MOZART TAKE-HOME FINAL EXAM ESSAYS
INTRUCT1ONS
Pick any two of the following topics and submit type-written double-spaced essays that demonstrate your understanding of the intricacies of these "problems" in the study of Mozart and his music. Write as much or as little as you like, but don't be superficial.
TOPICS
1. Explore the two different sides of the issue of Mozart's separation from Archbishop Colloredo. Review the point of view of both Mozart and the Archbishop justifying, if you can, the attitudes and behavior of each of them. Was he fired, and if so why? Or did Mozart quit, and if so, for what reason?
2. Describe Mozart's relationship with his father during his Vienna years. Explain how (if at all) this relationship affected his music (i.e., how issues of apology and forgiveness show up in the music from the Viennese years of Mozart's career). Be sure to talk about how Leopold's death in 1787 affected Wolfgang.
3. How did Mozart contribute, either consciously or subconsciously, to the problems he suffered at the end of his career? What factors in the crisis of his career were within his control and which were beyond his control? Was Leopold right all along when he insisted that Mozart was an "eternal child" (i.e., incapable of taking care of himself and his business affairs)?
4. One of the eternal myths about Mozart is that he was poisoned by Salieri. While this legend has been thoroughly discredited, it persists even today in such popular media as the film Amadeus. Why do you think this myth is so popular, and, quite apart from whether Salieri actually poisoned Mozart, could he have been jealous to the point of interfering with Mozart's career in Vienna? If your answer is yes, you must explain why such a successful composer as Salieri could have feared someone like Mozart, whose music was not nearly as popular at that time.
5. Did Mozart die as an unappreciated pauper, and was his career, on the whole, a success or a failure? Among the factors you must consider in coming to an answer is the nature of Mozart's music itself and an analysis of how it fit into the historical context of latel 8th-century Viennese musical life.