MY LATEST MOZART THEORY
Some of my colleagues here have taken to having salons in the afternoons, where they discuss various aspects of Mozart’s music. (As many of you know, les salons were popular discussion forums during the Enlightenment period, and Mozart and Leopold attended some, although they weren't considered to be intellectual heavyweights) I have not yet participated in one, although my colleague Ed and I have had our own, somewhat less erudite, discussions of pressing contemporary issues. Here we are reading our primary text. Subject of today’s salon: is Paul really standing by Heather even thought they are estranged? Are the accusations true about her past life? What are the accusations, anyway?
Since some of you pooh-pooed (spelling?) the last theory I presented on this website (the one about Leopold and the violin), I have another one for you. This comes from my study of the third act of The Marriage of Figaro as well as reading Nicholas Till’s book and what I feel I know about Mozart’s deep religious beliefs. You will notice in the photo of me and Ed that we were actually reading the scores in addition to Hello magazine.
May I just say as a sidenote that everyone should listen to the finale of Act II. In the words of Bill W., (paraphrased) it rockets you into a fourth dimension of existence.
In act three, the Countess sings her second poignant aria, “Dove Sono?” asking, “Where are they? Where are the beautiful feelings and expressions of love that the Count once had for me?” He is really rude to her, as well as being unfaithful, but she sings of her continued love for him, and her “constancy.” It’s a heart-wrenching song for those of us who have been in that position, wondering what happened to our beloved’s feelings, which had seemed so strong and yet nonetheless have disappeared. Anyway, the weird thing about it is that Mozart recycled the melody from a previous work, K. 317, the “Coronation Mass.” Now our professor showed us a little sketch Mozart had done, a rough draft, of another melody he had originally written for this aria, and then discarded and never used again. I thought it was a really pretty tune (what tune of Mozart’s isn’t pretty, of course). Dr. Benedum's theory was that Mozart struggled with this a lot, because he cared about the Countess’ feelings. But it was so rare for Mozart to recycle a tune that I didn’t think his explanation was satisfactory.
So in what part of the Mass (which Mozart had written in Salzburg some years earlier) do we find the Countess’ melody? This is where my theory comes in. It is the Agnus Dei, in a different key but otherwise pretty much exactly the same, even with the oboe part. And what is the Agnus Dei about? Asking for God’s forgiveness, mercy, and peace, right? Well, in my idea the Countess, who is the most important character in the opera (in my opinion) because she holds the key to forgiveness and grants forgiveness to the Count at the end, is being compared in a religious sense to God, who is always constant and faithful no matter how far His people may stray from him. This makes “Dove Sono” like one of those Old Testament prophets’ laments about how God’s people are like an unfaithful spouse, but how God is always ready to offer compassion and forgiveness if people ask for it.
Because of the rarity of Mozart lifting a tune from one place to another (although he does it for the “Prague” Symphony with something from Figaro) I believe it was a deliberate gesture on his part. To celebrate my hypothesis (which many of my colleagues thought was plausible and compelling) we're going out to the Hungarian restaurant down the street.
Okay, so it's not actually to celebrate my hypothesis; it's because the proprietor (see left) and his wife are going on vacation to Hungary at the end of the week and this is our last chance to go out there. Tomorrow night is Rigoletto at the Staatsoper. Standing room, but who cares? I convinced my roommate, Mary, to come with me by telling her the entire plot the other night and singing the part about "Si, Vendetta, tremenda vendetta!" She will be in one of my blogs soon because she is AWESOME!
Some of my colleagues here have taken to having salons in the afternoons, where they discuss various aspects of Mozart’s music. (As many of you know, les salons were popular discussion forums during the Enlightenment period, and Mozart and Leopold attended some, although they weren't considered to be intellectual heavyweights) I have not yet participated in one, although my colleague Ed and I have had our own, somewhat less erudite, discussions of pressing contemporary issues. Here we are reading our primary text. Subject of today’s salon: is Paul really standing by Heather even thought they are estranged? Are the accusations true about her past life? What are the accusations, anyway?
Since some of you pooh-pooed (spelling?) the last theory I presented on this website (the one about Leopold and the violin), I have another one for you. This comes from my study of the third act of The Marriage of Figaro as well as reading Nicholas Till’s book and what I feel I know about Mozart’s deep religious beliefs. You will notice in the photo of me and Ed that we were actually reading the scores in addition to Hello magazine.
May I just say as a sidenote that everyone should listen to the finale of Act II. In the words of Bill W., (paraphrased) it rockets you into a fourth dimension of existence.
In act three, the Countess sings her second poignant aria, “Dove Sono?” asking, “Where are they? Where are the beautiful feelings and expressions of love that the Count once had for me?” He is really rude to her, as well as being unfaithful, but she sings of her continued love for him, and her “constancy.” It’s a heart-wrenching song for those of us who have been in that position, wondering what happened to our beloved’s feelings, which had seemed so strong and yet nonetheless have disappeared. Anyway, the weird thing about it is that Mozart recycled the melody from a previous work, K. 317, the “Coronation Mass.” Now our professor showed us a little sketch Mozart had done, a rough draft, of another melody he had originally written for this aria, and then discarded and never used again. I thought it was a really pretty tune (what tune of Mozart’s isn’t pretty, of course). Dr. Benedum's theory was that Mozart struggled with this a lot, because he cared about the Countess’ feelings. But it was so rare for Mozart to recycle a tune that I didn’t think his explanation was satisfactory.
So in what part of the Mass (which Mozart had written in Salzburg some years earlier) do we find the Countess’ melody? This is where my theory comes in. It is the Agnus Dei, in a different key but otherwise pretty much exactly the same, even with the oboe part. And what is the Agnus Dei about? Asking for God’s forgiveness, mercy, and peace, right? Well, in my idea the Countess, who is the most important character in the opera (in my opinion) because she holds the key to forgiveness and grants forgiveness to the Count at the end, is being compared in a religious sense to God, who is always constant and faithful no matter how far His people may stray from him. This makes “Dove Sono” like one of those Old Testament prophets’ laments about how God’s people are like an unfaithful spouse, but how God is always ready to offer compassion and forgiveness if people ask for it.
Because of the rarity of Mozart lifting a tune from one place to another (although he does it for the “Prague” Symphony with something from Figaro) I believe it was a deliberate gesture on his part. To celebrate my hypothesis (which many of my colleagues thought was plausible and compelling) we're going out to the Hungarian restaurant down the street.
Okay, so it's not actually to celebrate my hypothesis; it's because the proprietor (see left) and his wife are going on vacation to Hungary at the end of the week and this is our last chance to go out there. Tomorrow night is Rigoletto at the Staatsoper. Standing room, but who cares? I convinced my roommate, Mary, to come with me by telling her the entire plot the other night and singing the part about "Si, Vendetta, tremenda vendetta!" She will be in one of my blogs soon because she is AWESOME!
posted by Adina Meyer @ 4:49 AM
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