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==Examples==
==Examples==
[[File:MariaAnnaTheklaMozart.PNG|thumb|upright|Self portrait in pencil of Maria Anna Thekla Mozart, from 1777 or 1778]]
[[File:MariaAnnaTheklaMozart.PNG|thumb|upright|Self portrait in pencil of Maria Anna Thekla Mozart, from 1777 or 1778]]
Here is an example, from a letter of 5 November 1777 to his cousin [[Maria Anna Thekla Mozart]]. The German original<ref>"lezt wünsch ich eine gute macht/scheissen sie ins bett dass es kracht/schlafens gesund/reckens den arsch zum mund"; Dundes (1984:66)</ref> is in rhymed verse.
Here is an example, from a letter of 5 November 1777 to his cousin [[Maria Anna Thekla Mozart]]. The German original<ref>"lezt wünsch ich eine gute Nacht/scheissen Sie ins Bett dass es kracht/schlafens gesund/reckens den Arsch zum mund"; Dundes (1984:66)</ref> is in rhymed verse.


:Well, I wish you good night
:Well, I wish you good night

Revision as of 05:47, 22 October 2011

Reproduction of the original manuscript of Mozart's canon "Difficile Lectu". The words "lectu mihi mars" were intended to be heard as "Leck du mich im Arsch", for which a relatively polite English rendering is "kiss my ass".

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart had a strong interest in scatological humor. This interest is reflected in his letters and in a few recreational compositions. The scatological material has long been a puzzle for Mozart scholarship and there have been two main responses. In one view, the scatology was the result of a condition from which Mozart is claimed to have suffered, particularly Tourette syndrome. The other view deals with the scatology by seeking an understanding of the role of scatological humor in Mozart's family, his society and his times.

Examples

Self portrait in pencil of Maria Anna Thekla Mozart, from 1777 or 1778

Here is an example, from a letter of 5 November 1777 to his cousin Maria Anna Thekla Mozart. The German original[1] is in rhymed verse.

Well, I wish you good night
But first shit into your bed and make it burst.
Sleep soundly, my love
Into your mouth your arse you'll shove.[2]

Mozart's canon "Leck mich im Arsch" K. 231 (K6 382c) includes the lyrics below:

Leck mich im A[rsch] g'schwindi, g'schwindi!

This would be literally translated into English as "lick me in the arse/ass,[3] quickly, quickly!" "Leck mich im Arsch" is a standard vulgarism in German;[4] its closest English counterpart is "Kiss my arse/ass."

Viewing the scatology in context

The scatological letters and compositions, encountered by modern people, have produced bafflement, concern—even disbelief.[5] David Schroeder writes:

The passage of time has created an almost unbridgeable gulf between ourselves and Mozart's time, forcing us to misread his scatological letters even more drastically than his other letters. Very simply, these letters embarrass us, and we have tried to suppress them, trivialize them, or explain them out of the epistolary canon with pathological excuses.[6]

Scholars have suggested, as Schroeder's words indicate, that we can better understand the scatological materials by appealing to Mozart's own life, his circle of acquaintance and the culture of his place and time.

The audience for Mozart's scatology

Mozart's scatology was neither a private fetish nor a public eccentricity: the audience was family and friends. This can be seen both from the letters and the music.

Letters

Benjamin Simkin (see below) estimates that 39 of Mozart's letters include scatological passages. Almost all of these are Mozart's own family, specifically his father Leopold, his mother Anna Maria, his sister Nannerl, and his cousin Maria Anna Thekla Mozart. Leopold, Anna Maria, and Nannerl also included scatological humor in their own letters, though not with the same frequency as Wolfgang.[7] Thus, Anna Maria wrote to her husband (26 September 1777; original is in rhyme):

Addio, ben mio. Keep well, my love.
Into your mouth your arse you'll shove.
I wish you good night, my dear,
But first shit in your bed and make it burst.[8]

It can be seen that the words here are quite similar to what Mozart himself wrote several weeks later in the letter cited above. (The two were traveling together during the early part of Mozart's unsuccessful job-hunting expedition of 1777–1779.) Even the relatively straight-laced Leopold used a scatological expression in one letter.[9]

Probably the most famous of Mozart's scatological letters were written to his cousin (and probable love interest)[10] Maria Anna Thekla Mozart; these are often called the "Bäsle letters", after the German word Bäsle, a diminutive form meaning "little cousin". In these letters, written after Mozart had spent a pleasant two weeks with his cousin in her native Augsburg,[11] the scatology is combined with extravagant word play and sexual references.[12] The word play makes them a challenge to translate; here is Robert Spaethling's rendering of part of a letter Mozart sent from Mannheim November 5, 1777:

Deares cozz buzz!
I have received reprieved your highly esteemed writing biting, and I have noted doted thy my uncle garfuncle, my aunt slant, and you too, are all well mell. We, too thank god, are in good fettle kettle ... You write further, indeed you let it all out, you expose yourself, you let yourself be heard, you give me notice, you declare yourself, you indicate to me, you bring me the news, you announce unto me, you state in broad daylight, you demand, you desire, you wish, you want, you like, you command that I, too, should could send you my Portrait. Eh bien, I shall mail fail it for sure. Oui, by the love of my skin, I shit on your nose, so it runs down your chin...[13]

The Bäsle letters continue a style of scatological humor already established while Mozart was visiting Augsburg. One of the letters Mozart wrote to his father at the time reports an encounter Mozart and his cousin had with a priest named Father Emilian:

[He was] an arrogant ass and a simple-minded little wit of his profession .. finally when he was a little drunk, which happened soon, he started on about music. He sang a canon, and said: I have never in my life heard anything more beautiful ... He started. I took the third voice, but I slipped in an entirely different text: 'P[ater] E: o du schwanz, leck mich im arsch' ["Father Emilian, oh you prick, lick me in the ass"]. Sotto voce, to my cousin. Then we laughed together for another half hour.[14]

Music

Mozart's scatological music was recreational and shared among friends. All of it takes the form of canons (rounds), in which each voice enters with the same words and music following a delay after the previous voice. Based on the testimony of Gottfried Weber[15] it appears this music was sung in social gatherings. None of it was published in Mozart's lifetime.

Reactions of family and friends

Both the letters and the music were written on repeated occasions, suggesting that the recipients probably were not offended by them. There appears to be nothing in the correspondence requesting Mozart to stop his scatologizing.

On the other hand, it seems to have been recognized that things said or sung within the family or among friends might be unsuitable for public consumption. In 1798, Constanze sent her late husband's Bäsle letters to the publishers Breitkopf & Härtel, who at the time were gathering material in hopes of preparing a Mozart biography.[16] In the accompanying letter she wrote "Although in dubious taste, the letters to his cousin are full of wit and deserve mentioning, although they cannot of course be published in their entirety."[17]

Scatology and the 18th century

Gottfried Prehauser, an actor of 18th century Vienna, playing Hanswurst

While scatological humor obviously has not disappeared in our own time, Schroeder (1999) suggests that in the 18th century it was far more public and "mainstream". The German-language popular theater of Mozart's time was influenced by the Italian commedia dell' arte and emphasized the stock character of Hanswurst, a coarse and robust character who would entertain his audience by pretending to eat large and unlikely objects (for instance, a whole calf), then defecating them.[18]

Schroeder also suggests a political underlay to the scatology in popular theater: its viewers lived under a system of hereditary aristocracy that excluded them from political participation. The vulgarity of scatological popular theater was a counterpoint to the refined culture imposed from above.[19] One of Mozart's own letters pokes fun at the aristocracy in scatological terms; he identified the aristocrats present at a concert in Augsburg (1777) as "the Duchess Smackarse, the Countess Pleasurepisser, the Princess Stinkmess, and the two Princes Potbelly von Pigtail".[20]

Scatology and German culture

The folklorist and cultural anthropologist Alan Dundes suggested that interest in or tolerance for scatalogical matters is a specific trait of German national culture, one which is retained to this day:[21]

In German folklore, one finds an inordinate number of texts concerned with anality. Scheisse (shit), Dreck (dirt), Mist (manure), Arsch (ass), and other locutions are commonplace. Folksongs, folktales, proverbs, folk speech—all attest to the Germans' longstanding special interest in this area of human activity. I am not claiming that other peoples of the world do not express a healthy concern for this area, but rather that the Germans appear to be preoccupied with such themes. It is thus not so much a matter of difference as it is of degree.[22]

Dundes (1984) provides ample coverage of scatological humor in Mozart, but also cites scatological texts from Martin Luther, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Heinrich Heine, and other luminaries of German culture. Karhausen (1993) asserts that "Scatology was common in Mitteleuropa, [central Europe]" noting for instance that Mozart's Salzburg colleague Michael Haydn also wrote a scatological canon.[23]

Some of the phrases used by Mozart in his scatological material were not original with him but were part of the folklore and culture of his day: Mieder (2003) describes the Bäsle letters as involving "Mozart's intentional play with what is for the most part preformulated folk speech."[24] An example given by Robert Spaethling is the folkloric origin of a phrase seen above, "Gute Nacht, scheiss ins Bett dass' Kracht," said by Spaethling to be a "children's rhyme that is still current in south German language areas today."[25] Likewise, when Mozart sang to Aloysia Weber the words "Leck mich das Mensch im Arsch, das mich nicht will" ("The one who doesn't want me can lick my ass") on the occasion of being romantically rejected by her, he was evidently singing an existing folk tune, not a song of his own invention.[26]

Medical accounts

See also: Sociological and cultural aspects of Tourette syndrome § Speculation about notable individuals

An early 20th century observer who suspected that Mozart's scatological materials could be interpreted in terms of psychological pathologies was the Austrian writer Stefan Zweig, who amassed a large collection of musical manuscripts. His collection included the Bäsle letters (at the time, unpublished) as well as the autographs of Mozart's scatological canons Difficile lectu and O du eselhafter Peierl.[27] Zweig sent copies of the Bäsle letters to the celebrated psychiatrist Sigmund Freud with the following suggestion:

These nine letters ... throw a psychologically very remarkable light on his erotic nature, which, more so than any other important man, has elements of infantilism and coprophilia. It would actually be a very interesting study for one of your pupils.[28]

Freud apparently declined Zweig's suggestion. As Schroeder notes, later psychobiographers seized on the letters as evidence for psychopathological tendencies in Mozart.[29]

A variety of authors (see References below) have interpreted the documentary material as evidence that Mozart suffered from Tourette's syndrome. Among these the work of Simkin (1992) appears to be the most widely cited and discussed. Simkin catalogued the scatological letters and compared their frequencies with similar vulgarisms from other members of Mozart's family—they are far more frequent. The scatological materials were combined by Simkin with biographical accounts from Mozart's own time that suggested that Mozart suffered from the tics characteristic of Tourette's syndrome.

While often discussed, the Mozart/Tourette hypothesis has failed to sway mainstream opinion on this issue. Indeed, Kammer (2007) states that the work proposing the hypothesis has been "promptly and harshly" criticized. The critical commentary (see References below) asserts both medical misdiagnosis and errors of Mozart scholarship.

Scatological materials

Letters from Mozart

Benjamin Simkin's compilation lists scatological letters by Mozart to the following individuals:

For discussion and quotation from individual letters, see Bölzlschiessen, Maria Anna Thekla Mozart.

Music by Mozart

See also: List of concert arias, songs and canons by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

The canons were first published after Mozart's death with bowdlerized lyrics; for instance "Leck mir den Arsch fein rein" ("Lick me in the arse nice and clean") became "Nichts labt mich mehr als Wein" ("Nothing refreshes me more than wine"). In some cases, only the first line of the original scatological lyrics is preserved. The following list is ordered by Köchel catalog number. Voices and conjectured dates are from Zaslaw and Cowdery (1990:101–105); and links marked "score" lead to the online edition of the Neue Mozart Ausgabe.

  • Leck mich im Arsch, "Lick me in the ass," K. 231 (K6 382c), for six voices. (Score). Composed some time in the 1780s. First published as "Lass froh uns sein" ("Let us be joyful").
  • Leck mir den Arsch fein recht schön sauber, "Lick me in the ass right well and clean," K. 233 (K6 382d). (Score). First published as "Nichts labt mich mehr als Wein" ("Nothing pleases me more than wine"). The music of this canon was once thought to be by Mozart but was shown in 1988 by Wolfgang Plath to be by Wenzel Trnka, originally to the Italian words "Tu sei gelosa, è vero".[30] As the editors of the Neue Mozart Ausgabe note, the work almost certainly should be considered a work of Mozart's, but as the author of the lyrics rather than as the composer.[31]
  • "Bei der Hitz im Sommer ess ich" ("In the heat of summer I eat"), K. 234 (K6 382e). (Score). As with K. 233, the music is not by Mozart; originally it was the canon "So che vanti un cor ingrato" by Wenzel Trnka, presumably given its scatological lyrics by Mozart.[32]
  • "Gehn wir im Prater, gehn wir in d' Hetz," K. 558, for four voices. (Score). 1788 or earlier.
  • Difficile lectu mihi Mars, K. 559, for three voices. (Score). Ca. 1786–1787.
  • O du eselhafter Peierl, ("Oh, you asinine Peierl") for four voices, K. 560a. (Score). Ca. 1786–1787. A slightly revised version, "O du eselhafter Martin" is catalogued as K. 560b.
  • Bona nox ("Good night") K. 561, for four voices. (Score). 1788 or earlier.

Notes

  1. ^ "lezt wünsch ich eine gute Nacht/scheissen Sie ins Bett dass es kracht/schlafens gesund/reckens den Arsch zum mund"; Dundes (1984:66)
  2. ^ Text and translation from Dundes (1984:66)
  3. ^ "Arse" is British English, "ass" is American.
  4. ^ Dundes (1984:42–48)
  5. ^ One instance of the latter involved Margaret Thatcher, who as Prime Minister of Britain was appraised of Mozart's scatology when she made a rare visit to the theater to see Peter Schaffer's famous play Amadeus. Director Peter Hall relates: "She was not pleased. In her best headmistress style, she gave me a severe wigging for putting on a play that depicted Mozart as a scatological imp with a love of four-letter words. It was inconceivable, she said, that a man who wrote such exquisite and elegant music could be so foul mouthed". I said that Mozart's letters proved he was just that: he had an extraordinarily infantile sense of humour ... "I don’t think you heard what I said," replied the Prime Minister. "He couldn't have been like that." I offered (and sent) a copy of Mozart’s letters to Number Ten the next day; I was even thanked by the appropriate Private Secretary. But it was useless: the Prime Minster said I was wrong, so wrong I was." Source: Hall's preface to Amadeus (Schaffer 1981).
  6. ^ Schoeder (1999:133)
  7. ^ Simkin (1992, 1563) lists one letter containing scatological humor from each of Leopold and Nannerl; and from Anna Maria there are two, the one quoted below and another which appears in Anderson (1938:425).
  8. ^ Translation from Anderson (1938, 404). The German original reads: "adio ben mio, leb gesund / Reck den arsch zum mund. / Ich winsch ein guete nacht / Scheiss ins beth das Kracht."
  9. ^ This was "to shit oranges", meaning approximately "to get upset," using in a letter written from Italy in 1770; Mieder (2003:45)
  10. ^ For a discussion of the evidence that Mozart and his cousin were in love, see Solomon (1996:161–166).
  11. ^ Schroeder (1999:87–89)
  12. ^ The original German versions of all the Bäsle letters are posted at Wikisource
  13. ^ Spaethling (2000:87). The original reads "Ich habe dero mir so werthes schreiben richtig erhalten falten, und daraus ersehen drehen, daß der H: vetter retter, die fr: baaß has, und sie wie, recht wohl auf sind hind; wir sind auch gott lob und danck recht gesund hund. ... sie schreiben noch ferners, ja, sie lassen sich heraus, sie geben sich blos, sie lassen sich verlauten, sie machen mir zu wissen, sie erklären sich, sie deüten mir an, sie benachrichtigen mir, sie machen mir kund, sie geben deütlich am tage, sie verlangen, sie begehren, sie wünschen, sie wollen, sie mögen, sie befehlen, daß ich ihnen auch mein Portrait schicken soll schroll. Eh bien, ich werde es ihnen gewis schicken schlicken. Oui, par ma la foi, ich scheiss dir auf d'nasen, so, rinds dir auf d'koi."
  14. ^ Translation from Schroeder (1999:135)
  15. ^ See Difficile lectu.
  16. ^ Solomon (1996:500)
  17. ^ Abert (2008:1360)
  18. ^ Schroeder (1999:128)
  19. ^ Schroeder (1999:127–130)
  20. ^ English rendering from Schroeder (1999:135). The original German reads "Ducheße arschbömerl, die gräfin brunzgern, die fürstin richzumtreck, und die 2 Princzen Mußbauch von Sauschwanz".
  21. ^ Mozart's nationality was, strictly speaking, that of the Prince-Archbishopric of Salzburg. His letters indicate he felt his nationality to be German (see e.g. his letter to his father of 17 August 1782; Mersman (1972:204)); this was natural in a time when the territory comprising modern Austria and Germany was a patchwork of mostly small nation-states.
  22. ^ Dundes (1984:9)
  23. ^ Karhausen (1993). Haydn's canon was entitled "Scheiss nieder, armer Sünder", which Karhausen renders as "Shit fast, poor sinner.".
  24. ^ Mieder (2003:50)
  25. ^ Spaethling (2000:18). As Spaethling notes, the rhyme also appears in Mozart's canon Bona nox, and in an Italian translation ("cacate nel letto che egli fà fracasso") is found a 1770 letter to his mother and sister written in Italy.
  26. ^ See Solomon (1996:169, 552), citing Blümml.
  27. ^ Searle (1986)
  28. ^ Quoted from Schroeder (1999:127)
  29. ^ Schroeder (1999:127)
  30. ^ Link (2006:133)
  31. ^ Berke et al. (2007:69)
  32. ^ See previous two footnotes.

References

General

  • Abert, Hermann (2008) W. A. Mozart. Edited by Cliff Eisen and translated from the German by Stewart Spencer. New Haven: Yale University Press.
  • Anderson, Emily (1938) The Letters of Mozart and his Family. Macmillan.
  • Berke, Dietrich and Wolfgang Rehm (with collaboration of Miriam Pfadt) (2007) Die Neue Mozart-Ausgabe: Texte - Bilder - Chronik, 1955-2007. Kassel: Bärenreiter. Available on line: [1]
  • Dundes, Alan (1984) Life is like a Chicken Coop Ladder: Studies of German National Character through Folklore. Detroit: Wayne State University Press.
  • Link, Dorothea (2006) "'È la fede degli amanti' and the Viennese operatic canon", in Simon Keefe, ed., Mozart Studies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Mersmann, Hans, ed. (1972) Letters of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Dover Publications.
  • Mieder, Wolfgang (2003) "Now I Sit Like a Rabbit in the Pepper": Proverbial Language in the Letters of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Journal of Folklore Research 40: 33-70. Available on line at [2].
  • Schaffer, Peter (1981) Amadeus (fictional drama). Samuel French, Inc.
  • Schroeder, David P. (1999) Mozart in revolt: strategies of resistance, mischief, and deception. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 0300075421.
  • Solomon, Maynard (1996) Mozart: A Life. New York: Harper Perennial.
  • Spaethling, Robert (2000) Mozart's letters, Mozart's life: selected letters. New York; W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0393047199.
  • Zaslaw, Neal, and William Cowdery (1990) The Compleat Mozart: a guide to the musical works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.

Tourette syndrome hypothesis

The following articles have advanced the theory that Mozart had Tourette's syndrome:

  • Gunne, L.M. (1991) Hade Mozart Tourettes syndrom? Läkartidningen 88: 4325-4326. [cited in Kammer 1983]
  • Fog, R. (1995) Mozart’s bizarre verbal behavior: a case of Tourette syndrome? Maledicta 11:59-62. [cited in Kammer 1983]
  • Fog, R.and L. Regeur (1983) Did W.A. Mozart suffer from Tourette’s syndrome? World Congress of Psychiatry, Vienna. [cited in Kammer 1983]
  • Schaub, S. (1994) Mozart und das Tourette-Syndrom. Acta Mozartiana 41: 15-20. [cited in Kammer 1983]
  • Simkin, Benjamin (1992) Mozart's scatological disorder. BMJ 305: 1563-7. Available on line at [3].

The following articles direct criticism at the hypothesis:

  • Davies, Peter J. (1993) Letter to the Editor. BMJ 306: 521-522. Available on line at [4].
  • Kammer, Thomas (2007) Mozart in the Neurological Department – Who Has the Tic? In J. Bogousslavsky and Hennerici M. G.(eds.), Neurological Disorders in Famous Artists - Part 2. Frontiers in Neurology and Neurosciences, Vol. 22. Basel: Karger, pp. 184–192. Available on line at [5]
  • Karhausen, L. R. (1993) Letter to the Editor. BMJ 306:522. Available on line at [6].
  • Karhausen, L. R. (1998) Weeding Mozart's medical history. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine 91: 546-550. Available on line at [7].
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