In Milos Forman’s AMADEUS, the scene involving Mozart’s Requiem is the most significant in the movie. Throughout the film the main protagonist is composer Antonio Salieri, played by actor F. Scott Abraham, who is retelling the story of his musical career along with that of well-known composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, played by actor Tom Hulce, and how both composers intertwined. Both are seen as foils in terms of characteristics Mozart the more brazen and childish at moments. Salieri’s ambitions within the movie involve triumphing over God by making Mozart’s life a living hell. Salieri goes to great lengths to make Mozart look bad behind his back. For example, Salieri purposefully does not give him the post to teach the Austrian Emperor’s daughter even though Mozart’s music is more than sufficient. Furthermore, Salieri …show more content…
attempts to find a way to stop Mozart’s opera. Salieri’s anger toward Mozart stems from Salieri’s own mediocrity in music. Salieri’s final attempt to beat God is by killing Mozart with his own music. Thus, Mozart’s Requiem is born. After the scene is done, Mozart’s death is realized not only by Salieri but by God and Constanze, Mozart’s wife, and his son. However, the scene takes place right after Mozart has just slaved over conducting his opera and is very ill in which Salieri takes him home and the requiem has to be written if Mozart desires money without him knowing that Salieri is setting him up. The scene takes place in Mozart’s room which conveys 1700s Vienna. Mozart lies in a bed that looks very cordial but is made for two rather than one which adds to Mozart’s loneliness at the time and allowing Salieri’s willingness to help write the music. Next to Mozart is a drawer which has wine glasses and empty bottles of wine on top of it. Mozart is often highlighted in the film as a drunk and the empty wine bottles signify Mozart’s cause of illness. Mozart is sweaty and disheveled while wearing a white undershirt with a black vest. Mozart is at an all-time low unlike the elegant clothing he has worn at other points throughout the film. A candelabrum with five candles is lit by his bedside. Salieri wears similar clothing as Mozart except he is wearing a scarf around his neck which resembles and is meant to signify the same scarf Salieri has in the present when he tried to commit suicide by slashing his neck. Salieri is much cleaner unlike Mozart, which indicates all the work and obstacles both physically and mentally that Salieri has put Mozart through. Salieri is sitting at a desk with another candelabrum at his side and with a feather pen at hand. Both Salieri and Mozart are not wearing wigs which suggest that music is made without falsity; everything about it is real and personal. It is night time which can be seen through the curtains in the blurred background. The room has shades of pink and white which complement the attire of both Mozart and Salieri. The lighting within the scene does not change. When Mozart is shown in the frame there is a diffuse illumination made by fill light. There is a darker shadow on the left side of his face. Mozart’s shadow is meant to represent the nearness of death and his exhaustion. Salieri follows the same kind of lighting but there is a higher key lighting than fill lighting causing a darker shadow on the right side of Salieri’s face implicitly meaning that Salieri is hiding something that is not shown to Mozart. The scene is comprised of a multitude of medium shots and close up medium shots. The medium shots are used very frequently in the scene to show the flow of dialogue between the two characters. Both characters are at eye level in the scene because it is the first time that both composers are sharing a common goal in music. The reverse angle cutting between each shot is very quick because of the urgency in the situation from the sickness of Mozart and because the song has to be written by the very next day. The close up medium shot when Mozart says “Now, A minor” is meant to add the mindset that Mozart is currently in both are engaged, but Mozart is a little hesitant even though he is an expert at writing music. There is a single long shot in the scene which is used to exhibit the sheets of music on the bed of Mozart’s which means the amount of work both have put into writing the requiem. The dialogue along with the Oscar winning performance of F.
Murray Abraham and great acting done by Tom Hulce adds intensity to the scene. Tom Hulce’s acting is shown even in the minor details like blinking to mean his vision is diminishing. Tom Hulce’s demeanor while talking is anxious and imperative to show how much more quick and better Mozart is at music than Salieri. The difference in skill is explicitly shown when Mozart tells Salieri to write down “first bassoon to the trombones with the tenors.” Salieri cannot make sense of what Mozart is describing and in return Mozart explains to him that it goes with the harmony. Salieri is left astounded. The scene is meant to reflect how skillful and revolutionary Mozart was in the field of music. Before Mozart and Salieri began writing the music Mozart asks Salieri to translate the meaning of “flammis acribus addictus.” Salieri says “consigned to flames of woe” and Mozart continues to ask Salieri if he believes in a fire which burns you forever. Salieri responds yes. Salieri believes in it because the fire can signify the hatred he has had against God and Mozart in the film and for most of his
life. The most effective part of the film comes from the tremendous use of sound editing. While Mozart and Salieri are writing the music the actual music follows with the dialogue. The sound being infused with the dialogue gives the impression of a live conduction. It also allows for the audience to understand what Mozart and Salieri are discussing without the audience feeling left out in the conversation of notes and Italian words. When Mozart balls his hand into a fist and begins to describe the music with his hands the sound of the trumpets. The sound editing adds to the importance of a single note. Every note is important one cannot be misplaced or misused. The scene is the most impactful within the movie which ends with Mozart re playing the work he and Salieri have done. The scene is effective in the whole story because by the end of the film when Mozart dies Salieri notes that God let his most prolific composer die rather than share the light with mediocrity like him. Salieri triumphs over God by killing Mozart with sickness and exhaustion. The scene enforced the difference in skill Mozart had in contrast to Salieri, but also the same desire to achieve great music.
The year is 1788 as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart began to work on his last three symphonies during a time of strife for musicians as the Austro-Turkish War continues to war on in Austria. Tired from moving his family from central Vienna to the suburbs of Alsergrund all while in debt to his ears as he continued to borrow money from friends including a fellow mason, Michael Puchberg, Mozart finished his final symphony on August 10, 1788. This piece, nicknamed the “Jupiter Symphony,” coined by impresario Johann Peter Saloman, was Mozart’s longest symphony with a total of four movements, a typical symphonic form during the Classical era. The Jupiter Symphony totals to about forty five minutes of music ending with a quintuple fugato that brings back the five melodies introduced in the final movement making the closer one of the most complex examples of counterpoint that has ever been created. My goal shall be to give the reader a sense of Mozarts life at the time of this composition, a detailed analysis of all four of these movements, as well as a look at why this piece was seen as a work of innovation.
A famous man by the name of Kahlil Gibran once said, “Beauty is not in the face; beauty is a light in the heart.” It just happens that Cyrano’s heart shined brighter than anyone I have ever known. Through insecurities and heartbreaks, Cyrano would never forget his pride or the feelings of his friends. He never lost his honor and would always bring light into any situation, even when he was near his death. Cyrano displayed many positive traits and values such as loyalty, devotion, selflessness, knowledge, and pride which all contributed to our sympathy towards him.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, also known as W.A. Mozart, was a very well-known composer of the Classical Period as well as still to this day. Wolfgang Mozart was born on January 27, 1756 in Salzburg, Austria. He was known for his sonatas, symphonies, masses, chamber music, concertos, and operas. He set the standards high for all composers following in his footsteps.
This book by John Rupert Martin is a good introductory book in the understanding of Baroque artists and their tremendous variety. Martin defines the Baroque characteristics, but only very broadly leaving a significant amount of room for the reader to make his own deductions. In general, Martin believes that the typical definitions of the Baroque are "too restrictive and hence likely to create more problems of classification and interpretation than it solves." Even the time of the Baroque is left open to the reader when Martin says the Baroque is roughly comprehended by the seventeenth century. It is important to note at the outset that this is only a convenient approximation; for epoch as a whole can certainly not be fitted into such a strait-jacket." This helps to define the Baroque much more generally as a gradual change which can much easily be noticed from the present than the past.
Stanley Kubick's Spartacus In the 1960 film Spartacus, directed by Stanley Kubrick, the character called Spartacus is depicted as a revolutionary who leads an army of slaves against the oppressive forces of Rome during the first century B.C. Though the overall story is true, and most of the main characters are real, the presentation of their character is entirely fictional. Spartacus and the other characters have been split into groups epitomizing good and evil, and the story itself has been vastly romanticized. This essay will address the ways in which the story deviates from reality and finally will show how Kubrick and those before him have used such interpretations as a valuable tool for social change.
One of the most interesting challenges in operatic composition , is composing for all the specific characters. A composer has to distinguish between characters through his music. Jan can’t sound like Fran , and Dan can’t sound like Stan. Each character must have his or her own traits. Mozart’s opera , Don Giovanni , provides us with many different characters to compare and contrast. One scene in particular lends itself to the comparison of Don Giovanni , Leporello , and The Commendator. Scene fifteen of Act two, places all three characters in close interaction with each other , making it easy to compare and find out how Mozart and his Librettist Lorenzo da Ponte brought them all to life.
Also in the movie it shows that Mozart was more experienced at music than Salieri and proved that he could have a spot to work for Salieri’s boss Emperor Joseph 11. Once Salieri heard that the Emperor
Franco Zeffirelli portrayed a more effective version of the famous to be or not be soliloquy by having it set below in the family mortuary. Having violently rejected Ophelia, Hamlet climbs down the stoned stairs of the medieval castle and into the cellar where all his ancestors’ burial tombs lie, including his father’s. Surrounding himself in tombs and skeletons, he intones the to be or not to be speech in isolation and darkness. Having this particular set design, Zeffirelli enhanced the scene by creating a cold, dark, and suspenseful atmosphere. The family mortuary set design was eerie and melancholic which added realism into the speech as it allowed the audience to really see the manifestation of death that Hamlet contemplated. It also added physical emotion into the soliloquy as the scene contrasted death and Hamlet so closely with all the dead royals in their tombs, showing how deep Hamlet’s thoughts on life and death were rooted in his mind. Therefore, Zeffirelli’s use of the set design helped to create a more intense scene that enriched the soliloquy.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven are two of the greatest composers ever to write music. Both men lived in the early 18th and 19th century, but their music and influences are still felt today. The men faced similar experiences, yet they both lead very different lives. All together the pieces that these men composed amounts to over 300 published, and unpublished works of art. The people of their time period often had mixed feelings about these men, some “complained that Mozart’s music presented them with too many ideas and that his melodies moved from one to the next faster than audiences could follow, yet the ideas themselves seem effortless and natural, clear and unforced.” (Bonds 210-211) Beethoven’s criticisms ranged from ‘genius’ to grim dislike. Mozart and Beethoven were influenced by things going on around them such as: love, nature, and the Enlightenment.
Released in 1987 by Columbia Pictures debut, The Last Emperor of China is a representation of Puyi’s life as the last Manchurian emperor. The audience experiences the life of Puyi through a series of flashbacks that shows Puyi internal struggle through his desire to restore the Manchurian Empire and his new life as a peasant worker of the People’s Republic of China. The film was directed by Bernardo Bertolucci and produced by Jeremy Thomas with the intention of reenacting the story of Henry Aisin-Giroro Pu Yi. Therefore people, who enjoy Hollywood’s attempts at recreating events of the China’s last emperor, will find this film fascinating as long as they do not attempt an analysis of the film’s historical accuracy.
In 1790, Mozart received money for his published works. Mozart was asked to compose a comic opera, asked to write requiem mass and asked to write opera to celebrate coronation where Mozart accepted all three requests. The comic opera was a great success, however the coronation opera was not a great success for Mozart. For the requiem, it was unfinished because he died writing it. Mozart had a tragic death, he became increasingly unwell with visions of his own death. Mozart was obsessed with the requiem. Mozart became ill while in Prague in September but was in good spirits and optimistic about the future. In November of 1791, Mozart became more ill and was confined to the bed. Mozart lived until age 35. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart died on December 5, 1791 at 1:00am in Vienna. “Severe miliary fever” was the certified cause and later “rheumatic inflammatory fever” was named. He had a simple funeral and buried in a multiple grave which is the normal thing at the time in Vienna. After death, Constanze got music finished and published. Mozart had many different accomplishments throughout his life. He became a freemason in December of 1784, because accepted by Joseph Haydn and Joseph the 2nd, Mozart also earned his father’s
...n do now is to die. And so he does. Although Mozart does suffer loss, the loss of his life and career, and is somewhat responsible for his downfall, he does not evoke sympathy or recognition. However, it is Salieri who contains all four elements of a tragic hero. Salieri loses practically everything he has faith in before Mozart appears. He suffers from the loss of dignity, esteem, and honor. Salieri also recognizes something he has never felt before, that is the “pain as I had never know it,'; (1,5), the pain from the beauty and delight of Mozart’s music. Thus, recognizing the limitations of his own talent, the mediocrity of his talent compared to the genius works of Mozart. He grows an awareness of disharmony in the universe that he has never encountered. Salieri clearly is culpable of his own tragedy. He is the Court Composer, his works are respected throughout Europe, and because he is not stupid, he does not say he is the better composer. Instead, he is the minority who actually appreciates Mozart’s music. There is definitely sympathy for Salieri, in that all human beings can work as hard as they want to at something and can still fail miserably.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is often referred to as the greatest musical genius of all time in Western musical tradition. His creative method was extraordinary: his writings show that he almost always wrote a complete composition mentally before finally writing it on paper. Mozart created 600 works in his short life of 35 years. His works included 16 operas, 41 symphonies, 27 piano concerti, and 5 violin concerti, 25 string quartets, and 19 masses.
Musical theatre is a type of theatrical performance combining music, dance, acting and spoken dialogue. Written by Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim, ‘West Side Story’ is a classic American musical based on William Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’. The through-composed score and lyrics are used to portray different characters and their cultures, the rivalry between the Jets and Sharks, and the emotions felt as the story progresses. This essay will be exploring the music and how effective the score is in realising the world and characters of the musical. Furthermore, it will discuss how Bernstein and Sondheim relate characters’ diverse ethnicities to particular musical ideas and motifs.
Mozart’s use of melodic contour and repetitive rhythmic motives make this piece feel very connected throughout. He begins with a two eighth note followed by two quarter note pattern. This pattern is repeated twice more until finally at measure four a new melodic and rhythmic motive is introduced. At measure four a retardation occurs using a half note to delay the resolution to the quarter note, drawing out the resolution as much as possible to create a sense of relief upon arrival. This pattern of three measures of motive “A” followed by...