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Truth Tellers: Mozart’s Laughter

The composer of such works as ‘The Magic Flute’ and ‘The Marriage of Figaro’ presents, through music, the joy that life brings.
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Truth Tellers: Mozart’s Laughter
Marlis Petersen and Ildar Abdrazakov in "Le Nozze di Figaro" ("The Marriage of Figaro"). Ken Howard/Metropolitan Opera
Raymond Beegle
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There is an old German proverb: “Bach gave us God’s word, Mozart gave us God’s laughter, and Beethoven gave us God’s fire.” It would be better to say that all three musical saints gave us all three gifts, but only Mozart has laughter in abundance. Bach and Beethoven said that their music came straight from God; Mozart, on the other hand, said “from where it comes, I know not.” Whatever its source, however it comes, it tells us marvelous things if we listen with all our hearts.

Mozart’s music is not just tinsel on a Christmas tree. It’s not even the whole, decorated tree, but something far greater: It’s the promise of joy, the assurance of an order beyond our comprehension, and the presentment of a higher world to which we belong.

Raymond Beegle
Raymond Beegle
Author
Raymond Beegle has performed as a collaborative pianist in the major concert halls of the United States, Europe, and South America; has written for The Opera Quarterly, Classical Voice, Fanfare Magazine, Classic Record Collector (UK), and The New York Observer. Beegle has served on the faculty of the State University of New York–Stony Brook, the Music Academy of the West, and the American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz, Austria. He taught in the chamber music division of the Manhattan School of Music for 31 years.