Music For Shabbat

Once again I bring you a selection of music from the vault. Today it is:  Mozart's Eine kleine Nachtmusik [Serenade No. 13 for strings in G major](A Little Night Music).

Written in 1787, this is usually performed by a string quartet (2 violins, a viola, and a cello) but is also performed by orchestras.

It has 4 Movements.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Born 27 January 1756 Died 5 December 1791, was one of the greatest composers of all times.

Mozart showed prodigious ability from his earliest childhood in Salzburg. Already competent on keyboard and violin, he composed from the age of five and performed before European royalty; at 17 he was engaged as a court musician in Salzburg, but grew restless and traveled in search of a better position, always composing abundantly. While visiting Vienna in 1781, he was dismissed from his Salzburg position. He chose to stay in the capital, where he achieved fame but little financial security. During his final years in Vienna, he composed many of his best-known symphonies, concertos, and operas, and portions of the Requiem, which was largely unfinished at the time of Mozart's death. The circumstances of his early death have been much mythologized. He was survived by his wife Constanze and two sons.

Mozart learned voraciously from others, and developed a brilliance and maturity of style that encompassed the light and graceful along with the dark and passionate. His influence on subsequent Western art music is profound. Beethoven wrote his own early compositions in the shadow of Mozart, of whom Joseph Haydn wrote that "posterity will not see such a talent again in 100 years."

Enjoy the music!

Have a good weekend!!