Musical Genius, in Reel Time... Smile for A Saturday
Well folks, it’s Saturday, and in our effort to evoke some smiles, we’re taking you this week to the movies (more specifically, one scene, from one movie, and one that’s not exactly a new release). The film is Amadeus, which swept the awards season way back in 1984 (wow, that long ago?) And the scene, undoubtedly apocryphal, is one that nevertheless captures the power of drama - and music. In it, an impish Mozart (played by Tom Hulce) both insults and awes the elder “court composer” Antonio Salieri (played by F. Murray Abraham).
The combination of dialogue and unspoken body language captures a potent mix of jealousy and genius, mediocrity and inspiration. Front and center is the notion of music, and how it can be elevated to new dimensions. For a moment in the film, joyful exuberance wins out. By the end, there will be a different story. Nonetheless, even after all these centuries, we still are moved by what Mozart was able to create in his short but prolific life. These thoughts, spurred on by the film, couldn’t help but make us smile. We hope you feel the same way.
Ah...divine Mozart...the #1 god in my panoply of musical "gods"...
Below is offered solely as an addendum for folks who might be inclined to further pursue the subject...
As someone who has spent their life surrounded by classical music and privileged beyond measure to perform it professionally, Mozart's music has always been the top of my list. I've also spent my live studying and sucking up every book available on this remarkable person. That being said, I could always the Shaffer play and Forman film for what it was. Yes, both play and film do play very loose with the actual facts, BUT that was not their purpose. It's theatre, It's entertainment. It what I call "Variations on the Theme of Mozart's Life". Both were created with obvious love for the man and his music. And there are places in the film where this is heart-stoppingly, beautifully apparent. The clip Dan chose IS actually very much rooted in fact. Mozart WAS a very cheeky, almost obnoxious little brat--his upbringing saw to that--and he was super-confident of his abilities. That's sometimes how genius is personified. The opera being discussed in the clip is "The Abduction From the Seraglio", the opera which was Mozart's first big hit in Vienna, written for the Emperor's then newly founded German-language theatre. Now, Mozart sitting down and doing something like that to music by Salieri WAS plausible--he did do stuff like that. However, in the film, at the keyboard, he transmorphs the "March" by Salieri into what would several years later be the aria "Non piu andrai" from the opera "The Marriage of Figaro". Hardly possible, but still fun, and in the spirit of what Mozart WAS regularly doing--showing up lesser composers, because he could!
As a postscript, if anyone is interested and has a few spare minutes, I wanted to add another clip from the film, one of the most beautiful and poignant. It also points to the gulf between genius (Mozart) and mediocrity (Salieri). Deftly mixing fact with fiction, in it the older Salieri is narrating and describing the first time he encountered Mozart. The music that is in the background, which Salieri describes SO poetically at about 3:30 minutes into the clip is the 3rd movement of the Gran Partita in B-Flat for 13 winds. The first time I saw and heard that it brought tears to my eyes. In a nutshell it encapsulates so much what is the essence of Mozart's music. I thought I would offer the whole movement in a clip (below the clip from the film), which is actually the group whose recording was used in the film (Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields). (N.B. The musical clip has pictures of Salzburg, many in the snow--which I have myself experienced and it IS beautiful!--which is odd because Mozart absolutely detested Salzburg!) If you have time and want to listen to something quite beautiful, give it a listen...Mozart at his best.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlpxjBgG-7E
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BWn1KuXGVM
"grazie, signore!" i watched this right after slogging through the grim, depressing morning news, and it instantly turned my inner weather report from cloudy with intermittent thunderstorms to sunny and bright with bursts of hilarity. molto grazie!