(_Concluded from page 256_.)
On the 10th of April, 1764, the family arrived in England, and remained
there until the middle of the following year. Leopold Mozart fell ill of
a dangerous sore throat during his stay, and as no practising could go
forward in the house at that time, his son employed himself in writing
his first sinfonia. It was scored with all the instruments, not omitting
drums and trumpets. His sister sat near him while he wrote, and he said
to her, "remind me that I give the horns something good to do." An
extract or two from the correspondence of the father will show how
they were received in England:--
"A week after, as we were walking in St. James's Park, the king and
queen came by in their carriage, and, although we were differently
dressed, they knew us, and not only that, but the king opened the
window, and, putting his head out and laughing, greeted us with head
and hands, particularly our Master Wolfgang."
"On the 19th of May, we were with their Majesties from six to ten
o'clock in the evening. No one was present but the two princes, brothers
to the king and queen. The king placed before Wolfgang not only pieces
of Wagenseil, but of Bach, Abel, and Handel, all of which he performed
_prima vista_. He played upon the king's organ in such a style that
every one admired his organ even more than his harpsichord performance.
He then accompanied the queen, who sang an air, and afterwards a
flute-player in a solo. At last they gave him the bass part of one of
Handel's airs, to which he composed so beautifal a melody that all
present were lost in astonishment. In a word, what he knew in Salzburg
was a mere shadow of his present knowledge; his invention and fancy gain
strength every day."
"A concert was lately given at Ranelagh for the benefit of a newly
erected Lying-in-Hospital. I allowed Wolfgang to play a concerto on the
organ at it. Observe--this is the way to get the love of these people."
A large portion of Leopold Mozart's letters is occupied with masses
to be offered up for the health, &c.; and during his sojourn in the
Five-fields, Chelsea, he appears to have been in considerable hope that
he had converted a Mr. Sipruntini (a Dutch Jew, and a fine violoncello
player), to Catholicism. After dedicating a set of sonatas to the queen,
and experiencing great patronage from the nobility, Mozart, with his
father and sister, in July, 1765, crossed over into the Netherlands.
At the Hague, a fever attacked both children, and had nearly cost the
daughter her life. On their recovery, they played before the Prince of
Orange, and Wolfgang composed some variations on a national air, which
was, just then, sung, piped, and whistled throughout the streets of
Holland. The organist of the cathedral in Haerlem waited upon the
Mozarts, and invited the son to try his instrument, which he did the
next morning. Mozart senior describes the organ as a magnificent one, of
sixty-eight stops, and built wholly of metal, "as wood would not endure
the dampness of the Dutch atmosphere." Upon the return of the family to
Salzburg, Mozart enjoyed a year of quiet and uninterrupted study in the
higher walks of composition. Besides applying to the old masters, he was
indefatigable in perusing the works of Emanuel Bach, Hasse, Handel, and
Eberlin, and by the diligent performance of these authors, he acquired
extraordinary brilliancy and power in the left hand. On the 11th of
September, 1767, the whole family proceeded on their way to Vienna; but
as the small pox was raging there, they went to Ollmütz instead, where
both the children caught that disorder. At Vienna, Mozart wrote his
first opera, by desire of the emperor. Though the singers extolled their
parts to the skies, in presence of Leopold Mozart, they formed in secret
a cabal against the work, and it was never performed. The Italian
singers and composers who were established in this capital did not like
to find themselves surpassed in knowledge and skill by a boy of twelve
years old, and they therefore not only charged the composition with a
want of dramatic effect, but they even went so far as to say, that he
had not scored it himself. To counteract such calumnies, Leopold Mozart
often obliged his son to put the orchestral parts to his compositions in
the presence of spectators, which he did with wonderful celerity before
Metastasio, Hasse, the Duke of Braganza, and others. The injurious
opinion of the nobility, which these people hoped to excite against
the young musician, had no success; for he composed a Mass--an
Offertorium--and a Trumpet Concerto for a Boy--which were performed
before the whole court, and at which he himself presided and beat the
time. The year 1769 was employed by Wolfgang in studying the Italian
language, and in the practice of composition; and at this time he was
appointed concert master to the court of Salzburg.
Father and son now made the tour of Italy, and met in every city with an
enthusiastic reception.
In Rome, Mozart gave a miraculous attestation of his quickness of ear,
and extensive memory, by bringing away from the Sistine Chapel the
"Miserere of Allegri," a work full of imitation and repercussion, mostly
for a double choir, and continually changing in the combination and
relation of the parts. This accomplished piece of thievery was thus
performed:--the sketch was drawn out upon the first hearing, and filled
up from recollection at home--Mozart then repaired to the second and
last performance, with his manuscript in his hat, and corrected it.
The slow voluptuous movement of the style of dancing prevalent in Italy
gave Mozart great pleasure; in the postscripts to his father's letters,
which he generally addressed to his sister and playfellow, he speaks of
this subject with as much zest as of his own art. Later in manhood he
became a pupil of Vestris, and the gracefulness of his dancing was much
admired, especially in the minuet.
About this time Mozart's voice began to break, and he ceased to sing in
public, unless words were put before him; the violin he continued to
play, but mostly in private. The alarming illnesses which had attacked
his children on their journey kept Leopold Mozart in continual
anxiety--the malaria of Rome and the heat of Naples were alike dreaded
by him.
The travellers arrived at Naples in May, and fortunately procured cool
and healthy lodgings. Here they visited the English Ambassador, Sir
William Hamilton, whose acquaintance they had made in London, and whose
lady was not only a very agreeable person, but a charming performer on
the harpsichord. She trembled on playing before Mozart. The concerts
given by the Mozarts in Naples were very successful, and they were
treated with great distinction; the carriages of the nobility, attended
by footmen with flambeaux, fetched them from home and carried them back;
the queen greeted them daily on the promenade, and they received
invitations to the ball given by the French Ambassador on the marriage
of the Dauphin.
If Mozart had not been engaged to compose the carnival opera for Milan,
he might have written that for Bologna, Rome, or Naples, as at these
three cities offers were made to him, a proof of what his genius had
effected in Italy.
* * * * *
The epoch at which Mozart's genius was ripe may be dated from his
twentieth year; constant study and practice had given him ease in
composition, and ideas came thicker with his early manhood--the fire,
the melodiousness, the boldness of harmony, the inexhaustible invention
which characterize his works, were at this time apparent; he began to
think in a manner entirely independent, and to perform what he had
promised as a regenerator of the musical art. The situation of his
father as Kapell-meister, in Salzburg, indeed gave Mozart some
opportunities of writing church music, but not such as he most coveted,
the sacred musical services of the court being restricted to a given
duration, and the orchestra but poorly supplied with singers; it was
therefore his earnest desire to get some permanent appointment in which
he could exercise freely his talent for composition, and reckon on
a sufficient income. When childhood and boyhood had passed away, his
_quondam_ patrons ceased to wonder at, or feel interest in, his genius,
and Mozart, whose early years had been spent in familiar intercourse
with the principal nobility of Europe, who had been from court to court,
and received distinctions and caresses unparalleled in the history of
musicians, up to the period of his death gained no situation worthy
his acceptance, but earned his fame in the midst of worldly cares and
annoyances, in alternate abundance and poverty, deceived by pretended
friendship, or persecuted by open enmity. The obstacles which Mozart
surmounted in establishing the immortality of his muse, leave those
without excuse who plead other occupations and the necessity of gaining
a livelihood as an excuse for want of success in the art. Where the
creative faculty has been bestowed, it will not be repressed by
circumstances.
In the exterior of Mozart there was nothing remarkable; he was small in
person, and had a very agreeable countenance, but it did not discover
the greatness of his genius at the first glance. His eyes were tolerably
large and well shaped, more heavy than fiery in the expression; when he
was thin they were rather prominent. His sight was always quick and
strong; he had an unsteady abstracted look, except when seated at the
piano-forte, when the whole form of his visage was changed. His hands
were small and beautiful, and he used them so softly and naturally upon
the piano-forte, that the eye was no less delighted than the ear. It was
surprising that he could grasp so much as he did in the bass. His head
was too large in proportion to his body, but his hands and feet were in
perfect symmetry, of which he was rather vain. The stunted growth of
Mozart's body may have arisen from the early efforts of his mind; not,
as some suppose, from want of exercise in childhood--for then he had
much exercise--though at a later period the want of it may have been
hurtful to him. Sophia, a sister-in-law of Mozart, who is still living,
relates: "he was always good-humoured, but very abstracted, and in
answering questions seemed always to be thinking of something else.
Even in the morning when he washed his hands, he never stood still, but
would walk up and down the room, sometimes striking one heel against the
other; at dinner he would frequently make the ends of his napkin fast,
and draw it backwards and forwards under his nose, seeming lost in
meditation, and not in the least aware of what he did." He was fond of
animals, and in his amusements delighted with any thing new; at one
time of his life with riding, at another with billiards.
* * * * *
The Selector;
AND
LITERARY NOTICES OF
_NEW WORKS_.
* * * * *