This is the Requiem, Mozart's last composition. Legend has it that it even brought Mozart to tears when he was composing it. And here we have another Mozart composition: Leck mir den Arsch (Lick me in the Ass), composed in 1782, Vienna.
Several historians argue over whether or not this is actually a Mozart creation. But the evidences to support Mozart's fascination with poop, are far too many to disregard this composition. There are 39 scatological references alone, in Mozart's letters indicating his deep German love for Poop jokes (Simkin, 2015).
A letter to his cousin, Maria Anna Thekla Mozart also suggests this musical prodigy's obsession with poop.
Mozart's letter to the cousin: untranslated German version: "lezt wünsch ich eine gute nacht/scheissen sie ins bett dass es kracht/schlafens gesund/reckens den arsch zum mund"; Dundes (1984:66)
We seem to have digressed into a society governed by shame, guilt and disgust, that we fail to associate "Great men" with anything ordinary or even remotely human. To be great is seen as a godly virtue that has little to do with sexuality, fetishes or even desires. We are quick to elevate "men" to "regal" statures and very quick to judge "women" and maim their "hard-earned" status.
As reported by Shaffer in 2001, PM Margaret Thatcher was repelled by the reference to Mozart's obsession with scat in Peter Shaffer's play Amadeus, directed by Peter Hall.
She was not pleased. In her best headmistress style, she gave me a severe wigging for putting on a play that depicted Mozart as a scatological imp with a love of four-letter words. It was inconceivable, she said, that a man who wrote such exquisite and elegant music could be so foul-mouthed. I said that Mozart's letters proved he was just that: he had an extraordinarily infantile sense of humour ... "I don't think you heard what I said", replied the Prime Minister. "He couldn't have been like that". I offered (and sent) a copy of Mozart's letters to Number Ten the next day; I was even thanked by the appropriate Private Secretary. But it was useless: the Prime Minister said I was wrong, so wrong I was (Shaffer, 2001).
With Bona nox, Mozart rehashes his poem, written to his cousin.
In Difficile lectu, Mozart continues to provide us with several Poop Puns. Although, in Latin the lyrics don't translate to poop, Mozart had this composition sung by a Baritone performer with a thick Bavarian accent. The Latin lyrics, "lectu mihi mars" under the influence of the accent, transformed into Mozart's favorite phrase: "Leck du mi im arsch". And that's not all! Loki did not give up. The following phrase "joni-cu" was repeated several times quickly and immediately resembled "cujoni" which in Italian, meant "Balls".
All together the seemly harmless Latin cannon translates to "it is difficult to lick my ass and balls".
When we listen to these compositions, had we not known about their meaning, we would have concluded them to be a masterpiece. However, the puritan culture we live in, would rather hide this side of Mozart in order to preserve the decorum these societies demanded from their residents.
Let us take a “mute" abstract universality which encompasses a set of elements all of whom somehow subvert, do not fit, this universal frame - is, in this case, the “true" concrete universal not this distance itself, the universalized exception? And vice versa, is the element which directly fits the universal not the true exception? (Žižek, 2006)
In essence, Concrete Universality refers to one universal truth that defines human existence and experience. Societies are often constructed around this ideal so as to emulate the assumed Truth. This process of turning a symbolic or an abstract to not only a transcendent reality (which by itself a contradiction) but also a universally applicable concept to the masses is Concrete Universality.
Transcendence is impossible to attain if we are located in reality. What if these contradictions are pointing out their own transcendence within them? What if the transcendence is imminent to the problem it's trying to overcome?
Several European societies went through a re-framing process in order to position themselves at the top of the hierarchy on Earth. They assumed their elevation in post as a result of this transcendent reality they believed in. To maintain such transcendence, societies were governed with the strictest puritan laws. These puritan laws were essential in substantiating these societies and their Concrete Universality (also explains their need to colonize).
To explain this further, the concept of Religion and God as the absolute Truth are ideal representations. However, the concept of purity, beauty and desirability portrayed as the absolute Truth, form the basis of our analyses of Mozart today.
In Parallax View, Žižek takes the concept of the Universal in Hago's dialectic and introduces it to practicality. If purity, beauty and desirability (PBD) were the assumed Universal Truths then any outcomes of human existence in that Transcendent society should be considered within the PBD matrix. As we have seen, Mozart's poop canons weren't considered worthy of being associated with his name and the status he held in society.
It all boils down to definition and further characterization of what is considered as PBD, which justifies the problem this "Transcendent Society" aims to eradicate, which in essence, still contradicts their transcendence for they are far from PBD.
Mozart's diagnosis with coprophilia is unclear, for the society he was brought up in, had a soft spot for poop jokes. However, it is argued that Mozart's infantalism is reflected in his work and his attitudes toward aristocrats.
In a letter in 1777, he described the attendees of his Augsberg concert (Schroeder, 1999) as "Ducheße arschbömerl, die gräfin brunzgern, die fürstin richzumtreck, und die 2 Princzen Mußbauch von Sauschwanz" (Translation: "the Duchess Smackarse, the Countess Pleasurepisser, the Princess Stinkmess, and the two Princes Potbelly von Pigdick"). It is clear that a German upbringing played a major role in the scatological references Mozart was found joking about.
Anderson, Emily (1938). The Letters of Mozart and his Family. Macmillan.
Bogdanov, Alexei. "The Parallax View by Slavoj Žižek." The Slavic and East European Journal, Vol. 51, No. 4, Special Forum Issue: At the Edge of Heaven: Russian Poetry Since 1970 (Winter 2007), pp. 812–814
Dundes, Alan (1984). Life is like a Chicken Coop Ladder: Studies of German National Character through Folklore. Detroit: Wayne State University Press.
Shaffer, Peter (2001) [1981]. Amadeus. Harper-Collins (Perennial). ISBN 0-06-093549-9.
Schroeder, David P. (1999). Mozart in Revolt: Strategies of Resistance, Mischief, and Deception. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-07542-1.
Simkin, Benjamin. Medical and Musical Byways of Mozartiana, ISBN 1-56474-349-7, (800-662-8351).
Žižek, Slavoj. The Parallax View. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2006.