HISTORY / FREEMASONRY Thanks to documents discovered nearly two hundred years after his death, we now have a fuller picture of the profound influence that Freemasonry had on the life and work of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Musicologist Jacques Henry shows that the Masonic influence on Mozart's work goes far beyond pieces such as The Magic Flute that were overtly Masonic or fulfilled a ritual purpose for the composer. For those initiated, many of Mozart's other compositions express the same Masonic ideals no less clearly. His works actually provide a complete musical lexicon of Masonic symbols inspired by the principles of the craft and the spirit of the Masonic quest. Mozart constructed his Masonic compositions by creating auditory correspondences to the symbols present in the rituals, choosing keys and tempos that transpose their content into harmony. His understanding of the use of symbol allowed him to create music that would lead the listener into a harmony that transcended earthly existence.A number of musicologists believe that the place of the Masonic spiritual vision in Mozart's work is comparable to that held by Lutheran Christianity in the work of Johann Sebastian Bach. Mozart wed his deep understanding of music to the esoteric wisdom he gained as a Freemason to show that when we lose ourselves in the expression of the purest harmony, it is the same as the symbol being lost in what it symbolizes. Jacques Henry provides a rigorous and original analysis of Mozart's works that reveals their inner meaning as shaped by the composer's profound embrace of the spiritual principles of Freemasonry.Jacques Henry is artistic director of the annual Mozart festival in the Drome region of France and an expert on the symbolism in Mozart's work. He lives in France.

Foreword by Brigitte MassinPrefacePart 1 Mozart and the Masonic Enlightenment 1 Mozart, Masonic Brother 2 The Symbolism 3 From Symbols to Music The Number Three Steps Toward the Altar Space From the Unformed to Rigor, From Darkness to Light4 Short Incidental Works for Masonic Occasions5 Works of a Masonic Character That Are Not Ritualistic Thamos (K. 345) The Funeral Ode (K. 477)Part 2 The Great Works Inspired by SymbolismIntroduction6 The First Period: 1785 Quartet in A major (K. 464) Quartet in C major (K. 465) Concerto for Piano in D minor , No. 20 (K. 466) Concerto for Piano in E flat major , No. 22 (K. 482)7 The Second Period: 1788 Symphony No. 39 in E flat major (K. 543) Symphony No. 40 in G minor (K. 550) Symphony No. 41 in C major, “Jupiter” (K. 551) Di vertimento in E flat major, “Puchberg Trio” (K. 563)8 The Third Period: 1791 Quintet for strings in D major (K. 593) Quintet for strings in E flat major (K. 614) Concerto for clarinet in A major (K. 622) The Magic Flute (K. 620) 9 Wolfgang’s LegacyAppendix 1 The List: Works Officially Recognized as MasonicAppendix 2 Mozart’s Attendance in the Lodges of ViennaNotesBibliographyIndex of musical works citedIndex