Amadeus

Amadeus Essay
Muhi 100
3/12/2015
Lance Lillard
The Classical Spirit as portrayed in Amadeus

Classical Spirit can be defined as the passion and objectivity of music in what is known as the classical period. The classical period took place between 1750 and 1825. People say the seventeenth and eighteenth century was known as the Age of Enlightenment. Mozart played a huge role during this time and influenced many composers. The Classical-Romantic era is recognized by its four movements. The first movement is long and is recorded in sonata-allegro form. The second movement is slow and includes lyrics and is also sonata-allegro form. The third movement is dancelike and in turn slow and is a minuet and trio. The last movement, the fourth, is spirited and is a rondo form. 1
The movie starts of in Vienna, Austria sometime in the early 1800's. An old and perhaps emotionally disturbed Antonio Salieri attempts suicide, and in doing so, apologizes for killing Mozart. He survives and is admitted to an insane asylum, where he tells a priest his story of jealousy. This movie focuses mainly on Mozart’s life. Mozart was a child prodigy. It was clear Mozart was a musical genius. At the young age of 5 he had already begun playing the clavier and learning pieces quickly. By the time he was six, Mozart had was surprisingly began composing. Mozart’s true gift came while he was able to convey true human emotions while composing. No one before or after has been able to consistently harness human emotion and incorporate those feelings into their pieces. He was known to never revise his works; whatever he chose to put on a sheet of music was what his final piece would be. This man could simply think of the symphonies and other pieces he created and put them directly to paper without any revision. This movie clearly depicts how eccentric yet clever Mozart was as a composer. This movie also depicts the struggles Mozart faced, such as providing for his family. Although Mozart was a very famous and accomplished composer, it was difficult for artists of this time to earn money and profit from their pieces. While relatively little is given on Salieri's, you will see that the purpose of this is only to highlight Mozart's genius, his natural and uncanny abilities that come so easily to him. We see how his life affects Salieri's directly and we see Salieri old in his wheelchair, long after Mozart has died, still being affected by it.
In this era of time people in Europe began to gather for parties, used to show off how wealthy they are. This is how composers such as Mozart and Saleri made money. This movie depicts how composers of the time were very competitive in being invited and composing at these gatherings. This is where Saleri and Mozart’s rivalry first emerged. These gatherings celebrate life by giving the audience joyous music, wonderful atmosphere and a general appreciation of humanity for not only eighteenth century Europe, but in any age where music speaks for our emotions.
Before I saw this movie, I respected Mozart's genius, but his music wasn't my cup of tea. My opinion has changed; I very much so enjoyed the end when they did Mozart's REQUIEM while he was working on what was to be his last piece of music. I really did admire this movie, everything in it was very interesting and after I watched the film I did a little research on Mozart. The script and directing was superb and the cinematography was brilliant. I couldn't of asked for a better film than Amadeus. I'm glad I saw this film!