Editing Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (section)

===Style===
{{Listen|type=music|image=none|help=no
|filename=Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Symphony 40 g-moll - 1. Molto allegro.ogg
|title=Symphonie Nr. 40 G minor, K. 550. Movement: 1. Molto allegro
|description=
|filename2=Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Don Giovanni - Overtüre.ogg
|title2=Overture to ''Don Giovanni''
|description2=Both performed by the Fulda Symphonic Orchestra, conductor: Simon Schindler}}

Mozart's music, like [[Joseph Haydn|Haydn]]'s, stands as an archetype of the [[Classical period (music)|Classical style]]. At the time he began composing, European music was dominated by the ''[[galant|style galant]]'', a reaction against the highly evolved intricacy of the [[Baroque music|Baroque]]. Progressively, and in large part at the hands of Mozart himself, the [[counterpoint|contrapuntal]] complexities of the late Baroque emerged once more, moderated and disciplined by new [[Musical form|forms]], and adapted to a new aesthetic and social milieu. Mozart was a versatile composer, and wrote in every major genre, including [[symphony]], opera, the solo concerto, chamber music including [[string quartet]] and [[string quintet]], and the piano [[sonata]]. These forms were not new, but Mozart advanced their technical sophistication and emotional reach. From his earliest years to his last, he composed a varied number of vocal works – [[List of concert arias, songs and canons by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart|concert arias, songs and canons]]. He almost single-handedly developed and popularised the Classical [[Mozart piano concertos|piano concerto]]. He wrote a great deal of [[religious music]], including large-scale [[mass (music)|masses]], as well as dances, [[divertimento|divertimenti]], [[serenade]]s, and other forms of light entertainment.{{sfn|Grove|1954|pages=[https://archive.org/details/grovesdictionary05grov/page/958/mode/2up 958–982]}}

The central traits of the Classical style are all present in Mozart's music. Clarity, balance, and transparency are the hallmarks of his work, but simplistic notions of its delicacy mask the exceptional power of his finest masterpieces, such as the [[Piano Concerto No. 24 (Mozart)|Piano Concerto No. 24]] in C minor, K.&nbsp;491; the [[Symphony No. 40 (Mozart)|Symphony No.&nbsp;40]] in G minor, K.&nbsp;550; and the opera ''[[Don Giovanni]]''. [[Charles Rosen]] makes the point forcefully:
<blockquote>It is only through recognising the violence and sensuality at the centre of Mozart's work that we can make a start towards a comprehension of his structures and an insight into his magnificence. In a paradoxical way, [[Robert Schumann|Schumann]]'s superficial characterisation of the [[Symphony No. 40 (Mozart)|G minor Symphony]] can help us to see Mozart's daemon more steadily. In all of Mozart's supreme expressions of suffering and terror, there is something shockingly voluptuous.{{sfn|Rosen|1998|p=324}}</blockquote>

During his last decade, Mozart frequently exploited [[Chromaticism|chromatic]] harmony. A notable instance is his [[String Quartet No. 19 (Mozart)|String Quartet in C major, K.&nbsp;465]] (1785), whose introduction abounds in chromatic suspensions, giving rise to the work's nickname, the "Dissonance" quartet.

Mozart had a gift for absorbing and adapting the valuable features of others' music. His travels helped in the forging of a unique compositional language.<ref>{{harvnb|Solomon|1995|loc=ch. 8}}. Discussion of the sources of style as well as his early imitative ability.</ref> In London as a child, he met [[Johann Christian Bach|J.&nbsp;C. Bach]] and heard his music. In Paris, Mannheim, and Vienna he met with other compositional influences, as well as the avant-garde capabilities of the [[Mannheim school|Mannheim orchestra]]. In Italy, he encountered the [[Italian overture]] and [[opera buffa]], both of which deeply affected the evolution of his practice. In London and Italy, the [[galant style]] was in the ascendent: simple, light music with a mania for [[cadence|cadencing]]; an emphasis on tonic, dominant, and subdominant to the exclusion of other harmonies; symmetrical phrases; and clearly articulated partitions in the overall form of movements.{{sfn|Heartz|2003}} Some of Mozart's early symphonies are [[Italian overture]]s, with three movements running into each other; many are [[homotonal]] (all three movements having the same key signature, with the slow middle movement being in the [[Relative key|relative minor]]). Others mimic the works of J.&nbsp;C. Bach, and others show the simple [[binary form|rounded binary forms]] turned out by Viennese composers.

[[File:K626 Requiem Dies Irae.jpg|thumb|Facsimile sheet of music from the Dies Irae movement of the [[Requiem (Mozart)|Requiem Mass in D minor]] (K.&nbsp;626) in Mozart's handwriting ([[Mozarthaus Vienna|Mozarthaus]], Vienna)]]
As Mozart matured, he progressively incorporated more features adapted from the Baroque. For example, the [[Symphony No. 29 (Mozart)|Symphony No.&nbsp;29 in A major]] K.&nbsp;201 has a contrapuntal main theme in its first movement, and experimentation with irregular phrase lengths. Some of his quartets from 1773 have fugal finales, probably influenced by Haydn, who had included three such finales in his recently published [[String Quartets, Op. 20 (Haydn)|Opus&nbsp;20]] set. The influence of the ''[[Sturm und Drang]]'' ("Storm and Stress") period in music, with its brief foreshadowing of the [[Romanticism|Romantic era]], is evident in the music of both composers at that time. Mozart's [[Symphony No. 25 (Mozart)|Symphony No.&nbsp;25 in G minor]] K.&nbsp;183 is another excellent example.

Mozart would sometimes switch his focus between operas and instrumental music. He produced operas in each of the prevailing styles: [[opera buffa]], such as ''[[The Marriage of Figaro|Le nozze di Figaro]]'', ''[[Don Giovanni]]'', and ''[[Così fan tutte]]''; [[opera seria]], such as ''[[Idomeneo]]''; and [[Singspiel]], of which ''[[The Magic Flute|Die Zauberflöte]]'' is the most famous example by any composer. In his later operas, he employed subtle changes in instrumentation, orchestral texture, and [[Timbre|tone colour]], for emotional depth and to mark dramatic shifts. Here, his advances in opera and instrumental composing interacted: his increasingly sophisticated use of the orchestra in the symphonies and concertos influenced his operatic orchestration, and his developing subtlety in using the orchestra to psychological effect in his operas was in turn reflected in his later non-operatic compositions.{{sfn|Einstein|1965|p={{page needed|date=July 2020}}}}