Too Many Notes, Mozart, Explained：take it too hard

What's really going on

The Emperor's praise is a trap of manners. "A good effort" sounds kind, but it grades Mozart like a student, and the room can hear the criticism coming. When the verdict arrives - "Too many notes" - it is not a musical judgment at all: it is a court deciding how much art it is willing to sit through. Salieri's answer, "On the whole, yes, Majesty," is the quiet center of the scene; he agrees with the Emperor while the audience knows what he thinks of Mozart. Mozart makes it worse for himself with "Which few did you have in mind?", a question no courtier would ask. The comedy and the cruelty are the same gesture: taste used as a weapon, and a genius who will not pretend otherwise.

Theme

このチャプターで学べること

• Take it too hard means being upset more than necessary.
• Cut a few means remove a small number.
• How shall one say buys time before a delicate word.
• Neither more nor less is a firm, polite refusal.

発音のポイント

• just as — Just as blends across the words.
• don't give — The t in don't is often dropped.