Calliope articles from April 2003

Calliope archives from April 2003

There is only one Mozart! (Musings).
April 1, 2003... --Italian composer, Gioacchino Rossini (1792-1868) AT THE VERY MOMENT YOU READ THIS PARAGRAPH, THERE IS A RADIO STATION, as well as a concert hall, somewhere in the world that is echoing the sounds of a piece composed by Wolfgang Amadeus...

Time line!
April 1, 2003... 1756 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is born in Salzburg, Austria, on January 27. 1762 Mozart, age 6, goes on his first tour and plays for Habsburg empress Maria Theresa. 1763 Mozart goes on his second tour. The following year,...

Glossary.
April 1, 2003... ARCHBISHOP: the highest-ranking bishop in an archdiocese (group of dioceses). Bishops are high-ranking members of the Christian church, each of whom governs a diocese (district). BAROQUE MUSIC: a musical style that emphasizes dissonance,...

A child prodigy.
April 1, 2003... THERE WERE CHILD PRODIGIES BEFORE MOZART AND CHILD PRODIGIES AFTER HIM--BUT FEW, if any, of them made the impact young Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart made. When he was four, he started to learn short harpsichord pieces; at five, he began to compose...

From Salzburg to Vienna.
April 1, 2003... During the 1700s, Salzburg was the independent region ruled by a Prince-Archbishop. As a result, musical activity was dominated by the court and much of it was geared to the church. The first Prince-Archbishop to employ Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart...

Mozart's musical world.
April 1, 2003... Today, music superstars jet across the globe to give concerts, sing at the opera, or conduct orchestras. CDs and videos are released simultaneously on five continents, and the Internet makes it easy to advertise and download music and musical...

Success at the opera.
April 1, 2003... Mozart saw his "kick on my arse... by order of my Prince-Archbishop" as an opportunity. The year was 1781, and Mozart Wanted to be his own man, writing music his own way. The Prince-Archbishop called him a "miserable brat" and threw him...

Mozart's Vienna.
April 1, 2003... Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart moved to Vienna on March 16, 1781. Not quite two months later, he sat down and wrote with optimism: "My happiness begins today." The composer was young and ambitious, and one of the greatest cities of Europe lay before...

A city of greats.
April 1, 2003... For centuries, Vienna was the music capital of the world. All Viennese--royals and commoners alike--loved music, so composers and performers were drawn to the city. Mozart shared concert halls and parlors with other great composers. One was the...

Word origins. (Fun With Words).
April 1, 2003... Opera The word "opera" is actually the Latin plural form of opus, meaning "work." Hence, it translates literally as "works." Early on, musical drama was given the Italian name opera in musica, meaning "works in music." In time, the phrase was...

Word stories. (Fun With Words).
April 1, 2003... Orchestra The ancient Greeks referred to the semicircular area in front of the stage as the orchestra. There, the chorus, which played a key role in Greek drama, would stand and sometimes dance. The Romans adapted the Greek theater to their own...

Expressions. (Fun With Words).
April 1, 2003... Look at a page of sheet music and you will often see a variety of foreign phrases written throughout. Known as "musical directions," they tell the musician how the composer wants a section to be played. Do you know what language is used for...

The Magic Flute.
April 1, 2003... Characters TAMINO, Egyptian Prince ATTTENDANTS of the Queen of the Night QUEEN OF NIGHT, Sorceress PAPAGENO, a Bird-catcher, servant of the Queen who is dressed like a bird PAMINA, Egyptian Princess MONOSTATOS,...

Mozart the performer.
April 1, 2003... The distinction between composer and performer is an invention of the 1800s, and it is this distinction that often makes us forget the depth and all-inclusiveness of Mozart's musicianship. In his time and earlier, it was more common to find...

Constanze Mozart.
April 1, 2003... "Whoever gets a wife like Constanze will certainly be a happy man," wrote Mozart to his father, Leopold. Mozart married Constanze Weber in 1783. Her father was a music copyist and an old friend of Mozart's. By all accounts, she did make...

Legacy of a master. (From Past to Present).
April 1, 2003... On the face of it, Mozart's legacy is his music--more than 600 works. Many are masterpieces that are enjoyed as much now as they were in his day. But a composer like Mozart, a thinker like Albert Einstein, or a politician like Abraham Lincoln...

Musical detectives.
April 1, 2003... When Mozart died, no one knew his manuscripts even how many he had written. He had made a list, but only of the 176 works composed after 1784. In 1851, a pamphlet expressing concern about this confusion inspired Ludwig van Kochel (KER-shell) to...

A 'numbers' trick.
April 1, 2003... Kochel's original detective work was accurate enough for you to amaze your friends with this trick: Using the Kochel number of a Mozart composition, you can figure out Mozart's age and the year the piece was finished, plus or minus a year....

Are the Giza pyramid and the "Great Pyramid" (made by Khufu) the same pyramid? (Ask Calliope).
April 1, 2003... --Kaitlin, 12, Vancouver, Washington [!] Actually, there are three pyramids at Giza. All were built as royal tombs for 4th-Dynasty (2613-2500 B.C.) kings: the first for Khufu, the second for Khufu's son Khafre, and the third for Khufu's...

What is the difference between a primary source and a secondary source? (Ask Calliope).
April 1, 2003... --Ananya, Webpost [!] This is an excellent question and an important distinction for anyone doing research. Primary sources are original accounts, objects, and documents that are created by participants in and eyewitnesses to an event. A...

Do you know who Jean-Francois Champollion is/was? (Ask Calliope).
April 1, 2003... --Krisitin, 13, Hiroshima [!] At age 17, Jean-Francois Champollion had already mastered several languages, including Arabic, Hebrew, Sanskrit, and Persian--all in addition to English, German, Greek, Italian, and Latin. Best known for his...

Books. (Off the Shelf).
April 1, 2003... Introducing Mozart by Roland Vernon (Chelsea House, 1996) combines an easy-to-read biography with sidebars on a wide variety of topics, well-captioned and well-chosen illustrations, a time chart, and a glossary of terms commonly used in...

On the Net. (Off the Shelf).
April 1, 2003... For sites that focus on Mozart, his life, and his works, go to: www.unlv.edu/mozart www.nma.at www.mozartproject.org/ www.mhric.org/mozart/index2.html For a collection of Mozart's works that can be streamed or downloaded,...

Concerts go public.
April 1, 2003... Visit a city or town in any country in Europe today and there is sure to be at least one poster announcing an upcoming concert. This was not so just 400 years ago. In the 1600s and earlier, concerts were the privilege of the upper class. They...

From harpsichord to pianoforte.
April 1, 2003... The harpsichord was invented sometime prior to 1400. It is not known exactly where or when. There are too few surviving instruments to allow scholars to piece together an accurate time line, especially for the earliest period. Unlike furniture...

When air is key. (Testing a Technique).
April 1, 2003... The strings used in musical instruments depend on air and on the devices to which the strings are coupled for their sound. A string just stretched out and plucked in mid-air produces very little sound. It is the vibration of the string in...