About

About Mozart and Classical Music:

Mozart and Classical Music website started as Classical Music Lounge (cmlounge.wordpress.com) back in 2006.

The focus of this website is Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, his life & music, his contemporaries, and in general, classical music until the late Romantic Period.

The term ‘classical’ has two primary meanings.  First, it describes the music of the Classical Period, c.1750-1830, personified by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert.  Second, it can mean music as an ‘art’ as opposed to popular, jazz, folk, or even Christian music.

Various classical music writers I respect as authority with regards biography of composers, classical music periods, and other related historical datelines may differ in their focus and/or presentation of facts. So what is covered by the Baroque or Classical period?  Most classical music writers and/or biographers will give definite dates inclusive, and extend this in classifying some composers into their respective periods. This is a tricky one. An example that immediately comes to mind are two of my favourites: Beethoven and Schubert.  True, they died within a year of each other, but I don’t necessarily label Beethoven (d. 1827) as Classical composer and Schubert (d. 1828) as Romantic. There is always a period of transition, making it difficult to determine a specific period where a composer belongs.

I’d like to share my timeline for some significant masters:

• 1600-1700:  Early or Low Baroque (Monteveri – Vivaldi)

• 1680-1750:  Late or High Baroque (Bach and Handel)

• 1750-1780:  Transition (early Classical, including the Bach children and early Haydn years)

• 1780-1820:  High Classical (Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven)

• 1810-1840:  Early Romantic, High Beethoven, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Rossini, etc.)

• 1840-1900:  High Romantic (Brahms, Wagner, Verdi, Tchaikovsky, Grieg, Puccini, etc.)

• 1895-1945:  Transition (Late Romantic, Strauss, Rachmaninov, Kreisler; Modernistic – Schoenberg, Bartok, Stravinsky, etc.)

About me:

My  writing reflects a lifelong passion for classical music and Mozart, in particular, periods covering from the Renaissance to the late Romantic era. I also write various niche topics including biographies of world’s movers & shapers, arts & literature and interesting historical events. My formal experience is in choral music and as a chorister,  I’ve relentlessly pursued Mozart and classical music in private studies and researches.

Through the years, some friends, colleagues and special interest groups -  MozartForum, The Mozart Project of Steve Boerner, Mozart at Yahoo groups, Classical Era, Classical Music groups, Haydn, and other smaller groups, as friendships developed — have greatly supported me via group discussions and personal sharing, sometimes in agreement to disagree, bound by the love of Mozart music.

In particular, I’d like to thank my wonderful and gracious Mozartean friends especially those from the UK, US, Austria, Holland, Germany, Australia and Hongkong. I’ve been blest to have their continuing support through their immense knowledge as concert musicians, classical music biographers/writers. I’m always indebted to them for their comments, feedback, suggestions and contributions.  It’s always exciting to discuss with them as we update each other about the latest on Mozart and classical music since almost all of us are familiar with significant places, having followed the footsteps of Mozart most especially in Austria (particularly, Salzburg and Vienna), Prague and Germany.

This site is dedicated to all my Mozartian friends, in particular, to classical music lovers, and anyone who believes that music is the language of the soul.

I continuously welcome constructive feedback, comments, and suggestions.

Have a lovely musical day!

Tel Asiado