Mozart: The Elephant in today’s Classroom
Mary Robbins (Austin, Texas)
Mary Robbins, “Mozart: The Elephant in the Classroom,” published in the International Journal of Musicology, New Series Vol.2, Elliott Antokoletz and Michael von Albrecht, editors, PL Academic Research, Peter Lang Publisher; Frankfurt am Main; March, 2016; pp. 77- 121.
SUMMARY. Addressing the need for musicians today to learn about Mozart’s use of expression markings in order to understand and appropriately represent his music, this article examines his systematic use of five expression markings (and some combinations of them) on two compositional levels. What are the markings of expression Mozart used? What are the sounds they indicate? What is the role of Mozart’s markings in relation to other compositional considerations? How can the musician produce those sounds? How does the musician’s choice of instrument affect the production of the sounds Mozart indicated? This writing discusses these questions following the example of the composer-performer authors of the historical treatises to view markings as not only sounds, but also as directives for the musician to produce the sounds the markings indicate in order to hear their effects, and gives suggestions for teaching today’s musicians to do so. Through producing and thus hearing these sounds today’s musicians can understand—and accordingly represent (through live or recorded means)—Mozart’s music with the interpretation that he designed from every work’s inception through his use of expression markings.
Mozart as represented by musicians today
A recent (2015) international competition required piano contestants to perform Mozart concertos with orchestra. While the contestants and orchestra players had an obvious personal liking for Mozart’s music, their musical concepts and technical approaches for its performance were solidly from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, which unfortunately negated Mozart’s opportunities for establishing, building and resolving musical tensions. Mozart’s indications of these tensions—made largely through his markings of expression (also called “articulation” or “hypercritical” markings)—were trampled roughshod by the later musical approaches.
Why do musicians today ignore these markings from Mozart’s own hand? Interestingly, even while the performers in the competition veered far from the specifications of Mozart’s markings (and thus produced “unstylistic” results that lacked the music’s meaning, indicated through the markings), one sensed that the musicians would be eager to know and do Mozart’s bidding if someone would teach it to them.
Unfortunately, the performances of Mozart’s music in the competition are but typical examples of how it is commonly represented, or rather misrepresented, by most musicians today. Furthermore, such misrepresentation occurs in both performance and non-performance contexts. Although we might say that we “teach Mozart” or “perform Mozart,” by and large Mozart’s music is not taught, performed or represented otherwise (such as by recordings or recorded examples) according to how he indicated it to sound as he showed us through his assiduous use of expression markings.[1]
What are the ramifications of such indifference to his markings? Have we—the musicians and music educators of today—considered that these markings are crucially important to our understanding of Mozart’s music? By ignoring his markings we miss the main point of Mozart’s music: its messages that validate and elevate our human condition. By not hearing messages of Mozart’s music according to his choices of markings, we cannot understand, nor consequently appreciate Mozart’s artistic achievement and legacy. Instead, musicians today conjure personal ideas of his music at their whim—showing their lack of understanding of Mozart’s extraordinary synthesis of all compositional elements, including his expression markings (which he uses at an elemental level).
Is there a remedy that can bring musicians today to an understanding and representation of Mozart’s music according to his specifications, and if so, are we willing to do our part to bring these benefits about? In order to consider such a remedy, this writing will examine information about markings from historical sources, discussion of Mozart’s use of markings in recent scholarly sources, and his use of markings in the music itself.
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