K. 20, God is Our Refuge

K. 20, God is Our Refuge

Was this Mozart’s first spiritual work?  In a protestant land, in a language other than Latin?   When I started this venture, I wondered if I was going to run into a work written in English.  Lucky me, I did.  The lyrics are simple: ‘God is our refuge.  A very present help in trouble.’  The work is a one musical step above a Gregorian chant. 

Mozart had absorbed a mass of information.  And for someone age nine?  But, was such level of knowledge rare for the educated of the day?  Or, does it seem rare when I present-mindedly compare him with today's educated youth?   I’ve been doing research into the classical method of education.  I believe more youth are capable of more knowledge absorption.  (We just need to get rid of many of the distractions—I don’t know how to make that happen.) True, Mozart had a father who worked tirelessly at educating his son free from digital gizmos, boy/girl crush distractions, and fear-mongering bullies.  

The classical philosophy stresses three learning stages: grammar, dialectic, and rhetoric.  Mozart would have been in the grammar stage, the stage in life where a child is an information-sponge and needs to be fed.  (The other two stages teach a youth what to do with the information they know.)  For him to have had knowledge of so many languages is evidence that grammatically he had been well nourished.  (I’ve heard this is why children learn languages easier.) Some would claim, that because he was such a genius, he had an ability to have a varied knowledge.  True, Mozart was undeniably a music prodigy, but I don’t believe he was superior in any other realm.  As reflect on his history, I wonder if his education lacked the dialectic and rhetoric stages.  Once he reached adulthood, his lack of—as a troglodyte might say—‘real-world’ skills left him scraping by as he sought to profit from his God given genius and learned grammar.  

K. 19c, Va, dal furor portata

K. 19c, Va, dal furor portata

Ah.  Mozart's first dabbling with opera.  At least, as far as I know.   Many also may know this work as K. 21 on the K¹ catalogue, but I have decided to use the K⁶ for consistency.   Mozart composed the music from a section of Metastasio's libretto, Ezio.  Why did Mozart choose that particular piece?  He was in London at the time, and Handel had composed the Ezio opera.  London had adopted the German-born Handel. (I’m Sure they’d love to have had Mozart as well.)  Handel’s works were popular in the city.  They had to have had a great influence on the young Mozart. 

So why did Mozart pick the libretto Va, dal furor portata for his first dabblement in opera?  Here is an English translation:

Go, transported by fury,


reveal the treachery;


but remember, ingrate,


who is the traitor.



Disclose the deception that was planned;

but at the moment consider

that I gave you life


and you take it from me.

The music carried a stoic, noble tone.  With Ezio composed of Roman military characters, the music complies with Hellenistic tragedy rules.  Mozart seems to be composing a formula.  Of course, to me, the music is not particularly moving, and sounds like an operatic stereotype. 

But, why this section? Why these word?  A demand that treachery be smote.  Was Mozart experiencing a perceived betrayal, and thus guided to the words?  (One could see how such thoughts may be running through the boy’s head.) Or, did someone else simply request the work?  If someone forced me to guess, I’d say the latter.  I find it problematic that a youth of 9 would be able comprehend such complex literary themes, let alone seek them out via his own fruition.  Yes.  He was well educated—and the music complexly fits the themes—but I’d say he was guided to this section, if not completely requested to compose music for this except.  To counter, others may say, “True, but Mozart was a master of complex music at such an early age.”  Sure.  Yet, in certain other areas he was quite immature.  Or, for a nine-year-old of reasonable maturity. 

Ultimately, I am basing my suppositions on nothing but conjecture, or even my gut.  With any Mozart (or any artist’s) work, we have to dissect whether he was expressing his own emotions in the piece, or did he create music fitting the feelings others wanted to express.  

A plight of a for-hire artist.