Mozart or Not?

The Musical Evidence

Author(s): Laurel E. Zeiss
Source: Cambridge Opera Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1 (Mar., 2000), pp. 51-54
Published by: Cambridge University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3250722 .
Accessed: 26/01/2015 16:38
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Cambridge University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Cambridge
Opera Journal.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 193.144.2.35 on Mon, 26 Jan 2015 16:38:45 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

OperaJournal,12, 1, 51-54
Cambridge

2000 CambridgeUniversity Press

Mozart or not? The musical evidence

LAUREL E. ZEISS
Abstract: The orchestrally accompanied recitative which precedes the aria 'Vado ma dove'
does contain gestures and harmonies found in Mozart's accompagnati,yet it differs from his
standard practices in a number of respects. Its lack of motivic development, persistent use of
unison, and reiteration of chords and arpeggios in the same inversion all diverge from Mozart's
customary procedures. Moreover, the passage does not include a chord progression found in
practically all of the composer's accompagnati.If the recitative is by Mozart, it appears, as Link
argues, that he composed it in haste. The music and the manuscript evidence also suggest that
one of Mozart's pupils or an apprentice at the Burgtheater may have composed the passage.
Whoever wrote the recitative, however, brought the scene more in line with late eighteenthcentury operatic practice.

How does the accompanied recitative which precedes the aria 'Vado ma dove'
compare musically to accompagnatithat are unquestionably by Mozart? While the
recitative does contain gestures found in Mozart's accompagnati,
portions of it differ
from his standard practices and it lacks several compositional techniques that he
frequently used.
The tight construction and motivic unity that Link describes do have numerous
parallels in other accompagnati
by Mozart. An accompagnato
preceding another insertion
aria, 'Mi tradi' for the Viennese version of Don Giovanni,for example, derives most
of its orchestral material from the recitative's opening passage.1 Similarly, the
recitative which precedes 'Per pieta ben mio' (Cosi No. 25) reiterates a simple
orchestral figure throughout its opening section (mm. 1-14). In both of these
instances, though, the motifs undergo more development than is the case here,
where the repetition is quite literal. In the former, the passage is compressed and
eventually becomes harmonized, while in the latter, the motif is extended in various
ways.

For the most part, the recitative's harmonies are plausibly Mozartean. The rapid
succession of minor sonorities to depict surprise and agitation (mm. 3-8), the
number's tonal stability as the character resolves to act (mm. 28-9), and modulation
by fifths at the beginning and the end all are in keeping with Mozart's style.
However, the failure to resolve the seventh from the previous measure and the open
fifth on the downbeat of measure 26 seem quite uncharacteristic. A smoother, more
typical solution would be to have the first violins' F move to an E on the downbeat
and then have the violins play the scalar figure in unison or in parallel thirds. One
wonders if this is a copyist's error that would have been corrected in rehearsal or
performance.
That the opening of the recitative closely parallels Martin's sempplice
is not
is
recitative
a
conventional
surprising. Accompanied
highly
genre, especially in its
vocal lines. Although the voice parts of orchestrally accompanied recitatives use a
Other examples of accompagnatiby Mozart that demonstrate motivic unity: Tito No. 11 and
those that precede Figaro No. 18, Don Giovanni No. 10, Cosi No. 27, and Die Entfihrung
Nos. 10 and 20.

This content downloaded from 193.144.2.35 on Mon, 26 Jan 2015 16:38:45 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

52

LaurelE. Zeiss

wider range and exhibit more variety than those of semplice,they rely heavily upon
the same conventional formulas found in simple recitative. Helga Liihning's study
of settings of La clemengadi Tito by various composers demonstrates just how
standardized the vocal lines of simple recitatives had become during the eighteenth
century. She notes that the contours and rhythms of the semplicewhich opens Tito
are almost exactly the same even though the composers (Hasse, Gluck, Anfossi,
Bernasconi, and Mozart) composed their settings over a fifty-year period and a wide
geographic area.2 Like the Martin/?Mozart example, these recitatives diverge
increasingly as the scene progresses. Whether or not the composer of the
consciously chose to paraphrase the original semplice,practical considaccompagnato
erations, as opposed to competitiveness, may have played a role. If, as Link
compellingly argues, the recitative was composed on the spur of the moment, it
would have been easier and faster to adapt a pre-existing recitative than to compose
one from scratch. Also, it is possible that Villeneuve may have already learned the
sempliceversion. If she had, it would make sense to retain as much of the simple
recitative's vocal line as possible. (Mozart's letters concerning the rehearsals for
Idomeneo,for example, show that separate recitative rehearsals were held).3
Although the recitative does incorporate some techniques found in Mozart, the
music deviates from the composer's customary procedures in a number of ways.
First, the amount of unison writing in the orchestra would be extremely unusual for
do contain unison passages, including
Mozart. A number of Mozart's accompagnati
the above-mentioned accompagnato
added to Don Giovanni.But in most cases unison
orchestral passages are brief (two measures or less) or the unison is 'approximate':
the lower strings have a simplified version of the violins' line. In the recitative in
question, however, unison becomes the persistent texture.
Reiterated chords and arpeggios in the same inversion (mm. 7-8, 15-18, 21 and
30-1) also differs from Mozart's standard practice; the choice not to shift to a higher
pitch after the text 'io corro' (m. 31) seems particularly uncharacteristic. Similar
which precedes 'Aprite un po' quegl' occhi' (Figaro
unison figures in the accompagnato
No. 27), for example, change inversion, as do most of Mozart's brief orchestral
punctuations in accompagnati.
The recitative preceding 'Vado ma dove' also lacks one of Mozart's favorite
progressions. Practically all of Mozart's accompanied recitatives incorporate a key
relationship described by the composer in his famous letter concerning Die
Enuiihrung.To set Osmin's rage, Mozart employed a modulation that, he argued,
went beyond the normal 'bounds of order, moderation, and propriety,' but not to
the point of offending the listener:

in 18.Jahrhundert:
derOperaSeria
Tur Tradition
Untersuchungen
Helga Luhning, Titus-Vertonungen
vonHasse bisMozart(Laaber, 1983), 322-4. For a good summaryof her findings, see John
Rice, W A. Mozart:La clemenzadi Tito(Cambridge, 1991), 71-2.
3 W.
A. Mozart, to Leopold Mozart, 30 December 1780. TheLettersof MozartandHis Family,
rev. ed. Emily Anderson (New York, 1989), 701. See also Leopold Mozart's letters of
12 December 1772 and 18 December 1772 concerning LucioSilla.Ietters, 220-221.

This content downloaded from 193.144.2.35 on Mon, 26 Jan 2015 16:38:45 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Mozart or not? The musical evidence

53

so I have not chosen a key remote from F (in which the ariais written) but one related to
it - not the nearest, D minor, but the more remote A minor.4
This modulation - from the prevailing tonic to the relative major or minor of its
dominant or subdominant - required justification in the context of an aria, but it
was normal, almost de rigueur,in Mozart's orchestrally accompanied recitatives.5
Indeed, Mozart used this 'Osmin progression' to vacillate between major and minor
in the majority of his accompagnati.
The recitative inserted into II burbero,in contrast,
does not mix the two modes; instead it clearly divides into minor and major
sections. Its only remote modulation remains in the same mode (B flat major to G
major, mm. 14-21). In addition, Mozart's settings of similar dramatic situations tend
to use more diminished chords than this example.
In many respects, then, the recitative differs from Mozart's standard practices.
Link's hypothesis that the composer wrote the passage in haste during a rehearsal
might account for these deviations. If it is by Mozart, it appears that he did not take
time to polish it.
But if, as the NMA argues, Mozart is not the author, then who did compose the
accompanied recitative?6 The musical and manuscript evidence suggest two other
scenarios. Perhaps Mozart entrusted its composition to one of his pupils; it is also
possible that one of the apprentices at the Burgtheater composed the passage.
Learning to compose both simple and orchestrally accompanied recitatives was part
of a composer's training. Beethoven's composition lessons with Salieri, for instance,
included writing and revising accompagnati.7
Scholars have long believed that Mozart's
student Sussmayr composed the simple recitatives of La clemengadi Tito. (All of that
opera's orchestrally accompanied recitatives, however, are in Mozart's hand).8 If
one of Mozart's students or an apprentice participated in the process, that could
explain the passage's placement in the manuscript, as well as both its resemblance
to and differences from Mozart's musical style. The composer Joseph Weigl
(1766-1846) would be a likely candidate. Weigl served as a repetiteur at the
Burgtheater from 1785 to 1789 and worked closely with Mozart on the 1788
production of Don Giovanni.As an apprentice, Weigl would have had regular contact
4
5

W. A. Mozart to Leopold Mozart, 26 September 1781, Letters,769.

For more detail about the use of this progression in Mozart's accompanied recitatives, see
Laurel E. Zeiss, 'Accompanied Recitative in Mozart's Operas: "The chefd'oeuvre
of the
Composer's Art."' Ph.D. diss. (University of North Carolina, 1999), 54-8.
The NMA disputes Link's claim on stylistic grounds. Dietrich Berke, Faye Ferguson and
News [WWWpage], availableat www.nma.at/german/
Wolfgang Rehm, Neue Mogart-Ausgabe
News, Date accessed, 31 March 2000.
Beethoven also thoroughly studied Sulzer and Schulz's article on recitativein the Allgemeine
TheoriederschonenKinste.The essay contains numerous musical excerpts of weak and strong
recitative-writingwhich Beethoven copied into his sketchbooks along with portions of the
article. RichardA. Kramer, 'Beethoven and Carl Heinrich Graun,' in Beethoven
Studies,
ed. Alan Tyson (New York, 1973), 18-27 and 34-7.
The simple recitativesare not in the autographand none survives in Mozart's hand. Franz
di Tito,by W. A. Mozart, NeueAusgabesimtlicherWerke,
Giegling, foreword to La clemenna
Series 11/5: Biihnenwerke:
OpernundSingspiele
(Kassel, 1970), viii-xi and xvi; Alan Tyson, 'La
di Titoand its Chronology,' in Mozart:Studiesof theAutographScores(Cambridge,
clemenga
Mass., 1987), 49, 52-6; Franz Giegling, 'Zu den Rezitativen von Mozarts Oper "Titus",'
MoTart-Jahrbuch
(1967), 121-6.

This content downloaded from 193.144.2.35 on Mon, 26 Jan 2015 16:38:45 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

LaurelE. Zeiss

54

with Villeneuve, Mozart, and the copyists involved, as well as access to the theater's
scores.9
Whoever composed the accompagnatounderstood the conventions guiding the
deployment of the genre. As Link notes, the libretto's emotionally charged broken
and the dramatic
sentences would have acted as signals to create an accompagnato,
situation also would have suggested this. The orchestra's entrance underscoring
Lucilla's shock has parallels elsewhere in the repertoire, including in Mozart's
works.10 The genre was also used in scenes of recognition - the movement from
ignorance to awareness.11 In this case, Lucilla discovers the reason behind her
husband's strange behavior and realizes that she has unwittingly played a role in
their impending financial disgrace. The person who wrote the accompagnatowhether it was Mozart or someone else - chose to override Martin's decision to
ignore these poetic and dramatic conventions and brought the scene more in line
with late eighteenth-century recitative practices.
9

Elizabeth Norman McKay, s.v. 'Weigl, Joseph' in The New GroveDictionary of Opera, ed.

Stanley Sadie (London, 1992); Rudolph Angermiiller,'Zwei Selbstbiographienvon Joseph

10 Weigl (1766-1846),'

DeutschesJahrbuchder Musikwissenschaft(1971), 46-85, esp. 54.

Such as Ferrando'sshock that Dorabella has given Guglielmo his portrait, for example,
during the dialogue that precedes 'Donne mie' (Cosi No. 26). An example of a more
that precedes 'Or sai chi l'onore' in Don Giovanni(No. 10).
serious nature is the accompagnato
1 For a
study of recognition in Mozart's operas, see Jessica A. Waldoff, 'The Music of
Recognition in Mozart's Operas,' Ph.D. diss. (Cornell University, 1995). For a discussion of
the association between recognition and accompagnato,
see Zeiss, 'Accompanied Recitative'
(n. 5), 205-12.

This content downloaded from 193.144.2.35 on Mon, 26 Jan 2015 16:38:45 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions