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You've got (Mozart's) mail
Mozart would have loved email. It would have been the perfect outlet for his frenzied, frequent, and very personal communications. His unorthodox spelling and scattershot style would have been well served by todays more immediate and chatty electronic medium. (And I have no trouble at all imagining him firing off the latest awful jokes to his father, sister, and cousin, from a laptop on the road.) Im convinced of this after reading the composers correspondence in Robert Spaethlings smart and revealing Mozarts Letters, Mozarts Life (W.W. Norton, 2000). Professor Spaethling, a German language scholar, tells us his translations strive "to bring out Mozarts voice and diction ... the spoken character of his written language, so that his personality, which shines thru vividly in his German, becomes evident in English, as well." Hes also arranged the translations chronologically, so they function as a sort of autobiography.
Theres excellent (and brief) commentary from Spaethling throughout, which is always smart and illuminating. The letters are placed in the context of Mozarts life and travels, and I found that valuable. I dont read German, and you wont need to either, to see that Spaethling has hit the bulls eye. Hes captured Mozarts unique conversational tone and sometimes wild style better than any translations Ive encountered before. Casual, modern phrases like put out those feelers and thats how it is sit comfortably and flow naturally. One of the great things we get from these letters is a sense of Mozart the musician and performer, his style and his preferences. We learn that Mozart preferred naturalness in musical performances. So I think hed be happy to find his words, the stories of his life, rendered so naturally. Spaethling hits just the right note in a few areas, from Mozarts idiosyncratic punctuation to the emotional complexity of some of the letters to his father, Leopold. One of the more interesting glimpses the reader gets is of the younger Mozart asserting his independence, as an artist and as an adult. The elder Mozart disapproved of his sons break with the Prince Archbishop Colloredo in Salzburg and his move to Vienna. He also disapproved of Wolfgangs courtship of wife-to-be Constanze. Wolfgangs letters to his father from these times are filled with constant reassurances of love and respect, and pleadings for the same in return. The translator has an eye, and more importantly an ear, for the interesting anecdotes, verbal games, and scatological jokes in Mozarts letters. He wisely includes plenty of these. More importantly, he seems to have keen psychological and emotional insight into the man writing these letters. What emerges is a portrait of the real person, more rich and complex than either the diligent genius-with-a-capital-G view, or the giggling and childish cinematic caricature of the Tom Hulce portrayal from Amadeus (as brilliant and memorable as it was!). The sheer volume of these letters illustrates just how incredibly productive Mozart was. How he found time to write so many letters so well will boggle your mind, especially if its all you can do to get through your email in-box everyday. So, comprehensive is the watchword, which I suppose could be a euphemism for long. These selected letters run to over 400 pages. Schumann said that Schuberts hour-long Ninth Symphony had heavenly length. The same can be said of this masterfully translated collection of Mozarts letters, shedding valuable light on his musical, as well as verbal, gifts. Tom Crann is a daytime classical music host at MPR. Go to MPR Books |
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