The century of Bach and Mozart?

Abstract

The century of Bach and Mozart is a book of conference proceedings that, since the event was held in honour of Christoph Wolff, also doubles as a Festschrift. The title has been chosen to reflect the two major areas of Wolff's research, although its broader sweep (‘the century of’) is not entirely reflected in the contributions. Most do indeed focus on one of the two named composers, if in varied ways. An efficient deconstruction of the title is carried out by James Webster, whose chapter ‘The century of Handel and Haydn’ suggests what might be missing if a truly larger view were to be undertaken. In his reflections on the reception history of all four composers he points out that the book's title could only have come into being from the mid-20th century. Only after World War II did Mozart achieve truly canonical status, and it is even more recently that he has come to symbolize the pinnacle of the composer's art, ‘the Mozart cult [surpassing] even Bach’s’ (p.311). Some of the views adduced for this evaluation cause one to reflect on the way we (still) talk and write about our great composers. The tone of worship is not something one seems to come across so readily in professional discourses on the other arts. Does music's weak referentiality encourage a less worldly style of admiration? Although he points out that less composer-centric ways of treating music are favoured nowadays, Webster still plays the game in his account. He consistently pairs Handel and Haydn, ‘“impure” … “men of the world”’, against Bach and Mozart, whose ‘relative lack of success … was associated with a perceived artistic “purity”’ (p.312). But the similarities concern not just historical reception; they also relate to theoretical ideals. Handel and Haydn's preference for thinner textures, often in three real parts, is contrasted with the other pair's thicker textures and more consistent cultivation of four real parts. ‘The verdict of theorists was foreordained’ in favour of the latter (p.312).