Author : Christoph Peter
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780956926661
Total Pages : 502 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (266 download)
Book Synopsis The Language of Music in Mozart's the Magic Flute by : Christoph Peter
Download or read book The Language of Music in Mozart's the Magic Flute written by Christoph Peter and published by . This book was released on 2014-12-01 with total page 502 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Christoph Peter appreciates music as complete and perfect in every human being. It richly expresses our vitality, feelings and strivings. The goal of The Magic Flute is "the right union of the Papageno world of our natural origins with the world of Tamino, our striving spirit." The path of love and obedience is pictured in the Sun-realm of Sarastro and the temple of wisdom. The opposite pole is the realm of night, exemplified by the Queen of the Night and her vassals. Peter finds life's polarities pictured in the fairy-tale text and in Mozart's music - achieved wisdom and natural instinct, spirit and nature, life and form, urgency and rest, light and dark, love and hate... Like the human being, music always stands between polar forces. We experience ourselves, losing or finding ourselves again in a living, musical process of breathing, in the rise and fall of melody, in long and short notes, in major and minor, in the dynamics, indeed even with instruments, with the intervals or in the phrasing (Chr. Peter). The universal law of polarity necessitates a third factor: the transition or threshold between two antagonistic forces. This is directly portrayed, both on the stage and in Mozart's music. Linking up with other scholars (notably Abert), the author presents his vision in concrete musical terms: Mozart's music portrays inner time, inner space and inner centring. The perennial path of transformation, the "middle way" - named "T A O" in Far-Eastern tradition - becomes music. "The background of the mysteries in The Magic Flute - which people mostly seek in the text), can be found in the musical realm" (Chr. Peter). A largely unknown Mozart, who places his elements very simply and sensitively, emerges with his inclusive vision of human concerns. This definitive study of Mozart's most sublime work is also a comprehensive study of music's creative language; a companion for the musical artist and music lover of the twenty-first century. Musical studies have been enriched by a book of most unusual, probably unique significance. It should be read by everyone who loves The Magic Flute. In truly masterly thoroughness and sympathetic understanding, the author helps the musician and music lover to rediscover this work. Mozart's opera, sadly misunderstood especially today, according to Wilhelm Furtwangler, is "the most profound and unfathomable musical work in the whole world. Hermann Pfrogner in Die Kommenden
