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So for my English class I need to write a compare/contrast essay. I'm planning to do it on Mozart and Beethoven. Does anyone here have any good sources that they might remember where I can get a good start? I of course already have wikipedia and others like that on the individual composer which I can use for the whole essay, but I was wondering if there were any that already compared Beethoven's and Mozart's music so I could get more of a reference.

Are you sure you want to do Mozart and Beethoven? To me, it would make a little more sense to compare Mozart and Haydn, since they were friends and favorable critics of each other.

But either way, maybe you should look at an analysis of, say, a piano sonata from each one and try to talk about the style. It might be a little more focused than just looking for general comparisons.

Well I was thinking Mozart and Beethoven because both of them are very well known to people even not into classical music and are pretty much the two biggest names in the classical period although their styles are incredibly different. I want to do Beethoven because I love Beethoven and virtually everything he wrote, he's definitely in the top of my favorite/most influential composers list. I like the idea of analyzing a single sonata of each, or maybe even analyzing a symphony. That would be good. I'll of course need to spend some time doing a general comparison of the composers but getting specific with the sonata is a great idea, thanks!

If this were to be a research paper then you would need to go to various sources about the musical styles of these two composers and base your paper on what you glean from those resources, citing them appropriately as you go.

However, since this is a paper for an English class it sounds to me that it is not a research paper but rather one in which you express your own opinions on the subject; it's the process rather than the product that is the more important. It further seems to me, again, since it's an English paper, that the technical specifics of these two composers' styles is less important than how you handle the exercise of comparing and contrasting their styles, generally.

If you describe the Classical style of writing and the early Romantic style of writing, then you should have material to make your own comparisons and contrasts. If you already have sources on the two composers - and their styles? - then you should have all you need to compare and contrast them.

Regards,

Well, you are correct in saying that the main point of the paper is the technical exercise of writing a compare and contrast essay, no the research that goes into it. As a music major though I want to be as accurate and in depth as needed. I have sites on the individual composers, I just didn't know if anyone had anything that was specifically comparing the two already so I could read that. That's all I was asking.

Hmmm...made out of trees....available in libraries (only just!)....oh, I remember - books!

Very funny KBK, I was hoping to check out my school's library tomorrow but I figured that internet sources are just as good for this class and easier to use, :P.

You need to decide if you are comparing and contrasting their lives, and/or their character, as well as their music. For the music, listening is your best source.

It'll start with an intro paragraph of their lives, and then I'll go into their music. I feel that the best way to compare and contrast them is the passion in their music. I feel that Mozart composed beautiful, perfect, very free, light hearted music in general...where as Beethoven just poured himself into his music and the broad range of emotions is just huge.

With respect, I would disagree. There is as much Mozart in his music, as there is Beethoven in his. Mozart's operas, in particular, contain a huge range of emotions. And listen to the G minor string quintet, or the C minor or D minor piano concertos; light-hearted??? Mozart's understanding of humanity, as demonstrated by his operas, is supreme.

Jim Hession, a terrific stride pianist, described it like this on one of his videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=934MWKYYQNc

Ragtime is to stride as Mozart is to Beethoven. This is somewhat simplistic but still a very interesting comparison.

Internet sources for classical music are far inferior to books, especially where major composers are concerned. You'll want to have a look at things like Charles Rosen's book on sonata form, "Performance Practices in Classical Piano Music" by Sandra Rosenblum, William Kinderman's book on Beethoven, and Maynard Solomon's biography of Mozart. Also of interest would be Leonard Meyer's "Emotion and Meaning in Music" and Leonard Ratner's "Classic Music: Expression, Form, and Style."

Plus, use the scores as primary sources themselves, especially in cases where two pieces might invite comparison. (For example, Mozart's d minor concerto and Beethoven's C minor concerto - Beethoven admitted to liking the Mozart, and both are each composer's only minor key concerto.)

As we've recently discovered with the thread on Chopin Op. 25#12 and fugues, some internet sources are laughably bad.

I have some difficulty believing that anyone, even as monumentally gifted an individual as Mozart, who dies in his mid-thirties can have a 'supreme understanding of humanity'.

In regard to choosing Mozart and Beethoven as a suitable subject for a compare/contrast study, I agree with other posters who have pointed out that this is a rather ambitious undertaking. I'm all for 'aiming high', but this is higher than I would myself aim.

Maybe that's, in a nutshell, the wisdom and the curse of relative decrepitude

I would agree with "coolkid70" and others here. You may want to consider another comparison. I would also suggest Mozart and Haydn. They lived in about the same time, but their lives were very different. Haydn was very small town country type, and Mozart was big city because of much traveling. I think you will get a better comparison paper from these two.

I think a Beethoven/Mozart comparison is fine. Biographically, there's much to be said about the role of their fathers, and each had a career that was a bit less stable than Haydn's.

Both Mozart and Beethoven were concertizing pianists (Haydn not so much), and Mozart and Beethoven found important audiences in Vienna (as opposed to Haydn's stable Esterhazy gig.)

Musically, Beethoven and Mozart represent the "First Viennese School" - to which Schoenberg and his disciples would be compared a hundred years later.

Of course, there are major differences - Mozart excelled in an area which Beethoven did not, and Beethoven's motivic construction is more allied with Haydn's style than Mozart's penchant for "singing allegro" melodies.

Sorry, I better stop before I write his paper for him. (I often shudder to think how much of Piano World has been plagiarized in Music Appreciation courses across the US.)

Probably true!


Oh, and to spice the comparison, xx....xx should listen (and read through) some late Mozart piano work, and some of the early Beethoven sonatas. Then he can see the similarities and differences at just about the same moment in time. He can also witness Beethoven poaching a few things from Mozart!

This might be misread as stating that Mozart only wrote one minor-key concerto. Just to clarify, there are two (as David-G mentioned earlier): c minor (K. 491) and d minor (K. 466).

Also, while I wouldn't underestimate the need for doing the requisite research or the need for accuracy in making a sound comparison, Bruce's observation that this is a paper for an English class is worth repeating. The exercise of comparing and contrasting within the form of a skillfully structured essay is a more important consideration than the musicology that drives the content.

Steven

That is very true.
If you want to be a serious musician. Let me rephrase that: if you want to be taken seriously at all, you need become familiar with more authoritative sources.
When I use online sources like "wiki," I tend to use them as a starting point - never as something I footnote or otherwise reference.

I'm guessing you have not studied Mozart's operas (especially from Idomeneo onwards) in any kind of depth. A pity.

This is a great topic. However, it would be difficult to treat it with proper depth in an essay for an English class. A proper treatment of the subject could easily consume an entire book. Therefore, it is important to pick out a few things to focus on with the understanding that you will have to leave out detailed information.

A very comprehensive biography of Mozart is “W. A. Mozart” by Hermann Abert (English tranlation by Stewart Spencer). Wolfgang Hildesheimer and Alfred Einstein have also written highly regarded biographies of Mozart which are shorter. Maynard Solomon has written accessible biographies of both Mozart and Beethoven.

Regarding Beethoven,"Thayer's Life of Beethoven" is a classic biography in two parts. H. C. Robbins Landon has written a good biography entitled "Beethoven: His Life, Work and World".