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Says you!
Do we have to accept an opinion as
authoritative because a great composer said it?
One of the dangers of reading
pianonoise is that you get encouraged to think. I mean
really think, not think the way most people use the word
most often, as in I think I'll have a sandwich or I
think it's sunny out. I mean cogitate, think for
yourself, puzzle it out, and if somebody is presenting
an opinion, consider whether you ought to adopt it first
before you click on accept. Read the fine print, figure
out their agenda, try to find out where their ideas have
come from, and whether or not you think they are still
valid. It's not a popular concept, believe me.
And if that isn't obnoxious enough, we
model it here by sometimes coming to blows with the
august dead. For instance, here is a page about
something Bach
said and why he might have said it. And another one.
Bach didn't say very much in writing,
and he didn't generally explain himself either. Mozart,
on the other hand, wrote a lot of surviving letters, had
lots of opinions to share with lots of people, and as
such is an authority on practically everything.
Kidding.
One of his most oft repeated quotes,
at least in the organ world, is the phrase "The organ,
to my eyes and ears, is the king of instruments." I take
Mozart to task for this, not because of what he said,
but because he never wrote a single piece for solo
organ. There are a few for mechanical clock which
organists sometimes play, and around a dozen church
sonatas which include organ parts, two of which are so
intricate as to practically be organ concertos. But
other than that, nothing. And at one point he turned
down the possibility, sniffed at the very idea, of
becoming organist to the court of Versailles, because
who would want to be a mere organist, after all?
If the organ was really the King of
Instruments, you might think he would have wanted to
have more to do with it, wouldn't you?
Although, if you are an organist, you
realize that that is not exactly the route to fame and
fortune, and Mozart was certainly the kind of guy who
wanted both.
There is another famous quote of
Mozart's in which he says that music should "never
offend the ear, but should please the listener. In other
words, it should never cease being music." This is the
sort of quote that can and frequently does do battle
against those pesky modern composers who people feel
often offend their ears with cacophonous noises. Mozart
would never do that, they seem to be scoffing.
Except that Mozart was once a modern
composer, and, particularly as his career advanced, he
began writing things that did offend people's ears. Most
famous is that quote from the movie Amadeus in which the
Emperor tells Mozart he writes too many notes. The
emperor probably never actually said that, but large
sections of Vienna did feel that his music was too
complicated (including, it appears, the Emperor), so
there is a useful authenticity to the quote even if it
is actually made up.
The larger point to be made here is
that it isn't really what the composer said about his
own time and place that matters to us when we trot out
these quotes, it is what we think we are saying to ours.
Having an authority figure from the past is just a lazy
way of saying "case closed. This guy knows what he is
talking about. Are you going to argue with Mozart?
Didn't think so."
Only, I would argue with him--if I
thought he was wrong. And, in this case, pleasing the
ear is relative. But I would really like to know in what
context he said what he said, and how old he was at the
time. Did his stance perhaps change on that issue? Whose
approval might he have been seeking when he wrote that?
What if even Mozart didn't agree with Mozart? Or, at
least, his idea of "offending the ear" might not have
been yours if you had been alive back then.
Food for thought. In a world where
many of us are starving.
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