Mozart: A Life Week Three - Mythology Past and Present

With fame comes rumors. When confronted with famous people of the past, either considered great as Abe Lincoln and as horrible as Stalin, there is always a “great story” behind them that becomes part of their legacy, no matter if the events in the story are true or twisted. Why do we create myths? What compels us to discuss people outside of our lives in such a way that determines their legacy, no matter who these people were in reality?

Feuds between successful musicians, like the rivalry between Mozart and Salieri, are a popular source to mythologize and exaggerate. The feud between Mozart and Salieri was not the only well-known form of gossip, but the rivalry between opera singers Maria Callas and Renata Tebaldi was also a famous scandal. During their 1951 South American tour, Callas made harsh comments about Tebaldi’s performance and voice (which was sweet and angelic) Renata Tebaldi "Poveri fiori" 1955. Miss Maria  “accused [Tebaldi] of breaking an no-encore agreement” as well as  “quoted in Time Magazine saying that comparing [her] to Tebaldi was like comparing champagne with Coca-Cola. Callas said she was misquoted”...but the press continued to dig into the matter of it, and thus ignited strains between the colleagues (The Voice of an Angel" -Renata Tebaldi). Another source written in honor of Maria Callas, puts a different perspective of the Callas and Tebaldi rivalry. This article claimed that, “Miss Tebaldi refused to attend Miss Callas’s performances, while Miss Callas went, with some ostentation” yet reporters “hinted that [Callas] did so in order to make Miss Tebaldi nervous”. After Renata’s opening  performance of Adriana Lecouvreur, the singers hugged each other backstage (On This Day: Maria Callas, 53, Is Dead of Heart Attack in Paris). Whatever the truth was between these brilliant performers, the contrasting views of their feud are written in such a way as to take sides with either Callas or Tebaldi. On the report of Tebaldi, she played the role as the victim to the feud whereas in the Callas’ article, she appeared to be a supportive character to Miss Renata Tebaldi. These conflicting rumors reveal that the press enjoy mythologizing prominent figures because they want to create controversy between the supporters of the musicians. Doing so allows the gossip detectives to make money off of the story and exaggerate it in a way that drives the interest of the public. Unfortunately, such exaggerated reporting affects the reputation on these singers, putting them in both a negative and positive light. And often those reported behaviors often last throughout history in texts, articles and more.  

With myths, there is always the author. In modern day it is often “gossip” that is spread around for the benefit of the myth maker. For Mozart the main contributor to myths about him is Constanze. She utilized myths of her prodigal husband and his works to help keep her financially afloat after he passed so she could support her and her family. In modern day, gossiping about well known politicians, actors, or musicians is common and often affects their career. Just as Constanze used myth creating to her advantage, there are now social media pages that gossip over public figures. Perez Hilton is well known and considered the father of this internet trade. On his blog perezhilton.com he talks about celebraties (often musicians and actors) and either degrades them or promotes them. While he can be supportive of some, Such as his support for Selena Gomez in this article here, where he is praising her performance (which will undoubtedly create a rise in fans), he also can become very critical of artists, such as a famous one about the artist Kesha Rose (formally known as Ke$ha).  I cannot link the post since it does contain NSFW content, but in 2013 Hilton released a slew of pornographic photos and videos that he claimed to be Kesha Rose’s photos. This resulted in a crash in her career due to the publicity this had and the loss of a long term relationship for her. Myths or “gossip” can be very influential, negatively or positively on people. Hilton writes for likes that lead to money, just as Constanze created myths to gain money off of his work. While they are in different situations, they both did these things for personal benefit.

In today’s modern technological era it becomes easier to spread misinformation amongst the masses, who then believe that falsehood is the truth and in doing so, intentionally or otherwise, creates a myth surrounding a composer or celebrity’s character. Often when people idolize famous people (actors, singers, composers, etc.), they generally believe those people to be “untouchable” or “unrelatable” to the extent in which they forget that those idolized stars are more like them than they think. In the eyes of many fans, a famous person is put on a pedestal, which puts them seemingly out of touch with the common person; they have a large sum of money that they can use at will, they may attend fancy dinner parties with fancy people of the same status, to which the fan feels as though they have nothing in common with their idol. But this in fact is not the case. Most of the time people view Mozart, for example, as a monolithic prodigy, or a composing machine too sophisticated and high brow to relate to anybody. Yet the letters he wrote and exchanged with his family and others show a side of him that many do not associate with him; his personality, his poor management of money, and his all too human characteristics. This aspect of humanity is lost all too often, and when that happens, the person of idolized fame ends up being almost fictitious, and in turn becomes a legend. Rumors spread to the point where many believe what is not true, and soon develop into modern myths.  

Citations:

Don. “The Voice of an Angel”-Renata Tebaldi. 3 Aug. 2012. Retrieved from: http://www.diarci.com/2012/08/03/renata-tebaldi/

Ericson, Raymond. “Maria Callas, 53, Is Dead of Heart Attack in Paris.” 17 Sep. 1977. Retrieved from: http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/1202.html

Onegin65. “Renata Tebaldi “Poveri fiori” 1955”. YouTube. 14 Aug. 2008. Retrieved from: https://youtu.be/P2nyRkzBSfA

Contributors

Erika Query - Intro, 2nd body Paragraph, editing, videos, photos

Nick De Los Santos - 3rd Body Paragraph, editing, photos

Holly Winter - 1st Body Paragraph, photos, videos, editing

Mozart: A Life Week Two - Patronage and Genre

According to Merriam-Webster ‘patronage’ is money and support to an artist, organization etc. Merriam Webster 'Patronage'. By means of a musician or artist, the ways patronage is shown evolves over time. In the 1700’s money and support were met for a performer through commissions from a particular social group or if permitted, some freedom to give his or her own performances. Today, patronage has expanded greatly in ways that musicians in Mozart’s time would have never thought was possible. In this modern era, patronage is spread through licensing to companies advertisements, social media web pages, seasonal performance catalogs and so much more. When one views the major differences of giving patronage to musicians, it may make one wonder how the evolving ways of showing support and money for these artists affect them and what has influenced such a change? A large portion of these differences is the social values of music, the array of music genres, and how musicians echo samples of traditional music.

In modern era, patronage has drastically changed and developed in various ways through the influence of social media. The arrays of media as stated above, allow the musicians to gain higher royalties, increase followers, as well as advertise other companies who pay musicians to use their music to represent themselves. This Nissan Sentra TV commercial from 2014 uses Billy Idol’s Mony, Mony Song to represent their company: 2014 Nissan Sentra TV Commercial. A musician who allows the license of their music in a car commercial, can earn $50,000 to $300,000 depending on a song’s popularity (User, Quora, Quora, 23 May 2011). Imagine how much royalties Mozart could make today if he licensed his music to advertisements? In his time, Wolfgang Mozart would make eight hundred florins (446.93 U.S. dollars) a year through commissions from Joseph II along with some freelancing. Discounting the fact that Mozart often frivolously spent his money, he also frequently pleaded a few hundred florins through his brother Freemason (Gay, Mozart, pg 87). The patronage during Mozart’s era was minimal compared to today because Mozart gained royalties solely on commissions. Musicians today, obtained royalties because they have more access to networking and landing commissions as well as more freedom to freelance, and obtain royalties for licensing their music. Mozart never achieved royalties for others using his music because licensing and issues of pirating wasn’t a social issue. Given the fact that Mozart’s networks was so limited and he didn’t receive earnings through others using his music, it’s no wonder Mozart didn’t earn the royalties he deserved for his compositions.

However, just as today many artists “sample” (Or take a part of another artist song and apply it to their own music), Mozart and composers like him would often find melodies from past works of others and expand on the idea in a new piece. A famous example is Brahms in his 4th movement of his 4th symphony used a line from Bach’s Nach dir, Herr, verlanget mich, BWV 150. It is often considered (especially in the modern era) a form of flattery to use another artist’s work in your own music and create new ideas off of that line. However, more and more artists are offended by this notion every year. Artists, such as Taylor Swift, believe that covers and samples inflict on intellectual property, and therefore shouldn’t be used by other people. It is interesting to see a shift in ideology over what you can and cannot do with other music over time. In Mozart’s day, there wasn’t really the concept of “intellectual property”, so in theory he wouldn’t think much about others using his melodies for their own work. Music making has become heavily run by money, almost a monopoly, which in turn has made it much more popular to compose simply because of the chance you could make money off of something considered “trivial” (We don’t believe it is is trivial but that will be a later essay). Dependant in the economy, it could change the ideology over sampling music again.

Today there exists quite an expansive array of genres, including, but not limited to all of the ones listed by This man. Classic Rock, Hard Rock, Smooth Jazz, Heavy Metal, Country, Pop, and many more genres exist in our modern world, even some mixed genres such as “dubstep classical” which is just a remix of classical pieces with some extra electronic flare (Mozart Alla Turca Dubstep, Beethoven Dubstep). These wonderful new genres seem to have sprung up out of the generous patronage of not only the wealthy, but society, as every CD, MP3, or Vinyl record bought is money to support the artist in the content they have created, and encourages them to expand and explore the vast concept that is music. Back in Mozart’s era and region, the most popular genres were simple and few; Opera, Concerto, Sonata, Symphony, and String Quartet. This was what the patrons liked, and wanted to hear. As technology advanced over the years, giving rise to the electric guitar, the synthesizer etc., it allowed for a great deal of new musical possibilities. Composers utilized these instruments to create entirely new genres, such as the groovy Disco of the 1970s, a type of music that’s all about showing off those funky fresh moves; dancing type music. Along with the new physical instruments came a new purpose for composers, they can do so much more musical experimenting now than they could in Mozart’s day, pushing the envelope of what is considered music. Any of the modern genres of today can feature songs that are complex and meaningful, like that of Mozart or Haydn. Music has evolved in such a beautiful way, such that it never loses its touch or place in our hearts and ears as something essential to everyday living. People buy incredible amounts of music each year, and whatever is most purchased off of an album by a certain artist signals to the artist that their audience and supporters want more music of that sort. Patronage is imperative in a creative career, especially a musical one.

Citations:

User, Quora, How much do top pop songwriters generally get paid for a song? Quora. 23 May 2011. Retrieved from: https://www.quora.com/How-much-do-top-pop-songwriters-generally-get-paid-for-a-song

Nissan, Jonker. 2014 Nissan Sentra TV Commercial Mony Mony Song by Billy Idol. YouTube. 30 Jul. 2014. Retrieved from: https://youtu.be/CR2MG9Czf_Y

Gay, Peter. Mozart: a life. Penguin Books. London, England. 1999

Credits:

Erika Query: 2nd body paragraph, pictures, editing

Nick De Los Santos: 3rd body paragraph, Conclusion, pictures, editing

Holly Winter: Introduction, 1st body paragraph, pictures, editing

Mozart a Life Week One - Child Prodigies

As a child prodigy, Mozart experienced much of the stress “regular” composers of his day did, but at a much younger age. It is often believed that musicians of classical music experienced anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, and insomnia among other health ailments. There is no proof of this (other than documented activity about many of these composers) since there wasn’t really an idea of what mental health was back in his time, but it wouldn’t be surprising if Mozart did experience symptoms of these mental illnesses. From the age of 4, Mozart was revered as one of the best musicians of his time (and still is today), so pressure was put on him to continually be the best in his craft. Though most musicians of the past and present do experience some mental illness that is stress related, it is highlighted when someone is a child prodigy, but why is it this way? People often find child prodigies an anomaly of humankind, and try to find something “different” about them to make an explanation as to why certain people are the way they are.

As previously stated, these genius or even outliers typically have issues, such as: familial dysfunction, social pressures, addictions, mental health and more. This stereotypical myth of child prodigies having problems is seen in Mozart’s unhealthy relationship with his father, Leopold. One of the ways that their father-son relationship was unhealthy and especially stressful was Leopold’s fear of Mozart withdrawing from his duties to his family because he may “fall in love or, even worse, get married and set up a household of his own” (Gay, Mozart, pg 29-30). Leopold’s worst nightmare came true when his son wrote a letter to him about his deep affection for his cousin Bäsele. Wolfgang Mozart declared that she was “beautiful, sensible, kind, accomplished and gay”. Of course this statement alarmed Leopold! So, he wrote back with “a sarcastic reply, as though to dampen Mozart’s dawning arousal—in vain” (Gay, Mozart, pg 35). It is no wonder Mozart was burdened with the stress of only meeting the needs of his family and how it kept Mozart from living out the desires for his life. Wolfgang Mozart expresses this pain as well as his optimism about his desires by paralleling it in his opera Idomeneo, ré di Creta (Father-son dispute of love: Idomeneo 1:19:14). In the story, Idomeneo (Leopold), King of Crete, threatens his son’s (Mozart’s) love for the daughter of King Priam, Ilia (Bäsele). For the Prince of Crete’s ambitions to be fulfilled, “divine intervention” must take place to force Idomeneo to hand over the kingdom of Crete to his son and for the lovers to to be together at last. In the end, “[t]he gods have decided to let the son best the father” (Gay, Mozart, pg 58-59). Mozart addresses his anger and resentment toward his father because he was bullied into maintaining his obligations to his father’s control and he was not supported at all for wanting a life greater than what his father designed for him. Thus, Wolfgang Mozart’s familial conflict reflects the stress and familial turmoil as a child prodigy because manipulate families can force the child to sacrifice their desires and future goals. The result of this familial control is the development of anger, pressure, and even strain for the child. Mozart would later on best his father by marrying Constanze, which allowed him his dream but caused strain between he and his father.

All around us in the modern day are a variety of highly talented and skilled people; prodigies. Ranging from performers on the violin, and piano, to composers as good as Mozart himself, and even computer programming masters. Prodigies are all over the place these days. One can easily find any number of them with a quick search on the internet. Some people hold the view that prodigies, while excellent at playing pieces already written, can only play, and not improvise. Why this is, I am not certain, though it seems that prodigies excel at one particular skill. NPR has an interesting article on child prodigies,

What Haimovitz did may have been exceptional, even for a prodigy. Winner says as prodigies grow up, they struggle to advance their talents.

"The skill of being a child prodigy is the skill of mastering something that's already been invented — whether it's Western math, classical music or realistic drawing," Winner says. But adult creators actually do something in a new way. "That's a very different skill, and most prodigies do not make that leap."

Tremendous pressure is placed on child prodigies once their talents are discovered. The parents will want to show their child off to the world, working to get the public’s eye. An extreme example of a parent placing a great amount of pressure on their child is Lang Lang and his father. From about 35:30 to 38:07, Lang Lang’s father goes into detail about how his son needed a new piano teacher if he were to get into the conservatory, but when he met her, she said he will never be a pianist, and he should just quit. After this, Lang Lang wanted to go back home, but he and his dad had burnt all of their bridges, they’d passed the point of no return. There was only one option. Lang Lang’s father told him that he could either jump off the roof of their apartment building, or he could overdose on antibiotics. Sometimes these child prodigies are pushed to the edge in order to fulfil a parent's dream, and sometimes it goes too far. Thankfully everything eventually worked out for Lang Lang, his influence has promoted and inspired an entire generation to want to learn how to play the piano, as I'm sure Mozart must have once the piano was invented all those years ago.

Credits:

Gay, Peter. Mozart: a life. Penguin Books. London, England. 1999.

2 Musiké, te Agapó. MOZART- IDOMENEO 1781 with double subs It-Eng. YouTube. 6 Nov. 2014. Retrieved from: https://youtu.be/Ba9K_T5ivTQ

Contributors:

Erika Query, Holly Winter, Nick De Los Santos

Trinidad Week Three - Carnival Dress, Tradition and Body Love

Dancing and clothing work hand in hand not only in Trinidad, but throughout the globe. Performing a dance is quite a show, and clothing can make or break this type of performance. It only makes sense then that in Trinidad, their biggest “dance party” to let go, Carnival, has very eccentric costumes. These costumes are free to move your whole body in, while still leaving you flashy and ready to party.

During the two days of Carnival in Trinidad, women express their bodies with eccentric, revealing costumes to break away from their conservative lifestyle. Most women are clad in jewelled bikinis and feathered head dresses with loud colors (Trinidad and Tobago Carnival-2014). The Port of Spain perceives this type of minimal clothing as a way of freedom of expression, and most importantly to show pride and love for their bodies. From the viewpoint of the U.S. American population they might view their clothing preferences differently. In a survey conducted on “Women’s clothing in Music” it collected viewpoints of both male and female ideas of women and assumed “revealing” attire. In a survey we conducted over the weekend of October 30th to November 1st, our responders were asked why they believe women wear revealing clothing. 25% of them said they wanted attention whereas more than 45% of other responders said the clothes made the women feel good. Following this concept of women’s psychology when it comes to dressing up for a night of fun, the participants were then asked if the ideas of what is appropriate and inappropriate are largely influenced by society. 36% percent of them said “Yes” while 27% of other participants said “They are my own personal beliefs” (Women's Clothing in Music, SurveyMonkey, 2015). This survey demonstrates that society plays a big role on ideas of women’s clothing that shows self-expression but also some form of what is expected as appropriate attire. Most of American society believes that if women wear revealing clothing it means they are either seeking the attention of all genders or sexualizing themselves. On the other hand, some believe it’s self-expression and freedom dependending on the social context. It seems that the U.S. populace is starting to strive to promote women to show self-expression through clothing that shows off the body, but the old standards of American society continually enforce negative connotations and perhaps unintended social queues (ex. “She’s asking for it”). Trinidad’s society however, allows women to wear what they desire because their standards and the history of how Carnival came to be encourages freedom and appreciation of their bodies. Thus, the ideas of body love between Trinidad and the United States differ because society sets standards of appropriate/inappropriate attire, which affects specific meaning and social queues.

This “free” style of clothing and how it is viewed in society (both in Trinidad and the U.S.) can affect body image, both in men and women. In American society, there is a strict set of guidelines in terms of what people can wear without being “revealing” and without also being too “prude” in their clothing. If a woman wears clothes that show off her legs, shoulders or midriff, there is often slurs thrown at her and is told she needs to cover herself up, that she is asking for trouble due to her clothes. It is the same with a man if he wears a tight pant/shirt, he is told he is “asking for too much attention”. In this sense, it could show America’s preferred  style of clothing is more conservative that doesn’t show off the body, but that isn’t all. American clothing also is advertised to show off curves in a woman, and is an ideal way to express your body, in clothing for everyday wear and dancing. This becomes skewed and confusing to navigate through, which often can make self body image lower and self esteem lower in women and men across the U.S. However, in Trinidad and Tobago, there is a different viewpoint on how men and women dress. For most of the year, Trinidad is a more conservative area in dress and actions. During the time of Carnival, however, is a much more free environment. There is loud music and dancing and clothing that shows off the body, both for men and women. There isn’t anyone telling these women and men to change how they dress and that they are too “revealing”, but simply are participating with each other in their beloved tradition. While the clothing can be sexual, it isn’t perceived that way immediately. There is a definite “freedom” in the clothing through Carnival in Trinidad. There is no right or wrong though, so it really just ends up as what your culture and society says is okay.

Tradition carries great value across the globe. Keeping it alive is viewed as essential for some, while others feel tradition should be dynamic and fluid to follow changing times. Speaking in general terms, the old value the old, and the young value the new. This is especially true when it comes to music. Kids these days tend to listen to some sick beats called “dubstep”, but how would elders react  to this music? A little like this. Not all of the subjects look pleased with this type of music, and as one man states at 2:07, “It’s not exactly Sinatra, Dean Martin, or Sammy Davis”. Tradition often refers to something from the past, something that should be repeated unchanged for decades, or centuries. At least, that’s how elder folk see traditions. The young may view tradition as something to expand upon.

    In Trinidad, a popular style of music played during Carnival that has caught the eye of youngsters is “soca”,  because of its feel; the beat, the lyrics, and everything. It’s like going to a party with blasting popular tunes, what else is there to do but dance? This is music to dance to. Whereas some of the older folk value the importance of “calypso”, music that has a great meaning within the words, music that is meant to be digested and deciphered by the listener for its message. With Soca on the rise, many older folk fear the loss of the tradition of calypso being replaced something different to meet the changing times.

Citations:

Magik, Tony. Trinidad & Tobago Carnival 2014- “...absolutely EPIC”. YouTube. 2 Apr. 2014. Retrieved from: https://youtu.be/F74Jf7sqYkA.

Winter, Holly. Women’s Clothing in Music. SurveyMonkey.com. 30 Oct. 2015. Retrieved from: https://www.surveymonkey.com/analyze/EXPt_2FM3qrb10_2BrKH9X8bBP9wD0wqIQKfdM_2FbgW7Snq8_3D

Additional Credits

Nick De Los Santos: 3rd Body Paragraph, editing, links

Erika Query: Introduction, 2nd Body Paragraph, editing, links

Holly Winter: 1st Body Paragraph, editing, photos and links