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From: dep@allegra.UUCP (Dewayne Perry)
Newsgroups: net.music.classical
Subject: Re: Salieri and Mozart; psyco-babble biographies
Message-ID: <4980@allegra.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 24-Aug-85 10:29:45 EDT
Article-I.D.: allegra.4980
Posted: Sat Aug 24 10:29:45 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 25-Aug-85 02:02:46 EDT
Distribution: net.music.classical
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill
Lines: 36



First, Salieri and Mozart.  Dick Grantges indicated that his aspiring
to being an organist suffered from the problem of hiseing akin
to Salieri.  Dick, if I had even the talent of Salieri, I would be
ecstatic.  Our view of this important classical composer has been
completely colored by the almost completely fictional account given
in 'Amadeus'.

For a good defence of both Salieri and Mozart, I highly recommend
reading the article by Paul Henry Lang in the latest issue of
Opus (October 1985) entitled "Salvaging Salieri (and Mozart) after
'Amadeus'", pages 18-21.

For a much more accurate portrayal of Mozart and some of the problems
he had with the muscial establishment, see "Mozart and Haydn" by 
Ernst Fritz Schmidt in "The Creative World of Mozart" edited by
Paul Henry Lang and published in paperback by Norton.  This article
contains a good description of the musical environment of Vienna
in Mozart's time and how differently Haydn and Mozart responded to 
it.

Second, a small flame about psychobabbliographies.  I would excercise
a large amount of caution interpreting metaphors, etc from previous
times in terms of our own.  Therein lies almost sure misinterpretation.
Even within comptemporary times, it is not clear that the psychobiography
approach "really" unveils the subject in question.  All you have to
do to convince yourself of this is to consider how often your friends
(and your detracters - even those on the net) dont "really" understand
what you mean, or meant, in any given situation.  Often I dont even
understand myself, but it certainly was not what was impugned.  To
add one or two centuries, several cultures removed can only add to the
problem.  It seems to worthwhile to distrust those who are willing to
tell youwhat you "really" had in mind.

Classically yours - Dewayne