Comparez et contrastez le style de Mozart avec celui de Bach: comment leur personnalité et leur vie ont façonné leur musique? (document en anglais)

Compare and contrast Mozart’s style with that of Bach: How their personality and life shaped their music.

Johann Sebastian Bach and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart are considered to be the greatest ingenious composers of classical music. Their technical mastery is recognized by their intellectual creativity in the use of musico-mathematical feats, such as fugues and cannons in addition to compositions in major and minor key, which is the basis of a playful emotional melody.

In order to better comprehend the life career of the two artists, it is more logical to situate it in a temporal context.

J.S.Bach ( 1685-1750) was a German composer and organist of the Baroque era. Born in Eisenach, Bach grew up in a family of musicians ranging from church organist, court chamber musician to composers.

His father was a town piper in Eisenach; his job entailed him to organize secular music and administrate the church organist.

After the death of his parents, Bach moved to Ohrdruf to complete his Latin studies, living with his brother Johann Christoph Bach who was the organist of the Town’s church. During that time, Bach developed prominent skills in handling organ building, as he made minor adjustments to Ohrdruf church instruments. Bach was a devotee of contrapuntal music; he composed a multitude of steady output fugues by exploring and mastering the counterpoint of keyboard. The composition that best reflects his fugal writing work is vitally “The well-tempered clavier” (Bach was organist in ducal court of Weimar), the symphony is constituted by 48 fugues and preludes of one pair of each major and minor key.

In 1747 Potsdam, King Frederick II challenged Bach by an improvisation of a three-part fugue based on his own Royal theme; Bach presented the king with a “Musical Offering” including several fugues and canons based on the theme. Afterward, using a theme of his own design, Bach produced The Art of Fugue. These 14 fugues (called contrapuncti by Bach), are all based on the same theme, demonstrating the versatility of a simple melody. He later wrote a theme called “The Musical Offering”. He wrote a six part fugue, but in fact he changed the subject to one he considered more appropriate for such an extensive elaboration. In fact Frederick's original theme starts with triads and then ends with a chromatic descent that has been called stylish and was probably more characteristic of the transition from baroque to classical period.

In the other hand, Mozart a composer considered as the best and most brilliant composer of the Classical era, was born in Austria on 27 January 1756.He composed and performed for the first time at the age of five in front of the European Royalty, he was able to take advantage of learning and studying classical music when it was at its peak.

The first preponderant common point between the two composers is that they grew up in a musical environment, among their family members. Their fathers were their first teachers who firmly believed that their sons were musical geniuses.

Mozart's father was a composer and skilled music teacher. On family trips across Europe he began performing and meeting many musicians of the era. He was especially influenced by Johann Christian Bach, whom he met and studied with between 1764 and 1765.

At thirty

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