V08172

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Candidate no.

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Mozart in Vienna

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(e.g. 5AABC123 )

6AAMS356

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Mozart in Vienna - Reading Journal

Giorgio Pestelli, The Age of Mozart and Beethoven, (Cambridge, 1984), 136-66.
This essay provided a biographical account of Mozart's life with emphasis on the
cause and the result of Mozart's independent musicianship. Pestelli suggested that Mozart

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was not very successful as an independent musician at his time based on the declination of his
income and the limited success of his operas. (146) Pestelli attributed the above factors to
Mozart's incapability as an entrepreneur (146) and the brevity of his life, which led to limited
notability (147) at his time. While Pestelli's account pretty much concur with the common
impression of Mozart's life, one must be critical while reading biographical readings about
Mozart. For example, Pestelli suggested that Mozart became an independent musician by
choice (142), however, the idea of Mozart the great 'choosing' to work for commission
instead for court is questionable, as Pestelli himself presented the possibility of a
disagreement between Mozart and the archbishop leading to Mozart's departure from his
court position. (143)
Pestelli commented that Mozart's life 'developed twice as quickly as normal' and
derived his conclusion that Mozart repertoire was completed and was perfected by the time of
Mozart's death instead of being cut short abruptly. (148) Consequently, Pestelli argued that
the maturity of Mozart's pieces was developed in chronological order. For instance, Pestelli
attributed the gravity of Mozart's Sinfonia concertante K364 to Mozart's return to Salzburg
from Mannheim. (152) Also, Pestelli believed that the 'clear division between good and evil'
in Figaro and Don Giovanni (159) was driven by Mozart's encounter with the freemasonry
(154). It is my opinion that Pestelli had over-romanticised Mozart's life. While the
chronology of Mozart's life could be valuable to musical interpretation, it could also lead us
to over-read Mozart's music if we connect every one of his pieces to a particular event in his
life.
Dorothea Link, Mozart in Vienna, The Cambridge Companion to Mozart, ed. S. Keefe,
(Cambridge, 2003), 22-34.

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Link's article described the musical employment environment in Vienna in 1780s and
how Mozart made a living in Vienna. Link suggested that the court was the best employer in
Vienna in 1780s based on the pension and stability it provided. (22) Although Mozart
apparently received less pension than his rival Salieri during the time they both worked for
the court, Mozart's salary and position had risen significantly faster than his peers. (23) Link
stated that Mozart was also employed by the German spoken theatre to compose Singspiel in
the 1780s. On the other hand, Link also pointed out that Mozart was involved in writing
Italian opera buffas, including Le nozze di Figaro and Don Giovanni with Da Ponte's libretto.
(25) Link concluded that the fertility of Mozart's Opera in the early 1780s suggested they
were not marginalised, but supported by the Emperior and the court theatre. (26) However, as
Link suggested, the church reformation in 1783 to limit church spending had a devastating
effect on the demand of new operas. (28)
Mozart was also notably a freelancer. Despite Mozart's unwillingness of being a
music teacher, being turned down as a keyboard teacher to Princess Elisabeth von
Wurttemberg as a full-time appointment, Mozart had no choice but to obtain private students.
(28-9) Mozart also struggled to organise his own concert until 1783 after arriving Vienna for
two years, but was then able to have a streak of performances throughout the decade, which
contributed greatly to his income. (30) Another way that Mozart made money was by
publishing his own music. Knowing that the publishers would have taken a big chunk of
commissions out of his profit, Mozart published his own works during his years in Vienna.
(31) In conclusion, Link suggested that with the support of the European noble families,
Mozart was actually doing quite well as a musician in Vienna in the 1780s. (32-3)
W.A. Mozart, Mozart. A Life in Letters, ed. Cliff Eisen, (London, 2006), 398-533.

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This a collection of letters written by Wolfgang Mozart to his father Leopold during
the years of 1781-1783. These letters were believed to be written upon Leopold's return to
Salzburg after seeing the premiere of Idomeneo in Munich while Mozart was in Vienna with
Archbishop Colloredo. What struck me the most in these letters was the amount of gossip in
them. In the majority of the content in these letters, Mozart expressed his impression of his
acquaintances in Vienna to his father. The tone of these letters were more conversational than
proper. Although Leopold's response to Wolfgang's letters are missing, from what I've read in
Wolfgang's letters, the tone of these letters challenged my belief of Leopold being an
extremely authoritive figure to his son, as portrayed in many movies and essays. In his letter
to his father written on 28 April 1781, Wolfgang seemed to be extremely excited to go back
to Salzburg to see Leopold. Admittedly, we cannot take Wolfgang's letter to his father as the
definite truth, he could have written it to be cheeky, or it could be a matter of translation.
It is also interesting to see how Mozart deal with discouragement and people's
disregard to his talent. For example, in his letter to Leopold written on 9 May 1781, Wolfgang
claimed that he had been a 'happy day' for him because he had been fired by the Salzburg
court. Instead of taking 'happy' literally, I think Wolfgang really meant he would not have
stayed knowing that he was so disrespected and unappreciated in the court. Again, he could
also have exaggerated how horribly he had been treated by the court to spare the
embarrassment of being fired. These letters reminded me that Mozart was once a young
musician seeking approval and guidance not only from his father, but also from his
acquaintances.

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D. Grayson, 'Twentieth-Century theories of Mozart's concerto form', W. A. Mozart: Piano

Concertos no. 20 in D minor K466 and no. 21 in C major K467, (Cambridge, 1998), 11-30.
This essay summarises some scholars' view on concerto/sonata form. Grayson began
by introducing Donald Francis Tovey's view, where the prestige status of the classical
concerto form was a misunderstanding due to extensive academic interpretation, and that
most of Mozart's work did not follow the alleged concerto form perfectly. (11) Instead, Tovey
believed that concerto form was a principle that allows adaptation for the 'best effect
expressible'.(12) He also suggested that the function of the first ritornello is to draw attention
to the 'equality' of the soloist and the tutti; even though the solo voice is weaker in volume, it
is often more active and eloquent. (12)
Tovey's 'organic-generative concept of form' is inherited by Charles Rosen. Rosen
argued that the essence of concerto form is the suspension of the entrance of the soloist's
passages, thus, the cadences of the ritornello and solo passages are important.(15) He also
drew an analogy between the second solo in concerto form and the first theme in dominant or
a new second theme in sonata form. (18) Although Rosen did not endorse a definite structure
of concerto form, his own view on concerto form was highly analytical and structural. (19)
To satisfy the need of both the 'generative' and the 'conformational' idea of concerto
form, Leeson and Levin attempted to provide an objective survey-like analysis on Mozart's
concertos. With an almost scientific analysis, Leeson and Levin concluded that Mozart's first
movements generally contain a 'proportion' that identifies the structural sections, 'thematic
patterns in each section' and 'thematic coherence' among sections. (20) Grayson, then,
introduced Bond's view that neither the conformational approach of finding stereotypical
patterns and identifying deviations of form nor the generative approach of 'analysing a work
entirely "from within" is sufficient in musical analysis. (21)

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Mary Hunter, Mozarts Operas. A Companion (London, 2008), 110-157.

Opera Seria, according the Hunter, are ritualistic and often contain ethical lessons.
Opera seria rooted from 1690s when comic and serious elements merged and the importance
of staging was introduced to operas. Hunter pointed out the librettist Metastasio's works were
so successful that his texts became the basic template for opera seria, where the opera would
be set in the high society of an ancient civilisation. (2) Mozart's La clemenza di Tito was an
example of the adoption of Metastasio's text. The plot features the struggle of a Roman
emperor's public and private life, which demonstrates the bipolar nature of most characters in
opera seria. (3) Hunter also stated that the Metastasian operas followed the structure of a
series of recitatives featuring some characters' dialogue followed by an exit aria upon a
character's departure.(5) The lead characters would get a larger number of arias than the
supporting characters.(5) Conventionally, there were rarely any roles written for bass singers
in opera seria. (6) However, Mozart wrote the role Publio for a bass voice. Hunter suggested
that Mozart's choice of introducing bass singers in opera seria led to the switch of a castrato
being a powerful male to being a youthful role. (6)
According to Hunter, da capo arias in opera seria were often written for specific
singers, as such, the singers had a certain amount of control of how the aria should be
written. (6) Because of opera seria's high-class audience, these operas are usually highly
ornamented in Rococo style. (8) Also, the plots are also drawn from notable and cultured
backgroun liek Greek myths and tragedy. (8) Hunter pointed out the reformation of opera
seria starting from 1760s were aimed at Metastasio. (8) The reformists, including Gluck,
wished to subside the importance of music under the texts and establish the composers'
ultimate control of who the arias should be written. (8) Hunter argued that La clemenza di
Tito was an beneficiary of the reformist based on the fact that musical forms were
manipulated flexibly in order to emphasize the text. (9)
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Singspiel texturally means drama with song. Hunter pointed out that were two types
of singspiel in 18th century. Firstly, the singspiel that rooted in northern Germany endorced
by Hiller and Weisse, aiming to provide middle-class German with entertainment in their
native language. The second type of singspiel was found in Vienna with the goal of
translating works from other languages to German and was more technically virtuoso. (1)
Although North German Singspiel had the ambition of matching Italian or French operas,
Viennese Singspiel seemed to be more influential probably because of Vienna's history of
being an international city. (3) Mozart was more familiar with the Viennese singspiel, which
found its root in Jesuit drama, an operatic, religious drama that edify morality. Viennese
singspiel inherited Jesuit drama's tradition of improvised comedy. (2)
The rise of Singspiel was a result of Joseph II's plan of educating his citizens by
playing German-language theatre in 1778. (3) Under the direction of Gottlieb Stephanie, the
general form of Singspiel was set, where the numbers were evenly distributed to the singers
and each number was alternated with dialogues. (5) However, with the lack of suitable
repertory, the Singspiel company was dissolved in 1783. (5) In such circumstances, several
private Singspiel companies had risen, where Mozart produced The Magic Flute in 1786. (6)

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Opera buffa was a type of Italian opera that adopts recitative instead of spoken dialogue with
a comical sense, usually contains three acts. It was most popular in late 18th century and was
usually set in middle or lower class society. (1) Opera buffa was defined negatively from
opera seria; while opera seria was refined and high-class, opera buffa inherited the comic and
lower-class tradition from intermezzo and Neapolitan comic operas. (2)
Librettist, Carlo Goldoni, believed that the comic characters should be based in
'human truth' instead of the shallow qualities of commedia.(2) His idea of unveiling human
vices on stage and letting the audience mock or ridicule the vices almost resembles the
fundamental value of tragedies. (3) Since Goldoni's characters were often sentimentalised and
sympathetic, they required a wider range of musical forms to articulate their individuality. (4)
Thus, the setting of texts in opera buffa was a lot more flexible than that in oepra seria.(4)
Arias in opera buffa features a wider range of dramatic rhythm to imitate the characters'
internal and natural responses.(6) As such, musical types and riffs like mock-seria aria in
march-like tempo, two-tempo aria were adopted in late 18th century. (6)
Although there were female singers who specialised in singing roles in opera buffa,
there were also castrati acting female roles, especially in Rome, where female singers were
banned. (7) Opera buffa performances were year-long, but they were mainly associated with
carnivals. (8)
Mozart's opera buffa were most influential in Vienna in his time. Opera buffa was
shortly banned between 1780 to 1783 as an effort to promote German opera, however, it
gained popularity from the court quickly after it was reinstated in 1783. (8-9) Mozart's cooperation with librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte led his opera buffa to success because of the
profound reflection of the society. (9)

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Don Giovanni is an Italian opera set with Lorenzo Da Ponte's libretto, and was premiered in
1787 in Prague. the Plot begins with Don Giovanni's assault towards Donna Anna, which
resulted in him killing the Commendatore (Donna Anna's father) as the Commendatore
confronted him. The death of Commendatore led to a series a event that reveals Don
Giovanni's ruthlessness for his desire to abuse women and get away with it. The opera ended
with a celebration by all the characters after Don Giovanni was dragged to hell by the ghost
of the Commendatore as he refuses to repent. (144-147)
Don Giovanni was commissioned in 1787 for the Prague National Theatre, written
after the success of Figaro. According to Da Ponte's memoire, the topic of the opera was of
his choice. (148) Along with Da Ponte, Mozart made a few amendments for the performance
of Don Giovanni in Vienna a year after its premier to adapt the singers in Vienna. (148)
Although not much of written account of Mozart's compositional process of Don Giovanni is
left, we do know relatively more about the history of Da Ponte's texts. The story of the
'stoned guest' (the Commendatore) first appeared in Spanish folk tune and was adopted as an
one-act play as Giovanni Bertati's Don Giovanni o sia Il convitato di pietra. Da Ponte
reformed the play into two-act and made Donna Elvira's role 'grander' by combining two
female roles in Bertati's play. (149) The success of Don Giovvani could also be attributed to
the popularity of Don Juan's story in the 17th and 18th century Europe.(149) Many side
productions of Mozart's Don Giovanni became popular in 19th century, including the five-act
ballet production in Paris in 1834, in which Don Giovanni had turned into a 'self-reflective
and tortured' character, influenced by E.T.A. Hoffmann's interpretation of Mozart's Don
Giovanni. (150)
Hunter pointed out that Don Giovanni, as a character, could be a symbol of something
greater. She introduced Kierkegaard's view of Don Juan being an idea of energy and life
instead of simplly being an individual character. (151) Hoffmann believed that Don Giovanni
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is a demonic personification of a soul that can never be satisfied, with the support of the
biblical reference of heaven and hell in the story. (152) Charles Russell explained that
audience read Don Giovanni spiritually despite his seemingly ordinary crimes was based on
the fact that Don Juan lives in every of us, that we all have his unquenchable desires deep
inside. (153) Hunter pointed out the potential cosmic reading of the ending of the opera: with
Don Giovanni gone, the society seemed to have a better chance to have a bright future.
However, she also admitted that it's equally possible that the ending was merely Mozart's
plan of ensuring a splendid ending. (156)
P. Branscombe, Freemasonry in The Cambridge Mozart Encyclopedia (Cambridge, 2006),
176-81.
Freemasonry is a group of craftsmen who sworn to protect the secret of the crafts. to
assist each other in crisis, and to promote 'brotherly love and charity'. It originated in
medieval Scotland, but was institutionalised in England in 1717, and was then, quickly
established throughout Europe. (177)
Branscombe introduced the early history of freemasonry in Vienna in the 1770s, and
Mozart's initiation to a small lodge 'Beneficience' in 1784. Mozart was evidently very
involved in the brotherhood according to the lodge records. (179) Branscombe pointed out
some pieces that Mozart composed for masonic events, including K469, which Mozart wrote
for his father's promotion to Fellow Craft, Cantata K471 Die Maurerfreude, composed for the
Born's ennoblement. (180)

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