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HERTZMANN - Mozart's Creative Process
HERTZMANN - Mozart's Creative Process
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The Musical Quarterly
By ERICH HERTZMANN
It was not until eight years later, in 1799, that, after bargaining
with Breitkopf & Hirtel, she sold the complete collection of musical
manuscripts to the young Johann Anton Andr6, who cherished it with
great love and care throughout his long life. With this acquisition he
also bought Mozart's autograph of his thematic catalogue, which listed
all the compositions written between February 9, 1784, and November
15, 1791. A few years later, in 1805, Andr6 published this catalogue,
in the preface to which he remarked: "It is most interesting to study
his original scores, since one can best observe Mozart's first inspiration,
1 An address delivered for the Mozart Bi-Centennial Festival at Columbia Uni-
versity, New York.
187
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in G, K. 379
(See p. 189)
Mozart's ske
K. 493 (see p
the page:
Leopold had developed his son with loving care from a child prodigy
to a mature musician, but in reality had fulfilled his own needs and,
as time went on, tried to force Mozart into a position of emotional
dependence upon him. The young Mozart idolized his father and tried
to emulate him in every way; even his musical handwriting was the
image of Leopold's. At the age of twenty-six he asked his father to
write out the alphabet for him, in capital and small letters, so that he
might continue to practice and improve his own hand. Only through
the outward rebellion against the Archbishop was it possible for him
to break loose from the strong domination of his father, whom he both
loved and resented. Thus, he transferred his subconscious aversion for
his father and cut himself loose from the hated atmosphere of Salzburg.
Freedom once gained, feelings of guilt led him to manifest his filial
devotion in his letters. He even went so far as to urge Leopold to quit
his post in Salzburg and join him in Vienna, knowing full well that
this was not feasible.
When Mozart wrote the scores of his late works, his creative
process had not changed basically. He was still concerned with writing
the melody line and bass first. In his earlier works the composition of
inner parts had offered no problems: they simply filled in the harmony
and therefore represent a reasonable facsimile of his mental image,
conceived at the primary stage of his creative process. When in the later
works his technique changed, the inner parts were not conceived imme-
diately; they had to be worked out and molded into shape during the
secondary stage of his creative process. His productivity decreased, not
only for psychological reasons, but also on account of the complexity of
his new style of writing. He could still dash off compositions with a
simpler texture, such as innumerable minuets, German dances, and
contra dances, in fulfillment of his duties as a chamber composer at the
Imperial Court, although they too profited from his growing skill and
refinement in part-writing. Most other compositions required greater
concentration and toil. In their numerous vital corrections and extensive
alterations, the autograph scores of Le Nozze di Figaro and Don
Giovanni show his difficulty with the new musical idiom.