Work
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Composer
Ma che vi fece... Sperai vicino il lido, for soprano and orchestra, K.368
Performances: 6
Tracks: 6
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Musicology:
This recitative and aria are what is known as a licenza, a piece composed for a specific occasion or in honor of a specific person, and addressed to that person after (or occasionally during) a performance of an unrelated work. This licenza, like A Berenice...Sol nascente, is written for the Archbishop Sigismund von Schrattenbach, on the anniversary of his installation as Archbishop of Salzburg.
This work is somewhat more solemn and official-sounding than A Berenice, which is probably due to the more serious nature of the occasion. The orchestral part includes prominent parts of horns and percussion, and the total effect is quite march-like.
The work opens with much the same conceit as A Berenice does, the author unable to express the proper praise and admiration for the Archbishop's virtues, and so asking the Muses for assistance. The Muses themselves confess their inabilities to comprehend, let alone praise, the Archbishop's virtue. While this approach seems rather absurd to modern listeners, it has the advantage of providing the composer with an automatic excuse for any deficiency that the listener might perceive—not even the Muses themselves could perform such a task! Since those whose praises were sung in these licenzas were often the author's patrons, this is not an absurd precaution.
In the aria, where the composer expounds on his inability, the first part is, like the recitative, very march-like, with horns and percussion.
The second part, in which he reflects over the way that every virtue is enthroned in Sigismondo's heart, is more contemplative, and then the aria returns to a reiteration of the first section. -
Ma che vi fece... Sperai vicino il lido, for soprano and orchestra, K.368Year: 1766
Genre: Other Solo Vocal
Pr. Instrument: Soprano
- 1.Recitative: Ma che vi fece...
- 2.Aria: Sperai vicino il lido
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