7. Magia harmonica. *)
Consisting of the following entirely singular
musical pieces.
(1) A minuet on the violin. The Primo plays
from the top down, the Secondo from
bottom up.
(2) An in-tune trumpet piece.
(3) Rousseau’s piece on three notes in
a French song.
[...]
(15) Three musical pieces with accompaniment
on a single violin.
(16) An out-of-tune Mozart solo on the violin.
(17) Several minuets on a single string.
[...]
*) This list of artworks, which was sent to us
as if from an actually existing collection offered
for sale, is too noteworthy of its type for us to
fail to share it with our readers. We have had it
printed literally here. It may trace back to
a writing of Kant twenty years ago.
Commentary
This whimsical and humorous list of imaginary musical works appeared in the final issue of Musikalische Monathsschrift in Dec 1792. The title can be translated as “Magic Harmonies.” It consists of 28 entries (the last of which refers to “80 andere künstliche Stücke…”), six of which we have transcribed here to give the flavor. No. 16 is a “Ein verstimmtes Mozartisches Solo auf der Violin” (“An out-of-tune Mozart solo on the violin”). A footnote says that the list is printed literally, just as it was submitted. The reference to Kant in the footnote seems to point to a passage printed in this same issue immediately following “Magia harmonica,” from Kant’s Beobachtungen über das Gefühl des Schönen und Erhabenen (Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful and Sublime), published in 1764. The passage, drawn from the second section (Abschitt) begins (in the original edition):
Es ist ein gewisser Geist der Kleinigkeiten,
(esprit des baggattelles) welcher eine Art von
feinem Gefühl anzeigt, welches gerade auf
das Gegentheil von dem Erhabenen abzielt. [...]
[Kant, Beobachtungen, 41]
It is a certain spirit for trivialities (esprits des
bagatelles) that shows a type of fine feeling
that aims at exactly the opposite of the sublime. [...]
The bagatelles in the “Magia harmonica” certainly aim at the opposite of the sublime.
Notes
The item referring to Mozart in “Magia harmonica” is transcribed in Gruber (2009, 311). An extract from “Magia harmonica,” including the reference to Mozart is given in Schwob (2015, 227–28). “Magia harmonica” is mentioned in Russell (1983, 90–91), but the reference to Mozart is not transcribed.
Our thanks to Janet Page for her comments on a draft of this entry.
Bibliography
Gruber, Gernot, “Mozart und die Nachwelt.” 2009. In: Mozarts Welt und die Nachwelt. Edited by Claudia Maria Knispel and Gernot Gruber. Mozart Handbuch, vol. 5. Laaber: Laaber Verlag.
Russell, Tilden. 1983. “Minuet, Scherzando, and Scherzo: The Dance Movement in Transition, 1781–1825.” Ph.D. diss., University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
Schwob, Rainer J. ed. 2015. W. A. Mozart im Spiegel des Musikjournalismus, deutschsprachiger Raum 1782–1800. Beiträge zur Mozart-Dokumentation, vol. 1. Stuttgart: Carus Verlag.
Print Citation:
Edge, Dexter. 2023. “Mozart in a fanciful list of musical works (December 1792).” In: Mozart: New Documents, edited by Dexter Edge and David Black. First published 27 January 2023. https://www.mozartdocuments.org/documents/1792-magia/
Web Citation:
Edge, Dexter. 2023. “Mozart in a fanciful list of musical works (December 1792).” In: Mozart: New Documents, edited by Dexter Edge and David Black. First published 27 January 2023. [direct link]
