Life of Mozart

—I170 DON GIOVANNI.a canon by Stölzel.-^'^^ But a glance at the bars which areadduced to prove thisP1^IgEd- 4—J-:*=ät'n ^1:^=t!^ :P=P=^ ±=t=zim^^:^"T.^J Jwill show what a keen hunt after plagiarism is required tofind any borrowed idea in this imitative disposition of parts,common to many old church compositions. But here againMozart has turned one of the resources of musical constructioninto a development of a psychological idea. Howdeeply suggestive it is that the warning cries should beheard woven into the imitations, dying into tender, almostmelancholy entreaty, and finally, as the mocker seems determinedto treat it all as a jest, rising into an awful call torepentance, sounding again and again with a force thatpenetrates into the very marrow of one's bones! Again, howtruly conceived is the harmonic transition at the close, bymeans of which this warning motif cuts short with theseventh the jubilation at its very highest pitch, then diesaway into gentle notes of remonstrance, and so gradually^^^calms the hearer, and prepares him for what is to follow !The opera begins by introducing us to the only really comiccharacter it contains, and thus in a measure fulfils the anticipationsexcited by the overture. The typical character of thecomic servant, which in " Don Juan " had passed throughthe successive stages of Gracioso, Arlecchino, Sganarelle,Hanswurst, and Kasperle, here attained to perfection as faras opera buffa is concerned. Leporello is a creation unique ofits kind ; but since in every branch of art gifted minds, howeveroriginal, draw from a common source, so Leporello,1*8 Marpurg, Von der Fuge, IL, p. 77. Kirnberger, Kunst des reinen Satzes,IL, 2, p. 18. It will be found in the Kyrie of Stölzel's Missa Canonica.149 Nägeli, who finds great fault with Mozart's " exaggerated and licentiouscontrasts (Vorlesungen, 'pp. 157, 160), asserts that the allegro of the overturecontains a bar too much, and that the rhythm is thereby destroyed ; a reproachwhich was thoroughly refuted by Kahlert (N. Ztschr. f. Mus., XIX., p. 97).