The Magic Flute stands out for its eclectic blend of musical styles. While only one scene – the duet of the Armored Men in Act 2 – includes a confirmed musical quotation, some scholars have posited that the opera contains a multitude of musical borrowings and allusions. Flute’s referential character owes much to Mozart’s ingenious use of musical topics. However, allusions to specific works have also been proposed throughout the opera’s history. In 1950, A. Hyatt King assembled an inventory of Flute’s “sources and affinities,” suggesting many plausible but largely unsubstantiated melodic precedents in works by Mozart and others. Scholars have particularly disagreed about the “source” from which Mozart allegedly derived Papageno’s aria “Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen.” As in the case of the duet of the Armored Men (which quotes a Lutheran chorale), the desire to link Mozart and J. S. Bach has led to divergent claims about the melody’s provenance.

The brief concluding epilogue provides a summary finding of evidence presented in prior chapters. Specific attention is placed on the concept of the Austro-German “review collective” and how it formed the basis for aesthetic criticism of Italian genres (vocal and instrumental) at this time. The lack of a contemporary critical framework for Italian instrumental music, comparable to Austro-German instrumental music, is also considered. Instead, the aesthetic outcomes stressed in the pedagogical methods of solfeggio and partimento are posited as valuable tools for creating a critical vocabulary for discussion of Italian instrumental genres.The Neapolitan social, political, and artistic contexts are likewise summarized to posit crucial relevant frameworks for the instrumental genres examined in the course of this study.