Otto Jahn

“ And in very truth the merry, lively movement pursues its uninterrupted course from the first eager murmur of the violins to the final flourish of trumpets. One bright, cheerful melody succeeds another, running and dancing for very lightness of heart, like a clear mountain stream rippling over the pebbles in the sunshine. A sudden stroke here and there electrifies the motion; and once, when a gentle melancholy shines forth, the merriment is as it were transfigured into the intensest happiness and content. A piece of music can hardly be more lightly and loosely put together than this ”

“ A Don Giovanni, a very demon, who seeks in sensual love to satisfy his cravings for the supernatural; who, weary and satiated with earthly pleasures, despising mankind, and in utter scorn against nature and his Creator seeks to compass the ruin of every woman he meets, is as foreign to the age, the character, and the music of Mozart as a Donna Anna who, loving the greatness which originally existed in Don Giovanni, yields to him without resistance, only to feel doubly conscious of her abasement and absorbed in the desire for revenge. ”

“ The spirits themselves Mozart has wisely kept in the background. Invisible in the darkness, they summon their victim in few, monotonous, but appalling notes. This allows of a more animated expression to the torture of despair which seizes Don Giovanni, and to the terror of Leporello; while the orchestra depicts the tumult of all the powers of nature. This scene can only attain to its full effect when theatrical managers can make up their minds to allow the music to work on the imagination and feeling of the audience, unimpeded by a display of fireworks and demoniac masks. ”

“ The fact of his probation taking place for the most part in silence is of disadvantage to him, both as a tenor and a lover; the dark cave and the wandering through fire and water are not particularly terrifying to the spectators, and his praiseworthy endeavours after virtue are too abstract to be interesting. And yet Mozart has filled in this colourless outline with the warm tints of youthful enthusiasm for all that is noble in life and in love. ”

“ The statues of the Parthenon or the figures of Raphael teach how the great masters of the formative arts follow nature in all and each of their creations; they teach, too, how the treasure which the eye of genius descries in the depths of nature must be first received into a human heart, thence to emerge as a complete and self-contained whole, appealing to the sympathies of all mankind. Nor is it otherwise with the great masters of sound, whatever be the impulse which urges them to expression, whether the words of the poet, the experiences of life, the impressions of form, colour, or sound ”

“ The death which ends the pain of the Commendatore, the mingled pity and triumph of Don Giovanni, the horror and fear of Leporello, are blended into such harmony as to leave the mind—relieved from suspense—full of true emotion. The unusual combination of three bass voices seems as though expressly chosen for the serious tone of the situation; the stringed instruments accompany the voices in the simplest manner, with a few sustained notes for the horns and bassoons, and only in the concluding symphony do the oboes and flutes enter with a plaintive chromatic passage. ”

“ The production of such widely differing and important works within so short a space of time affords another proof that the mind of an artist works and creates undisturbed by the changing impressions of daily life, and that the threads are spun in secret which are to form the weft and woof of a work of art. The symphonies display Mozart's perfected power of making the orchestra, by means of free movement and songlike delivery, into the organ of his artistic mood. ”

“ These are the elements which in rapid and incessant alternation chase each other through the overture like feather balls tossed from hand to hand, until the merry game is interrupted by the phrase which gave birth to it: "Cosi fan tutte!" Again the crescendo rises to its highest pitch, and closes with a few powerful chords. The gay and wanton tone of the opera could scarcely be better suggested, the overture being in very truth the most perfect expression of careless gaiety. ”

“ MOZART'S early and unexpected death, removing him from the eyes of the world at the moment when he might seem to have attained the height of his artistic greatness, had the effect of silencing the detractions and the envy of the few who were blinded by jealousy to his merits, and of exalting his works in the minds of those who felt his loss to be an irreparable one. ”

“ But the human emotion which irresistibly breaks forth adds a pathos to the solemnity and a charm to the youthful pair, filling us with renewed admiration for the genius which blends all these diverse elements into a living and harmonious whole.
Such a pair of lovers as this, so ideal, so sentimental (schwarmerisch) in their feelings and mode of expression, betray at once their German origin and character; there is nothing analogous in Mozart's Italian operas; even Belmont and Constanze, though of the same type, display more human passion. ”

“ If ever an opera was looked forward to with curiosity, if ever a composition of Mozart's was lauded to the skies before its performance, it was surely this "Don Juan." Every one will allow that Mozart is a great and admirable composer, but that nothing good or great has been written before this opera, or will be written after it, is a point on which we may be allowed to doubt. Theatrical music admits of no rules, of no appeal but to the heart, and its worth is in proportion to its effect thereon. ”

“ The young men are characterised generally, without accentuating their individualities; they stand opposed to Don Alfonso, whose contrasting character comes out all the more sharply. The duet for the two sisters (4) is more elevated in tone, to accord with the situation. They are melting in tender emotion as they gaze on the images of their lovers, and the expression of the music is full of life and sensuality, but more animated than warm, with no echo of those gentle accents in which Mozart elsewhere so inimitably characterises the hidden longings of the soul. ”

“ We may trust the word of the poet, that the sight of a lovely woman is sufficient to inspire the heart with a love that is irresistible, and to rouse it to a new and blissful life; but the musician alone has the power of so realising the miracle to the mind of the hearer that he feels it working in himself; and such a musician is Mozart. ”

“ It is but for one short moment that the lovers first see each other, and by an irresistible impulse rush into each other's arms. This outbreak of passion falls so naturally into the rest of the movement, essentially different as it is in tone, that one is amazed that such simple notes can give so powerful an impression of jubilant emotion. Tamino and Pamina are separated at once, and are not reunited until near the end of the opera. ”

“ But here again Mozart has turned one of the resources of musical construction into a development of a psychological idea. How deeply suggestive it is that the warning cries should be heard woven into the imitations, dying into tender, almost melancholy entreaty, and finally, as the mocker seems determined to treat it all as a jest, rising into an awful call to repentance, sounding again and again with a force that penetrates into the very marrow of one's bones! ”

“ Don Giovanni repeatedly and defiantly refuses, and the statue leaves him; night comes on, flames burst from the earth, invisible spirit voices are heard, demons surround Don Giovanni, who sinks into the abyss. Don Ottavio and Donna Anna, Elvira, Masetto and Zerlina enter to drag the offender to justice, but find that human revenge has been anticipated; Leporello, who has witnessed the dreadful scene with every sign of horror, relates his master's fearful end. ”

“ The irresistible, insinuating flattery of this song, the state of voluptuous longing which it expresses, have the same sort of effect upon us as the dazzling colour and intoxicating perfume of some rare exotic flower; there is nothing, even in Mozart, which can be compared to it. The effect of the charming melody, and of the well-chosen harmonies, is much enhanced by the pizzicato mandoline accompaniment supported by the stringed instruments. ”

“ That is the way in which expression is banished from music: expression consisting not in particular words, but in the skilful and natural combination of sounds as a medium of real emotion. Of this method of expression Mozart is a consummate master. Each sound which he produces has its origin in emotion, and overflows with it. His expression is glowing with life and picturesqueness, yet without the taint of voluptuousness. He has the richest, and at the same time the most temperate imagination. He is a true virtuoso, never allowing his creative impulse to run away with his judgment ”

“ The flourish is heard again, the curtain rises, and the andante is repeated in its main points, the instrumental movement serving as a foundation for the free motion of the voices. The different points are more sharply accented, and the hearer's enjoyment is intensified by the richer and more brilliant working out of the movement, which shows itself, as it were, in an altogether new light. The ensemble is inspired with cheerful humour, full of dramatic life, and showing distinctly Mozart's own art of giving independence and freedom to the voices and orchestra, as members of one perfect whole. ”

“ It would be impossible to conceive a more charming love-making, and no false note of sentimentality mars the graceful picture. The obbligato violoncello lends itself in a singular degree to the individual characterisation, its restless DON GIOVANNI. [190] movement and soft low sound standing in happiest contrast to the clear fresh voices; the accompaniment completes what the singer leaves unsaid. It portrays the anxious hesitation in the minds of both the lovers; and not until the second part does the motion flow free and full, till all resentment dies away in gentle murmurings. ”

“ I have always had a certain amount of hope that the opera, like the choruses of the old hymns to Bacchus, would be the means of developing a nobler conception of tragedy. In the opera, a mere servile following of nature is forsaken, and the ideal, disguised as indulgence, is allowed to creep on the stage. The opera, by the power of music and by its harmonious appeal to the senses, attunes the mind to a higher receptivity; it allows of a freer play of pathos, because it is accompanied by music ”

“ The conquered pain breaks out again in the introduction to the last movement, but its sting is broken—it dies away to make room for another feeling. The new émotion is not merely resignation, but joy—the passionate consciousness of bliss, just as inspired, just as restlessly excited as the previous pain. But the exultant dithyramb has not the same engrossing interest for the hearers; man is readier to sympathise with the sorrows of others than with their joys, although he would rather bear his sorrow alone than his joy. ”

“ At first her intercourse with her lover is unreserved and entirely happy. Masetto is represented as a course, jealous, but good-natured clown, and appears at a disadvantage when compared with Zerlina, Don Giovanni, or even with Leporello. Mozart has sketched his figure for us in simple graphic lines, never bringing him to the foreground, but always giving him his right place in the ensemble movements, to which he contributes his share of life and colour. He only asserts himself once in an air, when Don Giovanni is sending him away in order to be alone with Zerlina. ”

“ The song is in ballad form, to suit the situation, the voice executing the clear, lovely melody, while the stringed instruments carry on a simple accompaniment pizzicato, to imitate the guitar; this delicate outline is, however, shaded and animated in a wonderful degree by solo wind instruments. Without being absolutely necessary for the progress of the melodies and the completeness of the harmonies, they supply the delicate touches of detail reading between the lines of the romanze, as it were, what is passing in the heart of the singer. ”

“ No such parallel appears to me more justifiable than one between Mozart and Raphael. 20 The majestic beauty which appears to absorb all the other conditions of art production, and to blend them into purest harmony, is so overpoweringly present in the works of both masters that there is no need to enforce the comparison by dwelling on the many points of resemblance in their career both as men and artists, and in their moral and intellectual natures. ”

“ The pleasure of seeing a genius strike out a new path with ease, which one feels would possess insurmountable obstacles to others, becomes pain and grief, which can only be turned to enjoyment again by minute study of the work, when such an artist puts forth his whole strength as Mozart has in "Don Juan," where he overwhelms his hearers with the vastness of his art, giving to the whole an almost boundless effect. ”

“ This essential difference of treatment fills us with renewed admiration of Mozart's fertility in the production of new suggestive and characteristic melodies, which seem ready at command for every possible situation. Those who descend to details will be amazed to find how seldom Mozart is satisfied with a mere turn of expression, how lavish he is of original fully formed musical subjects, and how all the details of his work are cemented into a whole by his marvellous union of artistic qualities. ”