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Die Zauberöte

What's in a Title?

Harrison Powley

Scholars have argued over Die Zauberöte for many years. Is it a fairy-tale opera, a metaphorical discussion of Masonic and Rosicrucian beliefs, or a contemporary political or philosophical commentary on the 1780 s and the Enlightenment? ¡ It can be all these and more, but for many in the audience during fall 1791 it was entertainment, pure and simple. The audience at the Theater auf der Weiden came from all levels of society. The nobility and educated attended as well as the working and servant classes.

In a work so rich with literary, visual, and musical symbols, it is easy to gloss over the most obvious ones: the magical musical instruments. " Musical instruments of Mozart's day were similar in some ways to instruments in common use today yet quite different in construction, sound, and performance techniques. As performers and conductors try to communicate music of past centuries, they have turned in recent years to performing music on the instruments for which the composers wrote the music, using either surviving instruments or modern reconstructions in an attempt to recreate the timbres or tone colors, tempi, ornamentation, tunings, and the like of the past. £

This essay focuses primarily on Mozart's use of two instruments: the Zauberöte (magicflute) and the Zauberglöckchen (magic bells) . We know what aflute is and what bells are, but why and how are they "magic"? In fact, why do Schikaneder and Mozart use these instruments at specific times in the work, and what meanings did they convey to Mozart's audience? We will also discuss several surviving instruments that could have influenced Mozart's music.

Papageno's Panpipe

Thefirst unusual instrument we hear is a little panpipe ( Faunen-Flötchen) played by Papa-geno (fig. 1) in his aria "Der Vogelfänger bin ich ja" ( 1 . 2 ). ¢ This is not a magic instrument but an aid Papa-geno uses to attract the birds he trades to the Three Ladies, emissaries of the Queen of the Night, in return for food, drink, and shelter. The bird catcher Papageno, in the service of the Queen of the Night, is a man of the people, a child of nature, someone with whom those of the lower social classes in the audience could easily and immediately identify. § Schikaneder played this role and the panpipe to the delight of his audience. ¶

Mozart's music here is airy and earthy; the as-cendingfive-note motive of the panpipe is Papa geno's musical motive (example 1 ). The strophic song, written in G major, a key often associated with the "rustic, idyllic and lyrical," aptly portrays Papageno's pastoral origins. "