Abstract

One of the characteristic compositional features of Mozart´s style is the changes of essence between the motifs, themes, forms and genres involved in the creation of stage works. On other occasions, the author of this study has presented the polyphony of these changes with regard to roles and role couples in Mozart´s operas. This time, the author analyzes the alternations of essences between the stylemes and the vocal and instrumental forms comprised in vocality and instrumentality, each with its own rhetorical structures. Vocality is expressed through the poetic metaphors of the text declamation, whereas instrumentality, through the intonation of the melodic and harmonic expressions of the musical discourse. Declamation represents the micro-relation between vowels and consonants, developed proportionally in accordance with a certain syntactic and morphological meaning of the poetic expression. Intonation is achieved through the micro-structuring of components at intervallic, motivic, phrastic and transphrastic levels, based on the observance or non-observance, simplification or amplification of certain principles of melodic, rhythmical, dynamic and timbral coordination, within the given stylemes. The intonation of melody in Mozart´s opera refers to the musical discourse conceived in bel canto style. Several concrete examples are presented regarding Mozart´s use of the contrasting combinations of certain changes of essence between declamation and intonation. The present study points to the use of the sonata form within the context of the vocal-scenic events of the Trio no. 13, act II, scene 6 of the Marriage of Figaro, to highlight the contrastingly tense moments in the musical sensitization of the comic.

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