NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #31/NN_1992_31.iso/spool/bit/listserv/wordsl/49241

Text File | 1992-12-22 | 3.7 KB | 71 lines

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Date:         Tue, 22 Dec 1992 10:06:26 -0600
Sender:       English Language Discussion Group <[e-mail]>
From:         Susan Harwood Kaczmarczik <[e-mail]>
Subject:      Re: Messiah
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On Mon, 21 Dec 1992, Agnes Kruchio wrote:

> Every year I try to get to the Messiah and /or the Nutcracker. Last
> year it was Mozart's version of Handel's Messiah, which, I felt, loses
> quite a bit in the Mozartian translation. `The Messiah' with the
> Mozartian 'lilt', for lack of a better word -  or should that be
> 'tilt'??? ...it lacked that special quality that we associate with
> this Xmas classic.

Not to be testy, but if it weren't for Mozart's arrangement of Handel's
Messiah, you probably wouldn't even know it well, let alone consider it a
Christmas classic.

In the 1780's and early 90's, a man by the name of Gottfried von Swieten
was president of the court commission on education and censorship (!) as
well as director of the court library in Vienna.  He founded the Society
of Associated Cavaliers in 1786 -- the organization was dedicated to
providing full performances of such "older" music as Handel's Messiah
(contrary to the way we think now, in which all so-called classical music
spans a centuries-long period, the people in Vienna weren't interested in
the music of such people as Handel and Bach, except as historical
curiosities).  Since "authentic" performances were unheard of at the time,
it fell to government servants like Kapellmeister Mozart to arrange these
works in a fashion befitting a "modern" orchestra (one that still doesn't
resemble the modern symphonic orchestra that most of us know).  Then the
finished result would be performed in public, thus allowing all to hear
these historical works.

As far as Mozart's changes go, he modernized the instrumentation; in some
numbers he fundamentally changed it by discarding the combination of
obbligato lines with basso continuo and favoring full orchestral
accompaniment, in keeping with the practice of the times.  Unlike other
Handel arrangers, Mozart did not try to "improve" or otherwise spruce up
the works -- he simply adapted them according to the late 18th-century
practice and by doing so he made them more comprehensible to the audiences
of his time.

If you find it hard to believe that practices like this are the main
reason works like the Messiah were not forgotten, I should also tell you
that Mozart -- who had studied in conservatories all over Europe and who
was, after all, Mozart -- was *unfamiliar with the works of J.S. Bach and
G.F. Handel until his discovery of them through his involvement with Baron
von Swieten.*  That doesn't mean that Mozart was ignorant; it's just that
nobody played the stuff.

So anyway.  That lilting, tilting arrangement (this makes me wonder what
you think of Mozart compared to Handel in general but I won't ask) is the
reason you even have a basis to judge it inappropriate.  Kind of an
interesting conundrum, isn't it?  :)

(Did I mention I was a musicologist in a not-too-far-away past life?)

Shona Nollaig duit, everyone.

-----Susan Harwood Kaczmarczik-------------------------------*<:-)-------------
"Queens never make bargains."  -- The Red Queen, _Through the Looking Glass_
[e-mail]--------------The University of Texas @Austin---