Als Luise die Briefe ihres ungetreuen Liebhabers verbrannte
Encyclopedia
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
and voice (soprano
Soprano
A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...
) by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
to a poem
Poetry
Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
by Gabriela von Baumberg.
History
Mozart wrote the piece on 26 May 17871787 in music
-Events:*February 1 – A posthumous performance of Antonio Sacchini's Œdipe à Colone at the Paris Opéra results in the previously unsuccessful opera becoming one of the most popular pieces in the repertoire for several decades....
,Mozart's father, Leopold
Leopold Mozart
Johann Georg Leopold Mozart was a German composer, conductor, teacher, and violinist. Mozart is best known today as the father and teacher of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and for his violin textbook Versuch einer gründlichen Violinschule.-Childhood and student years:He was born in Augsburg, son of...
, died two days later. when he had just started to write Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and with an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It was premiered by the Prague Italian opera at the Teatro di Praga on October 29, 1787...
, in the Vienna district of Landstraße
Landstraße
Landstraße is the 3rd municipal District of Vienna, Austria] . It is near the center of Vienna and was established in the 19th century. Landstraße is a heavily populated urban area with many workers and residential homes. It has inhabitants in an area of 7.42 km². It has existed since...
in the room of his friend and occasional composer Gottfried von Jacquin (1767–1792), who was then 21 years old. It is set to words of the poet Gabriela von Baumberg (1768–1839), an acquaintance of Mozart and Jacquin. In fact, Mozart wrote this piece for Jacquin's use, who had it copied —with Mozart's knowledge— into a songbook of six songs under his own attribution; the four other songs were by Jacquin. Mozart's other contribution for this songbook was his K. 530 "Das Traumbild" which Mozart posted to Jacquin later that year from Prague where he prepared Don Giovanni.
Emil Gottfried Edler
Edler
Edler was until 1919 the lowest title of nobility in Austria-Hungary and Germany, just beneath a Ritter, but above nobles without title who used only the preposition von before their surname. It was mostly given to civil servants and military officers, as well as those upon whom the second rank of...
von Jacquin was a son of Nikolaus Joseph von Jacquin
Nikolaus Joseph von Jacquin
Nikolaus Joseph Freiherr von Jacquin or Baron Nikolaus von Jacquin. was a scientist who studied medicine, chemistry and botany....
and younger brother of Joseph Franz von Jacquin
Joseph Franz von Jacquin
Joseph Franz Freiherr von Jacquin or Baron Joseph von Jacquin. was an Austrian scientist who studied medicine, chemistry zoology and botany....
. Nikolaus and Mozart often gave house concert
House concert
A house concert or home concert is a musical concert or performance art that is presented in someone's home or apartment, or a nearby small private space such as a barn, apartment rec room, lawn, or back yard....
s together where Nikolaus played the flute. Gottfried also had a younger sister, Franziska (9 October 1769 – 12 August 1850) who received piano lesson from Mozart. In a letter to Gottfried from 15 January 1787 he praises her studiousness and diligence. Mozart dedicated a considerable number of his works to the Jacquin family, notably
the Kegelstatt Trio
Kegelstatt Trio
The Kegelstatt Trio , also referred to as the Trio for Clarinet, Viola and Piano in E-flat, is a classical chamber music composition by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.-History:...
. This was first played at the Jacquins' house in August 1786 with Mozart playing the violin,
Anton Stadler
Anton Stadler
Anton Stadler was an Austrian clarinet and basset horn player for whom Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote both his Quintet for Clarinet and Strings and Clarinet Concerto....
the clarinet, and Franziska the piano.
Gottfried von Jacquin added different dedications to each of the six songs, and had his booklet published in Vienna by Laurenz Lausch in 1791; he died the following year, 25 years old. His family had it published again as part of his estate in about 1803 by Johann Cappi. Jacquin's dedication for this work (K. 520) was Dem Fräulein von Altomonte. Sybille Dahms believes this to be the contralto
Contralto
Contralto is the deepest female classical singing voice, with the lowest tessitura, falling between tenor and mezzo-soprano. It typically ranges between the F below middle C to the second G above middle C , although at the extremes some voices can reach the E below middle C or the second B above...
singer Katharina von Altomonte who sang —alongside Mozart's sister-in-law and former love interest Maria Aloysia Lange
Aloysia Weber
Maria Aloysia Louise Antonia Weber was a German soprano, remembered primarily for her association with the composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.-Biography:...
, the "incomparable" (Joseph II
Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor
Joseph II was Holy Roman Emperor from 1765 to 1790 and ruler of the Habsburg lands from 1780 to 1790. He was the eldest son of Empress Maria Theresa and her husband, Francis I...
) tenor
Tenor
The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...
Valentin Adamberger
Valentin Adamberger
Valentin Adamberger, also known by his Italian name Adamonti, was a German operatic tenor...
, and the bass
Bass (voice type)
A bass is a type of male singing voice and possesses the lowest vocal range of all voice types. According to The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, a bass is typically classified as having a range extending from around the second E below middle C to the E above middle C...
Ignaz Saal— in the March 1789 performance of Handel
George Frideric Handel
George Frideric Handel was a German-British Baroque composer, famous for his operas, oratorios, anthems and organ concertos. Handel was born in 1685, in a family indifferent to music...
's Messiah
Messiah (Handel)
Messiah is an English-language oratorio composed in 1741 by George Frideric Handel, with a scriptural text compiled by Charles Jennens from the King James Bible and the Book of Common Prayer. It was first performed in Dublin on 13 April 1742, and received its London premiere nearly a year later...
in Mozart's orchestration
Orchestration
Orchestration is the study or practice of writing music for an orchestra or of adapting for orchestra music composed for another medium...
. Katharina von Altomonte was presumably related to the painter Bartolomeo Altomonte (1694–1783) who was famous for his peinted ceilings in many Austrian churches.
On 27 March 1799 Constanze Mozart
Constanze Mozart
Constanze Mozart was the wife of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.-Early years:Constanze Weber was born in Zell im Wiesental. Her mother was Cäcilia Weber, née Stamm. Her father Fridolin Weber worked as a "double bass player, prompter and music copyist." Fridolin's half-brother was the father of composer...
wrote to the publishers Breitkopf & Härtel
Breitkopf & Härtel
Breitkopf & Härtel is the world's oldest music publishing house. The firm was founded in 1719 in Leipzig by Bernhard Christoph Breitkopf . The catalogue currently contains over 1000 composers, 8000 works and 15,000 music editions or books on music. The name "Härtel" was added when Gottfried...
:
- "In considering the above songs I must state for your and the public's benefit that the two: "Erzeugt von heisser Phantasie" [K520] and "Wo bist du, bild etc" [K530] did pass here, and thus most likely also in other places, for the work of the here deceased Emil Gotfried Edlen v. Jacquin, a close friend of my husband. However, the original score shows that it is from my husband himself; on one of them [K520] it is even written in his own hand that it was made in Jacquin's home at the Landstrasse (a suburb here).…".
Subsequently, K. 520 was first published under Mozart's name in the 1799 Breitkopf & Härtel Œuvres, where it was
titled by the publishers "Unglückliche Liebe" ("Unhappy Love").
After Constanze sold the autograph
Autograph
An autograph is a document transcribed entirely in the handwriting of its author, as opposed to a typeset document or one written by an amanuensis or a copyist; the meaning overlaps with that of the word holograph.Autograph also refers to a person's artistic signature...
as part of a large collection to the Kapellmeister
Kapellmeister
Kapellmeister is a German word designating a person in charge of music-making. The word is a compound, consisting of the roots Kapelle and Meister . The words Kapelle and Meister derive from the Latin: capella and magister...
Johann Anton André
Johann Anton André
Johann Anton André was a German composer and music publisher.André wrote operas, symphonies, masses, and lieder, as well as a still unfinished Lehrbuch der Tonsetzkunst in two volumes...
, it passed on to his son Johann August André. It came then to the Austrian ambassador
Ambassador
An ambassador is the highest ranking diplomat who represents a nation and is usually accredited to a foreign sovereign or government, or to an international organization....
in Berlin, Count György Esterházy (1809–1856) and was later purchased Louisa Emily Charlotte, Lady Revelstoke, wife of Edward Baring, 1st Baron Revelstoke
Edward Baring, 1st Baron Revelstoke
Edward Charles Baring, 1st Baron Revelstoke , was a British banker.-Biography:A member of the famous Baring banking family, "Ned" Baring was the second son of Henry Baring from his second marriage, to Cecilia Anne . Sir Francis Baring, 1st Baronet, was his grandfather and Evelyn Baring, 1st Earl of...
; at her death in 1892 it fell to her second daughter, Margaret, wife of Charles Spencer, 6th Earl Spencer
Charles Spencer, 6th Earl Spencer
Charles Robert Spencer, 6th Earl Spencer KG, GCVO, PC, VRD , styled The Honourable Charles Spencer until 1905 and known as The Viscount Althorp between 1905 and 1910, was a British courtier and Liberal politician. An MP from 1880 to 1895 and again from 1900 to 1905, he served as Vice-Chamberlain of...
. It remained in the Spencer family until it was put up for sale on 16 October 1985 as lot 146 at Christie's
Christie's
Christie's is an art business and a fine arts auction house.- History :The official company literature states that founder James Christie conducted the first sale in London, England, on 5 December 1766, and the earliest auction catalogue the company retains is from December 1766...
, London, when a Janez Mercun in Geneva acquired it. It came up for auction again at Christie's on 3 December 2003 where it was sold for £251,650 (then US$435,355).
The poem
Though famous in her time as "the German SapphoSappho
Sappho was an Ancient Greek poet, born on the island of Lesbos. Later Greeks included her in the list of nine lyric poets. Her birth was sometime between 630 and 612 BC, and it is said that she died around 570 BC, but little is known for certain about her life...
" and praised by Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German writer, pictorial artist, biologist, theoretical physicist, and polymath. He is considered the supreme genius of modern German literature. His works span the fields of poetry, drama, prose, philosophy, and science. His Faust has been called the greatest long...
, not much of Gabriela von Baumberg's work is notable today, but Franz Schubert
Franz Schubert
Franz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer.Although he died at an early age, Schubert was tremendously prolific. He wrote some 600 Lieder, nine symphonies , liturgical music, operas, some incidental music, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music...
set six of her poemsSchubert's six songs to poems bei Baumberg are: "Lebenstraum" (D.
Otto Erich Deutsch
Otto Erich Deutsch was an Austrian musicologist. He is known for compiling the first comprehensive catalogue of the works of Franz Schubert, first published in 1951 in English, new edition in 1978 in German...
39) (a rather unsuccessful attempt by Schubert); "Lob des Tokayers" (D. 248); "Cora an die Sonne" (D. 263); "Der Morgenkuss" (D. 264); "Abendständchen — An Lina" (D. 265); "An die Sonne" (D. 270). All these have been described by Fischer-Dieskau
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau is a retired German lyric baritone and conductor of classical music, one of the most famous lieder performers of the post-war period and "one of the supreme vocal artists of the 20th century"...
in Schubert's Songs (1977) as
"mere miniatures of little importance".(Harry Peter Clive: Schubert and His World, OUP 1997, p.9, ISBN 978-0-19-816582-8 to music. von Baumberg was born on 25 March 1768 in Linz
Linz
Linz is the third-largest city of Austria and capital of the state of Upper Austria . It is located in the north centre of Austria, approximately south of the Czech border, on both sides of the river Danube. The population of the city is , and that of the Greater Linz conurbation is about...
; she was married to the Hungarian radical liberation poet János Batsányi
János Batsányi
János Batsányi was a Hungarian poet.In 1785, he published his first work, a patriotic poem, "The Valour of the Magyars"...
; she died on 24 July 1839 in Linz. She wrote this poem probably in 1786 when she was 18 years old, presumably in the wake of a personal experience.
Mozart found the poem in the Wiener Musenalmanch auf das Jahr 1786 (Vienna Almanc of the Muses for the Year 1786).
Als Luise die Briefe ihres ungetreuen Liebhabers verbrannte As Luise Was Burning the Letters of Her Unfaithful Lover |
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The music
The song is written in the time signatureTime signature
The time signature is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats are in each measure and which note value constitutes one beat....
of common time and in the key signature
Key signature
In musical notation, a key signature is a series of sharp or flat symbols placed on the staff, designating notes that are to be consistently played one semitone higher or lower than the equivalent natural notes unless otherwise altered with an accidental...
of C minor
C minor
C minor is a minor scale based on C, consisting of the pitches C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. The harmonic minor raises the B to B. Changes needed for the melodic and harmonic versions of the scale are written in with naturals and accidentals as necessary.Its key signature consists of three flats...
; it is 20 bars
Bar (music)
In musical notation, a bar is a segment of time defined by a given number of beats of a given duration. Typically, a piece consists of several bars of the same length, and in modern musical notation the number of beats in each bar is specified at the beginning of the score by the top number of a...
long. As was usual in that period
Classical period (music)
The dates of the Classical Period in Western music are generally accepted as being between about 1750 and 1830. However, the term classical music is used colloquially to describe a variety of Western musical styles from the ninth century to the present, and especially from the sixteenth or...
, Mozart wrote the piece using the soprano clef
Clef
A clef is a musical symbol used to indicate the pitch of written notes. Placed on one of the lines at the beginning of the staff, it indicates the name and pitch of the notes on that line. This line serves as a reference point by which the names of the notes on any other line or space of the staff...
.The soprano clef fell soon after out of use in favour of the treble clef, in which it is shown here. The song contains almost no melisma
Melisma
Melisma, in music, is the singing of a single syllable of text while moving between several different notes in succession. Music sung in this style is referred to as melismatic, as opposed to syllabic, where each syllable of text is matched to a single note.-History:Music of ancient cultures used...
ta,The song's lyrics consist of 84 syllables; 10 are melismatic, 9 of those over 2 notes, 1 over 3. and several passages provide a considerable element of opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
tic drama. The arpeggiating
Arpeggio
An arpeggio is a musical technique where notes in a chord are played or sung in sequence, one after the other, rather than ringing out simultaneously...
rolls in the left hand in bars 6 to 9 illustrate both the burning flames and the singer's fury about the unfaithful lover. This is followed by pauses
Rest (music)
A rest is an interval of silence in a piece of music, marked by a sign indicating the length of the pause. Each rest symbol corresponds with a particular note value:The quarter rest may also be found as a form in older music....
and chromatic
Chromaticism
Chromaticism is a compositional technique interspersing the primary diatonic pitches and chords with other pitches of the chromatic scale. Chromaticism is in contrast or addition to tonality or diatonicism...
figures to express hesitation and despair. The rising thirty-second note
Thirty-second note
In music, a thirty-second note or demisemiquaver is a note played for 1/32 of the duration of a whole note...
s to "Ihr brennet nun, und bald, ihr Lieben, ist keine Spur von euch mehr hier" (bars 12 to 14) return to the image of licking, rising flames and sparks, before again chromatically falling into doubt about the act just committed and the singer's lingering feelings towards the unfaithful lover.
The musical language in bars 12 to 14 often occurs in Mozart's operas to heighten emotional effect; we find a recitativo
Recitative
Recitative , also known by its Italian name "recitativo" , is a style of delivery in which a singer is allowed to adopt the rhythms of ordinary speech...
-like voice rising over the progression minor
Minor scale
A minor scale in Western music theory includes any scale that contains, in its tonic triad, at least three essential scale degrees: 1) the tonic , 2) a minor-third, or an interval of a minor third above the tonic, and 3) a perfect-fifth, or an interval of a perfect fifth above the tonic, altogether...
dominant
Dominant (music)
In music, the dominant is the fifth scale degree of the diatonic scale, called "dominant" because it is next in importance to the tonic,and a dominant chord is any chord built upon that pitch, using the notes of the same diatonic scale...
→major
Major scale
In music theory, the major scale or Ionian scale is one of the diatonic scales. It is made up of seven distinct notes, plus an eighth which duplicates the first an octave higher. In solfege these notes correspond to the syllables "Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Ti/Si, ", the "Do" in the parenthesis at...
dominant→3rd inversion
Inversion (music)
In music theory, the word inversion has several meanings. There are inverted chords, inverted melodies, inverted intervals, and inverted voices...
of the seventh chord
Seventh chord
A seventh chord is a chord consisting of a triad plus a note forming an interval of a seventh above the chord's root. When not otherwise specified, a "seventh chord" usually means a major triad with an added minor seventh...
→diminished seventh
Diminished seventh chord
A diminished seventh chord is a four note chord that comprises a diminished triad plus the interval of a diminished seventh above the root. Thus it is , or enharmonically , of any major scale; for example, C diminished-seventh would be , or enharmonically...
→major dominant in La finta giardiniera
La finta giardiniera
La finta giardiniera , K. 196, is an Italian opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Mozart wrote it in Munich in January 1775 when he was 18 years old and it received its first performance on January 13 at the Salvatortheater in Munich...
(no. 12 "Numi! che incanto è questo", bars 295–299), Idomeneo
Idomeneo
Idomeneo, re di Creta ossia Ilia e Idamante is an Italian language opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The libretto was adapted by Giambattista Varesco from a French text by Antoine Danchet, which had been set to music by André Campra as Idoménée in 1712...
(no. 6 "Vedrommi intorno", bars 52–58), Figaro
The Marriage of Figaro
Le nozze di Figaro, ossia la folle giornata , K. 492, is an opera buffa composed in 1786 in four acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte, based on a stage comedy by Pierre Beaumarchais, La folle journée, ou le Mariage de Figaro .Although the play by...
(no. 18 "Hai già vinta la causa!", bars 40–44), and in the Entführung
Die Entführung aus dem Serail
Die Entführung aus dem Serail is an opera Singspiel in three acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The German libretto is by Christoph Friedrich Bretzner with adaptations by Gottlieb Stephanie...
(no. 4 "Konstanze, dich wiederzusehen", bars 34–39); in all these, as well
as here, the effect is enforced with sforzando or crescendo dynamics
Dynamics (music)
In music, dynamics normally refers to the volume of a sound or note, but can also refer to every aspect of the execution of a given piece, either stylistic or functional . The term is also applied to the written or printed musical notation used to indicate dynamics...
.
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Mozart took three attempts at one particular phrase: "Kinder der Melancholie". See his first attempt on the right. He then crossed out the words and re-arranged them slightly for his second version. Both these versions resulted in undue stresses for the word "Me-lan-cho-lie" (stressed on the 2nd and 4th syllables in German). Finally, he crossed out the whole section and wrote a new version (see right) in some free space at the bottom of the sheet. This now gets the stresses right, and by abandoning the earlier syncopation, it also renders more mournfully.
A further change was the ending, which was originally a simple tonic
Tonic (music)
In music, the tonic is the first scale degree of the diatonic scale and the tonal center or final resolution tone. The triad formed on the tonic note, the tonic chord, is thus the most significant chord...
chord
Chord (music)
A chord in music is any harmonic set of two–three or more notes that is heard as if sounding simultaneously. These need not actually be played together: arpeggios and broken chords may for many practical and theoretical purposes be understood as chords...
on the last syllable of the vocal line; Mozart crossed out the closing double bar-line emphatically with eight marks and added the little piano postlude which rounds the piece off by echoing the opening figure.
Alfred Einstein wrote:
- [The song is] "not really a song at all, but a dramatically conceived scena, in which one not only feels the injured mood of the young lady, in the complaining chromaticism in C minor, but also sees the fire in the hearth — a little masterpiece, at once free and perfectly rounded."
External links
- Recording (1:34, 1.1 MB) from http://www.mozart-archiv.de/