Mozart-Busoni - Overture to the Magic Flute (for Two Pianos) - Classical Piano Story (Synthesia)
The Magic Flute, K. 620, whose original title in German is Die Zauberflöte, is an opera sung in German (=singspiel) composed by Mozart on a libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder.
From the first notes of the opening, one recognizes the rhythm 5 (-/--/--) symbolizing women, then three chords follow one another, each repeated three times, in a key of E flat major with three flats in the clef. One can see an allusion to the number of the Apprentice, symbolizing the harmony of the trinity Osiris, Isis and Horus ensuring the unity and balance of the world.
Many of the themes in this opera are borrowed from the initiation ritual of Freemasonry, of which Mozart and the librettist Emmanuel Schikaneder were part, although Schikaneder was expelled from it without ever having reached the rank of journeyman.
Tamino and Pamina's initiatory journey in the Sarastro Temple was inspired by the Masonic initiation ceremonies in a lodge.
Mozart sings brotherhood with The Magic Flute after having sung freedom with The Abduction from the Seraglio and equality with The Marriage of Figaro.
Moreover, as a devoted freemason, Mozart retraces the great mysteries in this work, finally celebrating the alchemical wedding announced in the initiatory operas The Marriage of Figaro, Don Juan and Cosi fan tutte. The composer dreams of resurrecting the lost Egyptian initiation that was so important to him for world peace. He wants to give back the place to women, forgotten and yet at the center of initiatory beliefs. Some observers believe that Mozart's genius is fully expressed in this opera, which reaches a previously unequalled perfection because it transports the listener within an initiatory ritual.
Theory:
In a simplicity that is both profound and already almost supernatural [non-neutral], it is with an ascending sequence of three chords, interspersed with short silences, that the first part, played adagio, begins. Repeated three times each when taken up again later (about halfway through this opening), they warn of the solemnity of a work that will mix gravity with humour. These chords are also reminiscent of the blows struck at the entrance to the Masonic lodge and thus make the three points of Freemasonry manifest (see Aesthetic Analysis section). Indeed, Mozart, who was a Freemason, had decided to make the apology of this initiatory order, in a work entirely devoted to it4.
The Allegro that follows this Adagio without interruption exposes a lively, light and joyful theme without being flippant, knowing how to become majestic and bearer of dramatic tension: it is first exposed to the violins, before nourishing all the polyphony. The opening of the Magic Flute is indeed the only one of all Mozart's operas (and one of the rare, if not the only one of the classical period) that presents a developed fugato, after a slower and more solemn first episode. In its own way, it is thus related to the French overture of the Baroque period. But its second episode is also (and even more surely) related to the allegro of the sonata. According to Jean-Victor Hocquard: This is not a fugue strictly speaking, but a sonata movement that at times adopts the fugue style. A striking example of the synthesis, characteristic of the last Mozart, between contrapuntal writing and thematic language5. 5 Thus, after the initial chords are recalled, approximately in the centre of the allegro, the fugal writing resumes (a little longer than the first time).
The brief coda is immediately followed by the first act.