VI. MOZART AND THE CLASSIC STYLE.
The slow movements of the symphonies and string quartets of Mozart, who represents the culmination of the classic type in music, are thoroughly characteristic of the ideals of the classical period. Unlike the rustic Haydn, Mozart was accustomed from his childhood to the atmosphere of courts and lived in the favor of princes. His music is never brusque, nor does it have the homely wit and sentiment of Haydn—it does not smack of the soil—but it possesses a certain ideal beauty and elegance, a certain finesse and finely pointed wit that were beyond Haydn's powers. Yet these ideally beautiful compositions of Mozart are absolutely spontaneous. We are never admitted into his work-shop; we never trace a sign of his labor; his music seems to have sprung full born from his brain. He is the type of the consummate artist who deals with the language of music as easily as an ordinary mortal deals with his native tongue. He was not a philosopher like Bach, nor a great man like Beethoven. We find no evidences of his having been, outside his music, particularly distinguished from his fellows, for his improvidence and fondness for amusement are matters of record. When we think of Beethoven's music we think of Beethoven; Mozart and his art are distinct and separate.[33]
At this point the question naturally arises: "Just what do we mean by classic beauty?" In a general way a book, a picture or a piece of music becomes a "classic" when it is universally accepted as a model of its kind. In this sense Grey's "Elegy in a Country Churchyard" is a classic; so are Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, the Sistine Madonna, and the Apollo Belvedere. The same term is applied to Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, and to Schumann's "Tr?merei." These works of art represent many varieties of mood, of style, and of structure, and the application to them all of the term "classic" is a very broad usage. "Classic," as opposed to "Romantic," in music, means something quite different and much more definite. It refers to purity of outline and simplicity of harmony; to pure beauty of sound as opposed to luxuriance or the poignancy produced by dissonances; to clear and translucent colors and definite lines curved in beauty, rather than to picturesqueness. Classical music tells its story clearly and definitely and does not depend on suggestion, as does, for example, the romantic music of Schumann.
Our illustrations from Haydn have revealed how this classic spirit gradually approached its culmination. In his Andante with Variations there is something of the classic spirit, though the occasional diffuse ornamentation of the trio theme mars the purity of the composition. In the movement from the "Surprise" Symphony there is too much that is rustic to admit of its being considered altogether classic. But a fine example of the classic type is afforded by the first movement of Mozart's G-minor Symphony, discussed in Chapter IX. The distinction may be made still more clear by reference to Figure XLIV, containing (a) the opening phrases of the Finale of Tschaikowsky's "Path?ique" Symphony, and (b) a short quotation from Schumann's Novelette, op. 21, No. 1.
(a)
![[PNG]](#5102994518728001825_pag155_score1.png.id-3551690002503127925.wrap-0.html.html){kind=link}
(b)
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FIGURE XLIV.
The poignancy of the passage from Tschaikowsky is remarkable, and the opening chord, modulating at once to another key than the tonic, produces a feeling of unrest which is further intensified, as the piece proceeds, by harsh dissonances. The quotation from Schumann's Novelette is notable for its brusqueness, and for the roughness of its dissonances. Effects like these would not have been tolerated in Mozart's time, and illustrate the tendency of music to become more personal and to seek to express a wider range of human feeling. A comparison of these two quotations with the opening of the andante by Mozart will reveal how far apart are the ideals of classic and romantic music.