# Mozart & Voltaire



## Xisten267 (Sep 2, 2018)

Did the two ever meet? What did Voltaire think about the composer, his ideas and his music? And why did Mozart hate the french to the point of writting in a letter to his father that "_I must give you a piece of intelligence that you perhaps already know - namely, that the ungodly arch-villain Voltaire has died miserably like a dog - just like a brute. That is his reward!_"? (Source here)


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

" Leopold himself had commented on Voltaire's death in a letter of 29 June, gloating that 'Voltaire is dead too! and died without changing; he should have done something to improve his reputation with posterity' (MBA ii 386), but Mozart had not yet received this when he wrote his excoriating barb a few days later. Mozart's letter to his father of 3 July 1778 may very well be the most famous of the entire correspondence, and will be examined in greater detail in the following chapter. Mozart wrote this letter a few hours after his mother had died, as he admitted to Leopold on 9 July, and in it he urges Leopold not to give up hope for her recovery or trust in the will of God. One can only be stunned that in a letter written at that moment, surely the saddest in Mozart's life so far, he should not only discuss at length his composition of the Paris Symphony K. 297 [300a], a nonexistent opera, and aspects of the Parisian audience, but should include this churlishness about Voltaire: 'Now I have a piece of news for you which you may already know, namely, that the godless arch-rogue Voltaire, so to speak, has kicked the bucket like a dog, like a beast! That is the fruit of his labour!' {MBA ii 389). The news of Voltaire's death may have just reached Leopold in Salzburg in time for him to comment on it in a letter dated 29 June, but Mozart, living in Paris and in regular contact with one of Voltaire's close friends, would have known about it within days of it happening on 30 May. Why should it take him over a month to pass on this news, and to do it in such a rude manner?
Leopold's remark about Voltaire seems to have been a fairly accurate reflection of his opinion; as a devout but enlightened Catholic he was not about to split hairs on the fine distinctions between theism and deism, or for that matter to separate these from atheism. The free-thinking Voltaire had gone too far for Leopold beyond the boundary of religious acceptability, and while that could have been corrected by an embrace of Christianity before his death, Voltaire's admission rejecting atheism - without a broader confession - did little to dissuade those convinced of his lack of belief. While Leopold was entirely capable of recognizing Voltaire's greatness, he could not forgive him for abandoning God and the church: without these Voltaire's reasoned morality proved in the end not only of little use but dangerous as well. Notwithstanding the fact that Archbishop Colloredo admired Voltaire, which provided reason enough for Leopold to reject him, the world was not undoubtedly a better and safer place with his expiry.
The odds that Mozart actually shared his father's view of Voltaire seem small in the extreme. Voltaire, as the following chapter will discuss, achieved consummate mastery of epistolary deception - of writing opposite views to different correspondents depending on what the addressee would prefer to hear. Mozart appears to have learned the technique well, and in berating Voltaire even more than Leopold would likely to, committed to the ultimate Voltairianism. One month earlier, when Voltaire actually died, Mozart may not have yet formed his own opinion about him sufficiently to react one way or the other, and he probably still knew little of Voltaire's own epistolary virtuosity. On 3 July, with his mother's deceased body still warm on the bed beside his writing table, he could write with genuine duplicity, belying his own admiration for Voltaire, paying Voltaire a final tribute, if somewhat crudely, by emulating his deceptive approach. "
{ <Mozart in Revolt: Strategies of Resistance, Mischief, and Deception> By David P. Schroeder pg. 104~105 }


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Mozart was a Catholic. Voltaire was a deist, which to a Catholic is as bad as an atheist. There may be other reasons why Mozart called Voltaire an "arch-villain." In any case the quote doesn't speak well for Mozart. Maybe his own early death was Voltaire's revenge. Of course then F. Murray Abraham would have had to play Voltaire instead of Salieri.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Mozart was not the most reasonable of men, calling all Italians "charlatans." After skittles and beer he would often become more even-tempered.


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

KenOC said:


> Mozart was not the most reasonable of men, calling all Italians "charlatans." After skittles and beer he would often become more even-tempered.


I think Mozart actually meant "all Italians except Padre Martini"


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