WNED-Classical will celebrate Mozart’s 266th birthday on January 27th. In addition to the Mozart Block at 9 O’clock, we’ll be sprinkling-in other pieces by Mozart throughout the day for your enjoyment!
Mozart’s music is well-known for its soaring melodies, lush harmonies, energetic rhythms, contrasting dynamics, changing textures, colorful timbres, and perfect forms. Any composer who routinely integrates all of this in their music would be considered “top-notch,” but Mozart takes the concept of “top notch” up a notch further (if that’s possible) through “emotional impact.” Mozart touches the human heart like few other composers ever do. It has that certain je ne sais quoi that belies verbal description, and it’s the envy of every composer who has followed. Mozart makes us laugh and cry with the turn of a phrase . . . or even with just a single note.
In the 1985 Academy Award-Winning film inspired by Mozart titled, Amadeus, composer Antonio Salieri spoke about the miracle of just one single note written by Mozart. It occurs in the third movement of his Serenade No. 10 for Winds.
“On the page, it looked like nothing . . . the beginning simple, almost comical. Just a pulse . . . bassoons, basset horns . . . like a rusty squeeze box. And then suddenly, high above it . . . an oboe . . . a single note hanging there . . . unwavering . . . until a clarinet took it over . . . sweetened into a phrase of such delight. This was no composition by a performing monkey. This was a music I’d never heard . . . filled with such longing . . . such unfulfillable longing. It seemed to me I was hearing the voice of God.”
*Watch the scene and hear the music.
WNED-Classical invites you to tune-in throughout the day on Thursday, January 27, 2022, as we celebrate Mozart’s 266th birthday . . . and his many miraculous notes!