PASCAL Platinum 7th Edition

MusicSonata Form— A Basic OverviewIn Sonata Form we start with Exposition (Nice music which includes twocontrasting melodies or subjects. Then we continue with theDevelopment (the composer plays the main subjects but in lots ofdifferent ways). At the end in a Sonata Form composition, we finish withthe Recapitulation (something like a repeat performance of the firstsection)Sonata Form was used excessively by composers in the Classical Period.Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) was one of the greatest childstars who ever lived. He travelled all over Europe playing music when hewas only 5 and as a result learned over 24 languages.He came from Salzburg which is just on the border between Germany and Austria.Mozart composed a piano sonata before his 5 th birthday and was composing complete operas whenhe turned 12. This was done without recording equipment, computers and even pencils and rubbers!One of his most famous compositions is the Variations on Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. One night amysterious stranger came to his door dressed in gray to hire Mozart to write a requiem mass (a kindof music that choirs perform at funerals). Mozart who was very afraid of ghosts and extremelysuperstitious, was terrified of the stranger who kept nagging him to finish the piece. He was alreadyill, and in his state of mind he became convinced that he was writing music for his own funeral.During his lifetime, Mozart was very well-known but spent moneyfaster than he could earn it. He was poor and in debt when he diedof kidney failure at the age of 35 and was buried in a commongrave.Another great composer of the Classical Period is Ludwig Van Beethoven(1770 – 1827).He lived his first two parts of his life during the Classical Period andthe third part of his life in the Romantic Period. He was one of theworld's greatest composers. He wrote many pieces for piano and other instruments. He startedstudying the piano and violin when he was 4 years old. His father, a singer, was his first teacher. Buthe was not a good teacher. He beat his son and locked him in a basement to make him practice.When he was 22, he moved to Vienna and studied with Joseph Haydn.Most composers at this time were hired by people to write music, and they were told what kind ofmusic to write. Beethoven, however, was treated as a friend, not an employee. He wrote the kind ofmusic he wanted to write. He liked taking long walks during the day. During these walks he plannedhis music. He would make notes in a notebook. Then in the evening after dinner, he would writemusic from about 7:30 to 10:00 p.m. Beethoven began to lose his hearing when he was in his 20's.He became very suspicious of people and hard to get along with. But he was still able to hear thesongs in his mind and write them down.In 1826 he caught a cold. It developed into pneumonia and he died. The world lost a great composer,but his music lives on today. You will enjoy listening to themes from some of his works.Year 2 A/BPASCAL Platinum 7th Edition 33