Enlightenment Ideals as communicated through Mozart’s use of Articulation Markings
One of the most compelling characteristics of Mozart’s music is its expression of aninfinite variety of emotions, ranging from elation to despair.
In From Despotism to Revolution, Leo Gorshoy (1763-89) recounts arguments concerning the role of expression of the passions in art during Mozart’s time. (I paraphrase):
In 1755, Winklemann’s pamphlet –Thoughts on the Imitation of Greek Works in Painting and Sculpture—proposed that the “noble simplicity and serene greatness" of Greek statues were also the true characteristics of Greek literature in its best period. However, in 1766 (when Mozart would have been ten), Gotthold Lessing vigorously countered that while painting and sculpture (which dealt with bodies) attained supreme expression in statuesque repose, poetry he argued, deals with action and movement, and in order to be true to its inner essence must pulsate with energy and be vibrant with life. Lessing thus disassociated—with regard to poetry and music—the idea of the sublime from its identification with the noble and the serene, and expounded an aesthetic that placed the seal of artistic approval upon the painful, the tearful, and, above all, upon the passionate. [1]
Compared with a more usual Enlightenment view of the advancement of ‘reason’ over passion, Lessing’s argument might seem odd, but it offers a broadened perspective from which to appreciate the heightened emotions that are expressed in Mozart’s music. Insofar as Mozart’s music falls in line with Lessing’s argument, it belongs to the side of the Enlightenment that is going to change within a generation to the aesthetics of the Romantics. Mozart was forward-looking to anticipate the importance of this unusual aspect of expression in the Enlightenment, and to contribute to the seeds that later blossomed as Romanticism and Expressionism.
A question I would like to offer for consideration is how can we best teach the astonishingly full range of emotions in Mozart’s music? From a practical point, this asks how we can identify Mozart’s notational system for emotional expression, what the notation indicates, how it works when sounded out, and what the sounds communicate in terms of emotions or emotional energy.
Lessing’s argument certainly would have sanctioned Mozart’s unprecedented forays into minor harmonies and keys, and their chromatic implications, which immeasurably broadened his dramatic palette. But Mozart achieved his most extraordinary depth and detail of emotional expression through his particular use of articulation markings—slurs, strokes (sometimes called wedges), dots, and combinations of these—both in their relationships to each other, as well as to unmarked notes.