Salisburgo, 4 Settembre, 1776.
[FOOTNOTE:
To Father Martini.
"Salzburg, Sept. 4, 1776.
"MOST REVEREND AND ESTEEMED FATHER AND MAESTRO,--
"The veneration, the esteem, and the respect I feel for your illustrious
person, induce me to intrude on you with this letter, and also to send
you a small portion of my music, which I venture to submit to your
masterly judgment. Last year, at Monaco, in Bavaria, I wrote an opera
buffa ("La finta Giardiniera") for the Carnival. A few days previous to
my departure from thence, his Electoral Highness wished to hear some of
my contrapuntal music; I was therefore obliged to write this motett in
haste, to allow time for the score to be copied for his Highness, and to
arrange the parts so that it might be produced on the following Sunday
at grand mass at the offertory. Most dear and highly esteemed Maestro,
I do entreat you to give me unreservedly your candid opinion of the
motett. We live in this world in order always to learn industriously,
and to enlighten each other by means of discussion, and to strive
vigorously to promote the progress of science and the fine arts. Oh,
how many and many a time have I desired to be nearer you, that I might
converse and discuss with your Reverence! I live in a country where
music has very little success, though, exclusive of those who have
forsaken us, we have still admirable professors, and more particularly
composers of great solidity, knowledge, and taste. We are rather badly
off at the theatre from the want of actors. We have no MUSICI, nor shall
we find it very easy to get any, because they insist upon being well
paid, and generosity is not a failing of ours. I amuse myself in the
mean time by writing church and chamber music, and we have two excellent
contrapuntists here, Haydn and Adlgasser. My father is maestro at the
Metropolitan church, which gives me an opportunity to write for the
church as much as I please. Moreover, my father has been thirty-six
years in the service of this court, and knowing that our present
Archbishop neither can nor will endure the sight of elderly people, he
does not take it to heart, but devotes himself to literature, which was
always his favorite pursuit Our church music is rather different from
that of Italy, and the more so, as a mass including the Kyne, Gloria,
Credo, the Sonata all Epistola, the Offertory or Motett, Sanctus, and
Agnus Dei, and even a solemn mass, when the Prince himself officiates,
must never last more than three-quarters of an hour. A particular course
of study is required for this class of composition. And what must such
a mass be, scored with all the instruments, war-drums, cymbals, &c, &c!
Oh! why are we so far apart, dearest Signor Maestro? for how many things
I have to say to you! I devoutly revere all the Signori Filarmonici. I
venture to recommend myself to your good opinion, I shall never cease
regretting being so distant from the person in the world whom I most
love, venerate, and esteem. I beg to subscribe myself, reverend Father,
always your most humble and devoted servant,
"WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART"]