Peculiar interest attaches to Sketch I., given in facsimile. The three first lines are noted for a clavier composition; then follows the sketch of a terzet (434 K.) for two bass voices and a tenor, from an opera buffa, on which Mozart was apparently at work in 1783. A fair copy of the work is partially preserved, and gives an idea of the way in which Mozart arranged his scores. The sketch contains only the voice parts, with slight hints for the accompaniment, showing how in one place the first idea was rejected and then again resumed. It is evident from the way in which the space is employed that the notes were made very hastily.
The score, on the contrary, is a fair copy of the work accidentally left unfinished. It has the proper number of parts for the voices and orchestra, with the corresponding title before each. The ritornello is first given, which is long, because it serves as an introduction to the first scene of the opera. It is formed of motifs which recur later, and it is plain that this independent introduction was written after the completion of the terzet, in which the motifs have each their special signification. The principal parts (first violin and bass), are written in full, but only those parts of the wind instruments in which they have independent motifs; all that was intended to give colouring and shading to this simple outline is omitted. The voice parts are all inserted in proper order, and the bass is given in full; but there are few hints for the accompaniment. It is all written firmly and neatly, showing plainly enough that it was finished. The deviations from the sketch are unimportant MOZART AS AN ARTIST. in the bass voice, more striking in the tenor, where the primary design of the melody remains, but the elaboration is modified and the conclusion lengthened. Where the voices are together nothing has been altered, so far as we can discover. The first sketch breaks off a few bars sooner than the score, which itself is a comparatively small fragment of the whole terzet.
It is evident, therefore, that the true artistic work was done before the first sketch was made, and that the elaboration of the latter into the score was no mere mechanical adoption of the motif (which seems to have been rejected upon critical revision and, so to speak, bom again), but the final reduction to form of what was already complete in conception. This is still more the case in the elaboration of the accompaniment in detail; the well-defined outline which is given keeps it within certain limits without imposing on it any hampering restraint.
Further instances may be found in those works of which the plans of the scores, generally unelaborated, are preserved. Particularly instructive are the unelaborated movements of the Mass in C minor (427 K.) and of the "Requiem" (626 K.) in André's edition; also the pianoforte score of the duet (384 K.) from the "Entführung" and the unfinished opera "L' Oca del Cairo," edited by Jul. André, are examples of similar sketches. They possess peculiar interest to students, since they show those points which Mozart considered as containing the germ of the whole conception. The different stages of the elaboration can be traced in most of Mozart's autograph scores. The voices and bass are invariably written first, and enough of the accompaniment to show its characteristic points; this fact can be recognised, even in scores afterwards fully elaborated, by the differences in ink and handwriting, which is generally more hasty in the elaboration than in the earlier sketch. When once this was made, the elaboration was often long deferred; the whole of the first act of "L' Oca del Cairo" was thus projected, and, the design of the opera being abandoned, was never elaborated; so, too, all the movements of the "Requiem," from the Dies irse to the Quam olim were written entire for the voices with a figured bass, while the ALTERATIONS AND IMPROVEMENTS. instrumentation was only suggested. He waited for time and inclination to continue the work thus begun, and needed more urging to it than to any other, for once having fixed the outline of his design, it required a mere mechanical effort to reproduce it in his mind with details of form and colour. A striking example is that mentioned on p. 360 (Vol. II.), where, by the figuring of the bass, he supplied an aid to his memory of a peculiar harmonic succession which perhaps flashed across him at the moment of transcription in his compositions.
Important alterations were seldom made by Mozart, unless at the instance of the singer or the instrumentalist. He sent his father the score of the "Entführung" with the remark that there were many erasures, because the score had to be copied at once, and he had therefore given free play to his ideas, and then altered and curtailed them before giving the score to be written; it is evident from this that the alterations were almost all made with reference to external circumstances. The improvements made as the work proceeded were usually only trifling, such as modifications in pianoforte passages, or unimportant turns of expression in vocal parts. Thus, for instance, the close of the Count's song in "Figaro" was originally simpler—[See Page Image]
In the duet for the two girls in "Cosi fan Tutte" (4), Dorabella's part had the bars—[See Page Images]
The decided heroic style of the first version, which would be fitting enough for Fiordiligi, is thus toned down, and an expression of greater elegance given to the passage.
It is worth remarking that the characteristic motif of Donna Anna's song in "Don Giovanni"—
Or sai chi l' o-no- re ra - pi - re a me vol-se, chi fu il tra - di - to -re, was originally—