Modern music and musicians : [Encyclopedic] . cal, and a deep ethical spirit pervades the whole work. When I hear people exclaim, Yes; but the wretched text! I answer, Very true; but do you not understand that the text is recomposed bythe music, ennobled by it, and raised high above triviality ? If music didnot possess this capacity, many of its greatest masterworks would be en-tirely unpalatable. I can well understand that a bright man of letters, whois unable to hear how the text is refined and vivified by the tones, wholooks at it from a purely literary point of view, may find it a disagree
Modern music and musicians : [Encyclopedic] . cal, and a deep ethical spirit pervades the whole work. When I hear people exclaim, Yes; but the wretched text! I answer, Very true; but do you not understand that the text is recomposed bythe music, ennobled by it, and raised high above triviality ? If music didnot possess this capacity, many of its greatest masterworks would be en-tirely unpalatable. I can well understand that a bright man of letters, whois unable to hear how the text is refined and vivified by the tones, wholooks at it from a purely literary point of view, may find it a disagreeabletask to listen to The Magic Flute—nay, even to operas with much 1 Mozart was Austrian and Bach possibly Croatian.—Editors. WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART 73 better texts. A great composer understands how to animate any detail ofthe poem, be it ever so dull; and he who attends an operatic performancewith a predominating literary interest runs the risk of losing the most in-spired moments. For, strange as it may sound, such passages often are. PORTRAIT OF by Lorenz Vogcl, 1887. Photographed by Franz Hanfstaengl. built up most impressively on the most ordinary literary are excellent texts which absolutely demand music. It is relatedof a great modern poet who for the first time heard Wagners Tristan andIsolde, and had gone to the theater free from all prejudice, that after hehad gazed for a while with the most serious and expectant face on thescene which, by its duration, is capable of producing, on one to whom itis not interpreted by the music, an impression which is not only fatiguing, 74 WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART but is positively that of a parody, he suddenly, in spite of the tragic situa-tion, was unable to suppress a smile. This smile changed into laughter whichat last shook the bench, so that a friend who accompanied had to whisper inhis ear, But, X , we can go away! Yes, we can go away, groaned
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