The Secret to Mozart’s Lasting Appeal
A new book brings the composer down from the ether and reminds us about the context in which his music was made.
One of my favorite passages in all of Mozart sounds nothing like him. In the opening bars of his String Quartet No. 19 in C Major, quiet notes from the violins and violas ooze over the halting pulse of the cello. At times, sounds coalesce into weird dissonances as parts seem to grope, perhaps instinctually, toward harmony. Then a tense pause—and a jaunty melody bursts forth as if released by a spring.
I’ve been hearing this moment with fresh admiration since reading , by the British poet Patrick Mackie—an illuminating book that aims to ground the music of a composer too often idolized as a mere instrument of the divine in the context of his time. In his
