1791 saw the completion of Mozart's last opera 'The Magic Flute' and his great Requiem. It was also the year of his death. All over Europe there was political and social change (The French revolution had already taken place in 1789) and humanitarian ideas and values were being developed through societies such as the Freemasons. It was the Age of Enlightenment, with art influenced by the classical period of antiquity and writers such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau providing ideas and commentaries on liberty and freedom ('Man is born free but everywhere he is in chains').

Structural and Harmonic Changes in Composition
The key musical change of the eighteenth century was the development of sonata form. This was a carefully planned structure including a framework for melodic and harmonic ideas for the composer. Most composers of the classical period followed such a structure. What distinguishes the key composers of the period is what they were able to do with this framework. Haydn and Mozart were particularly masterful, leading the way for subsequent composers such as Beethoven, Brahms and, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Mahler (an Austrian, like Mozart).

But what did the sonata form replace? Forms such as the fugue, popular in the baroque period, were beginning to lose favour and were gradually being replaced by this new structure. The pattern is nearly always the same (although it should be noted that many really famous composers often stretched these 'rules'):

Exposition: melody in main key with second melody in the dominant with a transition leading to the…
Development: quite simply a development of the main ideas in the exposition…
Recapitulation: a return to the main melody in the main key with the second melody also in the main key leading to a coda, which completes the work.

Sonata form is not only used in symphonic pieces and orchestral works, but also in string quartets and instrumental sonatas, notably for the piano.

In this form, the 'musical journey' is pre-planned.

The Magic Flute–1791
This opera is Mozart's last and most extraordinary piece for theatre. It was intended as a work for a humble theatre on the outskirts of Vienna, managed by his friend, and fellow Freemason, Emmanuel Schikaneder. The opera reached out to a wide audience of well-informed music lovers, the general public and fellow Freemasons. It is definitely a one-off (a Singspiel in German and working on a multitude of levels) – a part mythical and mystical journey, with serpents and wild beasts, as well as a journey of human 'enlightenment'. Nothing is what it seems, with the characters portrayed as evil or good and then becoming the opposite. It is also pregnant with Masonic symbols such as the figure three (three boys, three temples, three ladies) as well as being based in a key of 3 flats. The three temples also represent the three Masonic temples of Reason, Wisdom and Nature. The opening of the opera features the important three chords, which appear intermittently throughout the opera. The second part of the opera requires the hero to engage in three trials on his spiritual journey.

The audience would have understood the inner meanings and allegories on different levels. For example, Prince Tamino would be likened to the Emperor Joseph II, Sarastro the Masonic thinker Ignaz von Born, and the Queen of the Night the Empress Maria Theresa. It is a profoundly humanist work.

The Requiem
This final work was the result of a commission, which came at a time when Mozart was already very overworked and ill. He persuaded himself that satanic influences were at work and that he was in fact writing his own death work. We know that he completed the first two movements, but the rest of the work was finished by his friend and pupil, Franz Süssmayr, from fragments in Mozart's own hand. Mozart died before he could finish it and, contrary to myth, was not buried in a pauper's grave, but in a public cemetery.

Mozart's Contribution to Music
As Howard Goodall comments, 'The work of Mozart is very impressive', resulting in 'the best tunes on the planet'. Having written 'Don Giovanni' and 'The Magic Flute' in quick succession, 'Mozart went out at the very top'. He had the power to cut across bigotry and prejudice, appealed to the widest of audiences and had a universal message. On his death Haydn commented: 'The world won't see such a talent again for a hundred years'.