Du Wunderkind à l'éternel enfant : Les premières biographies mozartiennes dans le contexte de l'esthétique romantique

Abstract

Mozart ist the only composer whose childhood has counted for the posterity. This durability is due both to the precocity of his genius and to the epoch of its development. In the history of mentalities and of musical style, the 1760's were an ideal soil for the precocious exploits of the composer. If we believe his first biographers, Mozart remained a child all his life long as far as practical needs of existence were concerned. First negatively connoted, this image of the eternal child was later interpreted as a sign of genius by Schopenhauer in The world as will and representation (1818). This reversal of value can be explained by taking into consideration some texts by Tieck, Wackenroder and E.T.A. Hoffmann in which appears the idea of the genius of childhood, sometimes in close association to Mozart. How far has this image of Mozart influenced the reception of his style ? The popular elements of the Singspiel and the opera buffa have been very early associated with the world of infancy, particularly in The magic flute but also in Cosi fan tutte, as can be read in an anonymous rewiew of 1805. However, these stylistic features are never dominant with Mozart, where they are temperated by melancholy. Mozart has relegated his puns (sometimes bearing traits of scatology) to his letters to his cousin Anna Maria Thekia, called the « Basle ». On the other hand, humour and popular tone occupy a central place in the instrumental music of the dignified « Papa Haydn », perceived very early as « the expression of a serene and childlike personality ».