Life of Mozart

FANTASTIC AND MYSTIC ELEMENTS. 345as a sorrowing mother, as a revengeful woman ; her ladieshave their share of coquetry and gossip, and these femininequalities predominate over the supernatural. The musicaltask of combining three soprano voices into a connectedwhole, while preserving their individuality, calls for greatpeculiarity of treatment, entailing further a special turningto account of the orchestral forces at command, at the sametime that no special forms of expression are made to serveas typical of the fairy element of the piece.On the other hand the apparition of the three boys isaccompanied by every means of musical characterisation.They form the link with the region of mysticism indicatedawkwardly enough in the libretto. We recognise somethingmore than individual taste and inclination in Mozart'sefforts to invest them with a character of grave solemnity.A universal and deep-rooted sympathy with Freemasonrywas a characteristic sign of the times, and the German mindand disposition are well expressed in the efforts that weremade to find in Freemasonry that unity which intellectualcultivation and moral enlightenment alone could bestow.Mozart was therefore at one in intention and aim with all thatwas highest and noblest in the nation, and the more deeplyhis own feelings were stirred the more sure he was to stamphis music with all that was truly German in character. Itwas not without design that he selected an old choralmelody to mark a point of most solemn gravity, or thathe treated it in the way with which his fellow-countrymenwere most familiar. This passage is also significant asshowing the marvellous element in a symbolic light, andbringing the supernatural within the domain of the humansphere. In this respect the representation of the marvellousin the " Zauberflöte " differs widely from that in " DonGiovanni."There the appearance of the ghost is a veritablemiracle, a fact which must be believed to be such, andrendered to the minds of the spectators by means of themusical representation of terror in the actors. In the"Zauberflöte," on the contrary, the marvellous element issuggested only by the mystery hidden beneath it, and themind is attuned to a mood of awe-struck wonder.