Tiger! wetze nur die
klauen
If people didn’t fight for what is wrong, would anyone need
to fight for what is right?
I wonder if Mozart ever got sick of it. The voices, pushing, pulling. His father.
Colloredo. His fans. His critics. Sulzberger’s. The Viennese. Fighting their wills, in order to pursue his
own.
I don’t see Mozart as a fighter. By fighting, I don’t mean
physical alone. We can fight in all sorts of ways. Both peaceful and violent.
In fact, I’m often haunted by this reoccurring theme: ‘Stand up for what you
believe.’ Sounds great, in principle. Until, as a youth counselor, I have to
clash heads with teens who fight me over the slightest instruction, all the
while they’re implicitly (and even at time explicitly) standing up for what
they believe. Like a chain between two tugging tractors, I have to adhere to
the values of my employer—even if I may think the kids have a point. Who am I
decide either way? I don’t want to fight. I have to. (By fight, I mean hold kids accountable.)
The world is full of people fighting for what they believe
is right. Much of the time that means, in reality, they are fighting for what
they want. ‘Ok? Sound good to me,’
some might say. ‘Shouldn’t we fight for what we want?’ I don’t know… Then, am I
to drop my ears back, gnaw, claw and kick until I become the alpha stallion? In
spite of all the great things people have done by standing strong (and I’m not at all saying they shouldn’t have), I
ask myself how many more atrocities were caused by those who stood up for what
they believed, or wanted. Who knows what would have
happened had Hitler not been so perseverant? Even peaceful protests are not as
peaceful as some would claim. The have a cost.
And…
Oh, how I hate the way people fight to get others’
attention. Maybe, that is part of my problem. I want recognition, but I don’t
want to fight with those willing to pull down their pants just to get others to
look at them. Or, those who lay guilt trips. Or, those willing to spend thousands on
marketing. I assume, if people don’t
recognize my work, it’s because it’s not quality. (Part of me still hopes I’m
wrong.)
Now, I’m not making grand claims saying that we should never
stand up for anything, I just wonder if it would behoove us to reflect more
over why were fighting, and what standards we use to determine what’s worth standing
up for, before assuming we’re right.
Yet, sometimes we are placed in a position
where we have to take a stand. One side or the other. Tiger! wetze nur die klauen is a song that reflects such a dilemma.
A powerful song of fist-shaking defiance, Tiger! wetze nur die klauen starts right
off saying, ‘this is enough.’ She’d lived in luxury, but at a price. A sexual
slave to a powerful man. Likely, she could have been beating her brows with
guilt, saying, ‘I deserve this. Look at all the other slaves below me. I have
it good compared to them.’ Then, she meets Gomatz and everything changes. She
tries to escape, and is caught.
Then, enters Sultan Soliman. A man who is fighting for what
he wants. The love of Zaide. As a man, I can identify. Who hasn’t had a crush
so strong, that he thought he’d do anything to conjure romantic feelings? But,
how far should one take that? This is not a battle Zaide wanted. The slower,
sadder middle section of the aria laments with regret, but it transitions back
to fist-shaking defiance. ‘Let’s do this.’ It seems to sing, ‘The only
pleasure, you’ll willingly get from me is my death.’
I wonder if at the Zaide period of Mozart’s life, he
believed a fight was inevitable. A fight with his father? Colloredo? Did he
daydream about the eloquent words he would use that would put either in his
place? What would it take to get Mozart to stand up for what he wanted? Either
way, it was not a battle he wanted to fight.
Sometimes, people like to push others, to try to get them to
fight back. I’m not sure what I think about the principle. I can see merit, but
it still bothers me. Henry Ford was a jerk to his son. His son never stood up
for himself, and eventually, died. Ford was devastated, and said something
akin to, ‘I loved him. I just wanted him to stand up for himself.’ Who wants to
be that person? I don’t get it. And, if there weren’t any people like that,
would we need people like that to train others to stand up for themselves? My
brain hurts just now. I don’t know… Maybe I have to live in the ‘real world.’
I still can’t shake the feeling that Colloredo had the same
mentality. Read my blurb on Colloredo if you want to see why I think so. http://tonedeaftroglodyte.blogspot.com/2013/04/a-radical-theory-about-archbishop.html
Colloredo goaded Mozart’s Tiger! wetze
nur die klauen fight. It was his actions that brought Mozart to Vienna, weaning him from
his father. Was that good for Mozart?
??? Or, was it simply good for
us? We’re the ones that get to enjoy the music.
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