The Cult of Mozart
The Cult of Mozart veneration started during the composer’s own lifetime. Ferrying "Wolferl" around Europe as a child prodigy, Leopold Mozart took advantage of the incessant fascination with the extraordinary, the genius, both in scientific circles and in travelling theatrical shows. Serious studies as well as anecdotes testify not only to a public appreciation of Mozart’s incredible skill at an early age, but also to the outright veneration of the boy.
While Leopold exploited the market value of the Wunderkind, the twentieth-century veneration of Mozart has strangely returned to exactly this childhood image. In the guise of a non-descript face, a tabula rasa of innocence, the otherworldly quality of the childhood genius finds its visual representation. Personality and character as yet unformed, Mozart the child is commodified as Mozart the icon of natural and unquestioned excellence. Ever since Constanze began to transfigure the image of her husband by wiping the worldly dust off his face, Mozart’s name and image have become markers of quality.
The Image transcends Mozart’s music as well as his person. It is the obverse of the musicological coin, the by-product of fascination with a cultural hero created by a posterity as much in need of hermeneutic tools as of idols. Glorification and interpretation coincide in a concept of Bildung that hovers between critique and veneration. It is no coincidence that the "Mozart-Haus Handels- und Versandgesellschaft," producer and distributor of the Mozart-Kugel is but another vessel in the home port of Mozart research, cultivation and veneration: the "Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum".
Young Mozart in London
Daines Barrington. "Account of a Very Remarkable Young Musician" in Miscellanies. London 1781.
The question of the original genius has led to many studies and debates among the scientists of all ages. Daines Barrington presented a particularly vivid picture of the childhood genius to his colleagues at the Royal Society in London (first read 15 Nov. 1770). He described Mozart’s ability to improvise operative music, singing and accompanying himself at the keyboard, to imaginary Italian texts on the subjects of love and betrayal. He also placed before the boy an unfamiliar duet: without the slightest hesitation the lad assigns the alto part to his father, sings the soprano himself, realizes the figured bass and throws in the violin parts as necessary. This feat involves reading several different clefs simultaneously, the difficulty of which Barrington attempted to explain to his musically untrained colleagues by comparing it to the simultaneous reading of several poems, each possessing its own character, expression, and declamatory rules, and each written in a different alphabet. Barrington's report illustrates the fascination that the young boy engendered not only in concert audiences, but also in the scientific world.
Mozart’s Ear
Mittheilungen fuer die Mozart-Gemeinde in Berlin, fuenftes Heft (Februar 1898), p. 165.
The Mozart-Gemeinde in Berlin had acquired over 300 members when the founders decided to launch a quarterly publication devoted to "all those things, which either reveal new insight into Mozart, his life and his works, or which contribute to the continuing veneration of his divine genius." Amongst articles listing manuscript copies of his music, letters to and from his wife, and essays on the reception of his operas and iconography, appeared the essay entitled "Mozart’s Ear," a scientific investigation of Mozart’s physical features as an indicator of his genius.
Monuments
Rudolf Angermüller, Das Salzburger Mozart-Denkmal: Eine Dokumentation (bis 1845) zur 150-Jahre-Enthüllungsfeier. (Salzburg:Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum, 1992), p. XII [top]-XIII [bottom].
Seriousness and monumentality: the worthy worship by a nation of its national hero.
Coloring Book
Leonice Thompson Kidd. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, from Composer Highlights: An Educational Coloring Book Series. MBT Enterprises Printing & Publishing, 1991.
Mozart as the model of diligence and responsibility —Mozart as educational tool:
"Do you have a talent for music? If so, you should consider pursuing this ability. (…) The composers in the Composer Highlights Series were gifted musicians who worked diligently to develop their talents. Some of them were artists as well as musicians. All of them were sensitive human beings who appreciated beauty in its many forms. They encountered numerous difficulties in their lives but they persevered, leaving a lasting heritage for millions to enjoy. Knowing them personally adds a new dimension to their music." (p. 32)
The Mozart Starter
Bruce Cooper Clarke. The Mozart Starter: Exploring the Universe of Mozart’s Music. Foreword by Christopher Hogwood. Bloomington: Medi-Ed Press, 1995.
Personal detail can deepen our understanding of Mozart and elevate our sensual experience of his music—at all ages. From the coloring book to the "shopping list" that this book presents, the twentieth century perpetuates the belief in the traditional canon composed of man and music.
Montblanc Mozart Pen
Hommage à Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Special Edition Fountain Pen, Montblanc Pens.
During the course of the nineteenth century, Mozart became the symbol of the select, exquisite and beautiful, an image that the twentieth-century commodity industry exploited to the fullest. In a cunningly crafted covering text for this fountain pen, ingenuity and creativity are associated with the physical act of writing itself. "Wer schreibt, der komponiert" ("He who writes, composes"). This high-quality fountain pen itself was purportedly conceived with the demand for precision and perfection, so that the object in turn can become the source for the effusions of our souls. Dedicated to the purest of geniuses: the childhood genius Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Advertisement for Toshiba
Advertisement for Toshiba VHS Hi-Fi.
Peter Shaffer’s film Amadeus has gathered such kudos that it can itself serve as a mark for excellence—surely not on the grounds of its historical accuracy, but on the grounds of the master’s music.
Play Like Mozart
Alison Sage, Play Mozart: The Music and Travels of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, illustrated by Terry Gabbey, musical arrangements by Janet Bunting, Barron’s Educational Series. New York: Barron’s, 1988.
"Play Mozart is an ideal introduction to the brilliant music of Mozart – one of the greatest composers of all time." Thus promises the author of this book. Without wishing to appear pedantic, I cannot but note the rather heavy action on the "amazing 22-key electronic piano keyboard." Still, Mozart’s melodic genius seems indestructible!