Quote:
Originally Posted by SuperFob
Irrelevant. Even if the post I quoted was technically referring to the fact that Mozart and Beethoven weren't writing for the people, the point it was trying to get across was that their music wasn't written for entertainment purposes. And that point is incorrect, seeing as Beethoven and Mozart were writing with the intention of entertaining the king and his court.
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This reminds me that just yesterday I was thinking about patronage of musicians in the past and now. Since musicians, like most artists, have almost always had to struggle to find a way to make a living and to compose music, and that can't be easy, I am impressed when someone like John Williams (the composer, not the Australian senator) manages to make a profession out of music composition...actually earning a living doing something he must love!
I wonder what differences exist between music that composers like Mozart wrote to entertain others (royalty) and the music that they wrote to entertain themselves...but I don't know enough about the chronology of their compositions to know the answer. Apparently Bach wrote many pieces for his family members to help them practice their own instruments...I should think that music would differ from what he wrote solely for himself.
It would be fun to hear what sort of music people create when they think that no one will ever debate its merits, or argue with each other about it, as occurs on MusicBanter. I suspect many musicians create music because of strong viewpoints, emotions, and their desire to share them with others (which we also see in discussions of music)...so it is hard for me to think of music ever being created without an audience in mind...and potentially a large audience. I think Mozart probably realized that his compositions would reach a far wider audience than the one that paid for their creation...although I don't know how many peasants got to hear them at the time! Hopefully the peasants (my ancestors) were at least having fun kicking up their heels to some rousing tavern music.