Independent Study Paper

Tripodi 1

Putting The “Art” Back In Mozart

Matt Tripodi Mr. Sinkleris Pd 5 May 8, 2007

Introduction (Overview and Goals)

The student will study Mozart’s life, achievements, and music. The student will attempt to write one movement of an original piano concerto (consisting of parts for an orchestra with a solo pianist). The student will choose any movement from a Mozart piano concerto and perform the piano part along with a select string and wind ensemble. He will study the piece itself and become familiar with the orchestrations used. He will also learn the harmony and theoretical aspect of the music and how it is made to work and sound the way it does. He will also learn an etude from any period, a romantic piece, be able to play all scales, and sight read with improved fluency. The student will advance in all of these areas under the guidance of a professional instructor in performance. The student will become familiar with Mozart’s life history, family, and the background behind some of his works, especially for the one being performed. The student will also become familiar with all of Mozart’s piano concertos and sonatas, learning the traditions of Mozart’s piano writing to more accurately imitate his style. The student’s composition must conform to ‘sonata’ form and follow the traditions of style and taste of the classical period. The student will record his composition in a more sophisticated format than ‘midi’ that makes use of quality samples that sound relatively realistic. The student will interview a professional musician/composer that has experience producing music, dealing with other professionals in the field, and having the music be performed by groups of musicians.

Significance In my independent study, I focused on Mozart’s music and his profound influence on my life. At the time I chose my topic I was passionate about playing classical piano, which I had not been before. I started off with classic rock, moved through pop and new age which was when I started writing my own music. It was when I heard Mozart’s piano sonatas for the first time in Mr. Bongiovi’s music appreciation class that I knew I had found something exciting. I was new to the idea that classical music might not be as boring as I had imagined. I chose this topic because I knew it would hold many surprises in both the listening aspect as well as the technical aspect of the music itself. Mozart was known for rich harmony, balanced texture, beautiful melody, and stretching the limits of ambiguity into seemingly total chaos. He was extremely prolific for having such a short life span of 35 years. His death marked the end of the classical period and planted the seeds for the age of Romanticism that would last until the turn of the twentieth century. Mozart is not difficult to imitate from a compositional perspective because he follows a specific ‘sonata’ form for nearly all of his works. The difficulty lies in being original considering he has written 16 piano sonatas, 30 piano concertos, 41 symphonies, and over 500 other pieces. It is rare for a novel idea to come by that hasn’t been previously worked out. In my independent study project, I made an attempt to create a few original themes and develop them in an interesting and hopefully meaningful way. Now that I had practice all year, I find it much easier to have an idea and make it work in a new way without relying on old music. Originality of musical direction as well as the

ability to focus on one piece at a time have been two of the most significant achievements I have made as a result of the independent study this year. Limitations The limitation that held me back the most in terms of performance was my decreasing interest. While I love to play the piano, I find it difficult to sit down and practice music that I don’t love. If it were up to me, I would play mostly Mozart and would skip around, playing bits from lots of different music. My piano teacher felt however that I needed to widen my repertoire to include the romantic and baroque periods. While I agree, it’s not something I was passionate about achieving and this has severely impacted my year round progress. Recently I became interested in jazz and modern music again. What held me back in these styles was the technique that playing classical music allowed me to have. After a year of struggling at the piano, I came out with much less than expected. The other major setback was my lack of formal training in theory. It is nearly impossible to study theory on your own and expect to be able to tutor yourself to mastery. In music there are so many questions you need to ask in order to advance. I found that I learned most of the aspects of classical theory by reading along with the score while listening as well as analyzing the harmony at the piano. With this method, I was able to scratch the surface of what seems to be an endless sea of information. In the classical period, there are many traditions and patterns that you will discover on your own, but without formal training, you just can’t spot them all. Every time I sat down to write I felt like I had to reinvent the wheel in order to get even a simple sounding result. If I was able to study with a theory teacher I would have been much better off when it came to the

simpler things like form and orchestration. Finding someone to record my final result was also a difficulty so I had to settle for a mediocre track.

Research Back in December 2006 was the first time I became interested in the classical style. Before that I had listening to classical rock, pop, jazz, and some new age. In March of the following year, I was so fascinated by the Mozart piano concertos that I set each day of the month to be one of the piano concertos. I listened to one whole work a day, studying the history and background of the piece along with it. A concerto is a piece of music written for orchestra and a soloist. The orchestra would play and then the soloist would come in, then they would play together. Concertos in the classical period were written for a wide range of soloists and sometimes for more than one. One of Mozart’s piano concertos was written for three pianos to be played by an emperor, his wife and daughter. A sonata is the name of a piece with typically three sections (called movements) with the first movement being in sonata form. Sonata form was pretty much the classical standard for writing for the sole reason that it is very easy for the ear to follow. In sonata form, a movement starts off with an exposition. In the exposition, all of the themes/motifs (melodies) are introduced in a simple and effective manner. The ‘cast of characters’ don’t interact until later in the piece, but are rather presented one by one for the listener to become familiar so they can recognize them later on. The soloist doesn’t appear in the exposition; instead the orchestra introduces all of the themes so that the soloist has more room to shine. The main theme is always in the tonic (the home chord of the key signature). The main theme is presented first and has a unique and recognizable orchestration. This means that the composer has certain instruments play with each other in order to reach a desired texture. A flute doubled with a violin has a distinctly soft and vivacious sound, while a bassoon doubled with an oboe has a

characteristically melancholy sound. With this taken into consideration, a composer of the sonata would then take his themes and orchestrate them to reach the mood of his choice. After all, at a horse race, it wouldn’t exactly be regal to hear the horn call being played on a flute. Connecting the themes in the exposition is not an easy task. This was one of my roadblocks in composition. In order to connect them, one must write in between two themes. It is a good idea not to write any material of great significance in this ‘no man’s land’ so the listener doesn’t get too overwhelmed with material. Most expositions come to a similar close. After deviating from the ‘tonic’, (Most music is believed to be able to be simplified into I-V-I. This means that a piece starts off in the home chord, I, jumps to V, and ends back in the tonic I. What is referred to as Schenkerian analysis tries to prove this simplification possible.) the exposition comes to a close back in the tonic. This process of deviation is achieved by a simple mastery of the cadence, an elementary concept of harmony. So the themes are gathered, orchestrated and colored, organized and connected, and then die off at the end of the ritornello (the name for the orchestral opening, usually encompassing the entire exposition of a concerto). The most fun part came when I was able to develop the themes I worked so hard to create. At about two minutes and six seconds into the concerto, my development section begins. The piano starts by playing the main theme from the very beginning. The orchestra comes in with the same theme and then again, until a small deviation appears leading directly back into the main theme in the piano. The development continues all the way through until seven minutes when I wrap it up by making things very interesting. I took all of the themes from the exposition and had them play all at once. This is called

a ‘fugato’. A fugue is a piece based entirely off of the idea of having various themes (called subjects) being played at the same time, however it is called a fugato when it appears inside of a bigger piece (in this case, a concerto). This is typically a very difficult thing to make work, but it turned out that these are very versatile themes. After the fugato culminates, there is a downward scale in flute and bass leading right about into the main theme for the recapitulation. So far, I’ve discussed the exposition, where the themes are presented, as well as the development section which contains the same themes in sometimes wild and chaotic ways. After the chaos dies off, the recapitulation takes its place. The main theme is restated just like the restatement of a thesis only this time the orchestra shares the spotlight with the soloist. Typically in Mozart, there would be a bravura in the development section (a fancy, memorable, and sometimes beautiful harmonic sequence) that would appear again in the recapitulation. When it appears again, it usually appears in a different register (higher or lower on the piano) to give it a different color. When the sequence is over, a trill is generally heard by the soloist and the recapitulation comes to a close in the same way the exposition had. There are three sections in sonata form: the exposition, the development, and the recapitulation. This organization is strikingly similar to that of the standard essay format and makes it very easy for the listener to know where they are in the music at all times based on what they are hearing. If the listener heard a piano and orchestra ‘call and response’ section, he might think of the development section. If the listener heard a beautiful melody being played by the soloist, he would probably think it is the bravura and would need to listen further to deduce which appearance it is. If the listener heard an

extended orchestral passage, it is probably the exposition since there is no soloist being heard. The movement I wrote for my Mozart project follows strict sonata form. It has an exposition, development, and recapitulation. I wrote a cadenza for the soloist which is just a showy passage for piano before the end of the piece. I don’t plan on finishing the concerto, but if I were to continue I would write a second movement (usually at a slower tempo) as well as a third movement (finale; usually very fast). I scored the concerto for twelve parts: flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn, timpani, piano, violin I, violin II, viola, and cello/bass. Mozart’s 23rd piano concerto for example was scored for flute, clarinet, bassoon, horn, piano and strings. I added an extra oboe and timpani part to add more color to the orchestration. Lessons After studying the concertos of Mozart, I went on to study his life and influence on Europe and the world. Mozart was known for his piano performance as well as his compositional craft. He was known to be still at the piano, never showing emotion while playing. His performances however were anything but emotionless. Many Europeans who were lucky enough to hear him play remarked how perfectly they could hear the beautiful individual instrumental parts as well as the ensemble as a whole. Last summer, I had the chance to play with an ensemble for the first time. I played the piano as the other musicians took violin and cello. That was the first time I had ever heard classical music live and was able to hear other musicians playing at the camp as well. Last summer when I went to that chamber music camp in Westminster, I worked with the piano teacher that I would go on to have for the entire following school year. I

take lessons once a week on Tuesday nights and work on music that she assigns me based on a certain repertoire that I need to fulfill. I perform at concerts, recitals, benefits, as well as evaluations. The recital that I had this year was a performance class in January. All of my teacher’s students and their parents came and it was a small display of what the students had been working on so far that year. I played a little bit of third movement of Mozart’s 20th piano concerto in D minor. It was a very laid back recital and was actually a lot of fun. I played at a concert in the church at Westminster Choir College as well. There were many other students there that I hadn’t seen before and it didn’t go very well because many of them were overwhelmed with midterms at the time. I played a short Bach prelude at the concert and wasn’t pleased with the way I played. I had just got the sheet music a week before and could’ve used a little bit more time to prepare. I had a benefit for Ronald McDonald House at that same church as well, which went over very well. I played a Rachmaninoff prelude and I was very happy with the way I played. I really enjoyed playing and helping out the children in need. I am currently working toward playing an evaluation on May 15. At the evaluation I need to sight read fluently, play four scales, as well as two etudes and a bit of Mozart’s 17th piano concerto. At the moment I am planning on finishing the first movement of Mozart’s 17th piano concerto for next year when I would like to play it with the school orchestra. I had hoped to get to play with the school orchestra this year, but I didn’t feel I could master the piece in time so I chose to play solo and with more reasonable music for my level. I had hoped this year to be able to take lessons from Craig who teaches advanced theory at Westminster, but that didn’t work out. I still would like to continue to study theory and want to try to get those lessons for the fall. The lessons that I took this year

for piano performance were very strict and structured. I had wanted to pursue music as a career earlier last year, but learned that after taking lessons at a serious school that I would be satisfied with having it as a hobby and instead pursuing medicine as a career. Outside Experience In mid October of last year, I had the wonderful opportunity to venture to Europe and see many great historical sites and hear many terrific classical pieces. The first place we travelled to was Prague, the capital city of the Czech Republic. Mozart is often said to have had a special relationship with the city of Prague and its people. Mozart biographer, Maynard Solomon writes of

“an enthusiasm for Mozart that has passed into legend, with Prague seen as the good city that supported and understood him at a time when he had allegedly been neglected, even scorned, by Vienna.” (Solomon, 417)

Mozart wrote Don Giovanni in Prague and I visited the house it was where the opera was written. On January 19, he gave an "academy" (a concert for his own profit) at which the famous Symphony in D major, K. 504--now called the "Prague" Symphony-was premiered. Mozart also improvised solo on the piano--including variations on the popular aria "Non più andrai" from "The Marriage of Figaro.” Afterward, Mozart said he "counted this day as one of the happiest of his life." (Solomon, 419) I had the opportunity to hear Mozart’s Requiem in D minor performed at the Musikverein. This requiem was popularized in the movie, Amadeus, where at the end Mozart is seen with Salieri who are working on the Confutatis. This was the last

composition that Mozart had written. On the day of his death he was said to be rehearsing it with a group of string players. After travelling to Vienna, Austria I was able to visit Mozart’s apartment where he wrote many of his greatest works including piano concertos. I saw a concert where Mozart’s 40th symphony was played. It was nicknamed the “Great G minor” symphony to distinguish it from the 25th symphony which is referred to as “Little G minor.” I heard an aria sung by a man and a woman as well as Papagena from The Magic Flute. The conductor of the orchestra had arranged ‘Rondo alla Turca’ which was originally for solo piano for his orchestra. They had finished the concert with The Blue Danube as well as an orchestral piece of Rachmaninoff. I went to see Mozart’s 24th piano concerto be performed as well. This is the first concerto where Mozart takes all of his themes from the first movement and presents them in both the major and minor modes. This piece was a favorite of Beethoven’s and was performed by him on several occasions. He also wrote his own cadenzas for the first and third movement. He was quoted as saying that in the third movement, nobody could ever write a theme as good as that. (referring to a specific theme that could be one of three) After taking a complete tour through Mozart’s apartment, I was able to walk through a museum that had information about nearly all of the great composers in history. Most of the information was on Mozart’s history. I was able to conduct a virtual orchestra using an infrared machine and a huge television screen. It wasn’t very accurate and didn’t work very well but it was still an enjoyable experience.

Conclusion

After a long year of the trial and error of writing a concerto and the manic and mayhem of performance, I realized just how much I couldn’t handle this for a living. There is too much stress involved with a job requiring a constant stream of creative energy. Not only do you need to be at the top of your game all the time, but you have to in order to make money. I realized that I couldn’t handle majoring in piano performance after speaking with a few professionals who have gone through the vigorous regimen. I spoke with a professional in film composition as well and realized just how brutal the business is and how you have to be on your feet constantly. I will always continue to write music and would love to take classes next year for theory and harmony. I met with the professor, Craig Levesque, and he specializes in classical theory. This would be the specific type of theory I am interested in since I would like to continue imitating Mozart. I plan on continuing this imitation until I find my own voice which is something that might even take my entire lifetime. I will also continue to play the piano and maybe even perform on occasion. I’ve always loved to play the piano but found it difficult this year to keep up with the tough repertoire. I tend to get extremely passionate about certain things and push the other stuff aside. I will start to play a variety of music on my own and would like to look into playing in the school jazz band next year. The independent study has motivated me to go above and beyond in music and push myself to continue writing, learning, and experiencing. I will always continue to make music and will always love it, but to me now it is just a hobby.

Works Cited

Grayson, David. Mozart Piano Concertos Nos. 20 and 21. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1998. Hutchings, Arthur. A Companion to Mozart's Piano Concertos. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1948. 1-209. Kenyon, Nicholas. The Pegasus Pocket Guide to Mozart. New York: Pegasus Books, 2006.

Appendix