The orchestra and its instruments . produce that quality sohard to define and so easy to feel, — charm. Mozarthas charm. Whatever Mozart does, he, like Raphael, to whomhe has been compared, is always beautiful. He issunny and fresh and smiling, clear and delightful. Hismelodies, moreover, are like a never-failing spring,— they flow from an inexhaustible source. Stendhal wrote in 1808: Like Raphael, Mozart embraced his art in itswhole extent. Raphael appears to have been un-acquainted with one thing only, — the mode of paint-ing figures on a ceiling in contracted proportion,or what is termed fo
The orchestra and its instruments . produce that quality sohard to define and so easy to feel, — charm. Mozarthas charm. Whatever Mozart does, he, like Raphael, to whomhe has been compared, is always beautiful. He issunny and fresh and smiling, clear and delightful. Hismelodies, moreover, are like a never-failing spring,— they flow from an inexhaustible source. Stendhal wrote in 1808: Like Raphael, Mozart embraced his art in itswhole extent. Raphael appears to have been un-acquainted with one thing only, — the mode of paint-ing figures on a ceiling in contracted proportion,or what is termed foreshortening. As for Mozart,I am not aware of any department in which he hasnot excelled: operas, symphonies, songs, airs fordancing, — he is great in everything. The mostremarkable circumstance in his music, independentlyof the genius displayed in it, is the novel way in whichhe employs the Orchestra, especially the wind in-struments. He draws surprising effects from theflute, an instrument of which Cimarosa hardly ever Si. MOZART By Cignaroli THE ORCHESTRA 209 made any use. He enriches the accompaniment withall the beauties of the finest symphonies. What did Mozart do towards the development ofour modern Orchestra? The question is easily an-swered. Mozart gave the Orchestra tone-color. We have seen that Bachs Orchestra and HandelsOrchestra were both neutral in tint; or, if we prefer,black and white. The instruments all played theirseparate parts, but their individual voices had as yethardly been discovered. It is true that Bach andHandel had written solo parts for various instruments,but, as a general thing, the melodies could be sungby one instrument as well as any other. But Mozarthad very different ideas regarding instruments. Tohim a violin was a violin, a flute was a flute, a bassoonwas a bassoon and a clarinet was a clarinet. Eachinstrument had to speak for itself and with its owntrue voice, or tone-color. Mozart originated what wemay call an orchestral palette.
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectmusicalinstruments
