18th-Century Characters, Including Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 34

[cahn]

And including Emperor Joseph II!

from Derek Beales: Joseph II, Volume 2: Against the World, 1780 - 1790:

Joseph's alleged comment to Mozart about the Entführung, "Too many notes", has been taken as evidence of his ignorance. But he probably said something like, "Too beautiful for our ears, and monstrous many notes." It is always necessary to bear in mind, when appraising the emperor's remarks, his peculiar brand of humor or sarcasm. He was usually getting at someone. And he did not use the royal "we". The ears in question were those of the Viennese audience, whom he was mocking for their limited appreciation of Mozart's elaborate music.

(though not gonna lie, I think it is a LOT of notes)

Comments

Re: Royal Reader question

[cahn]

ahahahahaha yeah, um, since I don't read books like this that are trying to explain wars or negotiations in excruciating detail, I will defer to the Royal Reader on this because honestly my strategy for this particular thing is to get you guys to read the books and explain them to me :P I always kind of assumed that Selena's magic here was that she usually had enough context from her historical background that she already always knew what the important bits were going in.

(Or, in my case, only read books where one of you has pre-vetted them and the author has already helpfully set out already what they think are the important points! I thought Game of Queens, for example, was pretty good at that; I usually was pretty sure what Gristwood thought the important points were. But she also didn't go into super detail on the things she wasn't interested in.)