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The ‘Effective Passage’ in Mozart's ‘Paris’ Symphony

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 January 2012

Matthias Range
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Eighteenth-Century Music , Volume 9 , Issue 1 , March 2012 , pp. 109 - 119
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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

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References

1 The primary scholarly edition of Mozart's letters is Mozart: Briefe und Aufzeichnungen, ed. Bauer, Wilhelm A. and Deutsch, Otto Erich (Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1962–1975), 7 volumesGoogle Scholar. A newly edited reissue has appeared ed. Konrad, Ulrich (Kassel: Bärenreiter, 2005)Google Scholar.

2 Jenkins, Chadwick, ‘Influence and Revolt: Mozart's “Paris” Symphony, k297’, Ad Parnassum 4/7 (2006), 43Google Scholar.

3 Sadie, Stanley, Mozart: The Early Years, 1756–1781 (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006), xx and xxiGoogle Scholar. For Anderson's translations see The Letters of Mozart and His Family (London: Macmillan, 1938), 3 volumesGoogle Scholar.

4 The original is in Salzburg, Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum, Bibliotheca Mozartiana, Mappe 22/312. See Briefe und Aufzeichnungen, ed. Bauer, and Deutsch, , volume 2, 388Google Scholar.

5 Anderson, Letters of Mozart, volume 2, 825–826.

6 Zaslaw, Neal, Mozart's Symphonies: Context, Performance Practice, Reception (Oxford: Clarendon, 1989), 311–314Google Scholar.

7 Zaslaw, Mozart's Symphonies, 314.

8 Spaethling, Robert, Mozart's Letters, Mozart's Life (London: Faber, 2001), 159–160Google Scholar.

9 Sadie, Mozart: The Early Years, 473.

10 It is noteworthy that this letter was written on the day that Mozart's mother died; he was thus under exceptional emotional pressure and this might have affected his ability to concentrate on factual accuracy in his writing. There remains the possibility that Mozart had finished the letter before his mother actually died, which was in the evening of that day. See Abert, Hermann, W. A. Mozart, trans. Spencer, Stewart, ed. Eisen, Cliff (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007), 509Google Scholar.

11 Harnoncourt, Nikolaus, ‘Gedanken eines Orchestermusikers zu einem Brief von W. A. Mozart’, in Musik als Klangrede (Salzburg: Residenz, 1982), 264–268Google Scholar. See also Jenkins, ‘Influence and Revolt’, 43.

12 Sadie, Mozart: The Early Years, 475.

13 See Sadie, Stanley, Mozart: Symphonies (London: Ariel Music, 1986), 55–56Google Scholar. See also Jenkins, ‘Influence and Revolt’, 44, and Zaslaw, Mozart's Symphonies, 311–314.

14 See Spaethling, Mozart's Letters, 160. See also Jenkins, who refers to this translation in ‘Influence and Revolt’, 42.

15 Adelung, Johann Christoph, Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart (Leipzig: Breitkopf, 1796), volume 2Google Scholar, column 2037 (available online at <http://de.academic.ru/dic.nsf/grammatisch/30244/Letzt> (10 July 2011). Adelung's cross-reference to ‘Letze’ is found in column 2035, where he explains that this word has become very unusual in High German and could mean a gift, or heritage; he also explains that in ‘Oberdeutsch’ (which includes the Austrian dialect) it still means a remainder or leftover (‘Ein Überbleibsel, ein Überrest’).

16 Modern High German would be ‘zuletzt, am Ende, schließlich’. See Duden: Wie sagt man in Österreich? Wörterbuch des österreichischen Deutsch, third edition, ed. Ebner, Jakob (Mannheim: Dudenverlag, 1998), 199Google Scholar. These terms could be translated as ‘at last, at the end, finally’.

17 Mozart to his father, Munich, 2 October 1777; Briefe und Aufzeichnungen, ed. Bauer and Deutsch, volume 2, 28–29.

18 Mozart to his father, Augsburg, 16 October 1777; Briefe und Aufzeichnungen, ed. Bauer and Deutsch, volume 2, 66.

19 Mozart to his father, Mannheim, 13 November 1777; Briefe und Aufzeichnungen, ed. Bauer and Deutsch, volume 2, 120.

20 Desing, Anselm, Auxilia Historia, Oder Behülf Zu denen Historischen und dazu erforderlichen Wissenschafften (Stadt am Hof: Gastl, 1746), part 3, 816–817Google Scholar. On Desing see Anselm Desing (1699–1772): Ein benediktinischer Universalgelehrter im Zeitalter der Aufklärung, ed. Knedlik, Manfred and Schrott, Georg (Kallmünz: Laßleben, 1999)Google Scholar.

21 Anderson, Letters of Mozart, volume 2, 825–826.

22 See Jenkins, ‘Influence and Revolt’, 42.

23 Zaslaw, Mozart's Symphonies, 334.

24 See the translations quoted above by Anderson, Spaethling and Sadie.

25 See Wolf, Eugene K., ‘On the Origins of the Mannheim Symphonic Style’, in Studies in Musicology in Honour of Otto E. Albrecht, ed. Hill, John Walter (Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1980), 197–239Google Scholar; for the ‘Mannheim crescendo’ see especially 206–216. For the orchestral crescendo in general see Schmid, Manfred Hermann, ‘Typen des Orchestercrescendo im 18. Jahrhundert’, in Untersuchungen zu Musikbeziehungen zwischen Mannheim, Böhmen und Mähren im späten 18. und frühen 19. Jahrhundert, ed. Heyter-Rauland, Christine and Mahling, Christoph-Hellmut (Mainz: Schott, 1993), 96–132Google Scholar.

26 A good overview of the topic is still Kunze, Stefan, Die Sinfonie im 18. Jahrhundert: von der Opernsinfonie zur Konzertsinfonie (Laaber: Laaber, 1993)Google Scholar.

27 Wolf, Eugene K., ‘Mannheim Style’, The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, ed. Sadie, Stanley and Tyrrell, John (London: Macmillan, 2001), volume 15, 776Google Scholar.

28 Harrison, Bernard, Haydn: The “Paris” Symphonies (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), 17Google Scholar.

29 Abert, Mozart, 519.

30 Kunze, Die Sinfonie, 238. A list of crescendo passages in French symphonies is provided in Schmid, ‘Typen des Orchestercrescendo’, 131–132; this list was compiled by Jutta Schmoll-Barthel and refers to the works published in The Symphony 1720–1840: A Comprehensive Collection of Full Scores in Sixty Volumes, ed. Brook, Barry S. and Heyman, Barbara B. (New York: Garland, 1986)Google Scholar.

31 Dearling, Robert, The Music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: The Symphonies (East Brunswick: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1982), 62Google Scholar.

32 Briefe und Aufzeichnungen, ed. Bauer, and Deutsch, , volume 2, 386Google Scholar.

33 See Hermann Beck, ‘Zur Entstehungsgeschichte von Mozarts D-Dur-Sinfonie, KV. 297. Probleme der Kompositionstechnik und Formentwicklung in Mozarts Instrumentalmusik’, Mozart-Jahrbuch (1955), 98: ‘Ein Blick in das Autograph verrät Mozarts sonst ungewöhnliche Mühe bei der Suche nach neuen Möglichkeiten in Form, Farbe und Ausdruck, freilich auch nach mancherlei Effekten, die den Wünschen seines Pariser Publikums entgegenkommen wollen.’ (A look at the autograph reveals Mozart's unusual effort in the search for new possibilities regarding form, colour and expression; and indeed also for some effects so as to meet with the Paris audience's wishes.) Incidentally, as early as 1909 Alfred Heuß introduced the term ‘Effectdynamik’ to describe one of the two sorts of orchestral crescendo that he identified in the Mannheim style. See Wolf, ‘On the Origins’, 206–207, note 30.

34 Briefe und Aufzeichnungen, ed. Bauer, and Deutsch, , volume 2, 388. See also Zaslaw, Mozart's Symphonies, 310Google Scholar.

35 See also Dearling, The Music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, 110.

36 As it is, there are actually several examples of French composers who had already chosen to begin a movement piano instead of with the expected orchestral tutti. See, for instance, Henri-Joseph Rigel's Symphony in G major Op. 21 No. 3 and Le Duc's Symphonie Concertante in G major ‘à seize parties’, where this feature occurs in the first and the last movements. Compare also Chevalier de Saint-George's Symphony in C major Op. 6 No. 1, which begins piano (with a vivid semiquaver accompaniment similar to that in Mozart's third movement) and then introduces a long orchestral crescendo leading to the entry of the full orchestra; compare also his Symphonie Concertante in A major. For editions of these works see The Symphony 1720–1840, ed. Brook, Barry S. (New York: Garland, 1983–1984), series D, especially volumes 1, 3 and 4Google Scholar.

37 Jenkins, ‘Influence and Revolt’, 44.

38 Leopold Mozart to his son, 20 April 1778; Briefe und Aufzeichnungen, ed. Bauer, and Deutsch, , volume 2, 341: ‘Mit der opera wirst du dich wohl nach dem Geschmack der franzosen richten. wenn man nur Beyfahl findet und gut bezahlt wird; das übrige hohle der Pluder!’Google Scholar

39 Briefe und Aufzeichnungen, ed. Bauer, and Deutsch, , volume 2, 378Google Scholar. For Mozart's ‘desire to find common ground in the audience for whom he was composing’ see Sisman, Elaine, ‘Observations on the First Phase of Mozart's “Haydn” Quartets’, in Words about Mozart: Essays in Honour of Stanley Sadie, ed. Link, Dorothea and Nagley, Judith (Woodbridge: Boydell, 2005), 36Google Scholar. Sisman refers to Mozart's famous letter of 28 December 1782 in which he explains that in order to win applause one has to write music so simple that a ‘coachman’ (fiacre) could sing it.

40 Hunter, G. K., ‘Shakespeare's Tragic Sense as It Strikes Us Today’, in Shakespeare, Pattern of Excelling Nature: Shakespeare Criticism in Honor of America's Bicentennial, ed. Bevington, David M. and Halio, Jay L. (Cranbury: Associated University Press, 1978), 85Google Scholar.