Doing the impossible and making it look easy

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The fourth movement of Mozart's last symphony is one of the greatest achievements of the human mind, and has repeatedly been connected by commentators and critics to God Himself. Indeed, the very name of the symphony - Jupiter - is a barely veiled suggestion that it has something to do with the God of Gods. And this name - like many of the most

Comments

[un_crayon_rouge]

What a beautiful post. I've repeatedly tried to write about what Mozart does to me, but have found it impossible... maybe I should try again. Oh, Requiem! Oh, Zauberflöte! Oh, Sinfonía Concertante 2nd movement! And so many others, oh.

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->grins<-
You do know that some musicologists claim that the Sinfonia Concertante is not by Mozart, don't you? 8-)

[un_crayon_rouge]

I do not believe in musicologists. I have *listned* to the thing, and anyone who says it's not Mozart should be beaten over the head with a club. And that's all I'm going to say about that.

[un_crayon_rouge]

*listened* I cannot write, gah.

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Considering this is your third language, I don't think you are doing too badly. And yeah, I agree about the Sinfonia Concertante.

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This may sound stupid, but what the fourth movement, and especially the coda, makes me see, is the cock-crow and the charge of the Rohirrim at the siege of Minas Tirith, accompanied by the blast of hundreds of horns. And maybe it has something to do with what the composition itself achieved: a triumphant explosion of pure white light in the midst of terrible darkness.

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And maybe music itself reaches its height as an art every time that it achieves this meaning of assertion of life against despair and of light against darkness: http://fpb.livejournal.com/270249.html

[un_crayon_rouge]

I don't think that's stupid at all, I often and quite involuntarily "translate" music into real or imaginary scenes from books or movies. I guess it's a generational thing, or maybe just a question of "too much fiction"?
I must confess though that (probably in general but especially when it comes to Mozart) I am always more moved by certain "slow" movements. Maybe it's a reaction to all the times I've heard people say they love Mozart because he's so "happy", he makes such "nice" music. I want to take the Sinfonia Concertante and shove it in their faces and shout "Nice? Is this NICE?" Or something like the overture to Don Giovanni, which for me has such a contained violence in it. That whole opera, in fact...
Uh, sorry, I guess I get kind of carried away when it comes to Mozart, maybe you've noticed...

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I agree with you about Don Giovanni, which is an opera which is consistently misrepresented in modern productions. (This might interest you: http://fpb.livejournal.com/tag/mozart ) And of course there is the first movement of the fortieth symphony, and that piano fantasia written, as I recall, after his mother's death, and a dozen other things. But even his cheerful music is so much more than "nice". Bergman caught the spirit of the Magic Flute ouverture so well, with all those young faces awakening, one by one, to wonder and beauty.... C.S.Lewis also said something like that.

[elegant_bonfire]

I do the same thing with music. If it's classical it reminds me of book or movie scenes, and quite often I find myself choreographing (sp?)dressage freestyles to various pieces of music. (I'll 'see' the horse in my mind doing piaffe, or half-pass, or whatever fits the music). Modern music, esp. from the 80's, will immediately make me think of where I was/what I was doing when that song was first popular.

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As for Zauberflöte - have you ever seen Ingmar Bergman's movie of it?

[un_crayon_rouge]

I've seen it many times, I think it's incredibly charming and captures the whole spirit very well - even improves on some of the most gaping plot-holes by rearranging some scenes - not that plot is what that opera is about, but well... I had it on DVD and lent it to a friend and have never seen it again. This makes me very sad :-(
I know Kenneth Branagh made a movie too. I rather liked his Hamlet, but I don't know if I'd trust him with opera - have you seen it?

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I distrust him, and the Hamlet actually shows why. For three-quarter of the story, he is interesting and inventive and really treats the poet very well (even though having snowy mountains in Denmark of all places is an enormity of a really Shakespearian kind); then, in the final quarter, he goes cold insane, with a ludicrous Tarzan swing across the whole court (he wanted to outperform Laurence Olivier's terrible leap in Olivier's own film, but Olivier was scary, Branagh only absurd) and the complete perversion of the whole Fortinbras element. He just tries too hard to be clever - an unfortunate feature of the whole modern theatrical culture.

[un_crayon_rouge]

I haven't seen that for a long time; you are probably right. I remember just being so damn happy that someone was using the *whole* text. I certainly don't remember any Tarzan swing moments *cringes*.