Liliputin -1541

Believe me or not, Mr. Salieri, but sooner or later you will face the music ... "
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

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What's the meaning of the phrase 'Face the music'?

Accept the unpleasant consequences of one's actions.

What's the origin of the phrase 'Face the music'?

The phrase 'face the music' has an agreeable imagery. We feel that we can picture who was facing what and what music was playing at the time. Regrettably, the documentary records don't point to any clear source for the phrase and we are, as so often, at the mercy of plausible speculation. There was, of course, a definitive and unique origin for the expression 'face the music' and whoever coined it was quite certain of the circumstances and the music being referred to. Let's hope at least that one of the following suggestions is the correct one, even though there is no clear evidence to prove it.

A commonly repeated assertion is that 'face the music' originated from the tradition of disgraced officers being 'drummed out' of their regiment. A second popular theory is that it was actors who 'faced the music', that is, faced the orchestra pit, when they went on stage. A third theory, less likely but quite interesting none the less, was recounted with some confidence by a member of the choir at a choral concert I attended recently in Sheffield. It relates to the old UK practice of West Gallery singing. This was singing, literally from the west galleries of English churches, by the common peasantry who weren't allowed to sit in the higher status parts of the church. The theory was that the nobility were obliged to listen to the vernacular songs of the parishioners, often with lyrics that were critical of the ways of the gentry.

It may help to pinpoint the origin to know that the phrase appears to be mid 19th American in origin. The earliest citation I can find for the phrase is from The New Hampshire Statesman & State Journal, August 1834:


"Will the editor of the Courier explain this black affair. We want no equivocation - 'face the music' this time."
       
Almost all other early citations are American. Sadly, none of them give the slightest clue as to the source, or reason for, the music being faced.
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Mozart and Salieri (play)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mozart and Salieri (Russian: «Моцарт и Сальери», translit. Motsart i Salyeri) is a poetic drama by Alexander Pushkin. Mozart and Salieri was written in 1830 as one of his four short plays known as The Little Tragedies, and was published in 1832. Based on one of the numerous rumours caused by the early death of Mozart, it was the only one of Pushkin's plays that was staged during his lifetime.

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Antonio Salieri

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Antonio Salieri (Italian: 18 August 1750 – 7 May 1825) was an Italian[1] classical composer, conductor, and teacher. He was born in Legnago, south of Verona, in the Republic of Venice, and spent his adult life and career as a subject of the Habsburg Monarchy.

Salieri was a pivotal figure in the development of late 18th-century opera. As a student of Florian Leopold Gassmann, and a protйgй of Christoph Willibald Gluck, Salieri was a cosmopolitan composer who wrote operas in three languages. Salieri helped to develop and shape many of the features of operatic compositional vocabulary, and his music was a powerful influence on contemporary composers.

Appointed the director of the Italian opera by the Habsburg court, a post he held from 1774 until 1792, Salieri dominated Italian-language opera in Vienna. During his career he also spent time writing works for opera houses in Paris, Rome, and Venice, and his dramatic works were widely performed throughout Europe during his lifetime. As the Austrian imperial Kapellmeister from 1788 to 1824, he was responsible for music at the court chapel and attached school. Even as his works dropped from performance, and he wrote no new operas after 1804, he still remained one of the most important and sought-after teachers of his generation, and his influence was felt in every aspect of Vienna's musical life. Franz Liszt, Franz Schubert, and Ludwig van Beethoven were among the most famous of his pupils.

Salieri's music slowly disappeared from the repertoire between 1800 and 1868 and was rarely heard after that period until the revival of his fame in the late 20th century. This revival was due to the dramatic and highly fictionalized depiction of Salieri in Peter Shaffer's play Amadeus (1979) and its 1984 film version. The death of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in 1791 at the age of 35 was followed by rumours that he and Salieri had been bitter rivals, and that Salieri had poisoned the younger composer, yet it is likely that they were, at least, mutually respectful peers.