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: Catherine the Great (Massie) - Ch 1-7

[cahn]

Ha, the funny thing is that I was an extremely sheltered teenager/young adult, and if I'd read that passage then, there's even odds I wouldn't have known what it was aiming at :)

young!Fritz was trained on a few instruments before settling on the flute as his One True Passion.

Yeah, makes sense to me. Although I guess I was thinking that if FW was so set against his being into music, I wasn't quite sure how he managed to train on several of them -- but maybe that was SD's influence?

Re: Catherine the Great (Massie) - Ch 1-7

[mildred_of_midgard]

Ha, the funny thing is that I was an extremely sheltered teenager/young adult, and if I'd read that passage then, there's even odds I wouldn't have known what it was aiming at :)

Same, but I'm pretty sure the biography I read was kind enough to describe it as "pent-up sexual energy" or some such.

Yeah, makes sense to me. Although I guess I was thinking that if FW was so set against his being into music, I wasn't quite sure how he managed to train on several of them -- but maybe that was SD's influence?

I originally wondered about that too, but the timing makes sense to me. Boys were kept in the care of the women (mother and governess(es)) until they were seven. Now, FW certainly had opinions on how he wanted Fritz raised, and SD was certainly making him practice firing cannons and shooting pistols and what-not, but SD and Madame de Roucoulles would have had more elbow room until Fritz was seven, or such is my understanding.

Starting at age 7, FW was micromanaging Fritz's schedule such that he had only 7 minutes for breakfast (part of why MacDonogh says it's such sad reading), and no time for violins, pianos, or flutes. Then at 16/17, he's having to sneak in lessons with Quantz. Then it makes perfect sense to me that in his twenties, when he had some free time again, he started giving all his old instruments another chance. Granted I don't have a primary source, but MacDonogh is at least claiming to be quoting a primary source that isn't Thiebault, but someone who was actually there and would have been qualified to know.