While at work on The Abduction from the Seraglio, Mozart posed for himself the great aesthetic co... more While at work on The Abduction from the Seraglio, Mozart posed for himself the great aesthetic conundrum of opera: how does drama become music? Reflecting, in a letter to his father, on the angry outburst of his operatic villain Osmin, he wrote, "Just as a man in such a towering rage oversteps all the bounds of order, moderation and propriety and completely forgets himself, so must the music too forget itself." And yet, as Mozart went on to say, unpleasant emotions must not be expressed in unpleasant music. Even in depicting anger, music "must never offend the ear, but must please the hearer, or in other words must never cease to be music." In Peter Kivy's view, Mozart has here summarized the problem of opera: the transmutation of music into drama while remaining within the bounds of pure musical form. For to transgress these bounds would be to give up the game--to represent, perhaps, but not to represent in music. In pursuit of an understanding of such limits, Professor Kivy focuses on three crucial stages in operatic history--the invention of opera, Handelian opera seria, and the comic operas of Mozart. From the confrontation of philosophical theory and musical practice, he extracts an operatic "essence" that is characterized as "drama-made-music," as contrasted with "music drama." In conclusion, he compares the concept of "drama-made music" with other concepts of opera, especially Joseph Kerman's, and provides a philosophical rationale for its unique character.
Journal of the American Musicological Society, Apr 1, 1992
Department stores emerged as central institutions in the expansion of the consumer culture in the... more Department stores emerged as central institutions in the expansion of the consumer culture in the United States in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and music played an unusually prominent and varied role in these new palaces of consumption. Over the half century from 1880 to 1930 a wide range of music was presented in the stores, including elegant evening concerts conducted by such luminaries as Richard Strauss and Leopold Stokowski, afternoon programs given by professional and amateur musicians in large in-store concert halls, performances by choruses and bands made up of store employees, background music played by pianists or string quartets, and phonograph demonstrations. Trade papers published for department store retailers reveal the marketing strategies that largely motivated this impressive patronage of music. Music's range of cultural associations worked to the retailers' advantage by investing the stores with excitement and drama, by imbuing commonplace goods with luxury and status, and by encouraging leisurely shopping among women. The commercial setting, in turn, left indellible marks on the music: in the length of concert programs, in the types of works commissioned by the stores, in the mixing of popular and classical repertories, and in the reduction of music to a commodity. The department stores proved a crucial testing ground for the widescale commercialization of music in twentieth-century America.
... The arranger of the libretto for Mozart's use was Johann Andreas Schachtner, court t... more ... The arranger of the libretto for Mozart's use was Johann Andreas Schachtner, court trumpeter in Salzburg and close friend of the Mozart family. 17 Schachtner had already served as arranger of another German libretto for Mozart a decade earlier, Bastzen und Bastzenne (1768). ...
Journal of the American Musicological Society, 1992
Department stores emerged as central institutions in the expansion of the consumer culture in the... more Department stores emerged as central institutions in the expansion of the consumer culture in the United States in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and music played an unusually prominent and varied role in these new palaces of consumption. Over the half century from 1880 to 1930 a wide range of music was presented in the stores, including elegant evening concerts conducted by such luminaries as Richard Strauss and Leopold Stokowski, afternoon programs given by professional and amateur musicians in large in-store concert halls, performances by choruses and bands made up of store employees, background music played by pianists or string quartets, and phonograph demonstrations. Trade papers published for department store retailers reveal the marketing strategies that largely motivated this impressive patronage of music. Music's range of cultural associations worked to the retailers' advantage by investing the stores with excitement and drama, by imbuing common...
Page 1. The Mozart Myths A Critical Reassessment WILLIAM STAFFORD Page 2. Page 3. THE MOZART MYTH... more Page 1. The Mozart Myths A Critical Reassessment WILLIAM STAFFORD Page 2. Page 3. THE MOZART MYTHS This On. CCOA-8SP-65EO Page 4. Page 5. THE MOZART MYTHS A Critical Reassessment William Stafford Stanford University Press Stanford, California Page 6. ...
There are few opportunities to compare differing readings by Mozart of the same text. Except in h... more There are few opportunities to compare differing readings by Mozart of the same text. Except in his sacred music, Mozart rarely had occasion to return to texts that he had already set, and relatively few sketches, drafts or heavily revised autographs offer extended alternative versions of other settings. Although most of the surviving sketches and drafts for operas and other vocal pieces do not diverge significantly from the final versions, some of these preliminary materials reveal Mozart reconsidering a text-setting, and thus offer important glimpses into his dramatic imagination. Such is the case with a draft for ‘Da schlägt die Abschiedsstunde’, the first aria of Der Schauspieldirektor. The draft and final autograph present related yet significantly different conceptions of the same number, enabling us to examine Mozart's revision of one particular aria, and his reconciliation of an individual solo number with the larger dramatic argument of the opera.
While at work on The Abduction from the Seraglio, Mozart posed for himself the great aesthetic co... more While at work on The Abduction from the Seraglio, Mozart posed for himself the great aesthetic conundrum of opera: how does drama become music? Reflecting, in a letter to his father, on the angry outburst of his operatic villain Osmin, he wrote, "Just as a man in such a towering rage oversteps all the bounds of order, moderation and propriety and completely forgets himself, so must the music too forget itself." And yet, as Mozart went on to say, unpleasant emotions must not be expressed in unpleasant music. Even in depicting anger, music "must never offend the ear, but must please the hearer, or in other words must never cease to be music." In Peter Kivy's view, Mozart has here summarized the problem of opera: the transmutation of music into drama while remaining within the bounds of pure musical form. For to transgress these bounds would be to give up the game--to represent, perhaps, but not to represent in music. In pursuit of an understanding of such limits, Professor Kivy focuses on three crucial stages in operatic history--the invention of opera, Handelian opera seria, and the comic operas of Mozart. From the confrontation of philosophical theory and musical practice, he extracts an operatic "essence" that is characterized as "drama-made-music," as contrasted with "music drama." In conclusion, he compares the concept of "drama-made music" with other concepts of opera, especially Joseph Kerman's, and provides a philosophical rationale for its unique character.
Journal of the American Musicological Society, Apr 1, 1992
Department stores emerged as central institutions in the expansion of the consumer culture in the... more Department stores emerged as central institutions in the expansion of the consumer culture in the United States in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and music played an unusually prominent and varied role in these new palaces of consumption. Over the half century from 1880 to 1930 a wide range of music was presented in the stores, including elegant evening concerts conducted by such luminaries as Richard Strauss and Leopold Stokowski, afternoon programs given by professional and amateur musicians in large in-store concert halls, performances by choruses and bands made up of store employees, background music played by pianists or string quartets, and phonograph demonstrations. Trade papers published for department store retailers reveal the marketing strategies that largely motivated this impressive patronage of music. Music's range of cultural associations worked to the retailers' advantage by investing the stores with excitement and drama, by imbuing commonplace goods with luxury and status, and by encouraging leisurely shopping among women. The commercial setting, in turn, left indellible marks on the music: in the length of concert programs, in the types of works commissioned by the stores, in the mixing of popular and classical repertories, and in the reduction of music to a commodity. The department stores proved a crucial testing ground for the widescale commercialization of music in twentieth-century America.
... The arranger of the libretto for Mozart's use was Johann Andreas Schachtner, court t... more ... The arranger of the libretto for Mozart's use was Johann Andreas Schachtner, court trumpeter in Salzburg and close friend of the Mozart family. 17 Schachtner had already served as arranger of another German libretto for Mozart a decade earlier, Bastzen und Bastzenne (1768). ...
Journal of the American Musicological Society, 1992
Department stores emerged as central institutions in the expansion of the consumer culture in the... more Department stores emerged as central institutions in the expansion of the consumer culture in the United States in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and music played an unusually prominent and varied role in these new palaces of consumption. Over the half century from 1880 to 1930 a wide range of music was presented in the stores, including elegant evening concerts conducted by such luminaries as Richard Strauss and Leopold Stokowski, afternoon programs given by professional and amateur musicians in large in-store concert halls, performances by choruses and bands made up of store employees, background music played by pianists or string quartets, and phonograph demonstrations. Trade papers published for department store retailers reveal the marketing strategies that largely motivated this impressive patronage of music. Music's range of cultural associations worked to the retailers' advantage by investing the stores with excitement and drama, by imbuing common...
Page 1. The Mozart Myths A Critical Reassessment WILLIAM STAFFORD Page 2. Page 3. THE MOZART MYTH... more Page 1. The Mozart Myths A Critical Reassessment WILLIAM STAFFORD Page 2. Page 3. THE MOZART MYTHS This On. CCOA-8SP-65EO Page 4. Page 5. THE MOZART MYTHS A Critical Reassessment William Stafford Stanford University Press Stanford, California Page 6. ...
There are few opportunities to compare differing readings by Mozart of the same text. Except in h... more There are few opportunities to compare differing readings by Mozart of the same text. Except in his sacred music, Mozart rarely had occasion to return to texts that he had already set, and relatively few sketches, drafts or heavily revised autographs offer extended alternative versions of other settings. Although most of the surviving sketches and drafts for operas and other vocal pieces do not diverge significantly from the final versions, some of these preliminary materials reveal Mozart reconsidering a text-setting, and thus offer important glimpses into his dramatic imagination. Such is the case with a draft for ‘Da schlägt die Abschiedsstunde’, the first aria of Der Schauspieldirektor. The draft and final autograph present related yet significantly different conceptions of the same number, enabling us to examine Mozart's revision of one particular aria, and his reconciliation of an individual solo number with the larger dramatic argument of the opera.
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