A noted musicologist looks at the eighteenth-century composer's connection to Freemasonry and its profound influence on his music. Speculative masonry was a pervasive intellectual force in eighteenth-century European society. Like many of his colleagues, as well as his father before him, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart joined a Masonic lodge in 1784. The philosophy and symbolism of the Masons would be a major source of inspiration for his compositions from then on. This book provides an overview of Mozart's relationship to the fraternity and a detailed account of the numerous pieces he wrote specifically for Lodge events or ritual, as well as the many pieces adapted by others for Lodge use. It also includes an in-depth explanation of Mozart's opera "The Magic Flute" and its Masonic themes and imagery.
