Interpretation of the Numbers Meaning in the Symbolic Theory of Die Zauberflöte by Amadeus Mozart based on Johannes Puchleinter’s Thesis

• Main Authors: Chen, Shu Chen, 陳淑珍
• Other Authors: Chiang, Yu-Ring
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2012
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/f9tpzx

碩士 === 東吳大學 === 音樂學系 === 101 === Die Zauberfloete is a Singspiel with a mythological theme completed in the last year of Mozart’s life. The characteristics of the roles (e.g. three genies and three ladies), arrangement of the scenes (the pyramid design is consistent with the triangle in the symbol of Freemasonry) and the elaboration of music (triads, third and the three-note motivation) all imply the mystery of “Freemasonry.” All the symbolic numbers in Die Zauberfloete are basically four critical numbers, including “three” which symbolizes the Trinity, “five” which is the number of love, “eight” which is a symbol of the external transmigration and “eighteen” which is a holy number of the sun in the ancient times. According to the review on journals and articles on Die Zauberfloete, the importance of numbers and symbols are frequently mentioned in this opera. The Austrian scholar Johannes Puchleitner (1973-) discussed a lot about “symbolic numbers” in his study on the words and music of Die Zauberfloete. However, his study did not specifically specify the meanings of numbers. Therefore, this study further probed into the numbers proposed by Johannes Puchleinter to investigate their symbolic meanings in Die Zauberfloete one by one. The content of this paper is divided into five parts: Part 1 is the symbolization of Freemasonry in Die Zauberfloete; Part 2 is the investigation on the symbolization of numbers in Die Zauberfloete; Part 3 is the symbolization of number in Die Zauberfloete-words; Part 4 is the symbolization of number in Die Zauberfloete-music; Part 5 is the summary of this study