81. "Holzbauer's music is very beautiful; the poetry is not
worthy of it. What amazes me most is that so old a man as
Holzbauer should have so much spirit,--it is incredible, the
amount of fire in his music."
(Mannheim, November 14, 1777, to his father. Ignaz Holzbauer was
born in Vienna, in 1711, and died as chapelmaster in Mannheim, on
April 7, 1793. During the last years of his life he was totally
deaf. The music referred to was the setting of the first great
German Singspiel, "Gunther von Schwarzburg.")
82. "There is much that is pretty in many of Martini's things,
but in ten years nobody will notice them."
(Reported by Nissen. Martini lived in Bologna from 1706 to 1784;
there Mozart learned to know and admire him. In 1776 he wrote a
letter to him in which he said that of all people in the world he
"loved, honored and valued" him most.)
83. "For those who seek only light entertainment in music nobody
better can be recommended than Paisiello."
(Reported by Nissen. Paisiello was born in Taranto in 1741,
composed over a hundred operas which, like his church music, won
much applause. He died in Naples in 1816. Mozart considered his
music "transparent.")
84. "Jomelli has his genre in which he shines, and we must
abandon the thought of supplanting him in that field in the
judgment of the knowing. But he ought not to have abandoned his
field to compose church music in the old style, for instance."
(Reported by Nissen. Jomelli was born in 1714 near Naples, where
he died in 1774. He was greatly admired as a composer of operas
and church music. He was Court Chapelmaster in Stuttgart from
1753 to 1769.)
85. "Wait till you know how many of his works we have in Vienna!
When I get back home I shall diligently study his church music,
and I hope to learn a great deal from it."
(A remark made in Leipsic when somebody spoke slightingly of the
music of Gassmann, an Imperial Court Chapelmaster in Vienna, and
much respected by Maria Theresa and Joseph.)
86. "The fact that Gatti, the ass, begged the Archbishop for
permission to compose a serenade shows his worthiness to wear the
title, which I make no doubt he deserves also for his musical
learning."
(Vienna, October 12, 1782, to his father. Gatti was Cathedral
Chapelmaster in Salzburg.)
87. "What we should like to have, dear father, is some of your
best church pieces; for we love to entertain ourselves with all
manner of masters, ancient and modern. Therefore I beg of you
send us something of yours as soon as possible."
(Vienna, March 29, 1783, to his father, Leopold Mozart in
Salzburg, himself a capable composer.)
88. "In a sense Vogler is nothing but a wizard. As soon as he
attempts to play something majestic he becomes dry, and you are
glad that he, too, feels bored and makes a quick ending. But what
follows?--unintelligible slip-slop. I listened to him from a
distance. Afterward he began a fugue with six notes on the same
tone, and Presto! Then I went up to him. As a matter of fact I
would rather watch him than hear him."
(Mannheim, December 18, 1777, to his father. Abbe Vogler was
trying the new organ in the Lutheran church at Mannheim. Vogler
lived from 1749 to 1814, and was the teacher of Karl Maria von
Weber (who esteemed him highly) and Meyerbeer. Mozart's criticism
seems unduly severe.)
89. "I was at mass, a brand new composition by Vogler. I had
already been at the rehearsal day before yesterday afternoon, but
went away after the Kyrie. In all my life I have heard nothing like
this. Frequently everything is out of tune. He goes from key to key
as if he wanted to drag one along by the hair of the head, not in
an interesting manner which might be worth while, but bluntly and
rudely. As to the manner in which he develops his ideas I shall say
nothing; but this I will say that it is impossible for a mass by
Vogler to please any composer worthy of the name. Briefly, I hear a
theme which is not bad; does it long remain not bad think you? will
it not soon become beautiful? Heaven forefend! It grows worse and
worse in a two-fold or three-fold manner; for instance scarcely is
it begun before something else enters and spoils it; or he makes so
unnatural a close that it can not remain good; or it is misplaced;
or, finally, it is ruined by the orchestration. That's Vogler's
music."
(Mannheim, November 20, 1777, to his father.)
90. "Clementi plays well so far as execution with the right hand
is concerned; his forte is passages in thirds. Aside from this he
hasn't a pennyworth of feeling or taste; in a word he is a mere
mechanician."
(Vienna, January 12, 1782, to his father. Four days later Mozart
expressed the same opinion of Muzio Clementi, who is still in
good repute, after having met him in competition before the
emperor. "Clementi preluded and played a sonata; then the Emperor
said to me, 'Allons, go ahead.' I preluded and played some
variations.")
91. "Now I must say a few words to my sister about the Clementi
sonatas. Every one who plays or hears them will feel for himself
that as compositions they do not signify. There are in them no
remarkable or striking passages, with the exception of those in
sixths and octaves, and I beg my sister not to devote too much
time to these lest she spoil her quiet and steady hand and make
it lose its natural lightness, suppleness and fluent rapidity.
What, after all, is the use? She is expected to play the sixths
and octaves with the greatest velocity (which no man will
accomplish, not even Clementi), and if she tries she will produce
a frightful zig-zag, and nothing more. Clementi is a Ciarlatano
like all Italians. He writes upon a sonata Presto, or even
Prestissimo and alla breve, and plays it Allegro in 4-4 time. I
know it because I have heard him! What he does well is his
passages in thirds; but he perspired over these day and night in
London. Aside from this he has nothing,--absolutely nothing; not
excellence in reading, nor taste, nor sentiment."
(Vienna, June 7, 1783, to his father and sister.)
92. "Handel knows better than any of us what will make an effect;
when he chooses he strikes like a thunderbolt; even if he is
often prosy, after the manner of his time, there is always
something in his music."
(Mozart valued Handel most highly. He knew his masterpieces by
heart--not only the choruses but also many arias. [Reported by
Rochlitz. H.E.K.])
93. "Apropos, I intended, while asking you to send back the
rondo, to send me also the six fugues by Handel and the toccatas
and fugues by Eberlin. I go every Sunday to Baron von Swieten's,
and there nothing is played except Handel and Bach. I am making a
collection of the fugues,--those of Sebastian as well as of
Emanuel and Friedemann Bach; also of Handel's, and here the six
are lacking. Besides I want to let the baron hear those of
Eberlin. In all likelihood you know that the English Bach is
dead; a pity for the world of music."
(Vienna, April 10, 1782, to his father. Johann Ernst Eberlin
(Eberle), born in 1702, died in 1762 as archiepiscopal
chapelmaster in Salzburg. Many of his unpublished works are
preserved in Berlin. The "English" Bach was Johann Christian, son
of the great Johann Sebastian. As a child Mozart made his
acquaintance in London.)
94. "I shall be glad if papa has not yet had the works of Eberlin
copied, for I have gotten them meanwhile, and discovered,--for I
could not remember,--that they are too trivial and surely do not
deserve a place among those of Bach and Handel. All respect to
his four-part writing, but his clavier fugues are nothing but
long-drawn-out versetti."
(Vienna, April 29, 1782, to his sister Nannerl.)
95. "Johann Christian Bach has been here (Paris) for a fortnight.
He is to write a French opera, and is come only to hear the
singers, whereupon he will go to London, write the opera, and
come back to put it on the stage. You can easily imagine his
delight and mine when we met again. Perhaps his delight was not
altogether sincere, but one must admit that he is an honorable
man and does justice to all. I love him, as you know, with all my
heart, and respect him; as for him, one thing is certain, that to
my face and to others, he really praised me, not extravagantly,
like some, but seriously and in earnest."
(St. Germain, August 27, 1778, to his father. Johann Christian
Bach was the second son of Johann Sebastian, and born in 1735.
He lived in London where little Wolfgang learned to know him in
1764. Bach took the precocious boy on his knee and the two played
on the harpsichord. [Bach was Music Master to the Queen. "He
liked to play with the boy," says Jahn; "took him upon his knee
and went through a sonata with him, each in turn playing a
measure with such precision that no one would have suspected
two performers. He began a fugue, which Wolfgang took up and
completed when Bach broke off." H.E.K.])
96. "Bach is the father, we are the youngsters. Those of us who
can do a decent thing learned how from him; and whoever will not
admit it is a..."
(A remark made at a gathering in Leipsic. The Bach referred to is
Phillip Emanuel Bach, who died in 1788.)