Scarecrow Press Experiencing Mozart: A Listener's Companion

Titles in the Listener's Companion Series provide readers with a deeper understanding of key musical genres and the work of major artists and composers. Aimed at nonspecialists, each volume clearly explains how to listen to works from particular artists, composers, and genres. Examining both the context in which the music appeared and its form, authors provide the environments in which key musical works were written and performed-from a 1950s bebop concert at the Village Vanguard to a performance of Handel's Messiah in eighteenth-century Dublin. Wolfgang Amadé Mozart (1756-1791) remains as popular today as ever. His recordings fill iTunes playlists, and annual Mozart festivals are performed worldwide. His eminence as a musician has supported overseas guided tours, served as the subject of a cartoon series (Little Amadeus: twenty-nine episodes from 2006 to 2008), inspired movies and documentaries, and launched a French rock opera. In Experiencing Mozart: A Listener's Companion, music historian David Schroeder illustrates how the issues Mozart cared about so deeply remain important to modern listeners. His views on politics, women, authority, and religion are provided, along with compelling analysis of selected great symphonies and sonatas, moving concertos and innovative keyboard works, and groundbreaking operas. Schroeder merges his vast knowledge of the great artist's personal and professional life, late eighteenth-century European culture and society, and remarkable musicianship to guide listeners in the art of listening to Mozart. This work is an ideal introduction to readers and listeners at any level. Review David Schroeder has done a fine job in Experiencing Mozart.... Experiencing Mozart leaves us in no doubt of Mozart's continued relevance, greatness, timelessness, and for that we should be grateful.--Music & Letters One of the first titles in the publisher's 'Listener's Companion' series, this volume serves explicitly as an introduction to Mozart's work and seems designed for a broad swath of readers. It is organized in a roughly chronological manner, following the broad outline of Mozart's life and focusing on genres of works at points when those genres seemed to occupy the composer's attention. Schroeder (emer., Dalhousie Univ., Canada) provides several You Are There-style vignettes in which he describes events, real or imagined, in a vaguely journalistic style. There is no claim for scholarly authority in these bits; they are intended to provide historical and musical context. The author knows his Mozart, so the commentary is fine: personal, informed, sometimes idiosyncratic. One might expect to find many competing books in this sphere, but current titles in the 'listener guide' category tend to drill down to the level of genres, e.g., Mozart operas or Mozart concertos. The truly general efforts are appearing as websites and not as books. Schroder's volume, then, fills a niche and will be especially useful for nonspecialists. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower- and upper-division undergraduates; general readers.--CHOICE Schroeder manages to cover an impressive selection of Mozart's works that includes examples from chamber music, church music, symphonies, concerti, piano music and opera. He does an excellent job placing these examples within historical, political, social and religious contexts and offers up convincing reasons Mozart's music is still relevant today. . . .[T]he book overall gives us an excellent introduction to some of Mozart's finest (and most famous) works, together with prompts for enhanced listening.--American Music Teacher Striking just the right note between scholarly and simplified, Schroeder conducts the reader through an engaging discussion of one of the most popular composers of all time. Symphonies, concertos, solo keyboard works, and operas are examined in the context of Mozart's life and times. The narrative includes a "you-were-there" storytelling style,