3 - Mozart's compositional methods: writing for his singers

Summary

In a famous passage concerning an aria he was composing for the singer Anton Raaff, Mozart wrote:

I asked him to tell me candidly if he did not like his aria or if it did not suit his voice, adding that I would alter it if he wished or even compose another one. ‘God forbid,’ he said, ‘the aria must remain just as it is, for nothing could be finer. But please shorten it a little, for I am no longer able to sustain my notes.’ ‘Most gladly,’ I replied, ‘as much as you like. I made it a little long on purpose, for it is always easy to cut down, but not so easy to lengthen’ … When I took leave of him he thanked me most cordially, while I assured him that I would arrange the aria in such a way that it would give him pleasure to sing it. For I like an aria to fit a singer as perfectly as a well-made suit of clothes.

A few years later when he was composing Idomeneo, Mozart again expressed his readiness to accommodate Raaff's wishes, but on this occasion the singer was so pleased with what had been written for him that he did not want a single note to be changed. There was nothing out of the ordinary in the flexibility of Mozart's attitude; it was widely accepted that a singer had the right to influence the musical character of an aria.