The Mozart Effect
Does listening to Mozart make you smarter?
This topic doesn’t exactly pertain specifically to Mozart’s music or life, but since Mozart is commonly associated with this phenomenon, I thought this would be a good time to bring it up.
“The Mozart Effect” has been a big topic of discussion in classical music and music education circles for a few decades now and now seems to be a basic widespread assumption that I’ve noticed for as long as I’ve listened to classical music. It’s the idea that listening to classical music, specifically Mozart, makes you smarter. There is also the claim that children who listen to Mozart early in life end up with higher IQ scores. There have been plenty of commercially released books and CD releases of classical music which market that for kids and adults.
This all seems to come from a 1993 study which observed an increase in spatial reasoning in test subjects for 10-15 minutes after listening to a Mozart Sonata. The study also compared the results with the music of other composers (both Classical and Contemporary) as well as other styles of music. From there, it became a topic of national interest which brought the fields of music education, parenting, neurology, and many others into the conversation. Aside from the practical use of becoming smarter and more intelligent from listening to a certain kind of music, this touches on the larger question of how music and art impact and stimulate the brain.
Here are a couple brief articles which summarize this. The first one focuses on the procedures of the original study. Note: The second article (from the Harvard Gazette) takes a pretty skeptical view of this issue.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1281386/
https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2013/12/muting-the-mozart-effect/
So what do you think? For sure, I have my own views on this, but I am certainly biased, so I’d like to open the floor to hear from you! Many of you have mentioned in the assignments and listening responses that you tend to listen music similar to what we’ve covered in class while studying. Has it helped? And do you find that certain styles of music are better for studying than others? Have you noticed your grades improve after changing music listening during your study time? Other observations? Let us know what you think!
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Amadeus
I wanted to include in this discussion a clip from a film about Mozart’s life: Amadeus. It came out a while ago (1984), but even to this day is largely considered to be one of the best films ever made, and definitely an excellent portrayal of the life of the composer. Highly acclaimed, won several Oscars® and many other awards upon its release, etc. Check out this scene from early on in the film:
While much of the story and interactions between characters as shown in the film are fiction, it is based around several factual events in Mozart’s life and career. In this scene, Mozart is introduced to the Emperor (Joseph II, of the Holy Roman Empire). As the scene begins, the court composer, Salieri (who was another real Classical-era composer, and also serves as the protagonist for this movie) presents a short march he has written for the occasion, which the Emperor fumbles through on the keyboard as Mozart makes his entrance (around 1:30 in the clip).
During the short conversation that ensues, Mozart manages to make subtle jabs at Salieri’s own music, proposes a controversial/scandalous subject for a new opera, and then brazenly insults all Italian opera (which was Salieri’s home country). And if those events already haven’t made enough of a scene, it closes with Mozart performing (from memory) the original march that Salieri had composed, and then making his own variations and improvements, with the Emperor, Salieri, and the others watching in stunned amazement. Very insulting to Salieri.
Definitely a “mic-drop” moment.
When Mozart begins his own take on the Salieri march (at about 7:50 in the clip), can you describe or identify the changes to the music that he added to make it sound more “Mozart-like?” Do Mozart’s edits/corrections remind you of any music you’ve heard by him in the Listening Guides (or any other pieces you’ve heard by him elsewhere)?
While this scene was probably invented by the writers, and never actually happened exactly as shown on film (the same goes for much of the movie), it’s still a great portrayal of many very true parts of Mozart’s personality and musical genius that set him so much apart from other composers of his time.
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More on Joseph Haydn: funny guy
Lived from 1732-1809
Known as the “Father” of the symphony and string quartet. He didn’t invent either, but he’s the first composer to have significant, lasting, large collections of music for these genres that were developing in the early Classical period.
String Quartet op. 33 “the Joke”
You might remember this clip from an earlier discussion. Play the beginning. That opening motive is actually the “joke” that comes up later. Now fast forward to 2:00 in and listen to the end. See how he teases the listener at the ending? Lol.
Symphony #45 “Farewell”
Remember how Hadyn’s career was largely spent as the composer for the mega-wealthy Esterhazy family?
This piece was composed in 1772 while the Esterhazy family was vacationing at the summer palace. Haydn, along with the whole orchestra, had to go with them, leaving their families at home.
Because any experienced traveler knows better than to leave home without your personal symphony orchestra, right?
Anyways, the vacation had been extended longer than anyone had planned on, and the musicians were starting to want to go home, so Haydn composed this piece with a message to his employers in the final movement.
Play the beginning. Good example of a symphony final movement-uses full orchestra. Fast forward to about 3:45, listen through to the end. Section by section, the musicians just get up and leave the stage. Hence the name. “Farewell.”
The Esterhazy’s got the message from this performance and went back home soon after
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More on Beethoven.
Sonata Weekend in Nashville
So, a few years ago, I was in Nashville visiting relatives. Prior to my trip, I had also heard from an organist/pianist/composer friend of mine who is based in Nashville that while I would be in town, there would be a festival of Beethoven’s music featuring 4 concerts, including ALL 32 of his piano sonatas (divided up between 20 different pianists), which is a monumental task! So I was able to take a break from watching my nieces and nephew for a bit Saturday afternoon to hear my friend perform at one of these marathon recitals; I stayed for a couple of hours and in total I heard about 8 or 9 of the sonatas.
Prior to this weekend, I certainly had heard and been familiar with several of Beethoven’s piano sonatas, and even worked on playing a few myself (some of the easier ones) back when I took piano lessons, and they’re some of my favorite music ever. However, I hadn’t really thought about how crucial they are to understanding his personal life and artistic development. Many of these are closely inspired by some of the tragedies he experienced (such as his deafness, or Napoleon invading Vienna, etc.) and many of the major sonatas coincide with the different style periods of his career. Usually when I hear Beethoven sonatas performed, it will be one sonata on a recital with other music by other composers, so hearing several of these back-to-back in one sitting was a really excellent, eye-opening experience for me.
The first movement of the “Moonlight” sonata (Op. 27, No. 2) which is covered in the Listening Guide is probably the most famous/recognizable/iconic example from his collection of sonatas, but there are many others that are worth knowing about! Here are a few samples of some other sonata movements that are relatively famous and or/simply great, with some quick thoughts on each:
Sonata No. 21 in C major, op. 53, 1st movement, “Waldstein”
-I actually really love the second theme of this movement (which enters at 0:59).
Sonata No. 8 in C minor, Op. 13, 2nd movement, “Pathétique”
-What an amazing melody! I have nothing else to add.
Sonata No. 23 in f minor, op. 57, 3rd movement, “Appassionata”
-This is just crazy difficult and relentless music, some of the most difficult piano music Beethoven ever composed. Here it is performed by Lang Lang, and he is known for performing with quite a bit of showmanship.
What do you think of his performance style?
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Conclusion
What do you think about movies about music and composers? This might seem a bit off-topic, but since we saw in these notes with the brief clip from Amadeus, I wanted to hear from anyone who has seen that movie, or any other films about composers or other musicians. Many great composers have had movies made about their lives; it’s a pretty common subject for Hollywood. Some of these have been great, and others are honestly terrible. Some are very factual, and others are more loosely inspired by events from their lives. Which have you seen, and would recommend? Or are there some you’ve watched that we should avoid, in your opinion?
These examples can include movies based on classical composers, or musicians/songwriters/performers from any other genre. There are lots of them! Just curious to know which films of this type you’ve found memorable for various reasons.
Next, the examples from the Classical era have been dominated by only three figures (Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven).
Can you put into your own words what makes each composer’s music sound unique? How do Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven sound different from one another? How are they different from the other styles of music we have studied so far? Here’s a challenge: try to form an answer to sufficiently describe each composer, but use as few words as possible.
