Composer Birthdays

Mozart and Shostakovich, both celebrating milestone birthdays in 2006, operated in very different cultural settings. How might this have impacted their music?

The year 2006 is the year to celebrate two important composer birthdays. Mozart, born January 27, 1756, celebrated his 250th birthday this year, and September 25 will put the candle count at 100 for Shostakovich's own birthday cake. Concert halls across the world are commemorating these milestone events with special programs featuring the works of these two composers. In particular, the Proms, an enormous classical music event located in London and sponsored by the BBC, will be featuring Mozart's Mass in C minor as well as several Shostakovich symphonies. Mozart was an Austrian, and composed prolificly, free from the restraint of any one patron's censorship. Shostakovich, on the other hand, worked under a highly invasive Soviet government in the time leading up to and during the Cold War.

I sometimes wonder what Shostakovich might have sounded like if he had been handed a sheet of paper with the words "Compose whatever you want!" Would he have been as creative? Can restraints actually help in the compositional process?