Mozart, asked how his music come to him, said all of a piece. Y/N ?
December 9, 2019 3:37 AM Subscribe
Overheard this, want to run it down, so as to get it right. Mozart, when asked did he write piano first, or violin, according to this snatch of conversation overheard, Mr. Mo' said something to the effect that it all came to him at once, all of a piece. The guy is fascinating, I love to read his quotes, I don't recall hearing this before. Help?
He's fun to read even if just because he was such a smart-ass, he gets me to laughing, smiling.
My understanding is that the flick Amadeus was pretty much Hollywood, not adhering much to any True Facts, but reading Mozart's quotes makes me think that Tom Hulce nailed his exuberance and his smarts, too.
I'm just hoping someone here can direct me to that quote, if in fact it's accurate.
I read about Stephen King stepping out of a car at a beautiful resort in Colorado and the entire book "The Shining" came to him, all of a piece. I love to imagine Mozart getting his music in this way.
I've been nosing around for half an hour, duckduckgo, a million-billion quotes pages -- no luck. I'm certain it's the first quote on a Mozart quote page that *you* go to -- wanna share?
He's fun to read even if just because he was such a smart-ass, he gets me to laughing, smiling.
My understanding is that the flick Amadeus was pretty much Hollywood, not adhering much to any True Facts, but reading Mozart's quotes makes me think that Tom Hulce nailed his exuberance and his smarts, too.
I'm just hoping someone here can direct me to that quote, if in fact it's accurate.
I read about Stephen King stepping out of a car at a beautiful resort in Colorado and the entire book "The Shining" came to him, all of a piece. I love to imagine Mozart getting his music in this way.
I've been nosing around for half an hour, duckduckgo, a million-billion quotes pages -- no luck. I'm certain it's the first quote on a Mozart quote page that *you* go to -- wanna share?
I wonder if you are confusing this controversy with the false tradition that Mozart wrote down his pieces all in one go without revision.
posted by Fukiyama at 9:02 AM on December 9, 2019
posted by Fukiyama at 9:02 AM on December 9, 2019
The second quote from MonkeyToes link above also seems like part of the answer:
"It does not come to me successively, with its various parts worked out in detail, as they will be later on, but it is in its entirety that my imagination lets me hear it."
So it seems like Mozart is describing a couple of different creative moments: one when he conceives of the piece as a whole, and one when he conceives of (at least some of) the individual parts of the piece.
He doesn't seem to be very clear on exactly when all the specifics of harmony are determined, which isn't surprising, because exactly when and how (if at all) we make decisions is arguably the most mysterious aspect of being any creature possessed of reflective self-awareness. It's clear that he's saying melody lines (and certain harmonies?) come to him in chunks, and that the overall piece comes to him as a whole. Which are somewhat contradictory ideas if understood literally, but seem like good descriptions of two ways that ideas tend to manifest, sometimes simultaneously.
I think what he's describing sound very much like the "normal" workings of creative imagination raised to the level of genius, rather than a fundamentally qualitatively different experience of imagination. I think that the idea of music coming "all of a piece" might sometimes imply the latter, but it very much depends on how one takes that term.
posted by howfar at 9:26 AM on December 9, 2019 [1 favorite]
"It does not come to me successively, with its various parts worked out in detail, as they will be later on, but it is in its entirety that my imagination lets me hear it."
So it seems like Mozart is describing a couple of different creative moments: one when he conceives of the piece as a whole, and one when he conceives of (at least some of) the individual parts of the piece.
He doesn't seem to be very clear on exactly when all the specifics of harmony are determined, which isn't surprising, because exactly when and how (if at all) we make decisions is arguably the most mysterious aspect of being any creature possessed of reflective self-awareness. It's clear that he's saying melody lines (and certain harmonies?) come to him in chunks, and that the overall piece comes to him as a whole. Which are somewhat contradictory ideas if understood literally, but seem like good descriptions of two ways that ideas tend to manifest, sometimes simultaneously.
I think what he's describing sound very much like the "normal" workings of creative imagination raised to the level of genius, rather than a fundamentally qualitatively different experience of imagination. I think that the idea of music coming "all of a piece" might sometimes imply the latter, but it very much depends on how one takes that term.
posted by howfar at 9:26 AM on December 9, 2019 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: I'll go with what MonkeyToes came up with, as this does describe how it came together. I thought that there was a short, succinct way that he put it but this will work.
Resolved.
posted by dancestoblue at 4:42 PM on December 9, 2019
Resolved.
posted by dancestoblue at 4:42 PM on December 9, 2019
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by MonkeyToes at 4:27 AM on December 9, 2019 [6 favorites]