Mozart's Journey to Prague and a Selection of Poems

by Eduard Mörike, David Luke (Annotations)

Eduard Mörike’s delightfully high-spirited 1855 novella is an imaginary re-creation of the journey Mozart made from Vienna to Prague in 1787 to conduct the first performance of Don Giovanni. Set in the rococo world of the Bohemian nobility, the story paints an unforgettable picture of Mozart’s creative genius—its playful heights and its terrible depths. Mörike’s own lyrical powers are also displayed in his poetry, which combines classicism and romanticism with elements of the traditional folk and fairy tale.

Genres: Poetry, Fiction, Music, German Literature, Classics, Germany

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1971

About the author

German Biedermeier poet and novelist.

Eduard Friedrich Mörike (Ludwigsburg, 8 September 1804 – 4 June 1875 in Stuttgart) was a German romantic poet. He studied Theology at the Seminary of Tübingen, and followed the ecclesiastical career, becoming a Lutheran pastor. In 1834 he was appointed pastor of Cleversulzbach near Weinsberg, and, after his early retirement for reasons of health, in 1851 became professor of German literature at the Katharinenstift in Stuttgart. This office he held until his retirement in 1866; but he continued to live at Stuttgart until his death on 4 June 1875.
Mörike is a member of the so-called Swabian school which gathered round Ludwig Uhland. His poems, Gedichte (1838; 22nd ed., 1905), are mostly lyrics, often humorous, but expressed in simple and natural language. His lieder (songs) are traditional in form and have been compared to those of Goethe. He also wrote a somewhat fantastic Idylle vom Bodensee, oder Fischer Martin und die Glockendiebe (1846; 2nd ed., 1856), and published a collection of hymns, odes, elegies and idylls of the Greeks and Romans, entitled Klassische Blumenlese (1840), and several novels and narratives, among the former Maler Nolten ("The painter Nolten", 1832; 6th ed., 1901), a bildungsroman which enjoyed great popularity. Another work is the novella Mozart auf der Reise nach Prag ("Mozart on the way to Prague", 1856), a humorous examination of the problems of artists in a world uncongenial to art. Many of his lyrics were set to music by Hugo Wolf. Mörike's Gesammelte Schriften (Collected Writings) were first published in 4 volumes. In what political and social views he espoused, he was Monarchist and conservative.

Reviews

[Martyna Antonina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Neoklasycystyczna impresja językowa na temat wczesnej kariery Mozarta. Pomimo sztucznie budowanej wnikliwości wysnuła za jej pomocą kilka ładniebrzmiących i ładnieznaczących coś myśli. Niekiedy o niczym, chociaż we wszystkim odrobinę przesadna.

[Will · Rating 5 out of 5]

Five stars on the strength of the title novella alone. The poetry selections are bilingual on facing pages, but for reasons that escape me, several are translated into Scots. That may be a linguistic midway between both languages, but it doesn't make "The Forsaken Lassie" any less ridiculous. Christopher Middleton has collected in his own bilingual edition some of Mörike's poems in a better, more fluid English translation.

The title novella, Mozart's Journey to Prague, isn't exactly dramatic (as other reviewers here bemoan), but who would reasonably expect that from Mörike? Though an early admirer of Hölderlin, he works outside of Hölderlin's proportions, rejecting the mythic and large-scale for the incidental and infinitesimal. Christopher Middleton calls him a "master of condensation... deepest when he senses the universe as an organism living by measure, as a matter of proportion, modulating itself in the subtlest perceptions and the tiniest forms." There is little in Mörike's novella that I would say is powerful, at least as Hölderlin can be ("Patmos"), though I would repeat Middleton's characterization: it is a beautifully measured work. Of course the one exception, a truly powerful moment, is Mörike's statement on the experience of art, which I repeat below.

Man simultaneously longs and fears to be driven out of his usual self, he feels that he will be touched by the infinite, by something that will seize his heart, contracting it even as it expands it, as it violently embraces his spirit. Add to this the awe inspired by consummate art, the thought that we are being permitted and enabled to enjoy a divine miracle, to assimilate it as something akin to ourselves—and such a thought brings with it a special emotion, indeed a kind of pride, which is perhaps the purest and most joyful feeling of which we are capable.

[Maan Kawas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brilliant, profound, and engaging! I found it vivid and moving.

[Felice · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this novella in college in a different translation in an anthology edited by Angel Flores. But while it was pleasant I didn't recall it as well as some of the others by Kleist, Storm and Gotthelf-- or "Rock Crystal.". This new translation by David Luke--who seems to have redone all of Thomas Mann -- is lovely and very individual and the poetry is too. In his introduction Luke makes a point about Moerike being "Biedermeier" and not really concerned with the bigger issues of his countrymen authors before and after. That said, the story is lovely,lively, different, and all too credible. Unlike his contemporary, another "Biedermeir" writer and a greater one, Adalbert Stifter, whose novellas are really unique and of genius quality. How much Moerike knew and how much he invented about Mozart we'll never know. There is a flashback to Mozart being in Naples. He was there with his father, as a teenager: letters prove it, but none of them tell the story Moerike has him tell. And Mozart is a far nicer, more intelligent, and likable person than say the vulgar dunce in Peter Shaffer's play, Amadeus, and a lot more like his own letters. I've been listening to Mozart's early operas and oratorios while reading this and its clear that his genius for dramatic singing was fully in place by the time he was 14 years old. We've become so obsessed with works of genius, that most of us can only appreciate Mozart's later, freighted, more serious works. Alas. Because the truth is that the amount of beauty the man created all of his life was astounding. And these early works have a freshness, a confidence and optimism, that appears too seldom later on. That's the Mozart Moerike writes about--even though in this story he is on his way to Prague to premiere one of his darkest works, Don Giovanni.

[Edgar · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eine recht berühmte Novelle des schwäbischen Dichters, Erzählers und Pfarrers Eduard Mörike, die für einen romantischen Poeten sehr gut lesbar ist. Erzählt wird von einem (frei erfundenen) Tag im Leben von Mozart und seiner Gemahlin als diese auf der Reise von Wien nach Prag, um dort den Don Juan zwei Jahre vor der französischen Revolution zur Aufführung zu bringen, in einem vermeidlichen Wald Rast machten und in die Familienfeier des adeligen Parkbesitzers aufgenommen wurden.

Geschrieben 1855, also nach der (gescheiterten) Revolution von 1848, ist dies wohl als Stück Gesellschaftskritik gemeint, kommt aber als relativ belangloses Luststück daher. Anlass, das Werk „berühmteste Künstlernovelle des 19. Jahrhunderts“ zu nennen, sehe ich nicht ganz aus heutiger Sicht. Nett aber nicht essentiell.

[Jaime Robles · Rating 5 out of 5]

A completely delightful fantasy about Mozart and Constanze traveling to Prague for the opening of Don Giovanni. They take a break to rest from the grueling coach ride and Mozart wanders into the nearby garden of a mansion. There he finds an orangerie, and in a preoccupied moment, plucks an orange and eats it. The caretaker who finds him and the remnants of orange is outraged, dragging the composer before his master. The master recognizes Mozart and is thrilled, inviting him to his daughter's party that evening. Then ... well, you have to read it.

[D. Stark · Rating 5 out of 5]

A tribute to the bewitching splendor of Mozart's genius and charm delightfully crashing a wedding party and saving a tree in Bohemia en route to Prague. The poems are not related to the Mozart narrative. They are mostly set in woodlands. Each feature the joy and/or plight of lovers.

[Suvi · Rating 2 out of 5]

As a light novella the story can't really go in depth of Mozart's genius, at least that's what I didn't get from it. It's hard to point out exactly my dislikes in this one. It's just didn't appeal to me.

[Miriam · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was very interesting for me, but the story was very simple and without much action.