Música, teología y política en torno a Mozart

entre la imagen del niño eterno y la idea de lo demoníaco

Abstract

In 1906, the musicologist Alfred Heuss published an essay in which he argued that there was a demonic element in Mozart’s works. This publication changed the way in which the composer had been interpreted until then, not only among musicologists, but also among biographers, poets, musicians, theologians, and philosophers, who had generally followed the image of the eternal child. I aim to analyze the historical development of this interpretation, tracing it back to the early texts of Hoffmann and Kierkegaard on Don Giovanni, and revealing the theological-political background of this idea. My thesis is that Heuss’s article served to present Mozart as a Romantic author and place him within a pretendedly Germanic canon, linked to Protestantism and German nationalism, distancing him from other religious and musical influences present in his work, such as Catholicism and Italian music. This analysis will aid in understanding the utilization of the concept in recent decades, ranging from the theology of Karl Barth to the philosophy of Peter Kivy, through the studies of Ivan Nagel, where the image of the eternal child and the idea of the demonic have not ceased to coexist.