Book contents
- The Cambridge Companion to The Magic Flute
- Cambridge Companions to Music
- The Cambridge Companion to The Magic Flute
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Musical Examples
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Part I Conception and Context
- Part II Music, Text, and Action
- 5 Music as Stagecraft
- 6 Enduring Portraits: The Arias
- 7 “All Together, Now”? Ensembles and Choruses in The Magic Flute
- 8 Musical Topics, Quotations, and References
- 9 Instrumentation, Magical and Mundane
- 10 The Dialogue as Indispensable
- 11 Music, Drama, and Spectacle in the Finales
- Part III Approaches and Perspectives
- Part IV Reception, Interpretation, and Influence
- Further Reading
- Index
7 - “All Together, Now”? Ensembles and Choruses in The Magic Flute
from Part II - Music, Text, and Action
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 November 2023
- The Cambridge Companion to The Magic Flute
- Cambridge Companions to Music
- The Cambridge Companion to The Magic Flute
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Musical Examples
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Part I Conception and Context
- Part II Music, Text, and Action
- 5 Music as Stagecraft
- 6 Enduring Portraits: The Arias
- 7 “All Together, Now”? Ensembles and Choruses in The Magic Flute
- 8 Musical Topics, Quotations, and References
- 9 Instrumentation, Magical and Mundane
- 10 The Dialogue as Indispensable
- 11 Music, Drama, and Spectacle in the Finales
- Part III Approaches and Perspectives
- Part IV Reception, Interpretation, and Influence
- Further Reading
- Index
Summary
Until late in the twentieth century, formal analysis of Mozart’s operatic ensembles (chiefly those of the Da Ponte operas) was heavily skewed towards the invocation of instrumental models, and pre-eminently sonata form. Additionally, the pursuit of “absolute correspondence between the unfolding of music, text and stage-action” (Abbate and Parker) came to seem increasingly suspect. The Magic Flute is a Singspiel, rather than an opera buffa, and its ensembles are complicated by the existence of “ensemble characters” (the Three Ladies and Three Boys) who generally function collectively rather than individually. This chapter offers analyses of the Act 1 and 2 quintets and the Three Boys’ Act 2 terzetto, seeking to destabilize readings that appeal to models such as sonata rondo and reading tonal structures closely against libretto structure. Evidence from Mozart’s autograph informs the concluding discussion of vocal scoring in the Act 2 choruses and the final moments of the work.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge Companion to The Magic Flute , pp. 119 - 131Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023