Or sai chi l'o-no-re ra - pi - re a me vol-se, chi fu il tra - di - to - re, and every one must feel how greatly it has gained by the alteration. In every case Mozart's self-criticism has been founded on true feeling and discrimination, even when it has not been called for on definite technical grounds. In the Countess's song in "Figaro" (19) the first division of the allegro, from bar eight, concluded originally thus:—[See Page Image]
The phrase as it is now known was written underneath and the bass scratched out. In the further course of the allegro the three bars— ALTERATIONS AND IMPROVEMENTS. were originally simply repeated after the interlude, and then went on:—[See Page Images]
Mozart appears to have felt when he surveyed the whole song that such an untroubled expression of a fresh joyous impulse was not altogether appropriate to the character of the Countess, and he therefore inserted seven bars on the repetition of the motif, which give the passage an altogether different colour:—
The strongly accented change to C minor expresses such a depth of sorrow and yearning pathos that the lively tone of the allegro seems to be covered with a veil, and the whole emphasis of the song falls upon this place. Certainly, none would have suspected this passage of being an interpolation. The concluding bars of the Andante of the C major symphony (551 K.) originally ran thus:—
How beautifully this passage is replaced by the eleven closing bars, which now lead back to the chief theme, and give emphasis and dignity to the close! In the terzet from "Tito" (14) the andantino originally closed with a simple passage for the strings:—
This is now replaced by a passage divided among all the instruments—[See Page Images]
which, with its agitated motion, is more sharply characteristic of the situation. All these are examples, not of improvements to a finished work, but of a free act of production giving a new disposition to the passages in their relation to the whole work. But Mozart sometimes hesitated at the moment of decision, and made repeated experiments before he was satisfied, as in the case of the conclusion of Susanna's charming song in "Figaro," which seems to belong so naturally to its position that one cannot imagine it other than it is; yet the sketches and alterations of the original show that many earlier experiments were made. Worthy of note also are the two bars in the overture to the "Zauberflote" (p. 10, André), in which the clarinet leads the repetition of the second subject—
and which Mozart, with just discrimination, has struck out of the finished work.
It is a curious fact that Mozart was sometimes uncertain as to his rhythm. The quartet in "Cosi fan Tutte" (21) was originally written:—