Modern Vs. Classical Music

Though the delight of listening to a brand new track on a compact disc with a big name artist has a similar emotional feel for modern day people, as it would have felt for people listening to a live symphony during the Classical era, the ability the artists, and those involved with them, have with the increase of new technology and business schemes has allowed their base of listeners to be on a global scale for millions, if not yet billions. During the late 17th century to early 19th century, the phenomenon that is the evolution of Liturgical Music had hit the Classical era; extremely skilled artists such as Mozart, Beethoven, Haydn and Schubert were producing masterpieces for the courts of the upper class. Because the culture that surrounds these classic artists and the modern artists has changed greatly over hundreds of years, the skill involved in becoming a master of the art has not.

Though taken very early in life from ongoing battles with illness mixed with over exhaustion from tirelessly producing piece after piece and a final, fatal bout with typhoid fever, Vienna based Franz Schubert's work is often described as being the last great representation of Classical era music, as well as being a transitional composer between classical and romantic era. Throughout his life while he composed, he worked mostly in schools after his own schooling, applying for various positions but seeming to end up falling short of his goal. In 1818 he was even jobless and considered himself a failure, especially during the spring, when he produced only one work considered noteworthy, so he left the city for the summer months and was revived showing "exuberant spiritsÐ'...and fresh creative outbursts," in creating three dynamic pieces. But at this time, his music was starting to be used in performances around Vienna. His only public performance, which was ironically the same year he died, generated much profit in terms of money and success in terms of his lifelong accomplishments as an artist ending on a strong foot.

Like Haydn and Beethoven, Mozart studied at the prestigious Viennese Classical School, but unlike those composers, or any other artist in history for that matter, he worked with all genres of music available to him at the time, and remarkably had success in all of them. This, along with the fact he was composing by age five and performing for royalty and nobility by age of six, point out his true musical genius. Although his musical talent was strong in composition as well as performance and he had toured through Italy, Mannheim, Paris, Salzburg, Munich and of course Vienna through early years of his life, he "had serious financial worries, and they worsened as the famously fickle Viennese found other idols. His income during his last five years, 1786Ð'-91, was far larger than that of most musicians, though much below that of the class he wanted to be associated"

Beethoven, whose father saw promise with him musically at a young age, did not develop the talent or partial recognition that Mozart had until his teens. In the late 1780's, it is said he went to Vienna from his hometown of Bonn to study with Mozart, who was impressed with Beethoven's abilities and thought "this young man will make a great name for himself." At the turn of the century, it became apparent to Beethoven