Abstract
According to this story, the tragedy of Mozart’s life and death resulted from his involvement in the social conflicts of his time. He was in revolt against a hierarchical society based upon patronage and deference, and was aligned with middle-class circles increasingly impatient of aristocratic dominance. Accordingly he had drunk deep at the well of enlightenment egalitarianism and humanism. This is an appealing story: Mozart depicted as rebel is Mozart as hero and standard-bearer of the forces of progress. There is also a German nationalist dimension.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
A. Fauchier-Magnan, The Small German Courts of the Eighteenth Century (London, 1958) is a vivid account, though the reader must guard against the author’s liking for a good story.
E. Schenk, Mozart and his Times (London, 1960);
Hugh Ottaway, Mozart (London, 1979);
Katharine Thomson, The Masonic Thread in Mozart (London, 1977);
Ernst Wangermann, The Austrian Achievement 1700–1800 (London, 1973)
J. S. Curl, ‘Mozart Considered as a Jacobin’, Music Review, xxxv (1974), 136
P. G. M. Dickson, Finance and Government under Maria-Theresa 1740–1780 (Oxford, 1987), i, 51–2
Heinz Schuler, ‘Freimaurer und Illuminaten aus Alt-Bayern und Salzburg und ihre Beziehungen zu den Mozarts’, Mitteilungen der Internationalen Stiftung Mozarteum, xxv/1–4 (1987), 21
Massin, 580; J. M. Roberts, The Mythology of the Secret Societies (London, 1972), 60–61
This is the argument of H. Wagner, ‘Die politische und kulturelle Bedeutung der Freimaurer im 18. Jahrhundert’, Beförderer der Aufklärung in Mittel- und Osteuropa: Freimaurer, Gesellschaften, Clubs, ed. E. H. Balazs, L. Hammermayer, H. Wagner and J. Wojtowicz (Berlin, 1979);
H. Wagner ‘Die Freimaurer und die Reformen Kaiser Josephs II’, Quatuor Coronati Jahrbuch, xiv (1977)
French scholars have done excellent work on the sociology of freemasonry; see D. Ligou, ed., Histoire des francs-maçons en France (Toulouse, 1981), 97–116
Published in Robbins Landon, Golden Years, and in his Mozart and the Masons: New Light on the Lodge “Crowned Hope” (London, 1982)
Daniel Heartz, ‘Constructing Le nozze di Figaro’, Journal of the Royal Musical Association, cxii (1987), 77–98
Neal Zaslaw, Mozart’s Symphonies (Oxford, 1989), 415–9
Copyright information
© 1991 William Stafford
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Stafford, W. (1991). The rebel. In: Mozart’s Death. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-12516-6_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-12516-6_7
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-12518-0
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-12516-6
eBook Packages: Palgrave Literature & Performing Arts CollectionLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)