditations'', James MacMillan's cello concerto and Olivier Messiaen's ''Concert à quatre'' (a concerto for cello, piano, oboe, flute and orchestra which was almost finished at the time of his death and completed by Yvonne Loriod and George Benjamin).

In addition, several important composers who were not directly influenced by Rostropovich wrote cello concertos: György Ligeti, Alexander Glazunov, Paul Hindemith, Toru Takemitsu, Darius Milhaud, Arthur Honegger, Nikolai Myaskovsky, Samuel Barber, Joaquín Rodrigo, Elliot Carter, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, William Walton, Heitor Villa-Lobos, Hans Werner Henze, Bernd Alois Zimmermann and Einojuhani Rautavaara for instance.

Piano concertos

Schoenberg’s ''Piano Concerto'' is a well known example of piano concerti. In addition, Stravinsky wrote three works for solo piano and orchestra: Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments, Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra, and Movements for Piano and Orchestra. Prokofiev, another Russian composer, wrote no less than five piano concertos which he himself performed. Shostakovich composed two. Fellow soviet composer Khachaturian contributed to the repertoire with a piano concerto and a Concerto-Rhapsody.

Bartók also wrote three piano concertos. Like their violin counterparts, they show the various stages in his musical development.

Ralph Vaughan Williams wrote concertos for piano and for two pianos while Britten's concerto for piano (1938) is a fine work from his early period.

György Ligeti's concerto is a good example of a more recent piece (1985) that uses complex rhythms. Russian composer Rodion Shchedrin has written six piano concertos.

Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara wrote three piano concertos, the third one dedicated to Vladimir Ashkenazy, who played and conducted the world première.

Concertos for other instruments

The 20th century also witnessed a growth of the concertante repertoire of instruments, some of which had seldom or never been used in this capacity. As a result, almost all the instruments of the classical orchestra now have a concertante repertoire. Examples include:

Alto Saxophone Concerto: Dahl, Denisov, Finney, Glazunov, Ibert, Creston.

Bandoneón Concerto: Piazzolla

Bassoon Concerto: Aho, Eckhardt-Gramatté, Gubaidulina, Hétu, Jolivet, Davies, Panufnik, J. Williams.

Bass Clarinet Concerto: Bouliane.

Bass Oboe Concerto: Bryars.

Clarinet Concerto: Aho, Arnold, Copland, Denisov, Dusapin, Mohammed Fairouz, Françaix, Hétu, Hindemith, Kan-no, Nielsen, Penderecki, Rautavaara, Stravinsky, Takemitsu, Tomasi, J. Williams.

Contrabassoon Concerto: Aho, Erb.

Cornet Concerto: Wright.

Double Bass Concerto: Aho, Bottesini, Dragonetti, Henze, Koussevitsky, Davies, Rautavaara, Tubin.

Drum Set Concerto : Beck.

Euphonium Concerto: Cosma, Ewazen, Gillingham, Golland, Graham, Horovitz, Lindberg, Linkola, Sparke, Wilby.

Flute Concerto: Aho, Arnold, Denisov, Dusapin, Harman, Hétu, Jolivet, Nielsen, Penderecki, Rautavaara, Rodrigo, Takemitsu, J. Williams.

Free bass accordion Concerto: Serry, Sr.

Guitar Concerto: Arnold, Brouwer, Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Carulli, Giuliani, Hovhaness, Ohana, Rodrigo, Villa-Lobos.

Harmonica Concerto: Arnold, Vaughan Williams, Villa-Lobos.

Harp Concerto: Ginastera, Glière, Jongen, Milhaud, Jolivet, Rautavaara, Rodrigo, Villa-Lobos.

Harpsichord Concerto: de Falla, Glass, Górecki, Martinů, Poulenc.

Horn Concerto: Arnold, Arutiunian, Bowen, Carter, Davies, Glière, Gipps, Hindemith, Hovhaness, Jacob, Knussen, Ligeti, Murail, Penderecki, Strauss, Tomasi, J. Williams.

Mandolin Concerto: Thile.

Marimba Concerto: Larsen, Milhaud, Rosauro, Svoboda, Viñao .

Oboe Concerto: Aho, Arnold, Bouliane, Denisov, Harman, MacMillan, Maderna, Martinů, Penderecki, Shchedrin, Strauss, Vaughan Williams, Zimmermann.

Organ Concerto: Arnold, Hanson, Harrison, Hétu, Hindemith, Jongen, Kan-no, MacMillan, Peeters, Poulenc, Rorem, Sowerby.

Percussion Concerto: Glass, Jolivet, MacMillan, Milhaud, Rautavaara, Susman.

Rock band Concerto: Lord.

Sheng Concerto : Kan-no, Unsuk Chin.

Timpani Concerto : Druschetzky, Glass, Kraft, Rosauro.

Trombone Concerto: Aho, Dusapin, Holmboe, Milhaud, Rota, Rouse, Tomasi, Rimsky-Korsakov, Grondahl.

Trumpet Concerto:Haydn, Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Arnold, Arutiunian, Böhme, Jolivet, Perry, Williams, Zimmermann.

Tuba Concerto: Aho, Arutiunian, Holmboe, Vaughan Williams, J. Williams.

Viola Concerto: Aho, Arnold, Bartók, Denisov, Gubaidulina, Hindemith, Kan-no, Kancheli, Martinů, Milhaud, Murail, Penderecki, Schnittke, Takemitsu, Walton.

Amongst the works of the prolific composer Alan Hovhaness may be noted ''Prayer of St. Gregory'' for trumpet and strings.

Today the concerto tradition has been continued by composers such as Maxwell Davies, whose series of Strathclyde Concertos exploit some of the instruments less familiar as soloists.

Concertos for orchestra

In the 20th century, several important composers wrote concertos for orchestra. In these works, different sections and/or instruments of the orchestra are treated at one point or another as soloists with emphasis on solo sections and/or instruments changing during the piece. Famous examples include those written by:

Bartók

Kodály

Lutoslawski

Hindemith

Carter

Lindberg

Shchedrin

Dutilleux has also described his ''Métaboles'' as a concerto for orchestra, while Britten's well-know pedagogical work ''The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra'' is essentially a concerto for orchestra in all but name.

Concertos for two or more instruments

Many composers also wrote concertos for two or more soloists.

In the Baroque era:

Vivaldi's concerti for 2, 3 or 4 violins, for 2 cellos, for 2 mandolins, for 2 trumpets, for 2 flutes, for oboe and bassoon, for cello and bassoon... etc.

Bach's concerti for 2 violins, for 2, 3, or 4 harpsichords as well as several of his Brandenburg concertos.

In the Classical era:

Mozart's concerti for 2 pianos and 3 pianos, the Sinfonia concertante for violin and viola, and his concerto for flute and harp.

Salieri's ''Triple Concerto'' for oboe, violin and cello, and his double concerto for flute and oboe.

In the Romantic era:

Beethoven's triple concerto for piano, violin, and cello.

Brahms's double concerto for violin and cello.

Bruch's double concerto for viola and clarinet.

In the 20th century:

Malcolm Arnold's concerto for piano duet and strings, as well as his concerto for two violins and string orchestra

Béla Bartók's concerto for two pianos and percussion

Samuel Barber's ''Capricorn Concerto'' for flute, oboe and trumpet.

Benjamin Britten's double concerto for violin and viola.

Elliott Carter's double concerto for piano and harpsichord.

Frederick Delius's double concerto for violin and cello.

Jean Françaix's concerto for two pianos and another for two harps, as well as his ''Divertissement'' for string trio and orchestra, his ''Quadruple Concerto'' for flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon and orchestra, his ''Double Concerto'' for flute and clarinet, and his ''Concerto for 15 Soloists and Orchestra''

Philip Glass's concerto for saxophone quartet.

Hans Werner Henze's double concerto for oboe and harp.

Paul Hindemith's concerto for flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, harp, and orchestra as well as his concerto for trumpet, bassoon, and strings

Gustav Holst's ''Fugal Concerto'' for flute, oboe and string orchestra

György Kurtág's double concerto for piano and cello.

Lowell Liebermann's concerto for flute and harp

György Ligeti's double concerto for flute and oboe.

Witold Lutosławski's concerto for oboe and harp.

Bohuslav Martinu's concerto for string quartet, concertino for piano trio and string orchestra, two concertante duos for two violins, concerto for two pianos, sinfonia concertante No. 2 for violin, cello, oboe, bassoon and orchestra with piano, and his concerto for violin and piano.

Olivier Messiaen's ''Concert à quatre'' for piano, cello, oboe and flute.

Darius Milhaud's ''Symphonie concertante'' for bassoon, horn, trumpet and double bass, as well as his concerti for flute and violin, and for marimba and vibraphone.

Francis Poulenc's concerto for two pianos.

Joaquín Rodrigo's ''Concierto madrigal'' for 2 guitars and ''Concierto Andaluz'' for 4 guitars.

Alfred Schnittke's double concerto for oboe, harp, and strings as well as his ''Konzert zu Dritt'', for violin, viola, violoncello and strings.

Rodion Shchedrin's double concerto for piano and cello.

Michael Tippett's triple concerto for violin, viola, and cello.

In the 21st century:

Leo Brouwer's Guitar Concerto No. 10 "Book of Signs", for two guitars

Mohammed Fairouz's ''Double Concerto 'States of Fantasy' for violin and cello

William P. Perry's ''Gemini Concerto'' for violin and piano

Karl Jenkins' ''Over the Stone'' for two harps

See also

Bass oboe concerto

Bassoon concerto

Clarinet concerto

The Carnival of the Animals

Double bass concerto

English horn concerto

Flute concerto

Harmonica concerto

Harpsichord concerto

Mandolin Concerto

Oboe concerto

Organ concerto

Piano concerto

Timpani Concerto

Viola concerto

Violin concerto

Cello concerto

Concerto for Orchestra

Concertino

Chorale concerto

Concerto grosso

Double concerto for violin and cello

References

External links

Anthology of 20th century violin concertos

Category:Musical terminology Category:Italian loanwords Category:Concertos

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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (, English see fn.), baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart (27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791), was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, operatic, and choral music. He is among the most enduringly popular of classical composers.

Mozart showed prodigious ability from his earliest childhood in Salzburg. Already competent on keyboard and violin, he composed from the age of five and performed before European royalty. At 17, he was engaged as a court musician in Salzburg, but grew restless and travelled in search of a better position, always composing abundantly. While visiting Vienna in 1781, he was dismissed from his Salzburg position. He chose to stay in the capital, where he achieved fame but little financial security. During his final years in Vienna, he composed many of his best-known symphonies, concertos, and operas, and portions of the ''Requiem'', which was largely unfinished at the time of Mozart's death. The circumstances of his early death have been much mythologized. He was survived by his wife Constanze and two sons.

Mozart learned voraciously from others, and developed a brilliance and maturity of style that encompassed the light and graceful along with the dark and passionate. His influence on subsequent Western art music is profound. Beethoven wrote his own early compositions in the shadow of Mozart, and Joseph Haydn wrote that "posterity will not see such a talent again in 100 years."

Biography

Family and early years

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born to Leopold and Anna Maria Pertl Mozart at 9 Getreidegasse in Salzburg, capital of the sovereign Archbishopric of Salzburg in what is now Austria, but then was part of the Holy Roman Empire. His only sibling to survive infancy was his elder sister Maria Anna (1751–1829), nicknamed "Nannerl". Mozart was baptized the day after his birth at St. Rupert's Cathedral. The baptismal record gives his name in Latinized form as ''Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart''. He generally called himself "Wolfgang Amadè Mozart" as an adult, but there were many variants.

His father (1719–1787) was from Augsburg. He was deputy Kapellmeister to the court orchestra of the Archbishop of Salzburg, a minor composer, and an experienced teacher. In the year of Mozart's birth, his father published a violin textbook, ''Versuch einer gründlichen Violinschule'', which achieved success.

When Nannerl was seven, she began keyboard lessons with her father while her three-year-old brother would look on. Years later, after her brother's death, she reminisced:

He often spent much time at the clavier, picking out thirds, which he was ever striking, and his pleasure showed that it sounded good. [...] In the fourth year of his age his father, for a game as it were, began to teach him a few minuets and pieces at the clavier. [...] He could play it faultlessly and with the greatest delicacy, and keeping exactly in time. [...] At the age of five, he was already composing little pieces, which he played to his father who wrote them down.

These early pieces, K. 1–5, were recorded in the ''Nannerl Notenbuch''.

Biographer Maynard Solomon notes that, while Mozart's father was a devoted teacher to his children, there is evidence that Mozart was keen to progress beyond what he was taught. His first ink-spattered composition and his precocious efforts with the violin were of his own initiative and came as a surprise to his father. Mozart's father eventually gave up composing when his son's musical talents became evident. In his early years, Mozart's father was his only teacher. Along with music, he also taught his children languages and academic subjects.

1762–1773: Years of travel

During Mozart's youth, his family made several European journeys in which he and Nannerl performed as child prodigies. These began with an exhibition, in 1762, at the court of the Prince-elector Maximilian III of Bavaria in Munich, and at the Imperial Court in Vienna and Prague. A long concert tour spanning three and a half years followed, taking the family to the courts of Munich, Mannheim, Paris, London, The Hague, again to Paris, and back home via Zurich, Donaueschingen, and Munich. During this trip, Mozart met a great number of musicians and acquainted himself with the works of other composers. A particularly important influence was Johann Christian Bach, whom Mozart visited in London in 1764 and 1765. The family again went to Vienna in late 1767 and remained there until December 1768. In 1767, during this period, he composed the Latin drama ''Apollo et Hyacinthus'' first performed in Salzburg University.

These trips were often difficult and travel conditions were primitive. The family had to wait for invitations and reimbursement from the nobility and they endured long, near-fatal illnesses far from home.

After one year in Salzburg, father and son set off for Italy, leaving Mozart's mother and sister at home. This travel lasted from December 1769 to March 1771. As with earlier journeys, Mozart's father wanted to display his son's abilities as a performer and a rapidly maturing composer. Mozart met G. B. Martini, in Bologna, and was accepted as a member of the famous ''Accademia Filarmonica''. In Rome, he heard Gregorio Allegri's ''Miserere'' once in performance in the Sistine Chapel. He wrote it out in its entirety from memory, only returning to correct minor errors—thus producing the first illegal copy of this closely guarded property of the Vatican.

In Milan, Mozart wrote the opera ''Mitridate, re di Ponto'' (1770), which was performed with success. This led to further opera commissions. He returned with his father later twice to Milan (August–December 1771; October 1772 – March 1773) for the composition and premieres of ''Ascanio in Alba'' (1771) and ''Lucio Silla'' (1772). Mozart's father hoped these visits would result in a professional appointment for his son in Italy, but these hopes were never fulfilled.

Toward the end of the final Italian journey, Mozart wrote the first of his works to be still widely performed today, the solo motet ''Exsultate, jubilate'', K. 165.

1773–1777: The Salzburg court

After finally returning with his father from Italy on 13 March 1773, Mozart was employed as a court musician by the ruler of Salzburg, Prince-Archbishop Hieronymus Colloredo. The composer had a great number of friends and admirers in Salzburg and had the opportunity to work in many genres, composing symphonies, sonatas, string quartets, serenades, and a few minor operas. Between April and December 1775, Mozart developed an enthusiasm for violin concertos, producing a series of five (the only ones he ever wrote), which steadily increased in their musical sophistication. The last three—K. 216, K. 218, K. 219—are now staples of the repertoire. In 1776 he turned his efforts to piano concertos, culminating in the E-flat concerto K. 271 of early 1777, considered by critics to be a breakthrough work.

Despite these artistic successes, Mozart grew increasingly discontented with Salzburg and redoubled his efforts to find a position elsewhere. One reason was his low salary, 150 florins a year; Mozart also longed to compose operas, and Salzburg provided only rare occasions for these. The situation worsened in 1775 when the court theater was closed, especially since the other theater in Salzburg was largely reserved for visiting troupes.

Two long expeditions in search of work interrupted this long Salzburg stay: Mozart and his father visited Vienna from 14 July to 26 September 1773, and Munich from 6 December 1774 to March 1775. Neither visit was successful, though the Munich journey resulted in a popular success with the premiere of Mozart's opera ''La finta giardiniera''.

1777–1778: The Paris journey

In August 1777, Mozart resigned his Salzburg position and, on September 23, ventured out once more in search of employment, with visits to Augsburg, Mannheim, Paris, and Munich.

Mozart became acquainted with members of the famous orchestra in Mannheim, the best in Europe at the time. He also fell in love with Aloysia Weber, one of four daughters in a musical family. There were prospects of employment in Mannheim, but they came to nothing, and Mozart left for Paris on 14 March 1778 to continue his search. One of his letters from Paris hints at a possible post as an organist at Versailles, but Mozart was not interested in such an appointment. He fell into debt and took to pawning valuables. The nadir of the visit occurred when Mozart's mother took ill and died on 3 July 1778. There had been delays in calling a doctor—probably, according to Halliwell, because of a lack of funds.

While Mozart was in Paris, his father was pursuing opportunities for his son back in Salzburg. With the support of local nobility, Mozart was offered a post as court organist and concertmaster. The yearly salary was 450 florins, but he was reluctant to accept. After leaving Paris on in September 1778, he tarried in Mannheim and Munich, still hoping to obtain an appointment outside Salzburg. In Munich, he again encountered Aloysia, now a very successful singer, but she was no longer interested in him. Mozart finally reached home on 15 January 1779 and took up the new position, but his discontent with Salzburg was undiminished.

Among the better known works that Mozart wrote on the Paris journey are the A minor piano sonata K. 310/300d and the "Paris" Symphony (no. 31); these were performed in Paris on 12 and 18 June 1778.

1781: Departure to Vienna

In January 1781, Mozart's opera ''Idomeneo'' premiered with "considerable success" in Munich. The following March the composer was summoned to Vienna, where his employer, Archbishop Colloredo, was attending the celebrations for the accession of Joseph II to the Austrian throne. Mozart, fresh from the adulation he had earned in Munich, was offended when Colloredo treated him as a mere servant and particularly when the archbishop forbade him to perform before the Emperor at Countess Thun's for a fee equal to half of his yearly Salzburg salary. The resulting quarrel came to a head in May: Mozart attempted to resign and was refused. The following month, permission was granted but in a grossly insulting way: the composer was dismissed literally "with a kick in the ass", administered by the archbishop's steward, Count Arco. Mozart decided to settle in Vienna as a freelance performer and composer.

The quarrel with the archbishop went harder for Mozart because his father sided against him. Hoping fervently that he would obediently follow Colloredo back to Salzburg, Mozart's father exchanged intense letters with his son, urging him to be reconciled with their employer. Mozart passionately defended his intention to pursue an independent career in Vienna. The debate ended when Mozart was dismissed by the archbishop, freeing himself both of his employer and his father's demands to return. Solomon characterizes Mozart's resignation as a "revolutionary step", and it greatly altered the course of his life.

Early Vienna years

Mozart's new career in Vienna began well. He performed often as a pianist, notably in a competition before the Emperor with Muzio Clementi on 24 December 1781, and he soon "had established himself as the finest keyboard player in Vienna". He also prospered as a composer, and in 1782 completed the opera ''Die Entführung aus dem Serail'' ("The Abduction from the Seraglio"), which premiered on 16 July 1782 and achieved a huge success. The work was soon being performed "throughout German-speaking Europe", and fully established Mozart's reputation as a composer.

Near the height of his quarrels with Colloredo, Mozart moved in with the Weber family, who had moved to Vienna from Mannheim. The father, Fridolin, had died, and the Webers were now taking in lodgers to make ends meet. Aloysia, who had earlier rejected Mozart's suit, was now married to the actor and artist, Joseph Lange. Mozart's interest shifted to the third Weber daughter, Constanze. The courtship did not go entirely smoothly; surviving correspondence indicates that Mozart and Constanze briefly separated in April 1782. Mozart also faced a very difficult task in getting his father's permission for the marriage. The couple were finally married on 4 August 1782 in St. Stephen's Cathedral, the day before his father's consent arrived in the mail.

The couple had six children, of whom only two survived infancy:

Raimund Leopold (17 June – 19 August 1783)

Karl Thomas Mozart (21 September 1784 – 31 October 1858)

Johann Thomas Leopold (18 October – 15 November 1786)

Theresia Constanzia Adelheid Friedericke Maria Anna (27 December 1787 – 29 June 1788)

Anna Maria (died soon after birth, 25 December 1789)

Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart (26 July 1791 – 29 July 1844)

In the course of 1782 and 1783 Mozart became intimately acquainted with the work of Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handel as a result of the influence of Gottfried van Swieten, who owned many manuscripts of the Baroque masters. Mozart's study of these scores inspired compositions in Baroque style, and later influenced his personal musical language, for example in fugal passages in ''Die Zauberflöte'' ("The Magic Flute") and the finale of Symphony No. 41.

In 1783, Mozart and his wife visited his family in Salzburg. His father and sister were cordially polite to Constanze, but the visit prompted the composition of one of Mozart's great liturgical pieces, the Mass in C minor. Though not completed, it was premiered in Salzburg, with Constanze singing a solo part.

Mozart met Joseph Haydn in Vienna around 1784, and the two composers became friends. When Haydn visited Vienna, they sometimes played together in an impromptu string quartet. Mozart's six quartets dedicated to Haydn (K. 387, K. 421, K. 428, K. 458, K. 464, and K. 465) date from the period 1782 to 1785, and are judged to be a response to Haydn's Opus 33 set from 1781. Haydn in 1785 told Mozart's father: "I tell you before God, and as an honest man, your son is the greatest composer known to me by person and repute, he has taste and what is more the greatest skill in composition." (''See also: Haydn and Mozart'')

From 1782 to 1785 Mozart mounted concerts with himself as soloist, presenting three or four new piano concertos in each season. Since space in the theaters was scarce, he booked unconventional venues: a large room in the Trattnerhof (an apartment building), and the ballroom of the Mehlgrube (a restaurant). The concerts were very popular, and the concertos he premiered at them are still firm fixtures in the repertoire. Solomon writes that during this period Mozart created "a harmonious connection between an eager composer-performer and a delighted audience, which was given the opportunity of witnessing the transformation and perfection of a major musical genre".

With substantial returns from his concerts and elsewhere, Mozart and his wife adopted a rather plush lifestyle. They moved to an expensive apartment, with a yearly rent of 460 florins. Mozart also bought a fine fortepiano from Anton Walter for about 900 florins, and a billiard table for about 300. The Mozarts sent their son Karl Thomas to an expensive boarding school, and kept servants. Saving was therefore impossible, and the short period of financial success did nothing to soften the hardship the Mozarts were later to experience.

On 14 December 1784, Mozart became a Freemason, admitted to the lodge Zur Wohltätigkeit ("Beneficence"). Freemasonry played an important role in the remainder of Mozart's life: he attended meetings, a number of his friends were Masons, and on various occasions he composed Masonic music. (''See also: Mozart and Freemasonry'')

1786–1787: Return to opera

Despite the great success of ''Die Entführung aus dem Serail'', Mozart did little operatic writing for the next four years, producing only two unfinished works and the one-act ''Der Schauspieldirektor''. He focused instead on his career as a piano soloist and writer of concertos. However, around the end of 1785, Mozart moved away from keyboard writing and began his famous operatic collaboration with the librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte. 1786 saw the successful premiere of ''The Marriage of Figaro'' in Vienna. Its reception in Prague later in the year was even warmer, and this led to a second collaboration with Da Ponte: the opera ''Don Giovanni'', which premiered in October 1787 to acclaim in Prague, and also met with success in Vienna in 1788. The two are among Mozart's most important works and are mainstays of the operatic repertoire today, though at their premieres their musical complexity caused difficulty for both listeners and performers. These developments were not witnessed by Mozart's father, who had died on 28 May 1787.

In December 1787, Mozart finally obtained a steady post under aristocratic patronage. Emperor Joseph II appointed him as his "chamber composer", a post that had fallen vacant the previous month on the death of Gluck. It was a part-time appointment, paying just 800 florins per year, and only required Mozart to compose dances for the annual balls in the Redoutensaal. However, even this modest income became important to Mozart when hard times arrived. Court records show that Joseph's aim was to keep the esteemed composer from leaving Vienna in pursuit of better prospects.

In 1787 the young Ludwig van Beethoven spent several weeks in Vienna, hoping to study with Mozart. No reliable records survive to indicate whether the two composers ever met. (''See also section "Influence" below'')

1788–1790

Toward the end of the decade, Mozart's circumstances worsened. Around 1786 he had ceased to appear frequently in public concerts, and his income shrank. This was a difficult time for musicians in Vienna because Austria was at war, and both the general level of prosperity and the ability of the aristocracy to support music had declined. Mozart began to borrow money, most often from his friend and fellow Mason Michael Puchberg; "a pitiful sequence of letters pleading for loans" survives. Maynard Solomon and others have suggested that Mozart was suffering from depression, and it seems that his output slowed. Major works of the period include the last three symphonies (Nos. 39, 40, and 41, all from 1788), and the last of the three Da Ponte operas, ''Così fan tutte'', premiered in 1790.

Around this time Mozart made long journeys hoping to improve his fortunes: to Leipzig, Dresden, and Berlin in the spring of 1789, and to Frankfurt, Mannheim, and other German cities in 1790. The trips produced only isolated success and did not relieve the family's financial distress. (''See also: Mozart's Berlin journey'')

1791

Mozart's last year was, until his final illness struck, a time of great productivity—and by some accounts a time of personal recovery. He composed a great deal, including some of his most admired works: the opera ''The Magic Flute'', the final piano concerto (K. 595 in B-flat), the Clarinet Concerto K. 622, the last in his great series of string quintets (K. 614 in E-flat), the motet Ave verum corpus K. 618, and the unfinished ''Requiem'' K. 626.

Mozart's financial situation, a source of extreme anxiety in 1790, finally began to improve. Although the evidence is inconclusive, it appears that wealthy patrons in Hungary and Amsterdam pledged annuities to Mozart in return for the occasional composition. He probably also benefited from the sale of dance music written in his role as Imperial chamber composer. Mozart no longer borrowed large sums from Puchberg, and made a start on paying off his debts.

He experienced great satisfaction in the public success of some of his works, notably ''The Magic Flute'' (performed many times in the short period between its premiere and Mozart's death) and the Little Masonic Cantata K. 623, premiered on 15 November 1791.

Final illness and death

Mozart fell ill while in Prague for the premiere on 6 September of his opera ''La clemenza di Tito'', written in 1791 on commission for the Emperor's coronation festivities. He was able to continue his professional functions for some time, and conducted the premiere of ''The Magic Flute'' on 30 September. The illness intensified on 20 November, at which point Mozart became bedridden, suffering from swelling, pain, and vomiting.

Mozart was nursed in his final illness by his wife and her youngest sister, and was attended by the family doctor, Thomas Franz Closset. It is clear that he was mentally occupied with the task of finishing his ''Requiem''. The evidence, however, that he actually dictated passages to his student Süssmayr is minimal.

Mozart died at 1 am on 5 December 1791 at the age of 35. The New Grove gives a matter-of-fact description of his funeral:

Mozart was buried in a common grave, in accordance with contemporary Viennese custom, at the St. Marx Cemetery outside the city on 7 December. If, as later reports say, no mourners attended, that too is consistent with Viennese burial customs at the time; later Jahn (1856) wrote that Salieri, Süssmayr, van Swieten and two other musicians were present. The tale of a storm and snow is false; the day was calm and mild.

The cause of Mozart's death cannot be known with certainty. The official record has it as "hitziges Frieselfieber" ("severe miliary fever", referring to a rash that looks like millet seeds), a description that does not suffice to identify the cause as it would be diagnosed in modern medicine. Researchers have posited at least 118 causes of death, including trichinosis, influenza, mercury poisoning, and a rare kidney ailment. The most widely accepted hypothesis is that Mozart died of acute rheumatic fever.

Mozart's modest funeral did not reflect his standing with the public as a composer: memorial services and concerts in Vienna and Prague were well attended. Indeed, in the period immediately after his death, Mozart's reputation rose substantially: Solomon describes an "unprecedented wave of enthusiasm" for his work; biographies were written (first by Schlichtegroll, Niemetschek, and Nissen; see Biographies of Mozart); and publishers vied to produce complete editions of his works.

Appearance and character

Mozart's physical appearance was described by tenor Michael Kelly, in his ''Reminiscences'': "a remarkably small man, very thin and pale, with a profusion of fine, fair hair of which he was rather vain". As his early biographer Niemetschek wrote, "there was nothing special about [his] physique. [...] He was small and his countenance, except for his large intense eyes, gave no signs of his genius." His facial complexion was pitted, a reminder of his childhood case of smallpox. His nose was "large" and "aquiline" and “became so prominent a feature in the last years of his life...that a scribber in one of the journals of the day, the Morgenblatter of Vienna, honoured him with the epithet 'enourmous-nosed.'" He loved elegant clothing. Kelly remembered him at a rehearsal: "[He] was on the stage with his crimson pelisse and gold-laced cocked hat, giving the time of the music to the orchestra." Of his voice his wife later wrote that it "was a tenor, rather soft in speaking and delicate in singing, but when anything excited him, or it became necessary to exert it, it was both powerful and energetic".

Mozart usually worked long and hard, finishing compositions at a tremendous pace as deadlines approached. He often made sketches and drafts; unlike Beethoven's these are mostly not preserved, as his wife sought to destroy them after his death.He was raised a Roman Catholic and remained a member of the Church throughout his life. (''See also: Mozart and Roman Catholicism'')

Mozart lived at the center of the Viennese musical world, and knew a great number and variety of people: fellow musicians, theatrical performers, fellow Salzburgers, and aristocrats, including some acquaintance with the Emperor Joseph II. Solomon considers his three closest friends to have been Gottfried von Jacquin, Count August Hatzfeld, and Sigmund Barisani; others included his older colleague Joseph Haydn, singers Franz Xaver Gerl and Benedikt Schack, and the horn player Joseph Leutgeb. Leutgeb and Mozart carried on a curious kind of friendly mockery, often with Leutgeb as the butt of Mozart's practical jokes.

He enjoyed billiards and dancing, and kept pets: a canary, a starling, a dog, and also a horse for recreational riding. He had a startling fondness for scatological humor, which is preserved in his surviving letters, notably those written to his cousin Maria Anna Thekla Mozart around 1777–1778, but also in his correspondence with his sister and parents. Mozart even wrote scatological music, a series of canons that he sang with his friends. (''See also: Mozart and scatology'')

Rumors of Tourette Syndrome

Although some authors have speculated Mozart had Tourette syndrome, evidence for this hypothesis is lacking. Endocrinologist Benjamin Simkin, however, argues in his book, ''Medical and Musical Byways of Mozartiana'', that Mozart suffered from Tourette's. This claim was picked up by newspapers worldwide and internet websites have further fueled the speculation. A German psychiatrist examined the question of Mozart's diagnoses and concluded, "Tourette’s syndrome is an inventive but implausible diagnosis in the medical history of Mozart". Evidence of a motor tic was found lacking and the notion that involuntary vocal tics transferred to the written form was labeled "problematic". Neurologist and author Oliver Sacks published an editorial disputing Simkin's claim, and the Tourette Syndrome Association pointed to the speculative nature of such information. So far, no expert on Tourette's or organization has voiced concurrence that there is credible evidence to conclude Mozart had the syndrome.

Works, musical style, and innovations

Style

Mozart's music, like Haydn's, stands as an archetype of the Classical style. At the time he began composing, European music was dominated by the ''style galant'', a reaction against the highly evolved intricacy of the Baroque. Progressively, and in large part at the hands of Mozart himself, the contrapuntal complexities of the late Baroque emerged once more, moderated and disciplined by new forms, and adapted to a new aesthetic and social milieu. Mozart was a versatile composer, and wrote in every major genre, including symphony, opera, the solo concerto, chamber music including string quartet and string quintet, and the piano sonata. These forms were not new, but Mozart advanced their technical sophistication and emotional reach. He almost single-handedly developed and popularized the Classical piano concerto. He wrote a great deal of religious music, including large-scale masses, but also dances, divertimenti, serenades, and other forms of light entertainment.

The central traits of the Classical style are all present in Mozart's music. Clarity, balance, and transparency are the hallmarks of his work, but simplistic notions of its delicacy mask the exceptional power of his finest masterpieces, such as the Piano Concerto No. 24 in C minor, K. 491, the Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K. 550, and the opera ''Don Giovanni''. Charles Rosen makes the point forcefully:

"It is only through recognizing the violence and sensuality at the center of Mozart's work that we can make a start towards a comprehension of his structures and an insight into his magnificence. In a paradoxical way, Schumann's superficial characterization of the [second] G minor Symphony can help us to see Mozart's daemon more steadily. In all of Mozart's supreme expressions of suffering and terror, there is something shockingly voluptuous."

Especially during his last decade, Mozart exploited chromatic harmony to a degree rare at the time, with remarkable assurance and to great artistic effect.

Mozart always had a gift for absorbing and adapting valuable features of others' music. His travels helped in the forging of a unique compositional language. In London as a child, he met J.C. Bach and heard his music. In Paris, Mannheim, and Vienna he met with other compositional influences, as well as the avant-garde capabilities of the Mannheim orchestra. In Italy he encountered the Italian overture and opera buffa, both of which deeply affected the evolution of his own practice. In London and Italy, the galant style was in the ascendent: simple, light music with a mania for cadencing; an emphasis on tonic, dominant, and subdominant to the exclusion of other harmonies; symmetrical phrases; and clearly articulated partitions in the overall form of movements. Some of Mozart's early symphonies are Italian overtures, with three movements running into each other; many are homotonal (all three movements having the same key signature, with the slow middle movement being in the relative minor). Others mimic the works of J.C. Bach, and others show the simple rounded binary forms turned out by Viennese composers.

As Mozart matured, he progressively incorporated more features adapted from the Baroque. For example, the Symphony No. 29 in A major K. 201 has a contrapuntal main theme in its first movement, and experimentation with irregular phrase lengths. Some of his quartets from 1773 have fugal finales, probably influenced by Haydn, who had included three such finales in his recently published Opus 20 set. The influence of the ''Sturm und Drang'' ("Storm and Stress") period in music, with its brief foreshadowing of the Romantic era, is evident in the music of both composers at that time. Mozart's Symphony No. 25 in G minor K. 183 is another excellent example.

Mozart would sometimes switch his focus between operas and instrumental music. He produced operas in each of the prevailing styles: opera buffa, such as ''The Marriage of Figaro'', ''Don Giovanni'', and ''Così fan tutte''; opera seria, such as ''Idomeneo''; and Singspiel, of which ''Die Zauberflöte'' is the most famous example by any composer. In his later operas he employed subtle changes in instrumentation, orchestral texture, and tone color, for emotional depth and to mark dramatic shifts. Here his advances in opera and instrumental composing interacted: his increasingly sophisticated use of the orchestra in the symphonies and concertos influenced his operatic orchestration, and his developing subtlety in using the orchestra to psychological effect in his operas was in turn reflected in his later non-operatic compositions.

Influence

Mozart's most famous pupil, whom the Mozarts took into their Vienna home for two years as a child, was probably Johann Nepomuk Hummel, a transitional figure between Classical and Romantic eras. More important is the influence Mozart had on composers of later generations. Ever since the surge in his reputation after his death, studying his scores has been a standard part of the training of classical musicians.

Ludwig van Beethoven, Mozart's junior by fifteen years, was deeply influenced by his work, with which he was acquainted as a teenager. He is thought to have performed Mozart's operas while playing in the court orchestra at Bonn, and he traveled to Vienna in 1787 hoping to study with the older composer. Some of Beethoven's works have direct models in comparable works by Mozart, and he wrote cadenzas (WoO 58) to Mozart's D minor piano concerto K. 466.

A number of composers have paid homage to Mozart by writing sets of variations on his themes. Beethoven wrote four such sets (Op. 66, WoO 28, WoO 40, WoO 46). Others include Frédéric Chopin's Variations on "Là ci darem la mano" from ''Don Giovanni'' (1827), Max Reger's Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Mozart (1914), based on the variation theme in the piano sonata K. 331, Fernando Sor's Introduction and Variations on a Theme by Mozart (1821) and Mikhail Glinka's Variations on a Theme from Mozart's Opera Die Zauberflöte in E♭ major (1822). Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky wrote his Orchestral Suite No. 4 in G, "Mozartiana" (1887), as a tribute to Mozart.

Köchel catalogue

For unambiguous identification of works by Mozart, a ''Köchel catalogue number'' is used. This is a unique number assigned, in regular chronological order, to every one of his known works. A work is referenced by the abbreviation "K." followed by this number. The first edition of the catalogue was completed in 1862 by Ludwig von Köchel. It has since been repeatedly updated, as scholarly research improves knowledge of the dates and authenticity of individual works.

See also

Mozart and dance

''The Complete Mozart Edition'', 180 compact discs arranged into 45 themed volumes released by Philips Classics Records in 2000.

Mozart effect

Mozart family

Mozart in fiction

Mozartkugel

Mozarteum

Mozarthaus Vienna

Notes

References

;Cited sources

Fradkin, Robert A. (1996) ''The well-tempered announcer: a pronunciation guide to classical music.'' Bloomington: Indiana University Press. ISBN 025321064X.

;Other sources

External links

Mozarthaus Salzburg

Salzburg Tourist Office – Salzburg City Tourist Board website.

Chronological-Thematic Catalog

Digitized, scanned material (books, sheet music)

"Mozart" Titles; Mozart as author from archive.org

"Mozart" Titles; Mozart as author from books.google.com

Digital Mozart Edition (''Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum'')

"Mozart" titles from Gallica

From the British Library

*Mozart's Thematic Catalogue (view with "Turning the Pages")

*Mozart's Musical Diary

*Background information on Mozart and the Thematic Catalogue

Letters of Leopold Mozart und Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Badische Landesbibliothek)

Sheet music

Complete sheetmusic (scores) from the Neue Mozart-Ausgabe (''Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum'')

"Mozart" Titles from the Munich Digitisation Centre (MDZ)

"Mozart" Titles from the University of Rochester

Free typeset sheet music of Mozart's works from ''Cantorion.org''

Mozart as author from archive.org

Mozart as author from books.google.com

Category:Classical era composers Category:Austrian composers Category:German composers Category:Opera composers Category:Organ improvisers Category:Viennese composers Category:Austrian classical pianists Category:Child classical musicians Category:People from Salzburg Category:Austrian Roman Catholics Category:Knights of the Golden Spur Category:1756 births Category:1791 deaths Category:Composers for piano

af:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart als:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart am:ቮልፍጋንግ አማዴኡስ ሞፃርት ab:Вольфганг Амадеи Моцарт ar:فولفغانغ أماديوس موتسارت an:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart ast:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart ay:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart az:Volfqanq Amadey Motsart bn:ভোল্‌ফগাংক্‌ আমাডেয়ুস মোৎসার্ট zh-min-nan:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart map-bms:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart ba:Вольфганг Амадей Моцарт be:Вольфганг Амадэй Моцарт be-x-old:Вольфганг Амадэй Моцарт bcl:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart bg:Волфганг Амадеус Моцарт bar:Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus bs:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart br:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart ca:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart cv:Моцарт Вольфганг Амадей ceb:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart cs:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart ch:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart cbk-zam:Mozart co:Mozart cy:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart da:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart pdc:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart de:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart dsb:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart et:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart el:Βόλφγκανγκ Αμαντέους Μότσαρτ es:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart eo:Volfgango Amadeo Mozarto ext:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart eu:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart fa:ولفگانگ آمادئوس موتسارت hif:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart fr:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart fy:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart fur:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart ga:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart gv:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart gag:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart gd:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart gl:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart gan:莫扎特 gu:મોઝાર્ટ hak:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart xal:Моцарт, Вольфганг Амадей ko:볼프강 아마데우스 모차르트 haw:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart hy:Վոլֆգանգ Ամադեուս Մոցարտ hi:वोल्फ़गांक आमडेयुस मोत्सार्ट hsb:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart hr:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart io:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart ilo:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart bpy:ভোল্‌ফগাংক্‌ আমাডেয়ুস মোৎসার্ট id:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart ia:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart os:Моцарт, Вольфганг Амадей xh:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart zu:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart it:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart he:וולפגנג אמדאוס מוצרט jv:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart kl:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart kn:ವುಲ್ಫ್‌ಗ್ಯಾಂಗ್ ಅಮೆಡಿಯುಸ್ ಮೊಟ್ಜಾರ್ಟ್ pam:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart krc:Вольфганг Амадей Моцарт ka:ვოლფგანგ ამადეუს მოცარტი kk:Волфганг Амадей Моцарт kw:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart sw:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart ht:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart ku:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart la:Wolfgangus Amadeus Mozart lv:Volfgangs Amadejs Mocarts lb:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart lt:Volfgangas Amadėjus Mocartas lij:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart li:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart jbo:vulfygan.amade,us.motsart hu:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart mk:Волфганг Амадеус Моцарт mg:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart ml:വൂൾഫ്ഗാങ് അമാദ്യൂസ് മൊട്ട്സാർട്ട് mt:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart mr:वोल्फगांग आमाडेउस मोझार्ट xmf:ვოლფგანგ ამადეუს მოცარტი arz:موتسارت mzn:موزارت ms:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart mwl:Mozart mn:Вольфганг Амадей Моцарт my:မိုးဇက်၊ ဝူဖ်ဂန် အမာဒျု nah:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart nl:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart nds-nl:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart ne:वोल्फगान्क आमडेयुस मोत्सार्ट new:वुल्फग्याङ्ग आमाद्युस मोत्सार्त ja:ヴォルフガング・アマデウス・モーツァルト frr:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart no:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart nn:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart oc:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart mhr:Моцарт, Вольфганг Амадей uz:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart pag:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart pnb:ولفگانگ موزرت ps:ولفګانګ امادیوس موزارت pcd:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart pms:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart nds:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart pl:Wolfgang Amadeusz Mozart pt:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart kaa:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart ro:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart qu:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart rue:Вольфґанґ Амадей Моцарт ru:Моцарт, Вольфганг Амадей sah:Моцарт Вольфганг Амадей se:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart sm:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart sa:वोल्फगांग आमाडेउस मोझार्ट sc:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart sco:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart sq:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart scn:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart simple:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart sk:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart sl:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart szl:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart so:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart ckb:فوڵفگانگ ئەمادیۆس مۆتزارت sr:Волфганг Амадеус Моцарт sh:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart su:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart fi:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart sv:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart tl:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart ta:வொல்ஃப்கேங்க் அமதியுஸ் மோட்ஸார்ட் kab:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart tt:Вольфганг Амадей Моцарт th:โวล์ฟกัง อะมาเดอุส โมซาร์ท ti:ቮልፍጋንግ አማዴኡስ ሞፃርት chy:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart tr:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart uk:Вольфґанґ Амадей Моцарт ur:وولف گینگ موزارٹ ug:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart za:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart vec:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart vi:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart vo:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart fiu-vro:Mozarti Wolfgang Amadeus wa:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart zh-classical:莫扎特 war:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart yi:וואלפגאנג אמאדעוס מאצארט yo:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart zh-yue:莫札特 diq:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart zea:Mozart bat-smg:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart zh:沃尔夫冈·阿马德乌斯·莫扎特

name	Tine Thing Helseth
background	non_vocal_instrumentalist
birth date	August 18, 1987
origin	Oslo, Norway
instrument	Trumpet
genre	Classical
occupation	SoloistTrumpeter
website	http://www.tinethinghelseth.com/
notable instruments	}}

Tine Thing Helseth (phonetic pron.Tin-eh Ting Hel-set) (; born August 18, 1987 in Oslo) is a Norwegian trumpet soloist specializing in classical repertoire.

Helseth started to play trumpet at the age of 7 and studies at the Barratt Due Institute of Music in Oslo. Her teachers have included Heidi Johanessen (Norwegian National Opera Orchestra) and since 2002 Arnulf Naur Nilsen (Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra). She also appears on Didrik Solli-Tangen's second single Best Kept Secret, taken from Solli-Tangen's debut album Guilty Pleasures, which was released on September 3, 2010.

Prizes, contests and awards

National Soloist Championship of Norway no-age-limit open class 1st Prize 2004 International Trumpet competition "Theo Charlier" Brussels, Belgium 2nd prize 2005 Oslo Music Teachers Foundation Prize of Honour 2005 Yamaha Music Foundation Europe Scholarship 2006 Eurovision Young Musicians Competition 2006 2nd place

The Prince Eugen Culture Prize 2006

NRK Radio P2 Prize for 2006/2007

Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship 2009

Concert and festival performances

Tine has performed with such orchestras as the Wiener Symphoniker, Beethoven Academie, Capella Cracowiensis, The Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, Slovenian Radio Symphony Ljubljana, Oslo Camerata, Camerata Nordica, Württemberg Philharmonic, the Trondheim Soloists, Norwegian symphony orchestras, Norwegian Army bands and other brass and wind ensembles.

Future engagements include concerts with the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie, Bielefeld Symphony Orchestra, Värmlands Operaens Sinfonietta, and Georgische Kammerorchester.

She has appeared at music festivals including Bergen International Festival, Kissinger Summer Festival and Usedomer Music Festival.

Tine performed at the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize Concert.

Tine has also performed three times in the United States so far. The first time was December 13, 2009 at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.. More recently she performed at Carnegie Hall in New York City on February 18, 2011, and the Struthers Library Theatre in Warren, Pennsylvania on February 20, 2011.

Tine is the leader of an all female brass ensemble tenThing

Debut CD

Contents of her self-titled debut CD under the Simax Classics label performed with the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra conducted by Terje Tønnesen:

Joseph Haydn: ''Trumpet Concerto in E flat''

Tomaso Albinoni: ''Trumpet Concerto in B flat, op. 7 no. 3''

Johann Baptist Georg Neruda: ''Trumpet Concerto in E flat''

Johann Nepomuk Hummel: ''Trumpet Concerto in E flat''

References

External links

Myspace Site

Personal website in English

Haydn Concerto 3rd mvt on YouTube

Category:1987 births Category:Living people Category:European musicians Category:Norwegian classical musicians Category:Norwegian trumpeters Category:People from Oslo

de:Tine Thing Helseth et:Tine Thing Helseth es:Tine Thing Helseth fr:Tine Thing Helseth ja:ティーネ・シング・ヘルセット no:Tine Thing Helseth oc:Tine Thing Helseth simple:Tine Thing Helseth sv:Tine Thing Helseth

name	Yo-Yo Ma馬友友
background	non_vocal_instrumentalist
born	October 07, 1955Paris, France
instrument	Cello, Piano, Viola, Violin
genre	Classical
occupation	Cellist, composer, pedagogue
years active	''fl. ca.'' 1961–''present''
label	CBS, RCA, Sony Classical
associated acts	Silk Road Ensemble
website	yo-yoma.com
notable instruments	Violoncello''Davydov 1712'' StradivariusDomenico Montagnana 1733Luis and Clark }}

)}} Yo-Yo Ma (born October 7, 1955) is a French-born American cellist, virtuoso, orchestral composer of Chinese descent, and winner of multiple Grammy Awards, the National Medal of Arts in 2001 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011. He is one of the most famous cellists of the modern age.

Early life

Yo-Yo Ma was born in Paris on October 7, 1955, to Chinese parents and had a musical upbringing. His mother, Marina Lu, was a singer, and his father, Hiao-Tsiun Ma, was a violinist and professor of music. His family moved to New York when he was five years old.

At a very young age, Ma began studying violin, and later viola, before finding his true calling by taking up the cello in 1960 at age four. According to Ma, his first choice was the double bass due to its large size, but he compromised and took up cello instead. The child prodigy began performing before audiences at age five, and performed for Presidents John F. Kennedy and Dwight D. Eisenhower when he was seven. At age eight, he appeared on American television with his sister, Yeou-Cheng Ma, in a concert conducted by Leonard Bernstein. By fifteen years of age, Ma had graduated from Trinity School in New York and appeared as a soloist with the Harvard Radcliffe Orchestra in a performance of the Tchaikovsky ''Rococo Variations''.

Ma studied at the Juilliard School with Leonard Rose and briefly attended Columbia University before ultimately enrolling at Harvard University. Prior to entering Harvard, Ma played in the Marlboro Festival Orchestra under the direction of nonagenarian cellist and conductor Pablo Casals. Ma would ultimately spend four summers at the Marlboro Music Festival after meeting and falling in love with Mount Holyoke College sophomore and festival administrator Jill Hornor his first summer there in 1972.

However, even before that time, Ma had steadily gained fame and had performed with most of the world's major orchestras. His recordings and performances of Johann Sebastian Bach's Cello Suites recorded in 1983 and again in 1994–1997 are particularly acclaimed. He has also played a good deal of chamber music, often with the pianist Emanuel Ax, with whom he has a close friendship back from their days together at the Juilliard School of Music in New York.

Ma received his bachelor's degree from Harvard in 1976. In 1991, he received an honorary doctorate from Harvard.

Career

Ma currently plays with his own Silk Road Ensemble, which has the goal of bringing together musicians from diverse countries all of which are historically linked via the Silk Road, and records on the Sony Classical label. Ma's primary performance instrument is the cello nicknamed ''Petunia'', built by Domenico Montagnana in 1733. It was named this by a female student that approached him after one of his classes in Salt Lake City asking if he had a nickname for his cello. He said, "No, but if I play for you, will you name it?" She chose Petunia, and it stuck. This cello, more than 270 years old and valued at US$2.5 million, was lost in the fall of 1999 when Ma accidentally left the instrument in a taxicab in New York City. It was later recovered undamaged. Another of Ma's cellos, the ''Davidov Stradivarius'', was previously owned by Jacqueline du Pré who passed it to him upon her death, and owned by the Vuitton Foundation. Though Du Pré previously voiced her frustration with the "unpredictability" of this cello, Ma attributed the comment to du Pré's impassioned style of playing, adding that the Stradivarius cello must be "coaxed" by the player. It was until recently set up in a Baroque manner, since Ma exclusively played Baroque music on it. He also owns a cello made of carbon fiber by the Luis and Clark company of Boston.

In 1997 he was featured on John Williams' soundtrack to the Hollywood film, ''Seven Years in Tibet''. In 2000, he was heard on the soundtrack of ''Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon'', and in 2003 on that of ''Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World''. He collaborated with Williams again on the original score for the 2005 film ''Memoirs of a Geisha''. Yo-Yo Ma has also worked with world-renowned Italian composer Ennio Morricone and has recorded Morricone's compositions of the Dollars Trilogy including ''The Good, the Bad and the Ugly''. He also has over 75 albums, 15 of which are Grammy Award winners. Ma is a recipient of the International Center in New York's Award of Excellence.

Ma was named Peace Ambassador by UN then Secretary-General Kofi Annan in January 2006.

On November 3, 2009, President Obama appointed Ma to serve on the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities. His music was featured in the 2010 documentary ''Jews and Baseball: An American Love Story'', narrated by Academy Award winner Dustin Hoffman.

Playing style

thumb|right|Ma with Condoleezza Rice after performing a duet at the presentation of the 2001 National Medal of Arts and National Humanities Medal Awards.Ma has been referred to as "omnivorous" by critics, and possesses a more eclectic repertoire than is typical for classical musicians. A sampling of his versatility in addition to numerous recordings of the standard classical repertoire would include his recordings of Baroque pieces using period instruments; American bluegrass music; traditional Chinese melodies including the soundtrack to the film ''Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon''; the tangos of Argentinian composer Ástor Piazzolla; an eclectic and unusual collaboration with Bobby McFerrin (where Ma admitted to being terrified of the improvisation McFerrin pushed him toward); as well as the music of modern minimalist Philip Glass in such works as the 2002 piece ''Naqoyqatsi''. He is known for his smooth, rich tone as well as his considerable virtuosity, including a cello recording of Niccolò Paganini's 24th Caprice for solo violin, Zoltán Kodály's cello sonata, and other demanding works.

Notable live performances

Ma performed a duet with Condoleezza Rice at the presentation of the 2001 National Medal of Arts and National Humanities Medal Awards. Ma was the first performer on September 11, 2002, at the site of the World Trade Center, while the first of the names of the dead were read in remembrance on the first anniversary of the attack on the WTC. He played the Sarabande from Bach's ''Suite in C minor (#5)''. He performed a special arrangement of Sting's "Fragile" with Sting and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir during the opening ceremonies of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah.

He performed John Williams' "Air and Simple Gifts" at the inauguration ceremony for Barack Obama on January 20, 2009, along with Itzhak Perlman (violin), Gabriela Montero (piano) and Anthony McGill (clarinet). While the quartet did play live, the music played simultaneously over speakers and on television was a recording made two days prior due to concerns over the cold weather damaging the instruments. Ma was quoted as saying "A broken string was not an option. It was wicked cold."

On August 29, 2009, Ma performed at the funeral mass for Senator Edward M. Kennedy. Pieces he performed included the Sarabande movement from Bach's ''Cello Suite No. 6'', and Franck's ''Panis Angelicus'' with Placido Domingo.

On October 3, 2009, Ma appeared alongside Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper at the National Arts Centre gala in Ottawa. Harper, a noted Beatles fan, played the piano and sang a rendition of "With A Little Help From My Friends" while Ma accompanied him on his cello.

Media appearances

Ma has appeared in an episode of the animated children's television series, ''Arthur'', as well as on ''The West Wing'' (episode "Noël", in which he performed the prelude to the Bach Cello Suite No.1 at a Christmas dinner at the White House), ''Sesame Street'' and ''Mister Rogers' Neighborhood''. In ''The Simpsons'' episode "Missionary: Impossible", Ma, (voiced by Hank Azaria) runs after Homer Simpson along with many other frequent guests of PBS.

He also starred in the visual accompaniment to his recordings of Bach's ''Six Suites for Unaccompanied Cello''.

Ma has also been seen with Apple Inc. and former Pixar CEO Steve Jobs. Ma is often invited to press events for Jobs's companies, and has performed on stage during event keynote presentations, as well as appearing in a commercial for the Macintosh computer.

Ma was a guest on the Not My Job segment of ''Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!'' on April 7, 2007, where he won for listener Thad Moore.

On October 27, 2008, Ma appeared as a guest and performer on ''The Colbert Report''.

According to research done by Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., of Harvard University, in 2010 for the PBS series ''Faces of America'', in which Ma made an appearance, a relative had hidden the Ma family genealogy in his home in China to save it from destruction during the Cultural Revolution. Ma's paternal ancestry can be traced back eighteen generations to the year 1217. This genealogy had been compiled in the 18th century by an ancestor, tracing everyone with the surname Ma, through the paternal line, back to one common ancestor in the 3rd century BC. Ma's generation name, "Yo", had been decided by his fourth great grand-uncle, Ma Ji Cang, in 1755.

Personal life

Ma married his long-time girlfriend Jill Hornor, a German language professor, in 1977. He proposed outside her apartment. They have two children, Nicholas and Emily, and reside in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Ma's elder sister, Yeou-Cheng Ma, who was also born in Paris, is a violinist married to Michael Dadap, a New York–based guitarist from the Philippines.

Discography

Awards and recognitions

Avery Fisher Prize

1978

Presidential Medal of Freedom

2011

Award of Distinction (International Cello Festival)

2007

Dan David Prize

2006

Doctor of Musical Arts (D.M.A.) (''honoris causa'')

2005 Princeton University

Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance:

1996 ''Brahms/Beethoven/Mozart: Clarinet Trios'' (Sony 57499)

1993 ''Brahms: Sonatas for Cello & Piano'' (Sony 48191)

1992 ''Brahms: Piano Quartets Op. 25, Op. 26'' (Sony 45846)

1987 ''Beethoven: Cello and Piano Sonata No. 4 in C & Variations'' (CBS 42121)

1986 ''Brahms: Cello and Piano Sonatas in E Minor Op. 38, and F Op. 99'' (RCA 17022)

Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Soloist(s) Performance:

1998 ''Yo-Yo Ma Premieres – Danielpour, Kirchner, Rouse'' (Sony Classical 66299)

1995 ''The New York Album – Works of Albert, Bartók & Bloch'' (Sony 57961)

1993 ''Prokofiev: Sinfonia Concertante/Tchaikovsky: Variations on a Rococo Theme'' (Sony 48382)

1990 ''Barber: Cello Concerto, Op. 22/Britten: Symphony for Cello and Orchestra, Op. 68'' (CBS 44900)

Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Soloist Performance:

1985 ''Bach: The Unaccompanied Cello Suites'' (CBS 37867)

Grammy Award for Best Classical Contemporary Composition:

1995 ''The New York Album'', ''Stephen Albert: Cello Concerto'' (Sony 57961)

Grammy Award for Best Classical Album:

1998 ''Yo-Yo Ma Premieres – Danielpour, Kirchner, Rouse'' (Sony Classical 66299)

Grammy Award for Best Classical Crossover Album:

2010 ''Songs of Joy & Peace'' (Sony Classical B001BN1V8U)

2004 ''Obrigado Brazil'' (Sony 89935)

2001 ''Appalachian Journey'' (Sony 66782)

1999 ''Soul of the Tango – The Music of Ástor Piazzolla'' (Sony Classical 63122)

Glenn Gould Prize

1999

Latin Grammy for Best Instrumental Album

2004 ''Obrigado Brazil'' (Sony 89935)

National Medal of Arts 2001 Presidential Medal of Freedom

·Nominated: November 17, 2010

·Awarded: February 15, 2011

Cultural references

In the movie ''School of Rock'', Jack Black’s character tells the other teachers that he competed in a cello audition--and lost—to Yo-Yo Ma's cousin, who he describes as “Little Nepotiz”, a reference to the audition being on the same orchestral instrument as Yo-Yo Ma plays, and implying that Yo-yo Ma’s cousin won the audition simply by virtue of being related to Yo-Yo Ma. In the sitcom ''Seinfeld'', Kramer exclaims "Yo-Yo Ma!" in two episodes. When Kramer cries out "Yo-Yo Ma!" in The Ticket (Seinfeld), it is attributed to a suspected head injury caused by a kick from "Crazy" Joe Davola. In The Hamptons (Seinfeld), Kramer calls out "Yo-Yo Ma!" when he sees George Costanza's girlfriend, Jane, walking topless on the beach.

References

External links

Official Website

''About Us'', The Children's Orchestra Society, ChildrensOrch.org, 2007

Yo-Yo Ma in Conversation from WGBH Radio Boston

Yo-Yo Ma Interview on Time.com, October 2008

Yo-Yo Ma Podcast Series produced by Sony BMG Masterworks

Yo-Yo Ma TV Interview with Ennio Morricone from C Music TV

2006 Dan David Prize laureate

Category:American classical cellists Category:American musicians of Chinese descent Category:Contemporary classical music performers Category:Child classical musicians Category:Columbia University alumni Category:United States National Medal of Arts recipients Category:Emmy Award winners Category:French emigrants to the United States Category:Gemini Award winners Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Harvard University alumni Category:Juilliard School alumni Category:Musicians from Massachusetts Category:Naturalized citizens of the United States Category:People from Paris Category:Members of Committee of 100 Category:Honorary Members of the Royal Academy of Music Category:1955 births Category:Living people Category:United Nations Messengers of Peace Category:Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients Category:People from Belmont, Massachusetts Category:Child classical musicians

af:Yo-Yo Ma ar:يويو ما zh-min-nan:Yo-Yo Ma ca:Yo-Yo Ma de:Yo-Yo Ma es:Yo-Yo Ma eo:Yo-Yo Ma fa:یو-یو ما fr:Yo-Yo Ma ko:요요 마 id:Yo-Yo Ma it:Yo-Yo Ma he:יו-יו מה lv:Jo-Jo Ma hu:Yo-Yo Ma nl:Yo-Yo Ma ja:ヨーヨー・マ no:Yo-Yo Ma oc:Yo-Yo Ma pl:Yo-Yo Ma pt:Yo-Yo Ma ru:Йо-Йо Ма sq:Yo-Yo Ma simple:Yo-Yo Ma sl:Yo-Yo Ma fi:Yo-Yo Ma sv:Yo-Yo Ma th:โยโย มา zh:馬友友

Name	Artie Shaw
Background	non_vocal_instrumentalist
Birth name	Arthur Jacob Arshawsky
Born	May 23, 1910New York City, New York, U.S.
Died	December 30, 2004Thousand Oaks, California, U.S.
Instrument	Clarinet
Genre	Swing, big band
Occupation	Bandleader, composer
Years active	1925–2004
Notable instruments	}}

Arthur Jacob Arshawsky (May 23, 1910 – December 30, 2004), better known as Artie Shaw, was an American jazz clarinetist, composer, and bandleader. He was also the author of both fiction and non-fiction writings.

Widely regarded as "one of jazz's finest clarinetists," Shaw led one of America's most popular big bands of the late 1930s and early '40s. Their signature song, a 1938 version of Cole Porter's "Begin the Beguine," was a wildly successful single and one of the era's defining recordings. Musically restless, Shaw was also an early proponent of Third Stream, which blended classical and jazz, and recorded some small-group sessions that flirted with be-bop before retiring from music in 1954.

Early life

Born Arthur Jacob Arshawsky in New York City, Shaw grew up in New Haven, Connecticut, where, according to his autobiography his natural introversion was deepened by local antisemitism. Shaw began learning the saxophone when he was 13 years old, and by the age of 16, he switched to the clarinet and left home to tour with a band. Returning to New York, he became a session musician through the early 1930s. From 1925 until 1936, Shaw performed with many bands and orchestras, including those of Johnny Caverello and Austin Wylie. In 1929 and 1930 he played with Irving Aaronson's Commanders, where he was exposed to symphonic music, which he would later incorporate in his arrangements.

Shaw first gained critical acclaim with his "Interlude in B-flat" at a swing concert at the Imperial Theater in New York in 1935. During the swing era, his big band was popular with hits like "Begin the Beguine" (1938), "Stardust" (with a trumpet solo by Billy Butterfield), "Back Bay Shuffle", "Moonglow", "Rosalie" and "Frenesi". He was an innovator in the big band idiom, using unusual instrumentation; "Interlude in B-flat", where he was backed with only a rhythm section and a string quartet, was one of the earliest examples of what would be later dubbed third stream.

In addition to hiring Buddy Rich, he signed Billie Holiday as his band's vocalist in 1938, becoming the first white bandleader to hire a full-time black female singer to tour the segregated Southern US. However, after recording "Any Old Time" she left the band due to hostility from audiences in the South, as well as from music company executives who wanted a more "mainstream" singer. His band became enormously successful, and his playing was eventually recognized as equal to that of Benny Goodman: longtime Duke Ellington clarinetist Barney Bigard cited Shaw as his favorite clarinet player. In response to Goodman's nickname, the "King of Swing", Shaw's fans dubbed him the "King of the Clarinet." Shaw, however, felt the titles were reversed. "Benny Goodman played clarinet. I played music," he said. In 1938 DownBeat Magazine's readers agreed with Shaw's evaluation and named Artie Shaw as the King of Swing.

Shaw prized innovation and exploration in music more highly than popular success and formulaic dance music, despite a string of hits which sold more than 100 million records. He fused jazz with classical music by adding strings to his arrangements, experimented with bebop, and formed "chamber jazz" groups that utilized such novel sounds as harpsichords or Afro-Cuban music.

The long series of musical groups Shaw formed included such talents as vocalists Billie Holiday, Helen Forrest and, Mel Tormé; drummers Buddy Rich and Dave Tough, guitarists Barney Kessel, Jimmy Raney, and Tal Farlow and trombonist-arranger Ray Conniff, among countless others. He composed the morose "Nightmare", with its Hassidic nuances, for his personal theme, rather than more approachable songs. In a televised interview of the 1970s, Shaw derided the often "asinine" songs that bands were compelled to play night after night. In 1994, he told Frank Prial (''The New York Times''), "I thought that because I was Artie Shaw I could do what I wanted, but all they wanted was 'Begin the Beguine.' "

Pacific overtures

During World War II, Shaw enlisted in the United States Navy and later formed a band, which served in the Pacific theater (just as Glenn Miller's wartime band served in Europe). After 18 months playing for Navy personnel (sometimes as many as four concerts a day in battle zones, including Guadalcanal), Shaw returned to the U.S. in a state of physical exhaustion, receiving a medical discharge. In the late 1940s, Shaw performed classical music at Carnegie Hall and with the New York Philharmonic under Leonard Bernstein.

Like Benny Goodman and other leaders of big bands, Shaw fashioned a small group from within the band. He named it the Gramercy Five after his home telephone exchange. Band pianist Johnny Guarneri played a harpsichord on the quintet recordings and Al Hendrickson played an electric guitar, which was unusual in jazz recordings of the time. Trumpeter Roy Eldridge later became part of the group, succeeding Billy Butterfield. The Gramercy Five's biggest hit was "Summit Ridge Drive". A CD of ''The Complete Gramercy Five'' sessions was released in 1990.

Throughout his career, Shaw would take sabbaticals from the music business. This included studying advanced mathematics, as cited in Karl Sabbagh's ''The Riemann Hypothesis.'' His first interregnum, at the height of his success, was met with disbelief by booking agents. They predicted that Shaw would not only be abandoning a million-dollar enterprise but that nightclub and theater owners would sue him for breach of contract. Shaw's offhand response was, "Tell 'em I'm insane. A nice, young American boy walking away from a million dollars, wouldn't you call that insane?"

In 1954, Shaw stopped playing the clarinet, citing his own perfectionism, which, he later said, would have killed him. He explained to a reporter, "In the world we live in, compulsive perfectionists finish last. You have to be Lawrence Welk, or, on another level, Irving Berlin, and write the same kind of music over and over again. I'm not able to do that." He spent the rest of the 1950s living in Europe.

In 1981, he organized a new Artie Shaw Band with clarinetist Dick Johnson as bandleader and soloist. Shaw himself guest conducted from time to time, ending his self-imposed retirement.

After Canadian filmmaker Brigitte Berman interviewed Shaw, Hoagy Carmichael, Doc Cheatham and others for her documentary film ''Bix: Ain't None of Them Play Like Him Yet'' (1981) about Bix Beiderbecke, she went on to create an Academy Award-winning documentary, ''Artie Shaw: Time Is All You've Got'' (1985), featuring her interviews with Shaw, Buddy Rich, Mel Tormé, Helen Forrest and others. Later in 2003, along with members of his original bands and other music professionals, Shaw was extensively interviewed by Russell Davies for the BBC Television documentary, ''Artie Shaw — Quest for Perfection'', which became his last major interview.

In 1991, Artie Shaw's band library and manuscript collection was donated to the University of Arizona. In 2004, he was presented with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

Personal life

A self-proclaimed "very difficult man," Shaw was married eight times: Jane Cairns (1932–33; annulled); Margaret Allen (1934–37; divorced); actress Lana Turner (1940; annulled); Betty Kern (1942–43; divorced), the daughter of songwriter Jerome Kern; actress Ava Gardner (1945–46; divorced); ''Forever Amber'' author Kathleen Winsor (1946–48; annulled); actress Doris Dowling (1952–56; divorced); and actress Evelyn Keyes (1957–85; divorced). He had one son, Steven Kern, with Betty Kern, and another son, Jonathan Shaw (a well-known tattoo artist who founded Fun City Tattoo), with Doris Dowling. Both Lana Turner and Ava Gardner later described Shaw as being extremely emotionally abusive. His controlling nature and incessant verbal abuse in fact drove Turner to have a nervous breakdown, soon after which she divorced him.

In 1946, Shaw was present at a meeting of the Independent Citizens' Committee of the Arts, Sciences and Professions. Olivia de Havilland and Ronald Reagan, part of a core group of actors and artists who were trying to sway the organization away from communism, presented an anti-communist declaration which, if signed, was to run in newspapers. There was bedlam as many rose to champion the communist cause, and Artie Shaw began praising the democratic standards of the Soviet constitution. In 1953, Shaw was brought up before the House Un-American Activities Committee for his leftist activities. The committee was investigating a peace activist organization, the World Peace Congress, which it considered a communist front.

He was a precision marksman, ranking fourth in the United States in 1962, as well as an expert fly fisherman. In his later years, Shaw lived and wrote in the Newbury Park section of Thousand Oaks, California. Shaw had long suffered from adult onset diabetes and eventually died of complications of the disease at age 94. In 2005, Shaw's eighth wife, Evelyn Keyes, sued Shaw's estate, claiming that she was entitled to one-half of Shaw's estate pursuant to a contract to make a will between them. In July 2006, a Ventura, California jury unanimously held that Keyes was entitled to almost one-half of Shaw's estate, or $1,420,000.

Radio

Shaw did many big band remotes, and he was often heard from the Blue Room of New York's Hotel Lincoln. It was the location of his only regular radio series as headliner. Sponsored by Old Gold cigarettes, Shaw broadcast on CBS from November 20, 1938 until November 14, 1939.

At the height of his popularity, Shaw reportedly earned $60,000 per week. For a comparison, George Burns and Gracie Allen were each making US $5,000 per week during the year the Artie Shaw Orchestra provided the music for their radio show. He also acted on the show as a love interest for Gracie Allen.

Shaw's recording of "Nightmare" was used as the theme soundtrack for BBC Radio's adaptation of the Philip Marlowe novels by Raymond Chandler.

Films, TV and fiction

Shaw made several musical shorts in 1939 for Vitaphone and Paramount Pictures, and he portrayed himself in the Fred Astaire film ''Second Chorus'' (1940), which featured Shaw and his orchestra playing "Concerto for Clarinet." The film brought him two Oscar nominations, for Best Score and Best Song ("Love of My Life"). He collaborated on the love song "If It's You" sung by Tony Martin in the Marx Brothers' film, ''The Big Store'' (1941). In 1950, he was a mystery guest on ''What's My Line?'', and during the 1970s he made appearances on ''The Mike Douglas Show'' and ''The Tonight Show''.

Many of his recordings have been used in motion pictures. His recording of "Stardust" was used in its entirety in the closing credits of the film "The Man Who Fell to Earth". Also, Martin Scorsese used the Shaw theme song, "Nightmare," in his Academy Award-winning Howard Hughes biopic, ''The Aviator''.

He credited his time in the Navy as a period of renewed introspection. He entered psychoanalysis and began to pursue a writing career. His autobiography, ''The Trouble With Cinderella: An Outline of Identity'' was published in 1952 (with later reprint editions in 1992 and 2001). Revealing downbeat elements of the music business, Shaw explained that "the trouble with Cinderella" is "nobody ever lives happily ever after." He turned to semi-autobiographical fiction with the three short novels in ''I Love You, I Hate You, Drop Dead!'' (1965, reprinted in 1997), which prompted Terry Southern's comment: "Here is a deeply probing examination of the American marital scene. I flipped over it!" Shaw's short stories, including "Snow White in Harlem," were collected in ''The Best of Intentions and Other Stories'' (1989). He worked for years on his 1000-page autobiographical novel ''The Education of Albie Snow'', but the three-volume work remains unpublished. Currently, through Curtis International Associates, the Artie Shaw Orchestra is still active.

Shaw is mentioned in the CBS television show "NCIS" by Ernie Yost, the fictional Medal of Honor recipient, in the episode "Call of Silence."

References

External links

University of Arizona: Artie Shaw Collection

Biography at swingmusic.net

Swing Bandleader, Clarinetist Artie Shaw Dies, ''The Washington Post'', December 31, 2004

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