The
C Minor Mass known also as the Grand Mass is widely regarded
as his most ambitious and elaborate choral masterpiece. Interestingly, Mozart
scholars differ on the question of why he never finished it. (That, dear
reader, is where you come in
but we'll get to that in a minute.)
Wolfgang began work on
the Grand Mass in 1782, the same year he became enamored with the fugues
of Johann Sebastian Bach. Such
counterpoint of the "strict" style was decidedly out of fashion
in the late 18th century. In vogue were the more melodious and "natural"
styles favored by the European aristocracy.
Wolfgang, musical genius
though he was, struggled mightily to match Bach's mastery of contrapuntal
composition. One of Mozart's most widely read and respected biographers,
Alfred
Einstein (Mozart, His Character, His Work), offers these insights:
"It has been rightly said that [the Grand Mass]
is the only work that stands between the B Minor Mass of Bach and the
D Major Mass of Beethoven."
"Mozart was
too great and fine a musician not to feel deeply and painfully the conflict
produced when his habit of thinking in terms of galant and 'learned'
music was shaken by the encounter with a living polyphonic style."
"Mozart learned from Haydn
to handle polyphony or counterpoint lightly, as a playful exercising
of humor and wit, though also, to be sure, as an object of the greatest
seriousness."
Mr.
Einstein goes on to say of Wolfgang in the early 1780s:
"And
then began for Mozart, with Constanze's pleased encouragement, a period
of fugue composition, the grandest traces of which appear in the C Minor
Mass. It is significant that only a portion of these fugues were completed.
Mozart began to write a fugue as the finale of a violin sonata in A (K.402),
but it remained unfinished for two reasons: it was composed for Constanze,
and it was a fugue."
It's
interesting that, of all the symphonies, concertos, operas, sonatas and
sacred music that Wolfgang composed, the one form that his wife favored
above all others was the one with which he had the greatest difficulty
composing: the fugue.
Another interesting
fact: the meticulous Wolfgang never finished anything he wrote for his
beloved bride. Nothing. Not even the Grand Mass.
Isn't that odd? You
tell us. Play a round of C
Minor Mastery - better yet, play all three rounds. And then render
your verdict in the C Minor Mystery: how could a piece of such personal
significance to Wolfgang have been left unfinished?
It's
more fun than watching the Sopranos, and you might just win a pair of
free
front-row tickets to the performance, where you'll get to enjoy our
sopranos for a change.
Of course, the vast
majority of the seats are not free but they are disappearing fast. So
order your advance
tickets today for before they're all gone. Click
here or call 914-674-2865.
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