Mozart among the Freemasons

At the age of 28 Mozart joined the circle of Freemasons. This integration will have a strong influence on his works. In this new episode of this special series of "At the heart of history", produced by Europe 1 Studio, Laure Dautriche tells you about Mozart's attachment to Freemasonry.

Mozart limps. His left shoe was taken off. Her jewelry was also taken off. And we put a blindfold over his eyes. Stripped of part of his clothes, his chest uncovered and a trouser leg raised, he waits, alone, in a room of reflection where some Masonic symbols have been placed. In the twilight, he managed to make out a human skull, an hourglass, a scythe, two crossed tibias. Allegories of death. The skull relates to death. No one can enter a new life without dying first. He is now holding both hands to guide him to the temple door. On the honor, he promises to keep inviolably all the secrets of Freemasonry. Not to reveal any of its mysteries. We remove the blindfold. The flame of the candlestick near his eyes dazzled him. Mozart begins his way to the light. On December 14, 1784, at half past six in the evening, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was about to join the circle of Freemasons. 

That evening, raised to the rank of apprentice, Mozart feels proud and very comfortable. In this small but prestigious lodge, he joins friends and artists he admires: Baron van Swieten who introduced him to the work of Jean-Sébastien Bach, Baron Gemmingen, translator of the works of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, or the rich merchant Puchberg. They are almost all people from the aristocracy and the art world. They find themselves in a rationalist and politically pre-revolutionary spirit. Mozart is sensitive to it, he who has passed through the capitals of Enlightenment Europe. What does Freemasonry represent for Mozart? These are Christian ideas where the notions of love and light are omnipresent. It must be said that for several years, even if he continues to go to mass, the Catholic religion has inspired him with a certain coldness. He has finally found his way. In the lodges, he discovers a new world: religious tolerance and fraternity. He firmly believes that by participating in this common work within Freemasonry, he will participate in the advancement of humanity.

In the boxes, we sing and we also organize real concerts. Freemasonry needs musicians and Mozart is experiencing a rapid rise. A month after entering the lodge, he became a journeyman, before reaching the rank of master in the spring of 1785. Mozart has such faith in what he does that he manages to train at the same time the two men who are most dear to him: his own father, Leopold, and his best friend, the famous composer Joseph Haydn. The admiration is mutual.

Listen to what Joseph Haydn wrote at the time to Mozart's father: "I tell you before God, as an honest man, your son is the greatest composer I know, in person or not. He has taste, and furthermore the greater science of composition ". 

At the time, not everyone was of the same opinion. The Viennese public got tired of him. He considers his operas too complicated. Mozart is affected. So imagine his joy this when he writes his first Masonry play. Mozart is asked to write music that is relatively easy to sing. For him, it's child's play. In the midst of his Brothers, he finds the comfort he no longer has in Vienna. The Journeyman's Journey was born in March 1785. It reveals the simplicity, the purity and the luminous beauty of Mozart's music. This music is solemn and luminous, like a pain that does not close in on itself.

An enrichment for Mozart

But a threat hangs over Mozart's happiness. His Masonic lodge, like all the others of the time, was targeted. They are swarming in Vienna and have acquired a lot of power. One of them was even suspected of having conspired against Emperor Joseph II. How to keep control over these secret societies? We must legislate. Joseph II ordered by decree that the eight lodges of Vienna merge into two lodges only. And they will now be monitored by the police. Mozart's lodge had to merge with others to form "La Nouvelle Espérance", which then became the most important lodge of the time.  

Masonic life resumes its course. During these meetings, which take place twice a month, Mozart enriches himself alongside his brothers. One of his close friends is called Anton Stadler. He is a virtuoso clarinetist, one of the best performers of his time. Both jokers, they look like two teenagers when they are together. When not playing pool or bowling, they spend hours at night experimenting with various sound combinations around the clarinet…. Mozart writes for him among his most beautiful pages, works in which he emphasizes the warm and delicate timbre of this clarinet that seems to imitate the human voice, as in his famous concerto for clarinet.

Mozart's debts pile up

It was at this precise moment that Mozart was caught up with his main flaw. Mozart is, if I may say so, a high roller. And now his horizon is called money. In 1787, debts accumulated. Because if he earns a lot, he spends more. To appear properly at court, he offered himself several pairs of shoes, silk stockings. He has an irresistible urge to buy and regrets his purchases afterwards. To travel, he offers himself a car so beautiful that he admits to wanting to cover it with kiss. 

Sometimes he is paid very well for an easy job, sometimes he is depressed, penniless, forced to compose for himself. Opera commissions never pay as much as he hopes. Mozart also had gambling debts, and at the time, these were obviously debts of honor. Mozart then turns to his freemason brothers. Including the rich merchant Puchberg, whom he begged on several occasions to come to his aid: "Venerable Brother, Very dear, excellent friend! I would now not have the heart to appear before you because I must frankly confess that ' it is impossible for me to repay you so quickly for what you have loaned me, and I have to beg you to be patient with me! I am very worried because of these circumstances and also because you cannot support me as I wish! My situation is such that I am forced to borrow money immediately. But good God, who can I confide in? None other than you, my dear! If you could at least do me the friendship of getting the money by some other means! I gladly pay the interest, and the one who lends me has enough collateral by my character and my salary. I really regret being in this situation, and this is precisely for this reason that I would like to obtain a little more important sum ante over a slightly longer period to prevent it from happening again. If you, dear brother, don't help me in this situation, I lose my honor and my credit, which are the only two things I hold. "

Puchberg will help him. But not as much as Mozart hopes. Several letters from Mozart will go unanswered. At the foot of the wall, Wolfgang must pledge valuables.  

In two months, three great symphonies

While Mozart is at its lowest and has dark thoughts, one of the most magical, most amazing moments of his life occurs. In a way, it's his genius going to save him. He continues to work tirelessly. He's got it all in his head. The ideas come, he hums them, and all at once, he then puts them down on paper. Despite financial instability, he succeeded in writing three of his greatest symphonies in the summer of 1788. In barely two months, Mozart wrote the symphonies n ° 39, 40 and 41. Where does he find the strength to deploy this titanic energy? Mystery. In these works bursts a perfect harmony, a powerful joy. At the bottom materially and morally, Mozart writes pieces all the more dazzling than the others. Does the Freemason ideology have an influence on him? Perhaps. It is on the edge of darkness that he succeeds in touching the Light. 

Thanks to his Freemason network, Mozart received in the spring of 1791 one of the most beautiful proposals of his life! In the spring of 1791, Emanuel Schikaneder, director of a theater in Vienna and a former Freemason, asked him to compose an opera on a theme inspired by Freemasonry, an opera to the glory of the brotherhood. It will be The Magic Flute. While Freemasonry is directly threatened, the time is right, thinks Mozart no doubt, to make people understand that Freemasonry advocates the true happiness of humanity. 

The first performance of the magic flute took place in Vienna, six months later, in September 1791. Bourgeois, shopkeepers, valets and maids flocked to the theater. The room is full. The ink of the score is still fresh, Mozart finished writing the opening overnight. At 7 p.m., the composer appears on stage to conduct his work from the harpsichord. The curtain rises and we see a Masonic temple. The heroes, Pamina and Tamino, must go through a series of initiatory trials together which are barely veiled references to the ritual of the lodges. 

The opportunity has never been so good for Mozart to show his own vision of Freemasonry. One thing is particularly close to his heart: equality between men and women. And daring to say that a woman can be a Mason is a revolution in Austria. At the time, it was only in France that they were accepted in Freemasonry.

Numerous references to Freemasonry

References to Freemasonry are everywhere, discreetly. Mozart gives pride of place to serious wind instruments: basset horns, bassoons, trombones. So many instruments that can be found in lodge meetings. The number three, symbolic for Freemasons, often appears. A triple chord, powerful and solemn, opens the opera. There are also three ladies, three children, three trials: silence, water and fire. And the final chorus ends with the words "strength", "wisdom" and "beauty", that is to say on the three cardinal virtues of the Freemasons. 

In the room, we can imagine the Freemasons amazed to see their symbols unveiled for all to see. Of course, the exact ritual does not appear, but many of the scenes, if they seem anecdotal to most audiences, are immediately understood by insiders. They have just attended the first Masonic opera in history. 

But the strength of this opera lies elsewhere. There are several levels of reading, and it can be understood perfectly without being Freemasons. His music mixes gravity and lightness, sacred and profane, comical and tragic. It is a triumph. This is what Mozart wrote to his mother Constance after the first performance, it is the last we have of Mozart: "At six o'clock, I drove by to pick up Salieri and the Cavalieri and I accompanied them to the box. You can't imagine how lovable the two of them were; how not only the music but also the libretto and everything together pleased them. They both say that it is an opera worthy of being performed in the biggest festivities. , in front of the greatest of monarchs ".

But success has not made his money problems go away. His situation is hardly improving. The circle of Mozart gradually narrows. During the day, Wolfgang plays pool games on his own. He's having coffee, alone. He smokes a pipe, composes, takes a walk every day and walks to the theater in the evening. He has to sell his horse two months before his death. At the beginning of November, he was ordered to give half of his salary to repay a debt of more than 1400 florins. Mozart pays little attention to his health. Sometimes he feels unwell. 

His last work: a masonic cantata

In the fall of 1791, he began to compose the Requiem, which was commissioned from him in August. But he stops. Because he has just been offered a job that interests him much more: a Masonic cantata, for the inauguration of the new meeting place of his lodge!

It will be the Little Masonic Cantata K.623, which he calls “The Praise of Friendship”. The Requiem will remain unfinished, and this work is the last work that Mozart puts an end to. In his correspondence, the increasingly marked inclination of the lines to the right betrays a state of depression. But in his scores, the gesture is always clear, each note perfectly mastered. On the day of the inauguration, his brothers reserved a triumph for him:

The writing for the orchestra in the key of C major is luminous. Surprising Mozart, who, despite debts and physical fatigue, sings of his joy and hope for a more fraternal future. However, he has only twenty days to live.

The next day, he felt brutal fatigue. From that moment on, for Mozart all will be nothing but suffering. Sitting at the table of a brasserie where he has his habits, he finds himself unable to drink his glass of wine. When he returns home, he will have to take to bed permanently. His illness is worsening day by day. The doctors consult each other, that doesn't change anything. 

Mozart died on Monday, December 5, 1791 at 12:55 a.m. The death certificate reads: "acute military fever". Wolfgang is put in a beer, in his apartment, with a black hooded cloak, according to the Masonic ritual. Considering the finances of the Mozart family, one of his Freemason friends advises Constance, his wife, the cheapest funeral. For the sum of 8 small florins, it will therefore be a third-class convoy and the mass grave. The burial of the poor. The genius of the 4th art will only be entitled to a brief funeral service at Saint-Etienne cathedral, without mass and without a single note of music ...

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"At the heart of history" is a Europe 1 Studio podcast

Author and presentation: Laure Dautriche

Project manager: Adèle Ponticelli

Director: Sébastien Guidis

Musical research: Benoît Valentin

Distribution and editing: Clémence Olivier

Graphics: Europe 1 Studio

Bibliography: "These musicians who made history", Laure Dautriche (Tallandier)

Musical references:

1'04: Wiener Volksopeernchor / maurerische trauermusik K477

2'27: Zur eroffnung der Freimaureloge zerfliesset heut K 483

3'03: Paul Roczek / adagio & fugue in C minor / K 546 (version for string Quartet)

3'20: Die mauerfreude K471

4'47: Gesellenreise K 468

6'13: Serenade for wind K 361 (3rd movement)

7'12: Concerto for clarinet and orchestra in A major kv 622 (Adagio)

8'39: Laudate Dominum

10'09: Symphony number 40

11'53: The Magic Flute (overture)

13'40: Air of the queen of the night

15'03: Adagio for strings in C minor K546

16'01: Requiem in d minor (lacrimosa)

16'36: Maconic Cantata K623

17'38: Ave verum corpus

18'13: Zur eroffnung der Freimaureloge zerfliesset heut K 483

Readings:

Julien Tharaud, Alain Cirou and Jean-Luc Arblade