Amadeus Essay

Amadeus Is a affectionately account of the relationship between Mozart and Sellers. Mozart Is shown as an exceptional musicals considered today by some to be the greatest of all geniuses in his field having knocked out compositions for assorted solo instruments, opera and symphonic orchestras by the time he was thirty-five years old. Saltier was a talented composer and, had Mozart never lived, he albums might have been available for sale today. . The film Amadeus is fairly accurate although it exaggerates and oversimplifies and appears to take greatest arrant In the area which Is central to the film, the relationship between Mozart and Saltier. II. The relationships of both Mozart and Saltier to life, music and creativity shed some light on the questions raised with respect to the relationship between God and man, although at times that light is confusing and contradictory.Amadeus: Mozart and Salaries The genius Mozart and the frustrated Saltier and their turbulent relationship are the centerpieces of the film, but the setting of Vienna Itself at the hectic end of the eighteenth century Is also a character. It Is an era of great creative turbulence but nee which nevertheless did not take easily to Mozart brilliant compositions. The talented but conventional and limited Saltier, on the other hand, was favored by those with the power to elevate artists to heights of fame.The film delves into this struggle of Mozart for recognition in an allegedly Enlightenment-oriented Viennese society, and In doing so Is certainly not far from accurate. Mozart and his family were needy due to absurdly low fees for his teaching, the neglectful public who did not understand or appreciate his operas, the businessmen who cheated him. The film s not truly biographical with respect to either man. While Saltier, the narrator, does straightforwardly cover the early life of his rival, that period is far less crucial than the final ten years of Mozart life which the film focuses on.That early life depicts Mozart as a musical prodigy, touring with his father Leopold (a great influence in his life) and sister through Europe, his ample and liberal education, and his first serious compositional operatic effort In music. In keeping with M ozart commitment to individuality (one aspect of the Enlightenment he began to show more independence from his fathers influence later in life. For example, Mozart married a woman in defiance of his fathers wishes in Vienna.More importantly than choice in women to Mozart, however, was his artistic and creative freedom. In a letter to his father from Vienna, at roughly the beginning of the ten year period covered in the film, Mozart expresses bitter disappointment at his fathers protest against his sons angry denunciation of the Archbishop (l hate the Archbishop to madness! ) and his All of these basic facts of Mozart life are roughly accurate resignation at Vienna. Is the portrayal of Saltier as a man who is generally more favored by the Viennese, especially the elites. The greater favor Saltier receives does not gratify him, however, because he knows Mozart is the better composer. The film begins to stray into exaggeration when it zeroes In on its true concernthe last decade of Mozart life In Vienna and his relationship with Saltier. Although the film portrays the two as recognize a rivalry but mention Saltier only a few t imes and then with digressiveness. He greatest inaccuracy seems to be in the most compelling and important part of he film in which Mozart dies from Galleries hand after dictating his final work to his rival. In reality, it appears that this murder, in effect, is a storytelling fantasy for dramatic purposes. Davenport states that the murder was a vicious rumor which, unlike what we see in the film, Saltier vociferously denied: No human hand had poisoned Wolfgang, but in his desperate hours [Mozart] wove the idea out of his harried brain. Saltier was horrified when the ghoulish tale reached him. Davenport also notes that Galleries bitter Jealousy of Mozart softened as he aged and in the end e expressed admiration for his dead rival (Davenport Mozart shared the liberalism of the Enlightenment artist in terms of his innovative and revolutionary artistry, but Saltier was far more the rationalist, another essential aspect of the Enlightenment. The difficulty in applying Enlightenment standards to Mozart in particular is that he was far more the genius/artist than he was a philosopher, or scientist, or rationalist, and those concerns were paramount in the Enlightenment.Certainly his music was guided and shaped by an order which Mozart genius Imposed, but what makes Mozart music and personality extraordinary is that they Newer marked by that genius which suggests a more intimate relationship between and him than most human beings ever experience. There is the sense in a prodigy that the raw and brilliant stuff of life is exposed in all its wildness, despite the fact that Mozart labored and studied with great dedication and energy to produce his musical works. Saltier, on the other hand, was far more the controlled man, the man whose passions did not carry him away as they did Mozart.Perhaps it Mould be fairer to see Mozart as the Romantic Genius and Saltier as the Enlightenment Thinker. The latter contrast between Saltier and Mozart makes up the heart and soul of the film. For example, except for the final scene in which Saltier Norms with Mozart and we see the process of the genius of Mozart in its full expression, the film seems to suggest that creating incredible music came easy to Mozart. However, the composer himself declared, People make a mistake who think my art has come easily to me. Nobody has devoted so much time and thought to composition as l. There is not a famous master whose music I have not studied over and over (Secure). The creative, artistic character, especially in its extraordinary or genius form, is complex and contradictory. In order to create a more dramatic and perhaps more simple story, author Peter Shaffer and director Mills Forman chose to emphasize the wilder aspects of Mozart and the more controlled aspects of Saltier. Rhea complexities of both men, apparent in more historically-based accounts, are forfeited to the drama of this exaggerated and simplified contrast.The choice reduced an exciting and popular film (which is amazing itself for the life of two classical composers dead two hundred years), but an inaccurate historical portrait of those men. The films portrayal of the two composers as being so completely foreign to one another is to fail to see that there is indeed in every artist both an active heart and mind. One dominates, but the other must be engaged. The heart must inspire the mind, but the mind must channel the heart. Mozart was no more all heart than Saltier was all mind, but that is the extreme contrast the film tries to portray.Both the Enlightenment. Certainly Mozart sought liberation from religious, social or any other restriction in terms of creative expression, while Saltier, especially as portrayed in the film, was indeed inhibited by many such considerations of conformity and the need for acceptance. On the other hand, Mozart expressed obedience to Gods will, if not to religion. The Requiem sequence in the film is crucial to an understanding of both Galleries and Mozart world views (their perspective on what art is, what their relationship with God is, where they fit into the world, etc.While watching the opera Don Giovanni, Saltier realizes a terrible way that he can triumph over God. It is both a triumph over Mozart as well as God, however that Saltier seeks. In fact, it seems that Saltier himself feels so separate from God, so unappreciated and unrewarded by God, in comparison to Mozart (who appears so close to God in his genius and the sublime music he creates), Saltier feels he must defeat God rather than love or be loved by Him.He madly equates God with the brilliant Mozart, and believes that stealing the life and the music from Mozart will give him a victory over ND Mozart. He disguises himself in the same outfit worn previously by Mozart father Leopold and tricks Mozart into writing a requiem mass. This terrible scene leads eventually to the death of Mozart, directly or indirectly caused by the Jealous and maddened Saltier, but before the end, Saltier enters for the first time (along with the audience) into the thrilling process of Mozart genius in the act of creating.Saltier was talented but unable to create such astounding music himself. At least he has seen what it is like to be near genius in action as Mozart on his deathbed estates his last piece, the Confutation, to the enthralled Saltier. Saltier lived a much more controlled and controlling life than the passionate Mozart, and this is reflected in the film, with, again, the writer and director choosing to emphasize the differences between the two men and excise any signs of similarity in terms of personality.For the sake of film storytelling, the greater the contrast in the two leading characters, the better the drama. The films creators in the most inaccurate part of the film have simply stuck together separate facts which are in evidence (the viably, the creation of the Requiem, the death of Mozart, Mozart deathbed paranoia caused by not only his dying but a life of struggle and lack of appropriate recognition) and produced an imaginary set of scenes in which Saltier played a far more central role than he did in fact play.Certainly, as the sources unanimously state, Saltier in life and history did not take credit for killing Mozart, or even for wishing him dead. To the contrary, he was by all accounts horrified and haunted that anybody would think he would do so. In the film, however, the desire for Mozart death at Galleries hand is expressed explicitly by Saltier: Echo mi. [Behold me. ] Antonio Saltier. Ten years of my hate have poisoned you to death. Mozart cries for God and Saltier responds {in the atheistic position associated with the Enlightenment), God?!God will not help HOLD! God does not Help! God does not love you, Amadeus! God does not love! He can only use! He cares nothing for whom he uses: nothing for whom he denies! The Norms are entirely invented, but they are likely indicative of the true view of Saltier: that his virtuous and hard work was not properly rewarded by God, while Mozart Unawareness and easy genius were flooded with rewards. The latter assumption, of course, is preposterous, for Mozart died in poverty.