Happy Birthday Mozart: Five popular musical pieces inspired by the maestro's symphonies

From India to Britain, Mozart's tunes go far and wide to make its presence felt
Happy Birthday Mozart: Five popular musical pieces inspired by the maestro's symphonies
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, born on January 27, 1756, was a music composer from Austria. Considered one of the most influential figures of his time not just in music but across art forms, Mozart was a supremely talented individual, having created about 800 compositions during his short life span. Even though many people can not confidently claim that they have heard compositions by the maestro, they still know his name. However, that is not what truly defines his greatness, but that even though they claim otherwise, chances are they have come across a Mozart tune somewhere at least once in their life, which is a testament to the far-reaching and time-transcending influence of the musical genius.

The British novelty pop Band The Wombles, a namesake of and based on the famous BBC children's show, were one of the first modern music groups to include elements from Mozart's compositions into their music. Minuetto Allegretto is a single released from the album You're a Womble in 1974. The song itself is based around Mozart's Minuetto Allegretto, which is the third movement of his Symphony No. 41, also known as Jupiter Symphony. The song itself feels like its referring to Mozart himself as it puts Bulgaria, one of the band members, in the focus and talks about him dreaming to become a composer and conductor.

Mozart finds his place in the rock genre well. Evanescence, an American rock band founded by Amy Lee in 1994, has used Mozart's composition in their song Lacrymosa as part of the album The Open Door in 2006. The name of the track comes from Mozart's composition itself, as it incorporates the Lacrimosa sequence from Mozart's Requiem. Amy Lee herself stated how much she admires that particular piece and always wanted to incorporate it, "The part of Mozart's Requiem called Lacrimosa is my favourite piece of music ever. I always wished we could cover it, but with programming and guitars and make it cool. It's our moment to try all the things I wanted to and couldn't, so I started messing with it in Protools."

The 2010s were profoundly the era of electronic music. However, Mozart's music still found a way to waltz into tracks. Clean Bandit, an English electronic music group, released the single Mozart's House in 2013 as a part of their first studio album, New Eyes (2014). The name of the track itself suggests the influence of Mozart, but its not limited to that. The track incorporated a part of the String Quartet No. 21, which can be heard before the chorus of the track.

Mozart's music has heavily influenced the music from the West as well as the East, specifically in India. Salil Chowdhury, who expressed his admiration for the maestro, is known for his incorporation of Mozart into his compositions. The most prominent instance being Itna Na Mujhse Tu Pyaar Badha from the film Chhaya, which uses the melody of Symphony No. 40 by Mozart.

Yet another instance of Mozart finding inroads in India, and a very popular one, is a Titan ad. Titan watches have fascinated an entire generation, but more than the watches itself, it is the ad jingle which drew everyone's attention and with time became a trigger of nostalgia. The tune which everyone identifies as the 'Titan song' is actually Mozart's composition, Symphony No. 25. The same composition was also incorporated albeit reinterpreted by Satyajit Ray as the theme of his Feluda film series.

It is safe to say that Mozart's legacy transcends generations and continues to leave his mark even today, as his melodies can be still heard in various forms such as films, TV shows and even video games.

(Written by Shombit Das)

Happy Birthday Mozart: Five popular musical pieces inspired by the maestro's symphonies
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