The music of Franz Joseph Haydn (1732–1809) is so technically superb, so
widely imitated, and so rich in quality and quantity that almost since
the moment of its creation it has exemplified the Classical style.
Mozart's piano sonatas
form a richly diverse and significant part of his instrumental output
and span much of his mature composing career, thereby representing a
microcosm of the composer's changing style. Part I examines the contexts
in which the sonatas were composed and performed, and reviews likely
sources of influence. Part II concentrates on the genesis of the sonatas
and the sources, which reveals important information about Mozart's
compositional process. In Part III the musical style is studied from the
standpoint of rhetoric--a discipline featured in numerous contemporary
aesthetic and theoretical textbooks on music.