The Enlightenment Period Mozart - Essay Example

During the 1300s French and secular music were quite popular. In 1330 An Italian school of music was developed in areas such as Verona, Padua, and Florence, etc. with composers improvised lyrics to the accompaniment of instruments such as the viola and lute. In course of time, such experimentation led to a new development of contrapuntal music. (The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition) As humanism spread far and wide, gradually sacred music broke away from the confines of the Papacy which gave birth to a new school of composers who mastered the art of polyphony after having been trained in the Netherlands.

Mozart's Contribution to Classical music was during the Classical Period that the great composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Harold C. Schonberg. W. W. Norton, 1997) lived. His father Leopold Mozart (1719 - 1787) who was a great violinist at the court of the Archbishop of Salzburg greatly encouraged his son by enhancing his musical skills. Mozart visits a child prodigy who achieved much from a very young age. He was a genius par excel lance who dazzled his audiences. In 1782 Mozart composed the 'Singspiel Die Entfhrung dem Serail (The Abduction from the Seraglio), (Jan Swafford, 1992) and thereafter was no turning back as Mozart composed one masterpiece after another in different forms and genres.

In fact, he is the composer to have created undisputed masterpieces that belonged to every musical genre of his time. Mozart's 'serenades, divertimenti, and dance' written for the nobility became synonymous with the "Classical "age of elegance," His Serenade in G major, which the composer called Eine Kleine Nachtmusik (Jan Swafford, 1992) which means 'A little night music, was the highlighted as his best. Mozart's contribution to music during the Enlightenment Period cannot be explained when considering its depth and vastness.

He was a regular at the court of Emperor Joseph II (1741-1790) in Vienna where much of his greatest music was the victim.