Meaghan,

This topic is perfect for you. I am also very interested in what you discover through your research. I have a few questions and comments however.
1) Are you going to give some background history on Mozart before you discuss his music stuff?
2) What are some of the techniques that he used in his music that may not be used to today?
3) Can you put a sample of his music on you blog?

I can't wait to learn more.

Katie W.


From Meaghan,
1) Why of course, silly girl!
2) I'm not sure, I shall be sure to include those in my research.
3) I'd LOVE to. At least one!!

First Response

Meaghan-First off, you might want to ask Issac to change his font color, it's yellow and very hard to read. Second, I get the feeling that you really know what you want to research. This is very good considering last year I had a clue but it was very broad (actully way to broad) to cover in a trimester. Its good that you now have a specific person to research, but I think it lacks some characteristics that would make it more intersting (for both you and the reader). You might want to consider how Mozart first started his musical career, and who influenced his career. Also, what kind of music did he start off with, and did it change over time? Very nice topic, I really like it.

I appreciate how well thought through the process you followed to arrive at your thesis. I too think Mozart is a fascinating figure. You will need to research the state of classical music prior to Mozart: who were the leading figures prior to him and what had they contributed to bring classical music to the level in which he found it. In other words, establish the foundation upon which he built. We do have some of his recordings, but they are records. I'm sure you have better ones of your own. I would ask Ms. Preston for good sources of information as she may have music journals that we do not have.


From Meaghan,
Yes, I'll be sure to talk to Ms. Preston. At home I've got three CDs of Mozart music, as well as a book of sheet music from his Magic Flute opera, with a forward with a brief history of him that I'll be sure to look at.

First response

Your background thoughts on the topic are very detailed, and they support the reasoning behind your thesis statement. Also, you should look at other classical artists of today, and see if they have had any huge influences on their musical careers. For those who say Mozart, you could then get an idea of how broad his influence has spread worldwide.

first response

it is definatly specific enough but what aspects of his life are you going to look into? It would be interesting to see what (if any) outside influences were there on hhis work. Because of the phisical location of austria, what were the places that he visited that could have affected his work. who were the other composers that he knew and who did he look up to when he was younger. answering some questions like these would be good to discover pars of his life that are not common knowledge.

From Meaghan,
Yeah the first few questions are good. I would imagine that when he was younger he looked up to his father, also a composer, but the fact of the matter is Amadeus went on a European musical tour at the age of 5. He wrote his first full piece at age 4 (according to Leopold, his father.) Mozart's a beast.

My Topic

I chose the topic I did because not only am I interested in music (Mozart in particular), but I am also interested in the culture of Austria. I've always had an interest in the Germanic community, but following my recent trip to Austria I realized just how much amazing musical history was there.

When Mrs. Jewitt first said that the topic of the iSearch was going to be about a culture that we either didn't know much about or were interested (or both) I knew immediately which country that would be. However, what I wasn't sure was what aspect of the culture I wanted to focus on.

I knew that I was interested in music, but everything about Austria interests me. The architecture, food, and war history all attracted my attention. It came down to me thinking about my three favorite things on Earth: 1) Mozart, 2) baroque music, and 3) travel. I was able to link the first two, and decided to focus my research on Austrian music history.

The next step was what exact question I wanted. I had first thought of looking into what part Austrian composers (Strauss, Schubert, Mozart, etc) played in the classical music of today. However, Mrs. Jewitt thought that that was too broad, and we realized I could spend about three years researching that question alone. We narrowed it down to Mozart (my favorite person. Period.) and what effect his innovation and creativity had on the classical music we hear today.