Who’s there?
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart c. 1783 by Joseph Lange, Mozart’s brother-in-law.
Mozart’s involvement with Freemasonry has been the subject of much speculation and discussion. Freemasonry had a very significant part to play in the last eight years of his life. He was a participant in Masonic gatherings and had close friends who were also Freemasons, including fellow composer Joseph Haydn.
When Mozart found himself and his family deeply in debt in 1788, he turned to his Masonic friend Johann Michael von Puchberg, a textile merchant, to ask for a loan to help him out., which Puchberg agreed to. By 1791, Mozart’s financial situation had improved a little and he began to repay his loans. After his death that year, his wife Constanze was able to pay back Puchberg’s loan with the help of memorial concerts and publications. Puchberg himself died in poverty in 1822 – a surprising twist in the tale.
In gratitude to Puchberg for his kindness, Mozart dedicated his one and only string trio (K. 563) to him. It is without doubt one of his finest chamber music works. The three instruments – violin, viola and cello – are given equal prominence in a trilogue that is at times virtuosic or playful and at other times of the most tender and intimate expression.
Why did Mozart choose to centre this piece on the key of Eb major? (It also happens to be the key of the marvellous Sinfonia Concertante K. 364 for violin, viola, orchestra, composed nine years earlier.) To achieve the most effective ringing resonance, keys using the open strings are best used – G major, D major, C major, for instance, not keys with lots of flats like Eb major.
Firstly, he was wanting to avoid a bright, resonant texture, choosing instead a key that could provide more complex colours. Secondly, there’s the link between the key of E flat (containing three flats in the key signature) and Freemasonry. Three is a hugely important number in masonic ritual, symbols and in its hierarchical structure.
The three opening chords of Mozart’s opera The Magic Flute, an opera that clearly reflects many masonic concepts and imagery, including numerous references to the number three, shows how Mozart incorporated masonic symbolism in his music.
Magic Flute
The three opening chords of Mozart’s opera The Magic Flute, an opera that clearly reflects many masonic concepts and imagery, including numerous references to the number three, shows how Mozart incorporated masonic symbolism in his music.
Menuetto
Trio 1
Mozart’s ability to incorporate so many diverse factors into his music is mind boggling, particularly bearing in mind that the end result is so perfectly formed and visits a gamut of feelings, from playfulness to profundity.
Sometimes seen as a human invested with almost superhuman, AI powers – input the requirements and out comes ‘perfection’, seemingly effortlessly – Mozart must have done most of his composition in his head before committing it to paper. His manuscripts are very neat, compared to, say, Beethoven, but there are corrections and adjustments now and again.
As it happens, three bars earlier,…another three bar repetitive phrase. There are many such examples.
Part of the process of composition is chipping away at it, making changes towards a vision of what it could be. In our age, in which quick access to information is considered essential, even if the information is inauthentic and often incorrect, encountering music that has been honed and crafted to touch and inspire, played live, is surely one of the few remaining authentic experiences and will always be so, despite the rise of robots.
*Mozart was the viola player in the first performance in Dresden in 1789. He played alongside two eminent string players of his time, Anton Teyber (violin) and Antonin Kraft (cello). Mozart must have been a very capable viola player and it is interesting that he was still active as a performing musician at this stage of his life.
