HOW ACCURATE WAS THE MOVIE "AMADEUS?" feat. Did You Know?

 Tom Hulce as Mozart in Milos Foreman's "Amadeus"

Aside from the obvious liberties taken in the creating of that otherwise sublime film (Salieri’s involvement with Mozart and his Oeuvre), many viewers ostensibly took issue with writer Peter Shaffer's rather rococo depiction of Mozart’s character - with critics claiming he was inaccurately portrayed as a buffoon with crude humor. In fact, this facet of the Composer’s demeanor was actually true! A not insignificant amount of letters, written by Wolfgang Mozart and by the Mozart family were kept preserved by the composers father, Leopold. Originally published circa 1962 in a whopping seven volumes, they display a humor at best scatological, at worst, inappropriately suggestive and filled to the brim with exquisite word play (word reversals, and my personal favorite (as a budding yet amateur translator of libretti myself) - mixing the romance languages together in one letter). This humor, including, surprisingly, the scatological humor, was shared by other members of the Mozart family, including Wolfgang’s mother!
 
Take, for example, this excerpt from “Mozart’s Letters, Mozart’s Life”, as translated by Robert Spaethling (written by the composer while in Manheim to his cousin, Maria Anna Thekla Mozart back in Augsburg, dated 5th of November, 1777) - and bear in mind, this is the TAME stuff! (*Note the letters to his mother, and some additional letters written in the same vein to his cousin I have not included here due to their graphic nature. I am quoting this otherwise tame example in the interest of ‘decency’).

“...Now I must relate to you a sad story that happened just this minute. As I am in the middle of my best writing, I hear a noise in the street. I start writing - get up, go to the window - and - the noise is gone - I sit down again, start writing once more-I have barely written words when I hear the noise again - I rise - but as I rise, I can hear something but very faint - it smells like something burning - wherever I go it stinks, when I look out the window, the smell goes away, when I turn my head back to the room, the smell comes back - finally, My Mama says to me: I bet you let one go? - I don’t think so, Mama. yes, yes, I’m quite certain. I put it to the test, stick my finger in my *** then put it to my nose, and-Ecce Provatum est! Mama was right! Now farewell, I kiss you 10000 times and I remain as always your
old young Sauschwanz,
Wolfgang Amadé Rosenkranz

From us two Travellers a thousand
Regards to my uncle and aunt.

To every good friend I send
My greet feet; addio nitwit...”


For more "Amadeus" myth busting, click here. 
 

Did you know?

 

Rock n' roll legend Mick Jagger of The Rolling Stones auditioned for the role of Mozart in Miloš Forman's masterpiece Amadeus?*

In an add-on documentary to the DVD release of the film, titled "The Making of Amadeus," the celebrated director admits taking in the rehearsals of several famous applicants (out of some 1400+ total), many of them vying for the coveted role.

In the video's backdrop (seen at 8:56 in the clip below), the film's official shooting log is overlaid onto the screen. Jagger's name appears twice, under “rehearsals” for the role of Mozart – describing the hopeful 'actor' as having read in his audition the character's lines on pages 68-70 of the official transcript.

Mention of the failed audition made the pages of Rolling Stone magazine that same year, shortly after Jagger lost out on the part to American actor Tom Hulce. That interview can be read in its entirety here.

Speaking to the interviewer of the Amadeus documentary, Forman admitted:

 “ I don't want to see known faces - we don't need stars, we don't need big names - we have Mozart and his music." 

Indeed!

*Interestingly enough, the role of Mozart was not Jagger's first associated attempt at realising on the silver screen the life and exploits of a western classical music icon - his name floated among executives filming the 1975 Franz Liszt surrealist/quasi-biopic "Lisztomania," directed by English filmmaker Ken Russell. The role eventually went to vocalist Roger Daltrey of the Who. 

Speaking to Rolling Stone magazine following his rejection for the role of Mozart, Jagger quipped: “You have to have your nose to the ground for what parts are going around the major studios, which are very few. They’re mostly written with some guy in mind, and you only get the part if he gets ill or something." 




-Rose.

UPDATE ON "THE MODERN RE-IMAGINING" OF MOZART'S THE MAGIC FLUTE (FILM)

A surprise update on the upcoming theatrical release inspired by Mozart's prized 1791 opera, Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute) has been announced: the addition to the cast of F. Murray Abraham, the legendary American actor who once played the role of Antonio Salieri in the hugely successful film adaptation of Peter Shaffer's quasi-biopic play on Mozart, "Amadeus," (dir. Miloš Forman) for which Abraham won the Academy Award for Best Actor as the musical nemesis and self-deluded assassin of Mozart. 

The addition of Abraham to the cast of the upcoming film (cr. Florian Sigl/exec. prod. Roland Emmerich) may serve to entice Mozart purists who may pre-emptively make the decision to avoid the film due to it's deviation from the opera's original libretto, penned by the German impresario and singer-playwright Emanuel Schikaneder. 

The inclusion of the much beloved actor is a clever draw-in to the critics who, in the mid 1980's and 1990's at first detested Forman's Amadeus for its extensive use of liberties regarding Mozart's life, but who later accepted the film as a classic following the publication of more modern scholarship which included the release of the composers' own unbowdlerized correspondence, and with additional attention paid to his private collaborations with other musicians in both the creation and performance of bawdy canons. (Strangely enough, early critics of the film focused less vitriol on the age old, long debunked theory of Salieri poisoning his rival - a rumor which actually did appear in the press immediately following Mozart's demise^[1] - but more with the composers' potty mouth and rampant flatulence).

While Emmerich's The Magic Flute is expected to take on an extreme deviation from the opera's plot by introducing new characters (chiefly, a 17-year old aspiring singer and boarding school student, who "stumbles along a century old passageway" that will lead into the "world of Mozart's Magic Flute"^[2] and with the story line being set in twenty first century Europe, the decision to include Abraham, an actor much beloved for his fictional role in a not-so-accurate retelling of Mozart's death may serve to encourage older fans who once pooh-poohed "Amadeus" to view the film with the expectation already in mind that the film will be based purely on entertaining audiences, and perhaps with the goal of drawing in younger audiences unfamiliar with Mozart to further explore the life of the composer and his music.

According to IMDB, Abraham has been cast in the role of one "Dr. Longbow" (presumably a professor/conductor). Also joining the cast in the upcoming film are soprano Sabiene Devieilhe, tenor Rolando Villazón, and bass Morris Robinson. The forthcoming screen adaptation of The Magic Flute is currently in post-production with an as-yet unannounced date of theatrical release, but is expected to premiere sometime during the winter season. 

Below: Listen to a heart-wrenching reading of Peter Shaffer's Amadeus by Academy Award Winning Actor F. Murray Abraham. Achingly beautiful with light touches of gaiety, Shaffer's play would later be adapted into Forman's film of the same name. The latter of which takes on, at times, a more frivolous tone as both composers share equally the spotlight.

Salieri is both narrator and protagonist in Shaffer's original play, and Abraham excels in his reading of the tale, blending equally humor with angst - both egotistical and spiritual. Shaffer's "Salieri" invites the audience to listen to the composer's regaling of his own undoing, marred by an incessant need for vindication, leading up to his final "confession," and, ultimately, to a fate worse than - or perhaps greater than (at least in the mind of the insane former musician) - death itself. (2006, BBC Radio Drama):

---

^[1] See: Footnotes, https://unravelingmusicalmyths.blogspot.com/2018/12/introducing-new-series-mozart-files.html.

This myth was based on the alleged utterance of guilt by an insane Salieri whilst in asylum, who purportedly told caregivers he had "poisoned" Mozart. This rumor was widely circulated in the press following Mozart's death in 1791, leading to the mentally unstable composers' caregivers issuing a rebuttal in print (see: footnotes, https://unravelingmusicalmyths.blogspot.com/2018/12/introducing-new-series-mozart-files.html), denying their patient ever uttered such a statement.

The rumor proved popular throughout the ages however, making it in to the writing books of Ludwig van Beethoven, and inspiring a one-act play by Alexander Pushkin (Mozart & Salieri, written 1830, first published in print in 1832), a subsequent one act opera by Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov in 1897 (which used Pushkin's verse drama as the major source for the works' libretto), followed by a play by the aforementioned Shaffer in 1979, and finally, with Forman's blockbuster hit, Amadeus in 1984. See: https://unravelingmusicalmyths.blogspot.com/2019/05/new-series-unraveling-musical-myths-art.html

^[2] See: end of Footnotes, https://unravelingmusicalmyths.blogspot.com/2018/12/remembering-wolfgang-amade-mozart-27.html ; and "'The Magic Flute': Modern Reimagining of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Opera Acquired" (Bastos, Margarida, Collider, online, 08 June, 2022) 

-Rose.

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THE FORGOTTEN SON: MOZART’S YOUNGEST, FRANZ XAVER ROUTINELY CHIDED BY CONSTANZE, TAUGHT UNDER ANTONIO SALIERI – LIFE, LETTERS AND WORKS ON DISPLAY AT SALZBURG MOZARTEUM

Constanze Mozart (née Weber), widow of Wolfgang Amadé

"A child that disappoints their parents... will encounter disgrace and misery. Let these words be a warning to my lovely (son)."

Those heavy handed words were written in a private exchange, from mother to son, at Salzburg in 1801.

Undeniably harsh and exceedingly expectatious, Constanze’s – the widow Mozart – letter of fair warning to her youngest son, Franz Xaver, 9, is just one of the fascinating surviving artifacts currently on display at Salzburg’s Mozarteum in a special exhibition honoring the minor composer.

The private correspondence between the domineering mother and assiduous son was donated to the museum foundation in 1844 by the last surviving Mozart – Wolfgang’s second son with Constanze - Karl Thomas, who, unlike his kin and father before him chose a life in politics over composition - around the time of the government official’s death.

Cumulatively, the artifacts provide a unique insight into the private lives of the Mozart family post-Wolfgang. Of unique interest to fans of the iconic composer is the revelation that Franz Xaver, – who was born in 1791, a mere four months prior to his famous father’s passing – would, under the steely guiding hand of his mother, enter the tutelage of one Antonio Salieri – recently recognized Mozart collaborator, and historically (erroneous) assassin.

The widow Mozart (née Weber) fully intended for at least one of her two surviving children to carry on in the spirit of her late husband, and perhaps, even create a legacy for himself as “the next Mozart.” Surely, her motives for Franz Xaver’s success may not have been altogether altruistic: left to inherit her husbands debts following his mysterious and untimely death weeks shy of the Christmas season in 1791, Constanze and her boys would be forced to relocate from their comfortable lodgings into the home of the Weber family. The destitute state of the family soon attracted the attention of the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold II and friends of the late composer, who would set up benefits in her honor. Constanze herself would resort to selling several of Wolfgang’s compositions in the first several years following his death - to the King of Prussia in 1792, and to publisher Johann André of Offenbach in 1799.

Mozart's only surviving sons: Franz
Xaver (L), and Karl Thomas (R), c. 1800

Although she would later marry in 1809 (to a Danish Diplomat no less, and subsequently sell a biography on Wolfgang, co-authored with her beau, Georg Nikolaus von Nissen), by the time Constanze penned this demanding letter to Franz Xaver, it was evident the widow needed to seek out any possible means of procuring a sustainable income just to stay afloat.

Speaking to the press, Mozarteum curator Armin Brinzing noted that Mrs. Mozart wasted no time in getting started. As soon as little Franz Xaver could walk and speak, he was hauled off to study the art of composition and performance:

"At the age of two, she already made him take piano and music theory lessons," he told reporters.

It is believed the widow Constanze was only able to finance her son’s education under the elite professorship of the period (Johann Nepomuk Hummel taught for the boy lessons on the piano, Johann Georg Albrechtsberger on the art of composition, and with Salieri and Abbé Volger (Georg Joseph) providing vocal mentorship) through the generous donations of her former husband’s friends and admirers. The lessons couldn’t have come cheap: Aside from being a notable composer himself, Salieri had also proved himself many times over as a more than capable tutor and vocal coach: he famously mentored Franz Schubert and Ludwig van Beethoven.

In order to cement into the impressionable mind of her young son the notion that failure could never be an option, Mrs. Mozart began to refer to Franz as “Wolfgang Amadeus” – a patronymic employed by the boy Mozart himself, who would sign his manuscripts “Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, son.”

According to letters exchanged between Franz and his brother Karl Thomas, the youngest of the surviving Mozart kin expressed a foreboding and constant feeling of “immense pressure,” indicating to his older sibling that he was “not treated very well at home.”

Such a sad perspective from a half-orphaned lad who was essentially robbed of an otherwise ‘normal’ childhood: young Franz (“Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, son”) forced to endure relentless study until such time as he was stage-ready. This came at age 13, at a packed concert hall in Vienna, where the boy-musician performed "a nice if slightly slow rendition of his father's piano concerto." The performance was met with mixed reviews – according to an editorial in Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung – one of the leading music magazines of the time: "May he never forget that although the name Mozart currently grants him some indulgence, it will place great demands on him later on," with another critic warning the composer “not to rest on his laurels.”

In the end, it would seem Franz Xaver's star would pale in comparison to the blinding glare of his father’s – that most famous of the Mozarts, from then until infinity -Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart...Father.

Although he would experience some success in the Ukraine and across Europe as a tutor and choirmaster – and was lauded for his skills in performing works of his father - Franz’ compositional output failed to impress. From Brinzing: "That last spark of genius was missing in him. He was considered a gifted musician and composer, but not one of the great ones."

The Franz Xaver Exhibition will be on display at the Salzburg Mozarteum from the present through August 2017. For admission information visit the Museum website here.


Listen below to Franz Xaver’s first composition, his Piano Quartet in G-minor, Op.1. Although the video commentary states that Franz penned the Quartet in 1800, it is more likely the composer authored the work in 1802:



Compare Franz Xaver’s 11th year composition above to an 11-year old Wolfgang Amadé (Amadeus) Mozart's recently discovered "Allegro Molto in C major," found in the attic of a recently deceased church music and band leader at Tyrol (Austria) in 2012 (performed at the Mozarteum by pianist Florian Birsak on Mozart's personal fortepiano):




Did You Know?

Franz Xaver as an adult. The minor
composer would perish in 1844 at
the age of 53, leaving behind no
children. Thus, the Mozart family
line would perish with him - and
with elder brother Karl Thomas, who
died 3 years later, also childless.
Wolfgang would once more eclipse
his son - even in death: Franz' epitaph
famously pays homage to the elder:
"May the name of his father be his
epitaph, as his veneration for him
was the essence of his life."

Apparently, Franz was more than aware of his marginal talent in contrast to his father’s – whether the fact was rooted in public perception and the lackluster critical response received for his works, or simply by the psychological abuse and the emasculation the musician undoubtedly carried with him from childhood thanks to a domineering mother – for in 1842, when asked to compose a piece of music for the unveiling of a monument dedicated to his father at Salzburg, the humble composer outright refused, citing “little ability.” Instead, Franz would combine two compositions of his father's – both of which the senior Mozart left unfinished prior to his death – into a cantata, which he performed at the inauguration.

Allegedly, spurned on by the applause received at the unveiling, Franz messengered a signed copy to Emperor Ferdinand I. If the composer meant to impress the imperial ruler, he was sorely mistaken: Ferdinand offered a mere pittance to the musician – and only after having inquired of his advisors as to exactly who Franz Xaver was in the first place!

Legend has it, the official in whom the Emperor queried replied most barbarously: "As everyone knows, the famous father's talent has not been transferred to his son so we should give him some money!"

-Rose.

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FROM OBSCURITY TO LIGHT - CLASSICAL ERA: Martín y Soler, Clementi & Righini

18th Century composer Vicente Martín y Soler

In Profile: VICENTE MARTÍN Y SOLER

This little-known (in modern times) Spanish composer was the delight of 18th century aristocracy and left an indelible artistic footprint across Europe with his selection of ballets in Naples, a slew of opera buffas in Vienna (which he composed with texts from one of the most prolific and beloved librettists of the period, Lorenzo da Ponte (of Mozart fame)) all of which were ravishing triumphs, and finally Martín y Soler would earn a lifetime post at the Court of Catherine the Great at St Petersburg, in 'European Russia', where he would even collaborate on his 1789 Russian-language opera “The Unfortunate Hero Kosmetovich” with the Empress herself, who co-wrote the libretto for the work in a jested affront to her cousin, the reigning King of Sweden, Gustav III. This opera in particular was such a resounding success amongst the Imperial rulers, it is said the Great Princes Alexander and Konstantin could recite the opera from memory alone!

Martín y Soler’s time spent in Vienna was especially fruitful. Later dubbed the “Valencian Mozart”, this contemporary of Wolfgang Mozart and Antonio Salieri and other famed composers of the period (the likes of Joseph Haydn and Christoph Gluck) worked both in tandem, and in competition with, the present era’s most well known artists of the classical period. Although posterity has seen to it that the works of this prolific and immensely talented composer would fade into relative obscurity, Vicente arguably saw more success in the latter part of the 18th century than that of his operatic counterpart, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, when his operas “Una Cosa Rara” and “Il Burbero di Buon Cuore”, both of which premiered at Vienna’s Burgtheater within ten months of each other, outshone Mozart’s epic opera buffa “Le Nozze di Figaro” which would premier in that same year, and which also shared da Ponte as librettist (compare Martín y Soler’s “Una Cosa Rara”, which had it’s premiere in mid November of 1786 and would be shown a whopping 78 times in Vienna, with Mozart’s "Le Nozze di Figaro", which premiered less than six months after Cosa Rara in May with a total of only 9 performances in Austria’s Capital that year).

Catherine the Great, Russia's longest ruling Leader.

Whilst Mozart was still petitioning the Emperor of Austria, Joseph II for a court appointment and brooding over the lack of Imperial support (he would not achieve his much sought after post at the Viennese court until over a year later, at the end of 1787 - as Court Composer, and even then, only to fill the void left by the passing of Christoph Willibald Gluck in November that year, who had previously held the position), Martín y Soler was already making friends in high places. Fresh off the heels of his success with Una Cosa Rara, Vicente would quite rapidly (comparatively speaking) find himself in Russia in late 1788, under the direct employment of another Imperial Ruler in the Empress Catherine the Great. It had taken Wolfgang Mozart some six years to accomplish his goal of a steady post and employment at Court (since his arrival in Vienna in March of 1781, following Joseph II’s accession as ruler of the Habsburg lands following the death of Holy Roman Empress and Archduchess of Austria Maria Theresa). Vicente Martín y Soler had accomplished his tenure to Royalty in less than half that time with scant effort on his part: his works were so valued amongst the European aristocracy, he had actually been summoned to the Russian Court where he held the title Mozart had so long fought for (and that his father Leopold had been fighting for since his son’s first foray into music as a young wunderkind back in Salzburg): "Court Composer "– a title and position Martín y Soler would hold until his death some 18 years later, on January 30, 1806.

It’s high time we rescue this once-beloved composer from the abysmal depths of Western Classical Music Obscurity and place him back amongst the blinding light where he so rightfully belongs. Listen below to the delightful aria "Dolce mi parve un di" from Una Cosa Rara, (this beautiful aria was originally sung by Nancy Storace, the doyenne of 18th century Sopranos).^[1]

The opera in full is available on youtube and is well worth a listen. If the music in the work sounds familiar, it is with good reason. Mozart would later pay tribute to Martín y Soler in 1787 with his opera Don Giovanni, in which Wolfgang would quote^[2] music from Una Cosa Rara at the end of his opera in the ensemble aria “O quanto in sì bel giubilo”. 
  


*Una Cosa Rara is quite significant in yet another way: it featured one of the first stagings in Vienna of a new form of sound and dance at the end of the second act of the opera, in which Martín y Soler had included a short, two-couple waltz - something entirely new to Viennese audiences. It was by all accounts, received most exuberantly amongst operatic circles and Martín y Soler himself would go on to be credited with introducing the waltz to the Austrian Capital (an attribution that would later be adopted - and made famous by - Johann Strauss II in the 19th century).

^[1]Storace was much admired for her vocal prowess amongst the leading composers of the period. She had both song and roles written exclusively for her, and would be cast as the first “Susanna” in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro.

^[2]“Quoting” could imply the direct sampling of music from another compositional source (another artist), by musical theme or in whole; it could also imply a theme on which another composer would perform variations. A composer could also, and often would, “quote” from himself in addition to, or exclusive of, the works of other artists.

OTHER LESSER KNOWN (in modern times) COMPOSERS, CONSIDERED HIGHLY REGARDED IN THEIR DAY (despite what wikipedia says!)

^{Composer & Pianist Muzio Clementi.}

Muzio Clementi, who had a birthday this January 24th, was an immensely well respected composer, pianist and conductor of his day – he was considered to be second only in talent and genius to the internationally celebrated Joseph Haydn, who is still considered one of the greatest musical minds to have ever walked this planet to this very day.

Clementi’s travels would place him among the world's leading musical spheres, where he would find himself in much esteemed company, performing for the Royal likes of the Archduchess and future Queen Consort to the throne of France, one Marie Antoinette during a visit to Paris in 1780 whilst on his European Tour; and at the Imperial Court of Vienna, where he would perform alongside Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart for the French Queen's brother, the Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II of Austria.

Clementi was also an astutely skilled pianist. His innovations on the instrument would influence many contemporaneous and later composers of note that you will almost certainly recognize by name: Giacomo Meyerbeer and Ludwig van Beethoven, just to mention a few.

Certainly, if we can attribute much glory and fanfare to the prolific and mesmerizing works of Meyerbeer and Beethoven, it is seems only right to pay homage to their objet d'inspiration, Muzio Clementi: the spark who lit the flame.

Buon compleanno maestro!



Famed Pianist Vladimir Horowitz plays Clementi's (then) famous Sonata no. V (video 1 of 3).

Composer Vincenzo Righini.

VINCENZO RIGHINI – Let’s set the record straight on this one. Despite being incorrectly cast as an unoriginal thief, this one time Italian choirboy, one time successful tenor (even holding the distinction of membership in the Bustelli Opera troupe in Prague) and eventual composer was highly regarded in Vienna as both a composer and singing teacher and as director of the Austrian Capital’s Italian Opera. He would also serve as Kapellmeister in Mainz and Berlin, and would be appointed the same post of the court theatre in 1811. As we have already seen with Martín y Soler and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, ‘borrowing’ music from other artists, in particular amongst contemporaries, was a well-known practice of the period, and was generally considered to be a high honor and achievement for the sampled musician. There exist plenty of works in all eras of classical music where composers draw on, perform variations on, or directly sample from (including from the works of Righini himself) the compositions of previous or contemporaneous artists whose music they admired.

Righini could count amongst his supporters and peers many of the Classical period’s most noted Composers and performers, even securing for himself a placement amongst Western Classical Music’s elite with a performance of his cantata Il Natale D’Apollo at the highly exclusive Tonkünstler-Societät (the Society of Musicians), a privately run organization founded by Florian Gassmann (the same teacher who had brought Antonio Salieri to the Viennese Court of Emperor Joseph II in 1766) in the effort to support ‘musicians and their families’, and which boasted the works of such well-loved composers as Felix Mendelssohn and Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf and was host to such prolific clientele as Antonio Salieri, Joseph Haydn, Ludwig van Beethoven and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. It’s famed and wealthy patrons included many persons of aristocracy, including the Empress Maria Theresa.

Righini also shares a birthday this month of January, he was born in Bologna on January 22, just five days before Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, in 1756.

What an era!

Buon compleanno!

^{Listen below to the exquisite "Ombra Dolente" from Righini's cantata "Il Natale D'Apollo". This is one of my absolute favorite pieces from this period. 21st century soprano and coloratura diva Diana Damrau can be credited with helping to bring the works of this often overlooked Composer back to the forefront of the mind and ears of modern classical era aficionados.} 



-Rose.

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DECEMBER: THE MONTH OF MOZART!

REMEMBERING WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART

1756 - 5th December, 1791, 12.55 AM, Vienna.

December 5, 2015 marks the 224th annual observance of the passing of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

In the premature hours of the morning in 1791 Vienna, the world lost a talent never seen before or since - a one time wunderkind-turned-virtuoso who forever changed the course and sound of classical music. He may have existed more often than not, a pauper, but in terms of the legacy he left in the annals of music history, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart lived and died a King.

"I went into the kitchen; the fire had gone out. I had to light a candle and make a fire. I was thinking of Mozart constantly. The coffee was ready and the candle was still burning...I stared right at it and I thought to myself, 'I wonder how Mozart is?' and while I was thinking this and staring at the candle, it went out, as if it had never been alight.."

- Sofie, sister of Mozart's wife, Constanze, in the hours leading up to the composer's impending death.




-Rose.

COMPOSERS & PHRENOLOGY

As we have already seen in my posts on Haydn and Bruckner, Beethoven the Johann(es) (Brahms and Strauss II), such megalithic talents would exude not only a mass adoration, but also a lasting curiosity that would prevail even after death – creating an entire industry of quack medicine as contemporaries and later classical aficionados struggled to try to explain the seemingly other-worldly aura of genius that circumnavigated our beloved composers of yore like some sort of mystifying intellectual halo.

"The Anatomist Overtaken by the Watch in Carry'ng Off Miss W--ts in a Hamper," William Austin, 1773

Grave robber Joseph Carl Rosenbaum and his partner in crime Johann Nepomuk Peter attributed the presence of a so-called “organ of tune” – a protrusion of the skull above the brow thought to be indicative of inherent musical genius – on the heads of the great operatic masters of the classical age, not the least of whom was said to possess the ‘feature’ was the composer Joseph Haydn, whose skull Rosenbaum and Peter illegally possessed. 

The 'Brothers in Bumps Three': L to R: Ludwig van Beethoven, (Franz) Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang "Wolfie" Amadeus Mozart.

The composers Ludwig van Beethoven and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart were also a part of the “organ” phenomena, and, based solely on the likeness of both composers in portraiture, both composers found themselves (allegedly, in the case of Mozart) fall victim to the phrenology cult^[1] that had peaked in Europe and across (the) America(s) in the 18th and 19th centuries. 

Even cultural icons were thrown into the mix – Poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe purported to be in possession of both Mozart and Beethoven’s skulls at various times; while other, more sinister hands would cradle the fragmented skull of Beethoven throughout the height of the Second World War and it’s Nazi regime (as documented in Russell Martin's book "Beethoven’s Hair" (link in LIBRARY); also, read a record of travel by author William Meredith on this external link: THE HISTORY OF BEETHOVEN'S SKULL FRAGMENTS). 

Others were more lucky: composer and pianist Franz Schubert’s skull was exhumed at Vienna in 1863, and later re-buried with it’s host after research scientist Gerhard von Breuning documented the following observations: “[The skulls] seemed to reflect the characteristics of the composers’ works. The walls of Beethoven’s skull exhibit strong density and thickness, whereas Schubert’s bones show feminine delicateness."
 

Plaster-casts of the skulls of Franz Schubert, Franz Joseph Haydn & Ludwig van Beethoven; Alois Wittman; Beethoven-Haus, Bonn c. 19th century

Much like in the case of Haydn’s missing skull in the 19th century, Wolfgang Mozart’s cranium is also said to have been the unfortunate object of a nocturnal heist, although in "Wolfie’s" case, the culprit this time was not a wannabe scientist of note but rather, at least according to legend, the gravedigger who worked the grounds of the St. Marx Cemetery in Vienna where Mozart’s body was first laid to rest in one of the burial grounds’ common graves.

Mozart’s celebrated cranium was later said to have been acquired by the venerated anatomist Joseph Hyrtl, who, it is believed attached a note to the skull with the inscription “Musa Vetat Mori” – a promise to the future curator of the heisted skull of it’s supernatural protection: translated, the inscription reads: “The Muse Prevents Death”.

For a period of some 50 years, the skull of the classical icon Mozart could be found on display at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria, who had first acquired, through confidential sources, the skull in 1902. It was later removed from display after public backlash due to its macabre nature – and the fact that the skull was said to haunt those who visited it. Although some damage to the skull, believed to have been caused pre-mortem have been linked to Mozart’s symptoms of headache and dizziness which were experienced by the composer during the final mysterious illness which prematurely took his life, later DNA tests, performed in 2006 (and which used DNA acquired from the cadavers of other members of the Mozart family for comparison) proved problematic. It’s not that the DNA of the alleged skull of Wolfgang Amadeus didn’t match with his kin per-sae – the test would show that the cadaverous members from which the scientists sourced familial DNA proved not to be Mozart DNA at all - opening up a huge can of worms and a giant question mark over the Mozart family tree.

To date, no one knows for certain the whereabouts of Mozart’s skull or whether the tale of it’s “absence” is purely one of folklore, and exhumation is not currently possible: to date, the memorial tablet at the St. Marx Cemetery is but a placeholder – Constanze herself (Mozart’s widow) failed to locate Mozart or his mass grave when she searched for her late husband some 17 years after his death.  A temporary gravestone (where the tablet now stands) was erected in 1855 by the Cemetery in a presumed – yet unconfirmed - location of the grave.

Footnotes:

^[1]The false science that suggested the cranial structure of man dictated both character and personality. Adherents to this now defunct ‘science’ believed the brain to be a segmented ‘organ of the mind’, with each segments (‘mental faculties’) size determined by an individual’s propensity and capacity to convey certain personality traits, which they believed would form on a relatively proportional basis, and which could then, in turn, be determined by the informed observer by “reading” the “bumps and fissures” of the skull.

Navigate the pages in the book below* to read just one of many fascinating treatises on the quack ‘science’ of Phrenology (this one by author Louis Allen Vaught, published in 1902) to learn more about what motivated grave robbers like Rosenbaum and medical ‘scientists’ in the 18th century:

*This book is part of the public domain and is shared legally.

-Rose.

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LIKE MENTOR LIKE PROTÉGÉ: HAYDN & MOZART’S MOST UNCEREMONIOUS – AND MOST VIOLENT – EXITS

(Franz) Joseph Haydn

18th century Austrian composer Franz Joseph Haydn, known by contemporaries as the “Father of the Symphony” experienced most precarious beginnings from within the Classical Music sphere. Having moved away from his parents and family home at the unprecedented early age of six years, young Haydn would take up residence and singing lessons under the tutelage of relative Johann Matthias Frankh, the schoolmaster and choirmaster who lived some 12 km (7.5 miles) away from his parents in the city of Hainburg. Here, Haydn would refine his skill as a vocalist in the local church choir whilst simultaneously taking up the study and practice of harpsichord and violin. He would soon attract the attention of one Georg von Ruetter, director of the great cathedral of Vienna. Ruetter pressed the young musician to enroll as a member of the choir of St. Stephen's.

It seemed the budding young singer was facing the prospect of a most fruitful life within the musical sector, but, much like his later hero Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (whose sticky situation we will learn about below), the hopeful musician also had his share of powerful detractors.

The neophyte Haydn, who was said to possess the gifts of a learned man, nonetheless retained the boyish insouciance brought upon by youth: it would be during a lesson at the Church’s school that a young Haydn would chop off the pigtail of a fellow pupil seated in front of him in class, which brought upon the wrath of both the academy and it’s patron, Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, who angrily denounced the boy and his vocal talents as substandard, declaring “young Haydn sings like a crow!” 

This scandal could not go unpunished, and the sentiment offered forth by the empress forced the hand of the church, who promptly expelled Haydn from both it’s choir and academy – but not before administering to the young composers backside a solid round of flogging!

Enjoy below the tender aria "Del Mio Core Il Voto" from Haydn's L'anima del Filosofo (Soul of the Philosopher); sung by French soprano Patricia Petibon:


This punishment, oddly, would be repeated in the life of contemporaneous Austrian composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, whom Haydn revered above all others at the court of newly installed Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II in March of 1782.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

It would be following the successful premiere of Mozart’s opera seria Idomeneo, which had premiered in Munich the previous year, that word of the gifted composer would reach sufficient enough height for the composer to be summoned to Vienna and the presence of his employer Prince-Archbishop Colloredo of Salzburg, who had been attending the celebrations provided for the accession of Emperor Joseph II to the Austrian throne. Mozart, filled to the brim with an overwhelming sense of confidence following his successful run in Munich (and with perhaps a soupçon of cockiness) fully expected to be presented with and accept commission to perform before the Emperor at the residence of one Countess Thun for a fee equal to half of his annual salary at Salzburg, which Colloredo vetoed. This was an injustice most foul for the young composer – and yet another slap in the face to be added to the already contentious relationship between employer and employee. Mozart felt himself subjected to the standard of living as experienced by the most lowly servant (which composers were generally considered at the time, to be fair), as Colloredo had the audacity to set him up in precarious and dilapidated lodgings at the headquarters of the Teutonic Order, wherein the brooding composer was made forced to dine alongside cooks and valets – a dramatic fall from the graces of Elector Carl Theodor who had previously set up the composer in luxurious surroundings during his journey to Mannheim.

Mozart apparently had decided enough was enough, and, after having been called a "scoundrel" amongst other unappealing pejoratives by the archbishop, stood his ground - threatening to resign as composer to Colloredo should his needs continue to go unobtained, to which the archbishop defiantly refused. Mozart would suffer one more grueling month as little more than a benefit composer performing gratis, before he finally got his wish - with a little more than he asked for to "boot."* (*Those familiar with this anecdote will appreciate this rather drôle pun!)

In a letter dated 9th of June 1781 to his father Leopold back in Salzburg, Mozart describes his most unceremonious firing – not by Colloredo himself - who refused to provide an audience for the composer and instead hid within his private chambers - but rather via proxy (he sent his steward, one Count Arco to do the dirty work):

“[just] as this fellow is forced to hand in his petition himself, instead of granting him access, you throw him out the door and give him a kick in his behind!” 

This statement was to be taken very literally: Mozart was in fact kicked “in the arse” by the Count, which prompted the incensed young composer to pen to his father:

“I care little for Salzburg and not at all for the Archbishop: I shit on both of them!”

But then, Mozart always did have a potty mouth.

Enjoy below Ilia's beautiful aria "Se il padre perdei" from Mozart's Idomeneo; sung by Swiss soprano and Mozart aficionado Edith Mathis under the baton of maestro Karl Böhm:


-Rose.

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REMEMBERING SIR NEVILLE MARRINER: 15 APRIL 1924 – 2 OCTOBER 2016

A legend has sadly passed: Sir Neville Marriner, British conductor and Founder / President of the illustrious chamber orchestra known as the Academy of St Martin in the Fields quietly left this musical sphere in the somnolent hours of Sunday October 2, 2016 at his home in London at the advanced age of 92 years.

Marriner, arguably one of the most important and influential conductors of the present generation, began a most notable musical career as violinist for the LSO immediately following the outbreak of WWII – a turbulent period in which the then 17-year-old Lincoln native briefly left his studies at the Royal College of Music in London to serve in a reconnaissance role in the British Army before returning to the college and eventually to the much esteemed Paris Conservatoire to continue his studies in 1943 following injuries sustained whilst serving.

By 1958 Marriner had founded the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, a historically informed Chamber Orchestra - originally envisioned for performing and recording the baroque repertoire – to substantial critical acclaim.

The musician-turned-conductor Neville Marriner would become Sir Neville in 1985 after he was officially Knighted for his service to music.

Coincidentally, the honor bestowed to the newly inducted chevalier came just one year after the release of the smash-hit period-piece Amadeus – an American drama film based on British playwright Peter Shaffer’s 1979 stage play of the same name which set to the movie screen an account of the mythical legend of the Mozart-Salieri liaison dangereuse.

It would be through this most excellent and highly entertaining quasi-biopic that thousands of newcomers to the world of Classical Music would become introduced to composers Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Antonio Salieri - and indeed the art form of Classical Music and Opera itself - though Sir Neville’s most enduring contribution to the film’s soundtrack: one was almost guaranteed to come away from the film humming a newly familiar tune – sparking a further interest into music's most fascinating genre.

As Classical Music fans, we are forever indebted to his service.

“It is miraculous:”

TODAY IN CLASSICAL MUSIC HISTORY – JANUARY 27, 1756: THE BIRTH OF MOZART: A ‘MIRACLE' CHILD IN EVERY SENSE OF THE WORD feat. Did You Know?

Above: a portrait of a young boy once thought to be Mozart
is now believed by leading scholars to have no association
with the Salzburgian wonder.

It would be on this January day 261 years ago that miracle child Joannes Chrisostomus Wolfgang Gottlieb Mozart (later baptized on the 28th of January as Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart – known to the musical sphere as Wolfgang Amadé* Mozart) would make his grand entrance into this world – and into his father’s private flat – at 8 o’clock in the evening at No. 9, Getreidegasse, the Mozart family home in Salzburg.

It would be the seventh time violinist Leopold Mozart and his wife Maria Anna introduced into the world a potential future prodigy – although little Joannes Chrisostomus would be the only male offspring of the couple to survive. He would join the Mozart clan as brother to big sister Maria Anna (Nannerl), who was then 4 (and the couple's only surviving daugther).

Young Mozart’s very existence and survival into adulthood would prove to be a miracle in every sense of the word: the young wunderkind is reported to have already been able to pick out small chords on the harpsichord by the age of three, and, according to the private writings of his father Leopold, was able to sight-read a complicated piece of music - “mastering” the composition at his keyboard in just “thirty minutes” - by the age of four. By five, little Amadeus (the Latin form of the French Amadé – Mozart’s preferred spelling* – from the Greek Theophilus, which, translated into English, reads quite aptly [one] “loved by God”) was performing before the prestigious University of Salzburg, his father’s alma mater, no less.

Today, Unraveling Musical Myths - and the greater musical sphere - celebrates the birth and the life of Western Classical Music’s foremost icon, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Herr Mozart is an undisputed composer favorite of the author of Unraveling Musical Myths, and as such, has been featured extensively on this blog.

To find out where the young musical wunderkind went from here, feel free to peruse the Mozart Archives, which covers the life, times, exploits, triumphs, and heartaches of this most gifted composer - from his humble birth on the 3rd floor of his parents home to his final repose at his marital residence in Vienna 35 years later in December 1791 - and discover along the way his most majestic oeuvre:

Alleluia*, from Mozart’s Regina Coeli, K. 185; Emma Kirkby and the Westminster Cathedral Boys Choir under maestro Christopher Hogwood (accompanied by The Academy of Ancient Music) *Queued at 10:43:



Fun Fact!

Name breakdown:

Portrait of a Young Boy believed to be Mozart.

Joannes Chrisostomus Wolfgang Gottlieb Mozart was so named after the child was born on the ‘feast’ day of St. John Chrysostom – and it is from this ‘saint’ the boy acquired the Johannes (John) Chrisostomus/Chrysostomus…

the name Wolfgang (or, “Wolfrl” as he was lovingly called by his family), was given to the newborn babe by Leopold, after his father-in-law, Wolfgang Nikolaus.

“Gottlieb,” German for loved [by] God, took the place of the Greek “Theophilus” form. According to extensive amounts of correspondence penned by Mozart which survives, it would become apparent to fans of the composer that Mozart in fact preferred the French translation (Amadè) of the Latin form of Theophilus – Amadeus – however Mozart is known to have also referred to himself by the Latin spelling.

“Mozart,” is, of course, the family name.

Did You Know?

The home in which Mozart was born, located at No. 9, Getreidegasse in Salzburg, Austria - now a shrine and monument to the composer - today serves as one of the most patronized museums in the world.

For more information on admission fees, and for a virtual peek into the home, visit mozarteum.at. 

-Rose.

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DID MOZART'S GENIUS GO UNAPPRECIATED IN LIFE?

This is partly true, but must be placed into context as to the role of a musician at the time Mozart lived. The age of glorification of the musical artist, unfortunately, had not yet dawned in Europe. Musicians, in this case, Composers - were seen not so much as entertainers of luxury, but rather as servants. It was remarkably difficult to secure a steady income or wealth as a composer, even in the 18th century, without securing an appointment, preferably a court appointment,** and even then, it had to promise a salary, a pension - in addition to fulfilling private commissions, subscriptions, and concerts the composer could only hope would yield a healthy lot of performances.

Mozart, all too aware of his genius, suffered the unfortunate syndrome of egoistic-driven self sustainability - a determined desire to go it alone, aspiring to create for himself an ‘empire’ of wealth built on the latter, ensuring the bulk of the proceeds drawn from subscriptions went directly to him in lieu of his publisher. While this strategy may make sense to us today, 18th century Europe was not quite ready for such a deviation from the status quo.  

**Compare the composers Georg Friedrich Händel, who secured for himself Court appointment, and at the time of death in April of 1759 was estimated to have been worth £20, 000 (a sizable sum for that period) with the also noted and esteemed Composer W.F. Bach, who died in abject poverty in July of 1784.

Critically, Mozart enjoyed periods of great esteem and praise. In Vienna (July, 1782), the composer launched his first production of Die Entführung aus Dem Serail* - it was a ravishing triumph, and went on to become the greatest success of the young composer’s career. (Despite what the film “Amadeus” would have us believe).  

*This Opera Singspiel would later attract the praise of the literary elite in Goethe.

Italy was also a great time of flourishment and accreditation for Mozart, who, within in two years earned himself an elected spot at the Accedemia Filharmonica of Bologna; was nominated an honorary director to the Accedemia of Verona; commissioned to write another opera for Milan (Lucio Silla); his serenata Ascanio in Alba commissioned for the wedding of Archduke Ferdinand of Austria to Princess Maria Beatrice D’Este of Modeana in Milan; and the distinction of Knight of the Golden Spur, bestowed upon him by Cardinal Pallavicini - a distinction of particular note, as no other but one (a musician, Orlando di Lasso) had previously received the order in such a high grade. This distinction brought Mozart a meeting before, and esteem from, the Pope.

Mozart’s time in Italy also marked the period behind the infamous Sistine Chapel anecdote - most of it apocryphal -  of a young Wolfgang, who, overcome with a state of reverie upon hearing Composer Gregorio Allegri’s exquisite “Miserere Mei Deus” (a composition whose ornaments were allegedly kept a guarded secret among the Catholic Church), rushed home to pen the choral masterpiece from memory.

Mozart wears the Insignia of a Knight of the Golden Spur.

The years prior to Mozart’s death were arguably some of the most productive years of the composers’ short life. They also brought with them much critical acclaim. One of Mozart’s last Operas, Le Nozze de Figaro, was noted for it’s splendor:

“...it contains so many beautiful things, and such a wealth of ideas, as can only be drawn from the source of inherent genius.” - Wiener Realzeitung, 1786

Publicly praised by esteemed composers (the likes of Franz Joseph Haydn and Ludwig van Beethoven) and their teachers alike, Mozart was anything but ordinary.

“Salieri listened and watched with great attention, from the overture all the way through to the final chorus, there was not a single number that did not elicit from him a “bravo” or “bello...” - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, in his last letter to his wife, Vienna, Oct 14, 1791 .****

-Rose.

****A note on suggested reading:

I have studied and own quite a few biographies on Herr Mozart and will be posting the titles in my library on an upcoming Book Review section of this blog. In the interim, for anyone seeking an in depth look into the character of the great Composer, I highly recommend "Mozart's Letters, Mozart's Life," as edited by Robert Spaethling as a contemporary/autobiographical account of aspirations, accomplishments and failings both inside and outside of the musical sphere in which Mozart lived. To supplement any Mozart biography, "The Compleat Mozart: A Guide to the Musical Works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart" as edited by Neal Zaslaw is a must have.