Life of Mozart Volume 2 — CHAPTER XXI. COURT SERVICE IN SALZBURG, Part 2

(103) The first is the music to "Thamos, King of Egypt" (345 K. ), an heroic drama, by Baron Tob.

Phil, von Gebler, who, in spite of his exalted position, had devoted himself zealously since 1769 to the reform of the Vienna theatre.

[14] The contents of the piece need be given but briefly, since it is as good as lost:[15]-- Menes, King of Egypt, has been deposed by a usurper, Rameses, and as it is thought, assassinated; but he is living under the name of Sethos as high priest of the Temple of the Sun, the secret being known only to the priest Hammon and the general Phanes.

After the death of Rameses his son Thamos is heir to the throne.

The day arrives when Thamos attains majority, is to be invested with the diadem, and to select a bride.

The friends of Menes seek in vain to persuade him to dispute the throne.

He will not oppose the noble youth whom he loves and esteems.

But Pheron, a prince and confidant of Thamos has, in conjunction with Mirza, the chief of the virgins of the sun, organised a conspiracy against Thamos, and won over a portion of the army.

Tharsis, daughter of Menes, who is believed by all, even her father, to be dead, has been brought up by Mirza under the name of Sais.

It is arranged that she shall be proclaimed rightful heir to the throne, and as she will then have the right to choose her consort, Mirza will secure her beforehand for Pheron.

When she discovers that Sais loves Thamos, and he her, she induces Sais to believe that Thamos prefers her playmate Myris, and Sais is generous enough to sacrifice her love and her hopes of the throne to her friend.

Equally nobly Thamos rejects all suspicions against Pheron, and awards him supreme command.

As the time for action draws near, Pheron discloses to Sethos, whom he takes for a devoted follower of Menes, and consequently for an enemy to Thamos, the secret of Sais' existence and his own plans.

Sethos prepares secretly to save Thamos.

Sais also, after being pledged to silence by an oath, is initiated into the secret by Mirza and Pheron, and directed to choose Pheron.

She declines to give a decided answer, and Pheron announces to Mirza his determination to seize the throne by force in case of extremity.

Sais, who believes herself not loved by Thamos, and will not therefore choose him as consort, but will not deprive him of the throne, takes the solemn and irrevocable oath as virgin of the sun.

Thamos enters, and they discover to their sorrow their mutual love.

Sethos, entering, enlightens Thamos as to the treachery of Pheron, without disclosing the parentage of Sais.

Pheron, disturbed by the report that Menes is {COURT SERVICE IN SALZBURG.

} (104) still living, comes to take council of Sethos, and adheres to his treacherous design.

In solemn assembly Thamos is about to be declared king, when Mirza reveals the fact that Sais is the lost Tharsis, and heiress to the throne.

Thamos is the first to offer her his homage.

When she is constrained to choose between Thamos and Pheron she declares herself bound by her oath, and announces Thamos as the possessor of the throne.

Then Pheron calls his followers to arms, but Sethos steps forward and discloses himself as Menes; whereupon all fall at his feet in joyful emotion.

Pheron is disarmed and led off, Mirza stabs herself, Menes, as father and ruler, releases Sais from her oath, unites her with Thamos, and places the pair on the throne.

A message arrives that Pheron has been struck with lightning by Divine judgment, and the piece ends.

Mozart wrote music to this drama at Salzburg in 1779 or 1780, according to the evidence of the handwriting and paper of the score, as well as of the treatment of the orchestra.

[16] It consisted at first of four instrumental movements which were played between the acts, and one which formed the conclusion of the whole piece.

It was not a new idea to compose appropriate music to a drama of importance instead of the usual indifferent or inappropriate instrumental movements.

Joh.

Ad.

Scheibe (1708-1776) wrote music for "Polyeucte" and "Mithridate" in 1738, and afterwards wrote an article on this kind of music in the "Kritischen Musicus."

He maintained that the overture should be composed with reference to the whole piece, and should lead up to its commencement;

that the symphonies between the acts should be connected both with the act which preceded and that which followed, so as to lead the audience insensibly from the one frame of mind to the other.

The closing symphony should be in close relationship to the end of the piece, so as to intensify the impression made by the _denouement_ upon the audience.

He {ENTR'ACTES.

} (105) considered a change of instruments particularly necessary, in order to keep up the attention of the audience; but care must be taken to select the most appropriate instruments for each movement, so as to express what had to be expressed in the most effective manner possible.

Scheibe was followed by Joh.

Christ.

Hertel (1726-1789) with the music to Cronegk's "Olint and Sophronia,"[17] and by others (among them Agricola) with the music to "Semi-ramis" (after Voltaire), which Lessing thought worthy of an analysis, and declared his opinion that the entr'actes should have no reference to the following act, but should only amplify and conclude what had gone before.

[18] Vogler's overture and entr'actes to "Hamlet" were given in Mannheim in 1779. [19] Even in Salzburg M. Haydn had composed in 1777 special music for the performance of Voltaire's "Zaire" by French actors, which was received with great applause.

[20] The music to "King Thamos" has, curiously enough, no overture, which is perhaps accounted for by the fact that the play begins with a chorus, and so is opened by music.

[21] Each _entr'acte_ is in connection with the last scene of the preceding act, and seeks to express the same set of emotions by means of music; Mozart has each time noted down what seemed to him the prevailing idea to be represented.

Thus, he writes concerning the first movement: "The first act ends with the determination of Mirza and Pheron to place the latter {COURT SERVICE IN SALZBURG.

} (106) on the throne."

Upon the last words of Mirza--"Mirza, a woman, trembles not.

Thou art a man; conquer, or die!"

--the orchestra strikes in with three solemn chords, the effect heightened by long pauses; then begins a restless and agitated Allegro (in C minor).

The prevailing tone is one of excitement, and those who were in the theatre might well receive the suggestion of Mirza, as an eager passionate woman, inciting Pheron to action; but the characterisation is not very striking.

It is only noticeable that the separate phrases of the subject are shorter and in greater contrast than is usual with Mozart; otherwise we have before us a movement in two parts, with a coda arranged in the ordinary manner, but not elaborated.

The second act has, if possible, a still more general application: "The noble nature of Thamos is displayed at the end of the second act; the third act opens with Thamos and the traitor Pheron," and the dialogue wherein Thamos declares his belief in Pheron's fidelity, and resigns Sais to him, while Pheron continues to dissemble.

Here, too, Mozart has written an ordinary movement in two parts (Andante, E flat major); but he has resorted to the expedient of denoting the character of the two personages by means of distinct subjects, which he indicates by superscriptions:--[See page images] {ENTR'ACTES TO KÔNIG THAMOS.

} (107) It is easy to be seen here that musical contrast is the main point, and that the characterisation is very general, quite apart from the fact that integrity and hypocrisy cannot be expressed in music, as Mozart was well aware, in spite of his naïve superscriptions.

The inadequacy of such {COURT SERVICE IN SALZBURG.

} (108) characterisation is shown in the second part, where both characters occur together:--[See Page Image] Here the expression has become still more general, and we have only the musical development of a given subject, not the progress of a dramatic situation; more than this it is out of the province of the musician to give.

The suggestions for the music of the third _entr'acte_ are more promising.

The music is connected in the first place with the last scene: 44 The third act closes with the treacherous dialogue between Mirza and Pheron,,, expressed by means of an agitated, strongly accented Allegro, which, however, soon breaks off, and dies away.

Thereupon the music turns to the fourth act, which begins with the vow of the deluded Sais.

Here the influence of the melodrama upon Mozart becomes apparent, for he follows with his music every turn in the monologue of Sais, indicating each by a superscription.

We may, indeed, doubt whether he had not some idea of a melodramatic delivery of the music, although there are no pauses left for spoken sentences, and the flow of the music, notwithstanding frequent changes of time is uninterrupted.

This movement would be most open to the adverse criticism of Lessing, for it anticipates the whole of the following scene.

In itself it is the most expressive and the most successful; in spite of its division into separate points it preserves connection and {ENTR'ACTES TO KÖNIG THAMOS.

} (109) unity, and a tone of tender grace such as becomes a bashful maiden.

The fourth _entr'acte_ is again an animated movement (Allegro vivace assai) which is to depict "the universal confusion" with which the fourth act concludes.

We can recognise in the wild, restless subject, in opposition to which is placed another full of dignity and reserve, the intended contrast between the conspirators and Thamos with his followers; but we need, of course, to be told what it is that the music means to represent.

Since the spectators were in a position to transfer the factitious presumption from the stage to the music, a general characterisation would suffice for them.

The music therefore fulfils its primary aim, but it has undertaken a task which lies beyond its province, and a previous knowledge of the subject treated is indispensable to the due appreciation of it; in this way the music is as dependent as though it were a setting to words without the advantage of the direct intelligibleness given to it by words.

The closing movement describes "Pheron's despair, blasphemy, and death."

As this situation coincides with a fearful thunderstorm, the musical characterisation is confined to a representation of it without any dramatic detail; it is a wildly forcible movement, and the effect accords well with the suggested idea.

[22] It is unquestionable that Mozart, excited by the melodrama, has set himself eagerly to express dramatic details in music, and yet in almost every case the exigencies of musical construction have been too much for him.

The impressions he has received from the drama become only impulses, leading him to accent more sharply and set in stronger contrast the various points of his composition; the special points of the dramatic situations are not fully brought out in the music.

This is in great measure the fault of the play, which affords few powerful or effective suggestions to the composer either through its characters or its situations;

{COURT SERVICE IN SALZBURG.

} (110) great poetical or dramatic power would no doubt have called forth other music.

That such a play should have been received with interest and applause,[23] that it should have incited Mozart to composition, is a speaking proof of the taste of the time.

Shakespeare and Goethe had not yet penetrated the intellectual atmosphere in which Mozart had grown up;

before poetry could assert its sway in the province of music it had to express and realise the demand for a characterisation bringing to view the most individual traits of human character.

Gebler had sought to invest his drama with peculiar dignity by providing it with choruses, for which Racine's "Athalie" may have furnished him with an example.

The play begins with a solemn sacrifice in the Temple of the Sun, the priests and virgins singing hymns to the Godhead; in the same way, at the beginning of the fifth act, the coronation of the king is introduced by a sacrifice, the priests and virgins again singing a hymn.

[24] These choruses gave Mozart opportunity for a magnificent style of composition, with all the brilliancy that external support could give.

The hymns were well-known ones with Latin words inserted later, for which, however, a German translation was again substituted.

Our judgment as to style and conception {CHORUSES TO KONIG THAMOS.

} (111) will naturally be affected by the fact that the hymns were written for the theatre, and not as church music proper; and yet these very hymns have been widely circulated by countless performances in churches, and are made to serve as the principal evidence of Mozart's style of church music.

There is no question that their whole conception is grander, freer, and more imposing than that of any of his masses belonging to that period, but this is because he felt himself unfettered by conventional restrictions.

A solemn act of worship was represented on the stage, the expression of reverence to the Supreme Being was heightened in effect by the Egyptian surroundings; and Mozart's endeavour was to render the consequent emotions with all possible truth and force.

But he was fully conscious that the expression must be _dramatic_.

Therefore everything was avoided that directly suggested the church, and an impression of splendour and brilliancy was given which in this fashion was foreign to the church; above all the subjective points of sentiment are thrown into strong relief, and forcibly expressed.

But although there is an essential difference between these choruses and Mozart's contemporary church music, yet we cannot fail to perceive a certain amount of resemblance in the manner in which the solemnity and importance of religious ceremony is rendered both here and in the "Zauberflöte."

The drama itself has some resemblance to the "Zauberflöte," both in its deistic-humani-tarian tendency and its Egyptian costume and sun-worship.

Freemasonry may have exerted some influence over Gebler's mind[25]--it could have had none at that time over Mozart.