Abstract
Factors predicting the aesthetic success and possible career-long improvement in quality of 610 musical compositions by W.A. Mozart were examined. Aesthetic success was measured by counts of available recordings and aesthetic significance ratings of each work. In Study 1, a work’s year of composition, duration, and genre were found to be significant predictors of aesthetic success. Concurrent productivity was not a stable predictor. In Study 2, the quality of works judged as masterpieces as well as the proportion of masterpiece-level music composed each year were found to increase over time, even during Mozart’s maturity. Improvement mainly occurred in large-scale compositions: sonata form instrumental works, operas, and choral works. The results suggest Mozart became more creative and perspicacious as his career progressed, even after the onset of compositional maturity.
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