Abstract

Mozart was an emblematic figure of Classicism. Although his compositions hold countless Romantic stylemes and an equally remarkable post-Baroque vein, musicology has treated him more in connection with specific cases and less in works of synthesis. The post-Baroque vein can be detected in all of the three basic genres of his time: ecclesiastical, dramatic and chamber (the last one comprising, in the acceptation of the time, his entire instrumental music, including the symphonies and concerts, but excluding the church sonatas),  although to different extents and in different forms. In chamber music, Mozart employed a contemporary style from the beginning. However, the final movement of the Quartet in G Major, KV 387 is overwhelmingly original and post-Baroque in the strict sense of the word. The weight of the Baroque is incomparably higher in Mozart in the ecclesiastical genre, just as it is in the entire religious music of the classics. We can even say, with a slight exaggeration, that, in the field of church music, Mozart was a „born” Baroque composer. Yet, to Mozart, the church music composer, the Baroque tradition seems to have often been a burden. Mozart was once more a born Baroque composer in the field of the opera buffa, also called dramma giocoso, in which, however, he had an incomparably more significant evolution. The third main field of the Mozartian dramatic genre, the Singspiel, has hardly any significant Baroque roots, although even in the Magic Flute, KV 620, the absolute peak of the subgenre, some post-Baroque moments can be detected. These considerations are but a modest introduction to the many facets of the Mozartian post-Baroque. A systematic and hopefully exhaustive research on the subject may not be an easy task, due to the huge number of case studies making substantial reference to this topic.

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