Composer (1756 - 1791)
by Robert Ellsberg
Mozart’s music, Albert Einstein observed, “is of such purity and beauty that one feels he merely found it – that it has always existed as part of the inner beauty of the universe waiting to be revealed.” His original drafts show remarkably little change as they progress into finished works. Mozart seems to have plucked his pieces, perfectly formed, from an imaginative source which most of us only glimpse at a distance. But when we listen to Mozart's music, he telescopes that distance for us. We owe him a double debt of gratitude: He gives us not only breathtaking harmonies but also a taste of what Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg called "the divine instinct." -- Patricia Carlson
“I never lie down at night without reflecting that - as young as I am - I may not live to see another day. Yet not one of all my acquaintances could say that in company I am morose and disgruntled. For this blessing I daily thank my Creator and wish with all my heart that each one of my fellow-creatures could enjoy it."
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was, arguably, the greatest classical composer of all time. Was he also some kind of a saint? Judging by his personal piety and character the answer would probably be no. Although he was a baptized Catholic and wrote much of his music for liturgical occasions, he was also attracted to the philosophy of Freemasonry and was inclined to a fairly cynical attitude toward the church (which he had experienced in a fairly decadent form). In temperament he was either childlike or immature, depending on one's point of view, given by turns to sulking, giddy humor, and profanity.
But then there was his music. The writer George Bernard Shaw, hardly noted for his piety, once called Mozart's music "the only music yet written that would not sound out of place in the mouth of God." The great Protestant theologian, Karl Barth, only one of the modern theologians to take a professional interest in Mozart, wrote of his certainty "that when the angels go about their task of praising God, they play only Bach." But he was sure "that when they are together en famille they play Mozart and that then too the good God listens with special pleasure."
Mozart was born in Salzburg, Austria, in 1756. His prodigious musical talent was evident from early childhood. By the age of five he was writing minuets for the harpsichord. By the time he was six his father was conducting him on performing tours through most of the royal courts of Europe. In 1770 he performed at the Vatican for Pope Clement XIV, after which he was rewarded with a papal knighthood.
Mozart's fame as a composer quickly surpassed his reputation as a performer. He wrote in almost every genre, from Masses and oratorios, to chamber music, symphonies, and secular operas. Still he spent much of his life in financial insecurity, depending on the fickle support of patrons in the church and the royal courts. His short life ended in poverty and protracted illness. In 1791 a mysterious stranger commissioned a Requiem. Mozart worked feverishly on the composition, convinced that he was writing for his own funeral. It was his last and one of his most sublime works. He finally collapsed of exhaustion and died just a few days later on December 5, 1791.
Those who consider Mozart a great religious artist are not interested simply in his extensive body of religious music. They argue that in all his work there is a delight in creation, a balance, a sense of order, an affirmation of light and the final triumph of life over death and darkness. Barth claimed to find in Mozart more than any other person "an art of playing" which presupposes "a childlike awareness of the essence of center -- as also the beginning and the end of all things." In listening to Mozart, he wrote, one is "transported to the threshold of a world in which sunlight and storm, by day and by night, is a good and ordered world."
_____________________________________________"I thank my God for graciously granting me the opportunity...of learning that death is the key which unlocks the door to our true happiness."
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Mozart had a great capacity to enjoy the pleasures of life. But it is striking, in light of the "life-affirming" qualities of his music, to consider how deeply preoccupied he was with the subject of death. Through constant meditation on this, "the true goal of our existence," he had come to the conclusion that death is the "best and truest friend of mankind, that his image is not only no longer terrifying to me, but is indeed very soothing and consoling. And I thank my God for graciously granting me the opportunity...of learning that death is the key which unlocks the door to our true happiness."
So Mozart, after a life of phenomenal industry, achieved his true happiness at the age of thirty-five. He was buried in a pauper's grave in Vienna.
Barth once had a dream in which he was given the task of examining Mozart of various points of theology and dogmatics. Although Barth deliberately tried to pitch easy questions, Mozart gave him no answer. The great theologian offered no interpretation of this dream. But perhaps it says something about Mozart as a religious artist. For him the Holy Mystery was a reality best conveyed not in dogmas but in music. In any case, Barth confessed that if he ever arrived in heaven he would "first of all seek out Mozart" before inquiring after his fellow theologians.
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This article is from Gratefulness.org's "Gift People."
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