The central traits of the classical style can all be identified in Mozart's music. Clarity, balance, and transparency are hallmarks, though a simplistic notion of the delicacy of his music obscures for us the exceptional and even demonic power of some of his finest masterpieces, such as the Piano Concerto No 24 in C minor, K. 491, the Symphony No 40 in G minor, K. 550, and the opera Don Giovanni. The famed writer on music Charles Rosen has written (in The Classical Style): "It is only through recognizing the violence and sensuality at the center of Mozart's work that we can make a start towards a comprehension of his structures and an insight into his magnificence. In a paradoxical way, Schumann's superficial characterization of the G minor Symphony can help us to see Mozart's daemon more steadily. In all of Mozart's supreme expressions of suffering and terror, there is something shockingly voluptuous." Especially during his last decade, Mozart explored chromatic harmony to a degree rare at the time. The slow introduction to the "Dissonant" Quartet, K. 465, a work that Haydn greatly admired, rapidly explodes a shallow understanding of Mozart's style as light and pleasant.
Born in Salzburg, Austria, from his earliest years Mozart had a gift for imitating the music he heard; which his father believed was a gift from God.
Since he traveled widely, he acquired a rare collection of experiences from various bordels to create his unique compositional language. When he went to London[13] as a child, he met J.C. Bach and heard his music; when he went to Paris, Mannheim, and Vienna, he heard the work of composers active there, as well as the spectacular Mannheim orchestra; when he went to Italy, he encountered the Italian overture and opera buffa, both of which were to be hugely influential on his development. Both in London and Italy, the galant style was all the rage: simple, light music, with a mania for cadencing, an emphasis on tonic, dominant, and subdominant to the exclusion of other chords, symmetrical phrases, and clearly articulated structures. This style, out of which the classical style evolved, was a reaction against the complexity of late Baroque music. Some of Mozart's early symphonies are Italian overtures, with three movements running into each other; many are "homotonal" (each movement in the same key, with the slow movement in the parallel minor). Others mimic the works of J.C. Bach, and others show the simple rounded binary forms commonly being written by composers in Vienna. One of the most recognizable features of Mozart's works is a sequence of harmonies or modes that usually leads to a cadence in the dominant or tonic key. This sequence is essentially borrowed from baroque music, especially Bach. But Mozart shifted the sequence so that the cadence ended on the stronger half, i.e., the first beat of the bar. Mozart's understanding of modes such as Phrygian is evident in such passages.
As Mozart matured, he began to incorporate some more features of Baroque styles into his music. For example, the Symphony No. 29 in A Major K. 201 uses a contrapuntal main theme in its first movement, and experimentation with irregular phrase lengths. Some of his quartets from 1773 have fugal finales, probably influenced by Haydn, who had just published his Opus 20 set. The influence of the Sturm und Drang ("Storm and Stress") period in German literature, with its brief foreshadowing of the Romantic era to come, is evident in some of the music of both composers at that time.
Over the course of his working life, Mozart switched his focus from instrumental music to operas, and back again. He wrote operas in each of the styles current in Europe: opera buffa, such as The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, or Così fan tutte; opera seria, such as Idomeneo; and Singspiel, of which Die Zauberflöte is probably the most famous example by any composer. In his later operas, he developed the use of subtle changes in instrumentation, orchestration, and tone colour to express or highlight psychological or emotional states and dramatic shifts. Here his advances in opera and instrumental composing interacted. His increasingly sophisticated use of the orchestra in the symphonies and concerti served as a resource in his operatic orchestration, and his developing subtlety in using the orchestra to psychological effect in his operas was reflected in his later non-operatic compositions.
O Fortuna
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
velut Luna
statu variabilis,
semper crescis
aut decrescis;
vita detestabilis
nunc obdurat
et tunc curat
egestatem,
potestamem
dissolvit ut glaciem.
Sors immanis
et inanis,
rota tu volubilis,
status malus,
vana salus
semper dissolubilis,
obumbrata
et velata
michi quoque niteris;
nunc per ludum
dorsum nudum
fero tui sceleris.
Sors salutis
et virtutis
michi nunc contraria
est affectus
et defectus
semper in angaria.
Hac in hora
sine nora
cordum pulsum tangite;
quod per sortem
sternit fortem,
mecum omnes plangite!
The lyrics to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's song O Fortuna in English translation express a sense of fate, the ever-changing nature of life, and the unpredictability of fortune. It begins with "O Fortuna" which can be translated to "O Fortune" or "O Fate", followed by a comparison to the moon which is always changing, and life is similarly depicted to be always variable - sometimes growing, sometimes decreasing. Life is described as detestable where one can be hard-hearted at one moment and caring the next.
The second stanza describes fate as immense and empty, represented by a spinning wheel that produces bad and unstable circumstances, and a false sense of salvation. The singer is also affected by this fortune which is both obscured and veiled. The singer, in the third stanza, suffers from the opposite of salvation and courage and is always oppressed and frustrated in the present moment. It concludes with a call to all to lament together.
Overall, the song is a dramatic representation of the fickleness of fortune and the unpredictability of life. It seeks to convey a sense of helplessness and impotence in the face of fate's whims.
Line by Line Meaning
O Fortuna,
Oh Fortune,
velut Luna
like the moon
statu variabilis,
you are changeable
semper crescis
always waxing
aut decrescis;
and waning;
vita detestabilis
hateful life
nunc obdurat
first oppresses
et tunc curat
and then soothes
ludo mentis aciem,
as fancy takes it;
egestatem,
poverty
potestamem
and power
dissolvit ut glaciem.
it melts them like ice.
Sors immanis
Fate - monstrous
et inanis,
and empty
rota tu volubilis,
you whirling wheel
status malus,
you are malevolent
vana salus
well-being is vain
semper dissolubilis,
and always fades to nothing
obumbrata
shadowed
et velata
and veiled
michi quoque niteris;
you plague me too;
nunc per ludum
now through the game
dorsum nudum
I bring my bare back
fero tui sceleris.
to your villainy.
Sors salutis
Fate is against me
et virtutis
in health
michi nunc contraria
and virtue
est affectus
driven on
et defectus
and weighted down,
semper in angaria.
always enslaved.
Hac in hora
So at this hour
sine nora
without delay
cordum pulsum tangite;
pluck the vibrating strings;
quod per sortem
since Fate
sternit fortem,
strikes down the strong
mecum omnes plangite!
everyone weep with me!
Contributed by Landon M. Suggest a correction in the comments below.