How Did Mozart Influence The Modern World

Mozart is one of the most influential composers and musicians of all time. His creative genius has inspired emotion in hundreds of people. Mozart’s music has stood the test of time, finding itself immersed in the modern world as well as an integral influential part of the past. Though suffering from a troubled life, his music spurred the classical period not only impacting the music of his time but that of many future generations.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born on January 27, 1756, in Salzburg, Austria and began his life as a child prodigy at the age of five. His father Leopold noticed from a very early age that Mozart was marvelously gifted at replicating the sounds and tones of any music he heard. Mozart spent much of his childhood traveling from one city to the next performing and by the age of eight had composed his first symphony. “From his tenth to his seventeenth year Mozart grew in
stature as a composer to a degree of maturity equal to that of his most eminent older contemporaries; as he continued to expand his conquest of current musical styles, he outstripped them” (Encyclopedia of World Biography).
Mozart was well received in many different cities and his talent unsurpassed however finding an appointment he found suitable was difficult and led to an increasingly large amount of borrowing, debt, and strain. Mozart suffered from depression through the years as well as ill health. He was plagued by scars from smallpox as well as suffered from rheumatic fever, hyper tention, and typhus which some believe ultimately exacerbated his depression (Hatzinger et al.). Through his bouts of depression, Mozart managed to compose over six hundred different works including operas, concertos, and sonatas. Mozart final work Requiem Mass in D Minor became an obsession to him. He believed he
was writing the mass for his own death (Encyclopedia of World Biography). Suffering from kidney failure and exhaustion “he managed to finish the first two movements and sketches for several more, but the last three sections were entirely lacking when he died” (Encyclopedia of World Biography). This final unfinished work was by far his most intense and exudes all of the emotion, frustration, and intensity of his short thirty-five years. Composing pieces for almost every genre of music, Mozart was a very versatile. “As Mozart matured, he began to incorporate some more features of Baroque styles into his music” (wolfgang-amadeus.php). He took the Baroque style and began to incorporate more lightness and grace without the heaviness of the previous style. The influence through his music essentially created the Classical era of music by raising musical conventions of his time to the status of a genuine art form. The lightness and perfection Mozart created had a lasting effect on other composers such as Tchaikovsky and Chopin and that influence and its perfection is still trying to be reached today. Mozart was unsurpassed in musical ability. Many modern and past composers have tried and try to reach his graceful perfection in both tone and harmony, however, none have been able to replicate his creative genius. Mozart led a very troubled life but that possibly was due to the enormous amount of divine talent bestowed upon him. Perhaps his illness and untimely death were due to the physical inability to release the flow of creative musical genius he held. If God Himself were to compose music, Mozart’s talent would surpass even His divinity.