Mozart, Flûte Enchantée et Joseph Smith - En Anglais
Voici une contribution étonnante de BYU sur un sujet qui cette fois ci n'entre pas tout à fait dans le cadre apologétique classique. Une bonne initiative :Apotheosis in the Magic Flute
There is nothing more noble than a wife and a husband.
A man and a woman and woman and man reach upward
Towards and attain godhood.
—Mozart, The Magic Flute, Act 1 scene 14.
hese lines from Mozart's The Magic Flute strike a resonant chord with Latter-day Saints. Throughout his classic opera, Mozart and his librettist and close friend Emmanuel Schikaneder draw upon a variety of symbols and themes that have tremendous affinity with the doctrines of Mormonism. At the core of the opera's story are the ideas of initiation and apotheosis—ideas that recall the King Follett sermon and LDS temple concepts.
How did Mozart come to write about and perhaps espouse the idea that man can become like God? What traditions was he drawing upon: Masonry, Egyptology, or both? The most recent issue of BYU Studies, Brigham Young University's journal of LDS thought, explores on many of these questions and reveals that Mozart's The Magic Flute is an ideal work of art to study for those interested in deepening their understanding of temple symbolism and the divine potential of mankind.
Professor Alan F. Keele elaborates on these ideas in his essay in the journal: "It seems there are certain notions held by Latter-day Saints, deviating almost diametrically from those promulgated by orthodox Christianity, that have the power to evoke from certain conservative Christian quarters the most vituperative fulminations. One thinks immediately of the idea expounded by Joseph Smith at King Follett's funeral that humans have the potential to become gods through a process of perfection experienced by the gods themselves. The orthodox response to this notion in the form of the Godmakers films and other manifestations of righteous indignation has been extraordinary."
The irony of reaction is that early Christians themselves taught and believed the concept of apotheosis-a word that refers to man becoming god. Apotheosis was a widely accepted idea in the first few centuries after Christ's ministry, "until it was forced underground," Keele explains, "by the doctrines of Augustine" who "seemed nearly obsessed with the idea of the evil nature of all mortals."
Growing out of Augustine's near-obsession, of course, was the concept that sinful man could never become like God, and that to suggest otherwise would be blasphemy. So the concept of apotheosis was forced underground, but it did survive. Artists and writers touched upon the subject for centuries, but few expressed the idea in such an open and profound way as did Mozart in The Magic Flute.
Mozart, Joseph Smith, and Masonry
Where did Mozart come upon these ideas? How did become acquainted with a rich set of symbols so similar to those we find in temples today? A short review of Mozart's connection to Masonry answers these questions.
Like George Washington and other prominent figures in the eighteenth century, Mozart was a Master Mason. Freemasonry was an esoteric brotherhood that survived throughout the centuries of the dark ages. Many scholars within the LDS church have noted that the origins and rites of freemasonry are connected to some of the earliest forms of Christianity. For thousands of years, masons endeavored to pass along their rites and rituals to the succeeding generation in the purest form possible. Hence, as the reasoning goes, when Joseph Smith became familiar with masonry in Nauvoo, it acted as a catalyst that opened up his visionary mind to new possibilities, and the temple endowment in its original and purer form was revealed to him. Joseph Smith himself suggested that the endowment and Freemasonry in part emanated from the same ancient spring (Encyclopedia of Mormonism, 2:259).
In a Masonic temple, a man participates in various initiatory rites and tests, which are an allegory of his progression through life. He proceeds from a lower order to a higher order, making oaths and covenants, all the while giving certain necessary words and gestures along the way. These elements are also depicted in the temple of the priest Sarastro in The Magic Flute.
However, despite the similarities between The Magic Flute and masonry, the most sublime and transcendent notions found in the opera are markedly anti-masonic. Masonry is a strict brotherhood-only males may pass through the trials. Mozart rejects that notion and includes a woman. His star- crossed and quixotic leading couple, Tamino and Pamina, pass through the trials together. If the man and woman are ever to attain godhood, it will only be conjointly, in the bonds of marriage and eternal love. Their complimentary natures make it possible for them to progress, and in unity they pass through the tests side by side in order to conquer the darkness and evil of the world. Man and woman, inseparably connected through divine love-this is the crux of the message of The Magic Flute.
This, too, is exactly where LDS salvation theology and temple ritual depart from masonry in a drastic way. In the temple, woman is a full and equal participant in the quest for eternal life, and in some ways seem to be more decisive and discerning in that quest. Mozart here finds himself in company with the Prophet Joseph Smith-both put the woman back into her proper and dignified place. In comparing The Magic Flute and Mormonism, we cannot help but to feel that Mozart was inspired, as was Joseph Smith, in departing from Masonry and including the woman as a keystone in humankind's quest for perfection.
Great Art and the Restoration
LDS leaders and scholars have noted the flourish of great and inspiring music in the decades surrounding the restoration of the gospel. It has been a long-held thesis among LDS musicians that the Lord signaled the dawning of a new day to the Western world by inspiring great artists to prepare the way for the restoration. Old attitudes needed to be changed; cultures needed to shift; an effectual throwing off of the old institutions and mores needed to occur; an Enlightenment was needed to act as a forerunner, and great composers were inspired in the cause. Certainly Mozart's The Magic Flute, with its progressive notion of equality in marriage, added to the onrush of a more enlightened attitude that preceded the restoration. Professor Gideon Burton elaborates in this issue of BYU Studies:
Most commonly, Mormons have made direct connections between the inspirational nature of classical music and the inspired nature of their own faith. In a 1991 Church News editorial, Michael Ballam reported compiling a list of the works "considered by the world as great classics, such as Beethoven's '9th Symphony,' Brahms's 'Requiem,' Bach's 'St. Matthew Passion,' and Mozart's 'Magic Flute.'" Ballam noted that these important pieces of inspiring music were "either written or discovered within 50 years of the target date of 1830," the date of the organization of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Regardless of the specific choices in his listing, it is culturally noteworthy that Ballam associated these celebrated musical achievements of the world's artists with that historical time period during which Mormons believe the heavens opened wide for the latter days. To a church that believes firmly and centrally in divine revelation, it is not hyperbole to speak of inspired music.
In a similar vein, Latter-day Saint author Karl C. Sandberg sees in Mozart's mode of composition a parallel to the inspired translating methods used by Joseph Smith: "Mozart often found appearing in his mind whole musical ideas, which he then worked into their orchestrated form. When he wrote them down, he appeared to be taking dictation from the muse."
Latter-day Saints hold the vision of a future day when men and women, in the bonds of eternal marriage, shall inhabit the earth, which will be transformed into a celestial kingdom. The first act of The Magic Flute ends with the chorus singing words that cause Latter-day Saints to nod knowingly in agreement:
When virtue and justice
Strew the path of the great ones with glory,
Then the earth will be a heavenly realm
And mortals will be equal to the gods.
—The Magic Flute, Act 1 scene 19.
"In our reading of The Magic Flute," concludes Professor Keele, "we have seen how apotheosis, that one great theological, philosophical, anthropological idea, amplified and multiplied by the medium of great art into a thousand beautiful facets—like one bright ray of light through a prism- can create heretofore unknown resonances in the human soul and can point to heretofore unknown implications for human behavior . . . As we contemplate our own struggles to realize the potential of our own remarkable theology, it is important to remember how much the arts, including The Magic Flute, have to offer, even to those who have a fulness of truth."
These and many other insights into the temple symbolism, the plan of salvation, and how they relate to The Magic Flute, can be found in the current issue of BYU Studies. To find out more or to subscribe to BYU Studies, visit byustudies.byu.edu
© 2004 Deseret Book Co.
http://deseretbook.com/mormon-life/news/story?story_id=5339
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