Introduction
Peter Shaffer’s play “Amadeus” is a romanticized drama about an artist’s struggle against the forces of philistinism applied in the context of uneven distribution of genius. Sounds in the film are used to amplify the impact of images. The film version of Peter Shaffer’s psychological drama “Amadeus” uses the music to exemplify the rivalry between the two protagonists. Mozart’s music is a necessary component of the film structure since the play and film attempt to provide an accurate portrayal of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and the events that led to his death.
The use of music helps to develop a “true texture and ambiance in the film” that cannot be developed in a theatre. There are different sounds used in the “Amadeus” film including music and screams. Instances of screams include the scene where Salieri screams out “Mozart! Forgive your assassin!” when he confesses that he was the one who killed Mozart. Mozart also screams in anguish, accompanied by two large chords of the Overture to Mozart’s Don Giovanni. Another instance of a blast involves the sudden blast of music at the start of Mozart’s symphony (Tsioulcas, 2003).
Diagetic and nondiegetic display of music
Tibbetts (2004) identifies the use of diegetic and nondiegetic music in various instances of the film. These scenes are useful in the comparison of the characters of Salieri and Mozart. The three instances identified by Tibbetts (2004) include Mozart’s improvisation on Salieri’s “Welcome March,” Salieri’s stunning encounter with Mozart’s manuscripts, and Mozart’s dictation to Salieri of the Requiem’s Confutatis Malecivtus while on his deathbed. This last scene depicts Salieri struggling with capturing Mozart’s “dictation” of the Confutatis maledictions while the latter is on his deathbed.
The film expresses the voices and instrumentation playing in Mozart’s head in a sequence, as they are relayed to Salieri in a psychic manner. The first piece by Mozart involves a male chorus declamation, followed by the trombone instrumentation. Mozart also shares “the underlying tympani, the female voicing, the agitated ostinato passages in strings, and the plangent “voca Mei” for high voices” (Tibbetts, 2004). This scene comes to an end when a pale and feeble Mozart falls back on the pillow fatigued. He also asks for the dictation of the Lacrimosa to stop for the moment.
The display of music helps in the development of an exciting scene that depicts a need for urgency. This scene comes towards the end of the film and forms a climax for the previous two scenes forming a graceful arc of Salieri’s shift of emotion. The first scene that involves a diegetic display of music as Mozart impresses his audience with his brilliant performance for the Baroness brings out the emotion of initial amazement in Salieri.
This emotion transforms to growing anger in the second scene that constructs an inner diegesis when Salieri hears the heaven-sent sounds as he examines Mozart’s manuscript. This revelation causes him to erupt in vengeful rage and to thrust a crucifix into a fireplace as he makes the decision to kill Mozart. The last transformation of Salieri’s emotion is humbling, as he identifies the music’s transcendence over his petty, jealous envy. At this point, Mozart is transformed from the rugged individual in the film, to a delightfully motivated voice of God (Tibbetts, 2004).
Salieri’s Anger and frustration
Music is used in “Amadeus” to describe the thoughts of Mozart. Shaffer portrays him as the ‘magic flute’ who communicates directly with God. Shaffer uses this aspect of the effortless composition of music in several instances in the film. For instance, just before the first scene involving Lorl, the audience hears the revelation of one of Mozart’s songs and watches him noting down the lyrics.
During this process, Constanze is forced to haul Mozart’s name so that she can be heard over the sound of music playing in his head. The music then stops abruptly, and the scene introduces other characters including Lorl and Leopold, who begin to quarrel with Constanze (Tsioulcas, 2003).
The inspiration of Mozart’s music by God is further elaborated when Salieri hears Mozart’s music for the first time. This causes him to ponder on the relevance of music, and whether it is inspired by God, or it includes the thoughts of man. In addition, Salieri faces numerous questions regarding himself, his work, and his relationship with God. In that scene, where Mozart performs for the Baroness, Salieri finds out that his own music is not the voice of God, but that of Mozart.
This scene is vital in developing the theme of the film and the events that lead to the death of Mozart. The realization that Mozart is in direct communication with God makes Salieri denounce his love of God. This marks the beginning of the conflict between Salieri and Mozart, as well as between Salieri and God. He also vows to destroy Mozart as Salieri begins his journey of transformation whereby he blames God for communicating with Mozart instead of him (Tibbetts, 2004).
Monologue
Monologues take various forms, including the speaker, who is independent of the poet, a listener, and an occasion. The interplay between these three develops the drama in the film. The speaker in “Amadeus” is Salieri, who is the self-proclaimed murderer of Mozart. The listener in this scene is the priest, who goes to minister to him while the occasion is Salieri’s detention in an asylum for allegedly attempting suicide. Townsend (1986) claims that the monologue by Salieri does not seek any response from his audience, but rather helps him to understand himself.
The monologue by Salieri also serves to address the audience, as in the case when he interprets the work of Mozart so that the audience can acknowledge Mozart’s brilliance in music composition and performance. The audience (priest) is requested to go and join Salieri in the cell in order to obtain a confession of his murder. However, the events that follow are not typical to discuss between a clergyman and a proclaimed murderer.
Salieri takes that opportunity to explain his life and bitterness for Mozart’s brilliance in composition in a long monologue despite his young age. In the film, Salieri appears to be explaining the meaning of Mozart’s music to a priest, who in an actual sense represents the audience that has limited musical knowledge. This strategy helps all kinds of people, including the ‘tone-deaf’ viewers to “comprehend the heart of Mozart’s genius and Salieri’s tragedy” (Townsend, 1986).
The responses from the priest are only present to give continuity to the monologue, and so they are the implied responses of Andrea’s wife and the arresting officer, being also in the scene. Salieri’s monologue forms the primary voice while his second forms the second voice that “allows him to look back examining, explaining, and reflecting” (Townsend, 1986). This form of sound forces the audience to experience the events in the eyes of the speaker, which helps to build compassion for his actions.
The development of sympathy for Salieri’s actions makes the audience withdraw from passing judgment on him as he is telling his story in flashback. This leads to the development of tension between Salieri’s villainy and the sympathy for his anguish. Some of the bad things done by Salieri against Mozart include interfering with the “latter’s court appointments, viciously influencing the Emperor against him, and apparently causing the young composer’s death by overwork” (Townsend, 1986).
Salieri is also portrayed as a connoisseur of beauty through his engagements with appealing women, fancy clothing, social status, rich food, and chamber performances. The combination of both loathsome and appealing traits causes the audience to show both admiration and hatred for Salieri. The audience experiences overt tension because of empathizing with Salieri’s appealing qualities while at the same time judging his culpable behavior (Townsend, 1986).
Mozart’s brilliance
Shaffer identifies Mozart’s music with an “evocative aural symbol of divinity”. He goes further to express his opinions to an audience that is not musically literate by using Salieri as a translator of music. This feature provides Shaffer with the opportunity to acknowledge the brilliance of Mozart’s music. Shaffer compares the existence of Mozart to that of Shakespeare in the sense that their work can neither be compared to another nor rewritten without diminishing its actual impact (Tsioulcas, 2003).
The extraordinary ability of both Salieri and Mozart to hear complete music in various circumstances also helps in the development of unique scenes. One such scene is evident when Salieri’s quickly goes through Mozart’s manuscripts as the audience hears “an amazing collage of great passages from Mozart’s music” (Tsioulcas, 2003).
There is a similar occurrence when Mozart hurriedly dictates a song as he nears his death. His piece is incomprehensible to everyone with the exception of Salieri. The audience gets to hear the complete version of the passages immediately they are written down. This version involves an intro of single voices and instruments that is followed by the rest of the ensemble.
Conclusion
“The play and film take-up Mozart’s middle name whose literal meaning is “beloved of God” (Tsioulcas, 2003). The use of the name “Amadeus” in the play signifies God’s chosen instrument, as is seen in the direct communication between God and Mozart in his music. The word “Amadeus” can also be used to imply “lover of God”, which would be better applied in the case of Salieri, whose role as a protagonist is more dominant than that of Mozart.
It is, however, ironical, since Mozart turns against God later in the story. The transfer of the drama from stage to screen was a challenging task due to the visualization of various literary expressions without changing the structure. In spite of everything, the most dominant aspect of the film is the use of sounds in the form of music. The impact of music on film helps to recreate the musical world of Mozart in a way that was not possible in the stage version.
References
Tibbetts, J. C. (2004). Faces and Masks: Peter Shaffer’s Amadeus from Stage to Screen. Literature/Film Quarterly, 32(3), 166-174.
Townsend, M. A. (1986). AMADEUS as Dramatic Monologue. Literature/Film Quarterly, 14(4), 214-219.
Tsioulcas, A. (2003). Classical Score: Cecilia Bartoli Sets Salieri’s Story Straight. Billboard, 115(51), 19.