Commodification & Kitsch
In the drawing-room culture of the late-eighteenth century, sentimentality and sensibility loomed large. The cult of sensibility prescribed a code of conduct, particularly with regard to individuals’ reactions to art and culture. Displaying the right sentiment in response to the contemplation of art proved taste, education and class. Emotions became stylized into mannerisms; education was commodified in the possession of art, and art was commodified in kitsch.
In the “emotional playspace” that kitsch represents, we can experience heightened emotions without fear of the consequences. Within kitsch, emotions can be safely indulged—circumscribed and prescribed. Represented by classics in art, emotions become safe.
The kitsch industry was an outgrowth of the Kenner und Liebhaber (dilettante and amateur) market, intimately tied to the drawing room. Bildung (education) became the main indicator of class. Music making, commonly centered around the piano, was the safe and appropriate pastime of ladies in the drawing rooms. It was the forum for the exploration of emotions as well as the display of one’s own appropriate sensitivity.
Mozart spoke to this domestic setting not only through his music, but also through his image. The Mozartian image as a representation has gathered connotations intimately tied to the self-understanding of the bourgeoisie. Bildung and Bürgertum (bourgeoisie), emotion and composure, come together in the image of Mozart. His music is accessible and clear, it is popular, yet its high standard is impossible to deny.
Mozart’s image is manifold. It ranges from the dark, sinister and unconventional connotations of Don Giovanni to hints of seriousness and exclusivity, from an air of indulgence to an awareness of tradition and perfection—the image of the classic. The darkness of the Requiem, the melancholy of the G minor symphony, and the delightful tinkling of Papageno’s music-box arias, as well as the sparkle of the ubiquitous "Kleine Nachtmusik," not to forget the romanticism of his Piano Concerto K. 467: Mozart encompasses all emotions.
Consumables
[top] Mozart Kugeln: Die echten Reber Mozart-Kugeln. Pralinen-Spezialitäten Paul Reber Gmbh & Co.KG. [bottom] Mozart-Liqueur. Manufacture H.C. König, Salzburg.
Class and value, but also zest for life; indulgence with a hint of the audacious: the image of Mozart looms large in the exclusive food industry. He represents the escape from the everyday, introduced into our homes.
Mozart Plate
Schumann Arzberg Mozart Plate, Limited Edition.
The portrait on the plate is the famously misattributed depiction of Mozart’s childhood friend, Count Karl Firmian, as a young boy, who eternally travels the world as "Wolferl." In its function as drawing-room adornment, the portrait recedes into symbol; the innocent boyish face appeals to our nurturing instincts—the seeds of the genius we seek to possess, in their vulnerable childhood shell.
Mozart in the Mail
Mozart Custom Return Address Labels
Biedermeier culture subverted class and education into the dark or unintentionally comical side of Schöngeist—kitsch.
Mozart Watch
On Mozart’s childhood tours, aristocratic admirers showered the prodigy with an array of presents such as silver snuffboxes, watches, bejewelled rings, miniature portraits, etc. The Empress Maria Theresa gave a golden pocket watch, with her image on the front, to Mozart in 1771. From the time of Maria Theresa’s gift to the era of quartz watches, a curious reversal of roles took place between patron and artist. In an age of capitalist market values, of corporate images and advertising slogans, it is the face of the genius that sells, though the means of presentation remain essentially the same.
Mozart Tie
Mozart Composer Tie
Even Milos Forman, director of the film Amadeus, could not have hoped to portray Mozart’s shocking side this vividly
Porcelain Box
Mozart Grand Concert Porcelain Box.
The elaborate title pages of eighteenth-century publications served to attract the bourgeois market as much as to honor the dedicatee. Stripped of the music behind it, the title page remains a nostalgic reminiscence of an era of class.
Silver Spoon
Silver Spoon with Mozart Portrait.
The serious portraits and the Mozart-as-market-image iconography share a generic quality in the face: distinctive features fade into idealization.
Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey
Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey – Special Edition Mozart Bottle, Portrait by Edward H. Weiss (WT).
Mozart stands for culture and thereby has come to represent the aspirations of a middle class for whom Kultur has been commodified. Since the industrialization of the nineteenth century, mass-produced cultural goods—packaged in the canon—have become a capitalist value. The cultural icon has become a market force to be reckoned with.