The Magic of The Magic Flute
Music Is Brain Food by Joshua Berrett
I have been writing concert notes for music organizations for many years and concertgoers have often told me how much they appreciate the framework I provide. Lynne has suggested that I bring some of these notes to our readers, as part of my mission to encourage focused listening for brain health. As she has pointed out, you can read the notes much more easily here while you listen than you can at a live concert.
This approximately 6- minute Overture opened a recent concert I also performed in. There are two different videos to choose from. I have added a listening outline to guide you. Tell me what you think.
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Overture to The Magic Flute K. 620 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
The Magic Flute was a runaway hit from the get-go. It was all thanks to a highly unusual collaboration between Mozart and his old friend Emanuel Schickaneder, who was something of an institution in the world of musical theater of the time. He was not only Mozart’s Masonic Lodge brother but was also widely known as a singer, actor, writer, impresario, and theater owner. In fact, the opening run of the show took place at Schickaneder’s Theater auf der Wieden in one of Vienna’s suburbs. It was there that Mozart conducted the premiere on September 30, 1791. In a letter of October 7, he was positively euphoric, writing “I have this moment returned from the opera which was as full as ever.” He then proceeded to list the numbers that were encored during the performance.
With its lyrics in the German vernacular, The Magic Flute, is made up of a rich variety of musical numbers with spoken dialogue interspersed; for this reason, it is a type of opera classified as a singspiel. The solemnity of Masonic ritual is juxtaposed with catchy folk-like tunes and slapstick comedy, much of it suffused with a fairy-tale quality. Tamino, the hero of the opera, is a handsome prince on a quest to rescue Pamina, daughter of the Queen of the Night. Three ladies-in-waiting to the Queen give him a magic flute to protect him on this quest. Schickaneder himself played one of the leads, Papageno the bird-catcher, who is on his own quest to find a wife. Interestingly, on the playbill for the first performances Schickenader’s name is in larger font than Mozart’s. In fact Mozart’s name appears in smaller type after the list of cast members!
The music of the Overture itself is a study in vivid contrasts. In broad outline, it is a fugal sonata form akin to the finale of Mozart’s “Jupiter” Symphony. Parenthetically, it should be noted that in Western music the ultimate test of “serious” compositional skill and learning has traditionally been defined by the perceived excellence of the fugal writing. The core idea behind a fugue is a chase—lines of music running after one another. The word derives from the same source as “fugitive.” We are all familiar with the phrase “cut to the chase,” the denouement of a typical cops-and-robbers show.
Sources of the fugue can be traced to the 1300’s in Italy, when a genre called the “caccia” (chase) was popular. It also appears in English folk music as a round or canon, like “Row, row, row your boat” or “Sumer is icumen in.” The word “canon” signifies a rule, specifying exactly where an imitating voice should start. The Renaissance saw a huge development in proto-fugal technique in the form of imitative polyphonic settings of the Mass Ordinary. J.S. Bach immersed himself in much of this music, developing a level of fugal virtuosity that has never been surpassed. As a side note, we can draw an analogy between this imitative polyphony and the development of perspective in the visual arts during the Renaissance.
Mozart’s use of this fugal technique in his Overture to The Magic Flute can be traced to influences dating from the early 1780’s. They came principally from one man -- Baron Gottfried Van Swieten, diplomat and prefect of Vienna’s Imperial Library, who had brought a treasure trove of the music of J.S. Bach and G.F. Handel to Vienna. Van Swieten had also been vigorously promoting concerts of these Baroque masters, a move that was to prove transformative during Mozart’s final years as well as in music history itself.
Notice how the Overture’s slow introduction opens with three solemn chords reinforced by the heft of three trombones representing Masonic ritual. They reappear at the Overture’s midpoint, punctuating the end of the exposition, separating it from what follows --- the development and recapitulation sections of the sonata form.
The scintillating Allegro main sections are driven in large part by a fugue subject in duple rhythm noteworthy for elements that showcase Mozart’s capacity for mischievous humor: he draws attention to what are normally weak beats – a repeated sixteenth-note turn (try saying “Papageno” very fast) and consecutive upward-leaping perfect fourths. And listen for the touch of fairy-tale color in a transitional passage leading us to the recapitulation where flute and bassoon played two octaves apart work their magic.
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This link features the Frankfurt Radio Symphony of the Overture alone, including close-ups of the orchestra as they perform.
and
This link is to a 1991, Metropolitan Opera production –it was the bicentennial of Mozart’s death. It includes the Overture and the complete opera with English subtitles. Conductor James Levine is seen and heard at his most ebullient and brilliant peak of his powers.
LISTENING OUTLINE OF FRANKFURT RADIO SYMPHONY PERFORMANCE
0:07 Three solemn opening chords
1:09 Allegro main section begins
2:59 Midsection as three solemn chords reappear
3:20 Development begins
3:55 Transition passage as flute and bassoon play two octaves apart; heard three times
4:28 Recapitulation
5:15 Coda, including two statements of totally new three stern chords played by full orchestra
6:06 Three final chords
Copyright 2025 by Joshua Berrett. All Rights Reserved.
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