Mozart 250th

Today is the 250th anniversary of the birth of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

It's hard to overstate just how much of an influence Mozart has been on me as a composer.

I think at some point around the age of 13, I decided that I liked Mozart more than Beethoven and while my esteem for Beethoven and (especially) Bach have increased over the years, Mozart dominated my teens.

I taught myself to compose almost entirely by studying scores of Mozart. The Western Australia State Library building had something called the Central Music Library which was the only part of the library you could borrow directly from (as opposed to via inter-library loan at a local library).

I think there was a period of my life where every couple of weekends my mum (whose birthday it also is today) would drive me to the Central Music Library to borrow scores of Mozart symphonies and concerti. I would mark on my calendar every Mozart piece scheduled to be played on the national classical music radio station and taped many of them. Over half the CDs I bought in high school were probably Mozart.

I'd listen to the music, reading along in the score, marking sections I liked and then going back and analyzing them. Studying his scores is how I learnt classical form, orchestration and harmony. Even when I wanted to learn to write fugues, my first model was the Kyrie from his Requiem rather than something from Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier or Art of Fugue.

Thank you Mozart.