Amadeus When Antonio Salieri Is Term Paper

Several of the scenes bring the contrast of the two characters' personalities onto sharp contrast. By this I am speaking of the way Mozart is able to change Salieri's welcoming music without much thought, the stunned expression upon Salieri's face when he sees the genius in the unfinished manuscripts that Mozart has given to his wife, and Mozart's ability to internalize and visually recognize the music as he dictates the Requiem to Salieri on his death bed. These scenes show in their turn a movement from anger to amazement and jealousy to finally Salieri's growing realization that he sits in the company of a genius and he is overcome by the beauty of the music which he struggles to transcribe as Mozart ostensibly dies (Marshall, 1997). As we see this shift in Salieri, we also see a shift in Mozart from childish little boy to musical bad boy, to eventually in the death bed scene, a genius who appears to be divinely inspired in his ability to write music. What is also at cross purposes is the depiction of Salieri as a relatively grounded man, with (until midpoint of the story) strong religious bonds and Mozart as spoiled, self-indulgent, bacchanalian; a vulgar man. The contrast between he who would seem to be the most deserving of the genius and he to whom it is gifted is striking and gives the story much of its flavor.

Some of the characterizations are based in fact. Musicologist Erich Hertzman, a biographer of Mozart, reports that the composer may have had a photographic memory and therefore was able to write music as fast as he could put it down on paper, a testament to the fact that Constanze, the wife, presents Salieri with manuscripts that are first drafts and have no cross outs or re-writes.We do know that it would have been likely for Mozart to have used the somewhat childish scatological language as displayed in the movie, and the laughter was described by one biographer as "the mocking laughter of the gods...," a laughter which Salieri (at least the character in the film) would have felt definitely directed at he who was denied the genius (Deemer, 1997).

Ultimately in the movie, Salieri cries out to God that he has become the remembered and the immortal because he has killed the darling child of God, Mozart. But deep inside, Salieri knows that he is still mediocre and will not be remembered in the same way as Mozart. The immortality which Salieri craves will be denied to him because when they speak of the composers of his time, they will only speak of Mozart, and this is a bitter pill to swallow. But Salieri, who is mostly mad by the end of the movie, absolves all mediocrity, as he knows such things are not attained by man but appointed by the gods, and as such, he is a victim of his talent in much the same way Mozart was a victim of his own.

Borowitz, Albert I. "Salieri and the 'Murder' of Mozart." Music Quarterly LIX. 1 (Jan. 1973): 263-84.

Deemer, Charles. "Amadeus: Pine-Tuning, Salieri's Journey." Creative Screenwriting 4.4 (Winter 1997): 75-84.

Hertzmann, Erich. "Mozart's Creative Process." Music Quarterly XLIII 2 (Apr 1957): 187-200.

Hildesheimer, Wolfgang. Mozart. New York: Farrar, 1982.

Marshall, Robert L. "Film as Musicology: Amadeus." Music Quarterly 81.2 (Summer 1997): 173-78.….....