Mozart: Question 5

Mozart took the singspiel style to a new level which includes hilarious comedy and magic
but also contains some of the most moving, passionate and exciting music. In terms of
melody, Papageno’s melody has a fairly limited range which reflects his lack of speech in the
scene as he has a padlock fitted to his mouth as punishment; it is not until bar 40 that
Papageno starts singing lyrics as for the opening he only hums compared to the Queen of
the Night melodies which are virtuosic coloratura passages which have a much wider range
and are more adventurous as there are flourishes of scalic semiquavers at bar 80 to
represent the Queen of the Night’s worry in her opening aria. The opening of the piece
Papageno’s melody is an incomplete sequence to reflect his disfficulty for not being able to
speak. The melody in Act 1 No.5, Quintet is mostly diatonic with a lot of repeated notes and
is conjunct to represent the naivety of Papageno compared to the Queen of the Night
melody in the 2nd aria where the repeated notes represent the Queen of the Night’s
desperation for revenge against Sarastro as she warns Pamina that she will not be her
daughter anymore contrasting to the comedy of Papageno.
There are a few chromaticism which reflects Papageno’s anxiety as the melody ascends in a
chromatic scale as he fears what Sarastro might do to him. The falling chromatic figures
provide a poignant farewell to the number contrasting to the Queen of the Night’s entry
prior the number which uses the chromaticism to reflect the Queen’s anguish and worry for
her daughter; Mozart uses melodic chromaticism frequently to compensate for the
underlying harmonic plainness whereas in the Baroque ear it was used freely for expressive
effects at emotionally intense situations.
The phrase lengths are mainly balanced and even the melody is marked by periodic phrasing
and the characters alternate parts to focus on the musical conversations which contrasting
to the Queen of the Night’s first aria which contains unusual two-three bar phrases for the
Classical period which reflects the Queen’s supposed grief and unsettled nature. The quintet
enables the drama to advance through the character interactions.
The harmony is diatonic and functional due to the much lighter nature, the chromatic
chords found in the preceding aria do not appear as frequently in this excerpt; Mozart’s
characteristic style has a very light nature with some chromaticism to create an interest
rather than to contribute to the mood for example in Mozart piano concerto no.9 in the
coda of the first movement he uses a chromatic scale to create a melodic contrast. This
movement is in cut common time, giving the tempo a swift two-in-a-bar feeling. The slower
Andante section occurs at 214 as the mood of the music becomes more sombre.
The rhythms and note values are generally very simple (mainly crotchets and quavers), to
emphasise the comic nature and the simplicity of Papageno contrasting to the Queen of the
Night’s melody which has semiquaver passages throughout the opera to represent her
extreme and raw emotions. In Verdi’s Rigoletto – La Donna e Mobile, the melody consist of
repetitive dotted rhythms to create a light-hearted mood and joy different to the simple
crotchets and quavers in the Quintet. The movement opens with a solo voices, which take
turns to converse and eventually come together (despite singing different words) which is
similar to the second movement of Bach’s Cantata “Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott” as he uses
pedals and the bass enters followed by the soprano(2 part counterpoint) which briefly
occurs in the Quintet. The piece ends with multiple plagal and perfect cadences and uses a
feminine cadence (Ic-V-I) which is a typical of Classical period in Haydn’s symphony no.26 as
there are repeated dominant to tonic progressions. The alternating rests and notes creates
a similar effect to a staccato to articulate the text and create drama into the piece.
Referring to texture, Mozart demonstrates great variety in the vocal textures in particular.
He varies these according to the demands of the drama and handles them with great skill.
Mozart uses a homophonic vocal texture to express agreement or the delivery of a moral or
message. At bar 46, the Three Ladies sing a homophonic warning to Papageno, and between
their phrases, he promises never to lie again. By bar 51 it is clear that he has understood his
warning as he sings the same rhythms as the Three Ladies and imitates them for comical
effect. There is no overall form in this piece a it is through- composed which is based on
drama and lets the audience focus more on the story and comedy than the music which is
similar to film music, such as, Batman Returns where all the music is through-composed to
reflect the scenes shown and the use of leitmotifs to identify a character. In the Andante
section, it is mostly 5-part harmony with homophony and homorhythms. Mozart frequently
uses sotto voce (literally ‘under the voice’) to indicate a more reflective approach to the
ensemble singing. In Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, Mozart uses 11 characters come
together in different combinations to bring the plot and the opera to a thrilling close.
In terms of instrumentation, the orchestra consists of two oboes, bassoons, horns and
strings which is a typical Classical orchestra and is string dominated but the wind is starting
to do more. In the Andante section the clarinets enter (accompanied by pizzicato strings) to
change the music to a more sombre mood. At the time of writing The Magic Flute, the
clarinet was a relatively new instrument, for which Mozart had written a Clarinet Quintet in
1789, and a Clarinet Concerto to be performed in October 1791. No flutes or bells are used
in this number, despite the appearance of these instruments in the story. The triadic
interjections from the first violins in bars 143 and 145 could, however, suggest bells.
Papageno’s part is often doubled by the orchestra. At the beginning, the bassoons doubles
Papageno to emphasise the comical aspect of the opera. To show strength in the character
Tamino, he is not doubled by the orchestra.
This movement is born from one of Mozart’s key innovations in operatic writing, and his
solution to his frustrations with opera seria. Mozart felt that the constraints of solo arias
and choruses were not appropriate responses to the drama, and that while in spoken text,
everyone has to take turns to speak, in music, each character can express different or the
same sentiments (and sing different words) at the same time. In this movement, there is
general agreement among the characters.