THE CHILD (1756-1768)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born at Salzburg on January 27, 1756. His full name, as given in the church register, was "Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus"; his father used the German equivalent "Gottlieb" of this last name, and the composer himself subsequently adopted the Latinized form "Amadeus."
His family had long been settled in Augsburg, where Wolfgang's father, Leopold Mozart, was born on November 14, 1719. With the object of studying jurisprudence, Leopold entered the university of Salzburg, supporting himself by teaching music and playing the violin. He was a musician of considerable attainments, and in 1743 the Archbishop of Salzburg took him into his service, later appointing him Court composer and leader of the orchestra. He was a voluminous composer, but his works show little inventive power. His fame as a musician rests chiefly on his "School for the Violin," printed in 1756—the year of Wolfgang's birth. This work, from which Otto Jahn in his great monograph on Mozart gives several extracts, was for many years the only work published in Germany on the subject, and was held in great esteem not only for the thoroughness of its instructions, but for the excellence of its style.
In 1747 Leopold Mozart married Anna Maria Pertlin (or Bertlin), by whom he had seven children, only two of whom survived infancy. The elder of these two was a daughter, Maria Anna, born July 30, 1751; the younger was the subject of the present volume.
MOZART AT THE AGE OF SEVEN.
(From a scarce French print.)
Like her illustrious brother, Maria Anna (generally spoken of in the family by the pet name of "Nannerl") very early showed great aptitude for music. At the age of seven her father began to give her lessons on the clavier, on which she made remarkable progress. It was during these lessons that Wolfgang's wonderful musical genius first showed itself. Though the child was then only between three and four years of age, he took the greatest interest in what his sister was doing, and would amuse himself with picking out thirds on the clavier. When he was four his father, more in joke than otherwise, began to teach him little pieces, which he learned with astonishing ease. For a short piece he required only half an hour, for longer pieces an hour, after which he could play them with perfect correctness. What is even more astonishing is that before he was five years of age he began to compose and play little pieces which his father wrote down. Some of these juvenile efforts have been preserved, and show that while the young musician had not at that time acquired any individuality of style, he had an instinctive feeling for clearness of form, while his harmony shows a correctness which is absolutely amazing in so young a child.
J. A. Schachtner, Court trumpeter at Salzburg, an intimate friend of the family, has preserved some reminiscences of the child's early years in a letter which he wrote to the composer's sister soon after Mozart's death. In this letter Schachtner relates how, on returning from church one day with Leopold Mozart, they found little Wolfgang, then four years old, hard at work writing:
"Papa. What are you writing?
"Wolfgang. A piano concerto; the first part is nearly finished.
"Papa. Let me see it.
"Wolfgang. It is not ready yet.
"Papa. Let me see it; it must be something pretty.
"His father took it, and showed me a daub of notes, mostly written over blots that had been wiped out. (N.B.—Little Wolfgang in his ignorance had dipped his pen every time to the bottom of the inkstand, and so made a blot each time he put it on the paper; this he wiped out with his flat hand, and went on writing.) We laughed at first over this apparent nonsense; but the papa then began to notice the principal thing, the composition. He remained motionless for a long while, looking at the page; at last two tears—tears of admiration and joy—fell from his eyes. 'Look, Herr Schachtner,' said he, 'how correctly and regularly it is all arranged, only it cannot be used because it is so extraordinarily difficult that nobody can play it.' Little Wolfgang broke in: 'That is why it is a concerto; it must be practised till one gets it right. Look, this is how it must go!' He played it, but could only just make enough out of it to show us what he meant.'
* * * * *
"Soon after they returned from Vienna, and Wolfgang brought with him a little fiddle that had been presented to him. The late Herr Wentzl, an excellent violinist, who also did a little in composition, brought six trios with him which he had written during your father's absence, and asked his opinion on them. We played the trios, your father taking the bass part on the viola, Wentzl the first violin, and I was to play the second. Wolfgang begged that he might play the second, but his father refused the foolish request, as he had not had the slightest instruction on the violin, and the father thought he was not in the least able to do it. Wolfgang said: 'To play a second violin one need not have learned!' When his father insisted on his going away and not disturbing us any further, he began to cry bitterly, and rushed out of the room with his fiddle. I begged them to let him play with me. At last papa said: 'Well, play with Herr Schachtner; but so quietly that nobody hears you, else you must go.' So Wolfgang played with me. I soon noticed with astonishment that I was quite superfluous. I quietly put down my violin and looked at your father, down whose cheeks tears of admiration and happiness were rolling, and so we played all six trios. When we had finished Wolfgang grew so bold with our applause that he declared he could play the first violin part too. We tried it for a joke, and nearly died of laughing when he played this part also, though with quite incorrect and irregular fingering, yet so that he never stuck fast."
In January, 1762, Leopold Mozart took his children to Munich, where they played before the Elector. Their visit lasted three weeks, and was so successful that in September of the same year they started for Vienna. They travelled leisurely, staying five days at Passau at the request of the Bishop, and giving a concert at Linz under the patronage of the Governor-General of the Province, Count Schlick. The astonishment and delight at the performances of the two children were unbounded. On arriving at Vienna, they received a command to visit the Emperor at Schönbrunn. Both he and the Empress were good musicians, and many incidents are related by Mozart's biographers showing not only the interest taken in the youthful prodigy, but also the tests of ability to which the Emperor submitted him. It was, of course, only natural that the example set by royalty should be followed by members of the Court, and the Mozarts were invited by all the nobility of Vienna. Their visit must have been a source of considerable profit, as many valuable presents were made them. Their success was interrupted for a time, from Wolfgang being attacked by scarlet fever; happily, the attack was not very severe, though sufficient to confine him to the house for a month. The family returned to Salzburg early in January, 1763.
Encouraged by the success of his first venture, Leopold Mozart resolved on a much longer tour, and on June 9, 1763, he, with his wife and the two children, left home for Paris. At Wasserburg their carriage broke down, and a day's delay was caused while it was being repaired. Leopold Mozart writes to his friend Hagenauer:
"The latest thing is that, to amuse ourselves, we went to the organ, and I explained the pedals to Wolferl, whereupon he at once, stante pede, began to try them. Pushing back the stool and standing, he preluded, stepping about on the pedals just as if he had practised for many months. All were amazed; it is a new gift of God, which many only attain after much trouble."
After passing through Munich, Augsburg, Mainz, Frankfort, Cologne, and Brussels, giving many concerts by the way, they reached Paris on November 18, where they were the guests of the Bavarian Ambassador, Count von Eyck, whose wife was the daughter of an official at Salzburg. By means of introductions which he had brought with him, Leopold Mozart soon obtained permission for his children to play at Court, where the King's daughters showed themselves extremely friendly to them. The father in one of his letters tells how they went on New Year's Day to the supper-room of the royal family, and how Wolfgang stood near the Queen, who fed him with sweetmeats and talked to him in German, interpreting his answers to the King, who did not understand the language. Every where the child's performances excited the greatest wonder and admiration. Not only would he play anything set before him at first sight, but he would transpose or accompany from a full score; his improvisations are also spoken of as remarkable, not only for their melodic interest but for their harmony.
MOZART WITH HIS FATHER AND SISTER.
(From a rare print.)
It was while he was in Paris that his father had his first compositions printed for him. These were four sonatas for piano and violin, published in two sets, the first of which was dedicated to the Princess Victoria, the second daughter of the King, and the second to the Comtesse de Tesse, lady-in-waiting to the Dauphiness. It is not too much to say that these four sonatas are the most remarkable examples in existence of precocious musical genius. It is not so much that they show great originality in their subject-matter, though in the slow movements, especially in that of the fourth sonata, foreshadowings of the riper Mozart may be seen; it is the wonderful command of form, the feeling for rhythm and for balance in the different parts of a movement which excite astonishment. The harmony, too, is for the most part absolutely correct, though in one place—in the minuet of the fourth sonata—consecutive fifths are to be seen. Leopold Mozart had corrected them in the proofs, but the correction had not been made before printing, and the father consoled himself with the reflection that they would serve as a proof that the boy had really composed the sonatas himself, which people might otherwise have been not unnaturally inclined to doubt.
In April, 1764, the Mozarts left Paris and came to London. George III. and Queen Charlotte were both extremely fond of music, and the success the children had met with in Paris was even surpassed at the English Court. Wolfgang played at first sight pieces by Wagenseil, Bach, Abel, and Handel, which the King placed before him; he accompanied the Queen in a song and a flutist in a solo; finally, he took a bass part of one of Handel's songs, and extemporized a beautiful melody above it. His father wrote of him at this time: "It surpasses all conception. What he knew when we left Salzburg is a mere shadow to what he knows now. My girl, though only twelve, is one of the cleverest players in Europe; and the mighty Wolfgang, to put it briefly, knows all, in this his eighth year, that one could ask from a man of forty. In short, anyone who does not see and hear it cannot believe it. You all in Salzburg know nothing about it, for the matter is quite different now."
On June 5 Leopold Mozart gave a concert to introduce his children to a London public. The result was a great success, and he, in his own words, "was frightened at taking one hundred guineas in three hours." Subsequently Wolfgang played the piano and organ at a concert given at Ranelagh Gardens for a charitable object. In August Leopold Mozart was attacked by a dangerous inflammation of the throat, which confined him to the house for seven weeks, during which time no music was heard. Wolfgang utilized the occasion by writing his first symphony for orchestra, and his sister afterwards told how, when she was sitting at his side, he said to her: "Remind me to give the horns something good." Like the first sonatas already spoken of, the first symphony, though not remarkable for its themes, shows the wonderful knowledge of instrumental forms that the child had almost intuitively acquired.
After the father's recovery the family were again invited to Court on October 29 for the festivities on the fourth anniversary of the King's coronation. In recognition of the royal favour, Leopold Mozart had six sonatas by Wolfgang for piano and violin engraved at his own expense. They were dedicated to the Queen, who rewarded the composer with a present of fifty guineas. These sonatas, though concise in form and bearing marks of immaturity, already show a perceptible advance on those printed a year earlier in Paris.
It was in London, at the Italian Opera, that the young composer first had the opportunity of hearing great singers. Chief among these were the male soprani, Manzuoli and Tenducci, the former of whom gave him lessons in singing. How he profited by them we learn from his friend Grimm, who, hearing him in Paris on his return there in the following year, writes that he sang with as much feeling as taste. With so impressionable a nature as his, it can scarcely be doubted that these early lessons contributed not a little to the formation of that pure style of vocal writing so characteristic of his music for the theatre and the church.
Finding that, when the novelty had worn off, the performances of his children no longer attracted the same attention as before, the Mozarts left London on July 24, 1765, on a visit to the Hague, as the Princess von Weilburg, sister of the Prince of Orange, was very anxious to see the boy. They were most graciously received, but had not been long at the Hague when Marianne was taken so dangerously ill that her life was despaired of, and extreme unction was administered. Scarcely was she recovered when Wolfgang was seized with a violent fever, which confined him to his bed for several weeks. Even during this illness his ruling passion showed itself. He would have a board laid upon his bed on which he could write, and even when he was weakest it was difficult to restrain him from writing and playing.
In January, 1766, two concerts were given in Amsterdam, the programmes of which consisted entirely of Wolfgang's instrumental compositions. Two months later they returned to the Hague to be present at the festivities of the coming of age of the Prince of Orange. Here Wolfgang, at the desire of the Princess of Weilburg, wrote six more sonatas for piano and violin, besides several smaller pieces for her.
We must pass briefly over the remainder of this long tour. Passing through Mechlin, they returned to Paris, thence by Dijon and Lyons to Switzerland, where they stayed some time. It was not till the end of November, 1766, that, after an absence of nearly three years and a half, the family found themselves once more at home at Salzburg.
It has been advisable to give in considerable detail the particulars of Mozart's earliest years because the precocious development of his genius is absolutely without a parallel in the case of any other composer. The limits of the present volume will render it needful to be somewhat more concise in dealing with the rest of the biography. It is characteristic of the young Wolfgang that his simple nature does not appear to have been in the least spoiled by successes which were enough to have turned the head of an adult. Jahn tells us that he would ride round the room on his father's stick, or jump up from the piano in the middle of his extemporizing to go and play with a favourite cat. Doubtless the judicious training he received from his good and wise father furnishes the explanation of this estimable trait in his character.
For nearly a year the family remained at home, Wolfgang working hard both at playing and composing. The chief works belonging to this period, on none of which it is necessary to dwell, are the first four concertos for the piano, a small sacred cantata, Grabmusik, and the Latin comedy, Apollo et Hyacinthus, written for performance by the students of the Salzburg University. In September, 1767, the whole family left home on a second visit to Vienna, with the intention of being present at the marriage of the Archduchess Maria Josepha with King Ferdinand of Naples, which was shortly to take place. Unfortunately, within a month after their arrival the Archduchess was carried off by small-pox, and Leopold Mozart with all his family fled to Olmütz. His children, nevertheless, did not escape; both were attacked by the complaint, with such severity in the case of Wolfgang that he lay blind for nine days. With the greatest kindness the Dean of Olmütz, Count Podstatsky, who was also a Canon of Salzburg, and therefore knew Mozart, received the whole family into his house, procuring for them the best medical attendance and nursing.
Returning to Vienna in January, 1768, they soon experienced difficulties of all kinds. The Empress Maria Theresa, it is true, as soon as she heard of the dangerous illness of the children whom she had so admired five years before, sent for them; but this visit brought them little profit, for the Emperor was parsimonious, and the nobility followed his example. Even more adverse were the conditions as regards the general public. The Viennese at that time, as Leopold Mozart says in one of his letters, had no desire to see anything serious and sensible, and little or no idea of it; all they cared for was buffoonery, farces, or pantomime. The infant prodigy had been a "draw" in 1762; but they cared little or nothing for the development of the artist a few years later. Added to this was the active opposition of envious musicians. Those who had admired the young child now dreaded the boy of twelve as a dangerous rival. The father says:
"I found that all the clavier players and composers in Vienna opposed our progress, with the single exception of Wagenseil, and he, as he is ill, can do little or nothing for us. The great rule with these people was carefully to avoid all opportunity of seeing us or of examining into Wolfgang's knowledge. And why? So that they, in so many cases when they were asked if they have heard this boy and what they think of him, might always be able to say that they had not heard him, and that it was impossible it could be true; that it was humbug and harlequinade; that matters had been arranged, and that the things given him to play were what he knew already; that it was ridiculous to think he could compose. You see, that is why they avoid us. For anyone who has seen and heard him can no longer say this without the risk of dishonour. I have trapped one of these people. We had arranged with someone to let us know quietly when he would be present. He was to come and bring an extraordinarily difficult concerto. We managed the matter, and he had the opportunity of hearing his concerto played off by Wolfgang as if he knew it by heart. The astonishment of this composer and performer, the expressions which he used in his admiration, gave us all to understand what I have just been pointing out to you. At last he said: 'I can, as an honourable man, say nothing else than that this boy is the greatest man now living in the world; it was impossible to believe.'"
Isolated cases of this kind could do but little to stem the torrent of calumny and depreciation to which the young composer was exposed. But now the Emperor came forward and proposed that Wolfgang should write an opera. The proposal was eagerly accepted; the father saw that a success would not only establish the lad's reputation in Vienna, but would pave the way for further successes in Italy. The text of an opera buffa, La Finta Semplice, was obtained from Coltellini, the poet connected with the theatre, and Wolfgang set to work at once. The score, which contained twenty-five numbers and 558 pages, was soon completed. Jahn, who gives a detailed analysis of the whole opera, concludes his criticism by saying that the work was fully equal to those at that time to be heard on the stage, while in single numbers it surpassed them in nobility and originality of invention and treatment, while it pointed clearly to a greater future. And this, be it remembered, was the composition of a boy of twelve!
In spite of the support of the Emperor, the unscrupulous intrigues of Mozart's enemies, of which his father's letters convey a vivid idea, so influenced the manager of the theatre, Affligio—a scoundrel who, it is satisfactory to learn, ended his days at the galleys—that the opera was never produced. By way of consolation, however, the father had the pleasure of hearing a German operetta by Wolfgang performed. This was Bastien und Bastienne, a piece in one act, which was written for Dr. Messmer, a rich amateur who had built a small theatre in his garden. Wolfgang was also commissioned to compose the music for the dedication of the chapel of an orphan asylum, and to conduct the performance of the same. For this occasion he composed his first Mass (in G major), and an offertorium, Veni sancte Spiritus, of which the latter is the more striking.
On the return of the Mozart family to Salzburg, about the end of 1768, the Archbishop, gratified at the success obtained by a native of the city, had the opera performed by musicians who were in his service. He further appointed Wolfgang concertmeister—that is, leader of the orchestra—and his name appears in this capacity in the Court calendars of 1770.