"Too many notes... Just cut a few, and it will be perfect."
My favorite line from "Amadeus" (the 1984 movie about Mozart), (or at least one of the more memorable ones) is when he is trying to justify one of his operas by saying, "with music, you can have twenty individuals all talking at the same time, and it's not noise! It's a perfect harmony!" I love this line. Music is often the only way I can make sense of all the noise going on in my head. It feels like there are so many thoughts, feelings, and emotions competing that the only thing to bring about any sort of order is by contextualizing them with music.
Fun fact: in Mozart's day, we still hadn't made it common practice to have what we traditionally think of as 'conductors'. We didn't develop, (as one of my professors characterized), "The art of standing on front of musicians and waving sticks at them to get them to cooperate" until well into Beethoven's time, and even then it was marginally helpful at best. As Alex Ross (The New Yorker, Oct. 2014 in his article about Beethoven) put it, "The art of conducting emerged in his (Beethoven's) wake." It should be noted that his version of conducting was jumping up and down and popping out from behind a podium, which was set sideways so his posterior wouldn't be facing the audience, so it's effectiveness in the beginning is rather debatable. Orchestras prior often had either the composer or a competent leader that played the first violin or a keyboard instrument to guide them. It wasn't until the romantic period that we start having complexity issues that made it necessary for a conductor. We can all rest easy knowing there is a whole category of Hollywood magic out there that is "taking liberties" with the story, all presumably for our benefit and to keep things moving along.
Enjoy this clip in today’s viewing example from the 1984 movie, “Amadeus”. It’s another example of historically inaccurate, but thoroughly entertaining movie magic, expressing the importance of sound in context of life. Thanks for reading!