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Title: Marriage of Figaro Conductor: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Conductor: Dean Anderson Group Name: Bucharest Philharomonic Orchestra Musical Time Period: Classical

__Biography __ Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born January 27th 1756 and died December 5th 1791 at the mere age of 35. Mozart showed prodigious ability from his earliest childhood in Salzburg, composing from the age of five and performed before European kings and other royalty. During Mozart's youth, his family made several European journeys in which he and Nannerl, his sister, performed as child prodigies. From these travels, he was able to learn 15 languages.

Mozart had six children with Constanze Weber but only two lived past the age of 5. He was a remarkably small man, very thin and pale with large intense eyes. His wife said that his voice "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 always had a gift for absorbing and adapting valuable features of others' music. As Mozart became older, he incorporated more features adapted from the Baroque period and in his later operas he made subtle changes in instrumentation, orchestral texture, and tone colour, for emotional depth and to mark dramatic shifts in the music. <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 120%; text-align: center;">During his final years in Vienna, he composed many of his best-known symphonies, concertos, and operas. <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 120%; text-align: center;">Mozart learned from others, and developed a brilliance and maturity of style that encompassed the light and graceful along with the dark and passionate. He composed over 600 pieces that included symphonic, chamber, piano, operatic and choral music. <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 120%; text-align: center;">It would take over 8 days to play all of his music, one piece after the next without stopping.

Some consider him to be the greatest composer that ever lived. __<span style="color: #5f98e3; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">The Marriage of Figaro __ <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 120%; text-align: center;">//The Marriage of Figaro (Le nozze di Figaro, ossia la folle giornata)// which is sometimes called//“The Day of Madness”,// is an opera buffa (comical opera) composed in 1786 in four acts by Mozart with Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. This opera was the first of three collaborations between Mozart and Da Ponte. They also worked together on //Don Giovanni// and //Così fan tutte//. Figaro premiered at the Burgtheater in Vienna on May 1st 1786. Mozart himself directed the first two performances. This opera is scored for two flutes, two oboes , two clarinets , two bassoons , two horns , two trumpets , a timpani , and strings. The recitatives are accompanied by a keyboard instrument (a fortepiano or a harpsichord ) and often joined by a cello. A typical performance usually lasts around 3 hours. The overture called “The Marriage of Figaro”, which is the one that is showed in the link, is especially famous and is, to this day, often played as a concert piece. The Imperial Italian opera company paid Mozart 450 florins for the work and Da Ponte was paid 200 florins. Small sections of this opera were also used in other operas written by Mozart; a phrase from Figaro, "Cosi fan tutte le belle", was reused in the overture to //Cosi fan tutte// and an aria from Figaro "Non piu andrai" is quoted in the second act of //Don Giovanni.// __<span style="color: #5f98e3; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Analysis __ <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 120%;">I chose this song because the last time I was listening to the TSO perform an assortment of songs, it was this one one that I remembered. This piece brings you into another world, another century and it's quite mesmorizing. It's also a short song, so you won't get bored and tune out like those songs that are 2 hours long. <span style="display: block; font-family: 'palatino linotype','book antiqua',palatino,serif; font-size: 120%; text-align: center;">Since this is a comedic opera, this song compliments the overall tone. It’s the merriest song in the whole opera and has a sense of carelessness to it. The tone is light and lively because it's in a major key and it suggests that it’s a playful song. It’s almost like as if the music’s teasing you. The song is melodic and it makes you want to dance! The melody comes quite suddenly and it's really defined in the piece. The winds begin and it leads into the strings who belch out the melody. This occurs twice in the song It’s one of those songs where it’s stuck in you head even though you’ve heard to performance two hours ago which indicates that the melody’s catchy and memorable. At different times, the winds create little harmonies while the strings playing running notes creating variety to engage the listener. This song is played in D major with two sharps (F and C) and is in common time. The rhythm is written in such a way that you never get bored of listening to it. The music’s always on the beat so the audience can nod or tap their feet or hands to the beat and are able to enjoy the piece. Apparently, the musicians who first sight read this piece were overwhelmed with a sense of excitement and couldn't wait to perform it. It's a fun piece to play and I think it will always be played for centuries to come.

__<span style="color: #5f98e3; font-family: 'palatino linotype','book antiqua',palatino,serif; font-size: 120%;">Other Works __ <span style="display: block; font-family: 'palatino linotype','book antiqua',palatino,serif; font-size: 110%; text-align: center;"> Salzburg-era symphonies (1771–1777) <span style="display: block; font-family: 'palatino linotype','book antiqua',palatino,serif; font-size: 110%; text-align: center;"> Symphony No. 16 in C major, K. 128 (1772) Symphony No. 18 in F major, K. 130 (1772) <span style="display: block; font-family: 'palatino linotype','book antiqua',palatino,serif; font-size: 110%; text-align: center;"> Piano concertos <span style="display: block; font-family: 'palatino linotype','book antiqua',palatino,serif; font-size: 110%; text-align: center;"> Three Piano Concertos in D major, G major and E-flat major, K. 107 Piano Concerto No. 7 in F major for Three Pianos, K. 242 <span style="display: block; font-family: 'palatino linotype','book antiqua',palatino,serif; font-size: 110%; text-align: center;"> Violin concertos <span style="display: block; font-family: 'palatino linotype','book antiqua',palatino,serif; font-size: 110%; text-align: center;"> Violin Concerto No. 3 in G major, K. 216 (1775) Violin Concerto No. 4 in D major, K. 218 (1775)

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'palatino linotype','book antiqua',palatino,serif; font-size: 110%; text-align: center;"> Woodwind concertos <span style="display: block; font-family: 'palatino linotype','book antiqua',palatino,serif; font-size: 110%; text-align: center;"> Bassoon Concerto in B-flat major, K. 191 (1774) Concerto for Flute, Harp, and Orchestra in C major, K. 299 (1778)

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'palatino linotype','book antiqua',palatino,serif; font-size: 110%; text-align: center;"> String quartets <span style="display: block; font-family: 'palatino linotype','book antiqua',palatino,serif; font-size: 110%; text-align: center;">Milanese Quartets, K. 155–160 (1772–1773) Prussian Quartets, K. 575, 589, 590 (1789–1790)

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'palatino linotype','book antiqua',palatino,serif; font-size: 110%; text-align: center;"> Piano trios <span style="display: block; font-family: 'palatino linotype','book antiqua',palatino,serif; font-size: 110%; text-align: center;">Trio (Sonata) in G for Piano, Violin and Violoncello, K. 496 Trio in B-flat for Piano, Violin and Violoncello, K. 502 <span style="display: block; font-family: 'palatino linotype','book antiqua',palatino,serif; font-size: 110%; text-align: center;"> Serenades <span style="display: block; font-family: 'palatino linotype','book antiqua',palatino,serif; font-size: 110%; text-align: center;">Notturno in D for Four Orchestras (Serenade No. 8), K. 286 (1776–77) Serenade No. 10 for twelve winds and double bass in B-flat major, "Gran Partita", K. 361

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'palatino linotype','book antiqua',palatino,serif; font-size: 110%; text-align: center;"> Marches <span style="display: block; font-family: 'palatino linotype','book antiqua',palatino,serif; font-size: 110%; text-align: center;">March in C major, K. 214 March in D major, K. 215 (to open and/or close Serenade, K. 204) <span style="display: block; font-family: 'palatino linotype','book antiqua',palatino,serif; font-size: 110%; text-align: center;"> Dances <span style="display: block; font-family: 'palatino linotype','book antiqua',palatino,serif; font-size: 110%; text-align: center;">12 German Dances, K. 586 Contredanse in C, "Der Sieg vom Helden Koburg", K. 587 <span style="display: block; font-family: 'palatino linotype','book antiqua',palatino,serif; font-size: 110%; text-align: center;"> Masses <span style="display: block; font-family: 'palatino linotype','book antiqua',palatino,serif; font-size: 110%; text-align: center;">Mass No. 2 ("Missa brevis") in D minor, K. 65 Mass No. 3 in C major, "Dominicusmesse", K. 66 <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 110%;">Operas <span style="display: block; font-family: 'palatino linotype','book antiqua',palatino,serif; font-size: 110%; text-align: center;">// Apollo et Hyacinthus //, K. 38 (1767) // Don Giovanni //, K. 527 (1787) // Così fan tutte //, K. 588 (1789)

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 110%;">These are among Mozart's hundreds of works which can be found on the wikipedia website: <span style="display: block; font-family: 'palatino linotype','book antiqua',palatino,serif; font-size: 110%; text-align: center;"> []