REVOLUTIONARY MUSIC FOR A REVOLUTIONARY STORY
The Music of Mozart Animates this Compelling Story
DID YOU KNOW:
During Mozart’s brief lifetime, he composed over 600 works, all of them during America’s Founding Era?
Mozart and Hamilton, both geniuses, were direct contemporaries, born only a year apart?
Like our Founders, Mozart’s music was influenced by Enlightenment principles?
Aegis for Dreams, like many feature films, incorporates music of the period as a powerful aid in establishing the tone of the story. It is the unique film that has the opportunity to use works of one of the greatest composers in history.
This film will be scored with works from Mozart, many of which were composed in the year the scene it aids in portraying. Epic music for an epic story.
Below are some of the works selected, with the scenes they aid in portraying.
Opening scene: Eliza reminisces about her late husband Alexander Hamilton
The Magic Flute overture, first part
The scene:
The movie opens in 1832. Eliza is at Columbia College seeking assistance from Hamilton ally James Kent on a biography of her husband. This leads to her reminiscing about the events leading up to Hamilton’s death in a duel with Vice President Aaron Burr in 1804. Hamilton travels up the Hudson by sleigh for an important legal appeal in Albany. Comments that Hamilton makes during this trip set in motion his fatal duel.
The music:
Mozart premiered The Magic Flute, an opera in two acts, in Vienna in September 1791, two months before his death. The opening notes immediately jolt the viewer into an awareness that they will be viewing a powerful story. This is followed in succession by the soft notes reflecting Eliza’s presence, then a frenetic violin segment that introduces Hamilton. LISTEN.
The boy Hamilton runs a Saint Croix Trading Company, 1769
Mitradite, re di Ponto
The scene:
This begins the film’s linear story. The 14-year-old Hamilton, having been abandoned by his father and mourning the recent loss his mother to a fatal fever, operates a trading company in Saint Croix for a wealthy merchant.
The music:
Mozart, then age 14, wrote this opera seria in three acts while touring Italy in 1770. This work exudes the exuberance and promise of youth, and reflects the genius of the young Hamilton. LISTEN.
The Continental Army endures at Valley Forge: Winter 1777–78
The Paris Symphony No. 31
The scene:
This is a brief montage of the Continental Army’s epic struggles at Valley Forge during the winter of 1777-78. Of the 12,000 soldiers who marched into Valley Forge, 2,000 died, mostly from disease.
The music:
The 22-year-old Mozart, composed Symphony in early 1778, during a disastrous job-hunting sojourn in Paris. His mother and chaperone Maria contracted an illness and died in a frigid Paris hotel room. The Paris Symphony premiered in a private home on June 12, 1778. LISTEN
Hamilton Courts Eliza: Winter 1779-80
Piano Concerto No. 21, second movement
The scene:
Hamilton meets Eliza, who is visiting the Army’s winter headquarters in Morristown, New Jersey with her father General Philip Schuyler, who traveled there on Army business. Hamilton shares a tender moment with Eliza, as well as his frustrations serving in Washington’s family.
The music
Mozart completed this concerto in March 1785. LISTEN.
Benedict Arnold’s treasonous flight from West Point, September 1780
Piano Concerto, No. 20
The scene:
This scene sequence of the most infamous treason in American history plays out operatically on the screen to this powerful musical accompaniment. It begins in the residence of American General Benedict Arnold on the Hudson River in the shadow of the American fort at West Point, a crucial strategic American military location known as Gibraltar of the Hudson:
- Learning that his attempt to surrender West Point to the British has been found out, he bolts the breakfast table and flees on horseback to a boat that will carry him to a British warship, just before Washington’s arrives.
- Washington arrives and, learning of the treachery, is devastated.
- Upstairs, Arnold’s beautiful wife Peggy feigns an emotional breakdown and is consoled by Hamilton and others.
- Washington dispatches Hamilton to pursue Arnold by horseback down the Hudson River, to no avail. Arnold is safely on the British warship, which sails for British headquarters in New York City.
The music:
Mozart premiered this tour de force piano concerto in Vienna in 1785 with his mentor, the eminent composer Joseph Haydn, in attendance. LISTEN
Wedding of Hamilton & Eliza, December 1780
Great Mass in C Minor
The scene:
After a ten-month courtship, Hamilton and Eliza are married in the South parlor in the Schuyler Mansion on December 14, 1780. It marked the first time he had been away from the Army in four years. The wedding was a joyous affair. Hamilton invited his wayward father living somewhere in the West Indies, but he did not attend. Hamilton’s sole guest was fellow Washington aide, Colonel James McHenry.
The music:
Mozart wrote this piece in 1782–83 and premiered in Mozart’s hometown of Salzburg in October 1783. His wife Constanza performed as soprano soloist. The premiere was the first meeting among Constanza, his father and sister Nannerl, who both opted not to attend Mozart’s wedding the prior summer, despite Mozart’s pleadings. Many view this work as Mozart’s offering of a symbolic reconciliation between his family, and their acceptance of Constanza as his wife. LISTEN
Washington resigns his military commission in Annapolis, December 1783
Haffner symphony No. 35 in D, Major
The scene:
Washington resigns his military commission to the Congress, who was relocated several times after the soldiers march on Independence Hall in June of that year This formal ceremony was choreographed by Thomas Jefferson. Because the relinquishment of power by a conquering military hero was unprecedented in modern history, many historians consider to be Washington’s greatest act.
The music:
Mozart first composed this piece in 1782 as a march, and converted it to a symphony the following year. This work was commissioned by the Haffners, a prominent Salzburg family, for the occasion of an ennoblement ceremony, which serves as an ironic accompaniment to the scene of Washington’s very republican act. LISTEN.
Closing scene: Eliza leaves Columbia College
The Magic Flute overture, second part
The scene:
The movie closes, as it opens, with Eliza at Columbia College. As she prepares to leave by carriage, she and James Kent observe a young man that resembles a young Alexander Hamilton pontificating before a crowd on a stump. .
The music:
Second part of Magic Flute overture. Begins at 3:34 minute mark. LISTEN.