Analysis of Mozart’s Biography with Becker’s Theory of “Art Worlds”

Abstract

<div><!--block-->Historical musicology, which is a method within the discipline of musicology, is based on composer biographies and works, whereas systematic musicology, which includes analytical and empirical methods, is based on the musical analysis of works. These historical and analytical studies represented the relationship between music and science from the 19th century to the 20th century. After the 20th century, researches about the science of music moved to a new, critical and multi-faceted field in social, cultural, political and artistic contexts as well as historicity ones. The evaluations of composer biographies that constitute the historical knowledge of music have been handled in a holistic and multi-faceted framework with this new orientation. In this article, which is prepared based on a new, critical, multi-disciplinary way of thinking within the framework of New Musicology, the determinant composer of the Classical Period W. A. Mozart was evaluated according to Becker’s Art Worlds, which is sociological theory. W.A. Mozart’s way of thinking shapes his art life and this was examined through the slices of his life and through his own words using the categories of Integrated Professionals and Incompatibles in Becker’s classification of artist behavior. This article aims to create a functional and interdisciplinary meaning for the formation processes of W. A. Mozart’s art life far from philosophical, aesthetic and value judgments. It is considered that this evaluation will bring a different perspective to biography studies in the contexts of generally accepted (canonical) thought.</div>