Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Rating:
Summary: Fans and non-fans alike, this one's for you.
Review: Karl Barth, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Eerdmans, 1956)

Karl Barth, never the world's most orthodox theologian, released a small number of monographs on Mozart during his life, culminating in a keynote speech at a Salzburg festival honoring Mozart's 200th birthday. Eerdmans reprinted the lot of them not long after the festival. So what is it, exactly, that a theologian, no matter how unorthodox, would have to say about one of history's greatest iconoclasts?

Barth makes the argument that Mozart was quite the opposite, the living voice of God on Earth. He attempts to understand the glory of Mozart's music (and in the process refute various tunnel-vision styles of Mozart scholarship popular at the time) in light of Mozart's single-minded, exclusive dedication to music (pointing out a number of times that Mozart was almost impervious to other forms of media, as well as current events). Not an original response to Mozart, but one that, perhaps, had never previously been codified-Barth gives us an understanding of Mozart from the gut, running it through the brain in order to translate it into words.

Barth is always a good writer. Where many of his books in English fail is in the translation; German can be a nasty language viewed from the perspective of English speakers. The translation here is hands down the best I've ever seen in a piece of Barth's work. The book is easy and accessible. Too bad the same translator didn't work on the Dogmatics.

Wonderful stuff, highly recommended not only for Mozart fans but also for those who want to gain an understanding into why Mozart's music is so revered. ****