Mozart Is Overrated
Alex Ross is in ecstasy over the opening measures of Mozart's Magic Flute. I have two serious problems with Mozart.
Mozart was music's supreme genius, and I freely concede this even though we now know he achieved this status through the unfair advantage of Tourette's Syndrome. (An unfair advantage very different from Benjamin Britten's.) However, Mozart had the bad luck to be born in the wrong period. Your music history teacher probably told you this period is called Viennese Classicism, but a growing number of astute observers are now calling it the Era of High Dipwadism. Think of C.P.E. Bach, Haydn, or early Beethoven and Schubert: it's all fruitier than a nutcake. It's Confectioner's Gothic, without the Gothic. Fiber-free music like this can give you colon cancer if you don't watch out.
Worse is when Mozart drops the ball. Time and time again, when he comes to an ending, he reverts to lame-o clichés, his trademark trill being the worst. Or consider the overture to Marriage of Figaro: he gets the piece cranking and pretty soon you are swept up in one of the great musical perpetual motion machines. Then -- thud! He cuts it off with a one-three-five-three-one, one, one, an ending so mind-bogglingly banal it nullifies the brilliance that came before.
Alex Ross has many impressive credentials, and his high opinion of Mozart is shared by many distinguished authorities down through the ages. I, however, am Lord of the Fredösphere. Whose side will you choose?
UPDATE: See the comments for my more nuanced position. Short version: it's all Haydn's fault.
Umie the Umlaut says, "ask your doctor about the Fredösphere!"
7 Comments:
I choose to take this entire post as a sick joke.
Lynn
Reflections in D minor
Mozart wrote some tremendously great music (his last ten piano concerti, for instance). But overall, you're right - he's overrated.
Think of C.P.E. Bach, Haydn, or early Beethoven and Schubert: it's all fruitier than a nutcake. It's Confectioner's Gothic, without the Gothic. Fiber-free music like this can give you colon cancer if you don't watch out.Anyone who can say with a straight face that Schubert's music is "fiber-free" can't have listened to very much of it.
Incidentally, the Marriage of Figaro overture probably isn't the best Mozart example to choose, since it was written incredibly quickly to a looming deadline. Under such circumstances, and especially given the brilliance of the rest, a perfunctory ending is more than excusable (especially considering that you then get the rest of the opera!)
Okay, yes, I was exaggerating for effect. Let me clarify point by point:
1. Exaggerating, but not lying: I didn't intend this to be *merely* a sick joke.
2. Overrated: wow, Kyle Gann didn't bite my head off for this. Whew.
3. Schubert: yeah, I probably should not have included him. I had an album of the trout quintet et al. from high school, and it's great, absolutely great.
I think my real complaint is with Haydn. I just don't get his music. His turnes are very well crafted, but the whole sensibility is just ... *fruity.* I don't *like* *fruity.* I hear Haydn's influence in Mozart and sorta kinda in early Beethoven, so I react to that too. (I also don't like his influence in the Star Wars: Attack of the Clones movie, but I think I may be getting confused here, so let's just drop that.)
BTW, I don't get that bad vibe from Mozart's titanic late symphonies, or those parts of the Requiem he actually wrote, which just underscores what a tragedy his early death was.
Just for the record, my previous comment was meant as a joke. Sort of. ;-)
Lynn
Reflections in D minor
Let's admit what no one wants to: Haydn and Mozart were bubble-gum composers. Their most popular symphonies were hit parades of catchy tunes. That fact shouldn't detract from their reputations in the least. It certainly explains why they still draw crowds.
There's a story that Brahms told Strauss he envied the latter's talent for entertaining the masses. And another that Ravel and/or Stravinsky told George Gershwin he should give them lessons, rather than vice versa.
I've always suspected it's actually easier, or at least less frustrating, to write something along the lines of Beethoven's Fifth than it is a simple 32-bar Tin Pan Alley classic.
I'm not always in the mood to listen to Haydn and Mozart, but Haydn's masses and cello concerti, not to mention his last symphony, are some of the best works I know. You have to take into account that you've heard everything that came after the classical period. Imagine you hadn't heard music written after 1800 and then listen to Mozart's symphonies and operas.
Post a Comment
<< Home