Life of Mozart

——rTHE QUEEN OF NIGHT. 335deeply injured mother, with all the magnificence of her regalstate, there is nothing in the musical characterisation toindicate her gloomy and vindictive nature, which is thusproved to have been an afterthought. A solemn introduction,rising into a powerful crescendo, announces the comingof the Queen, while " the mountains are cleft asunder." Ithas been pointed out^^ that this ritornello has considerableresemblance to the passage in Benda's "Ariadne," whichaccompanies the setting of the sun :isA llegro moderato e maestoso.=S=q=-^^^^Jrm^^i:^=r-=^=^=^^""-^^"-J-jJ-T=f=rr--»— »~ i=s==?» fi—i*—^pp poco a poco -t— i —eres.E^--^-IZt5^ :t=i:1^=^\Sjm.- -m-ß-- ^m-m-: -m-m--. -m- ^'Mozart knew and admired Benda's " Ariadne," and thispassage may have been in his mind ; but it is scarcely to beimagined that he consciously imitated it, and in any case hehas rendered it far more effectively. A short recitative isfollowed by an air in two movements (5), the only one sofi-iCacilia, XX., p. 133.