THE YOUTH (1769-1778)
The greater part of the year 1769 was spent quietly at Salzburg, where Wolfgang, under his father's direction, diligently pursued his studies. In December of that year the father and son set off for Italy, Leopold rightly feeling that such a tour would not only be advantageous to Wolfgang's reputation as a musician, but would enlarge his views and give him wider experience of the world.
The lad was now no longer an infant prodigy, but, it might almost be said, already a mature artist, whose powers were ripening daily, thanks hardly less to his father's judicious training than to his own natural genius. It is noteworthy that he never seems to have been in the least spoiled by his successes; he remained the same natural, affectionate boy that he had always been. The letters that he wrote during his tour to his sister at home are full of charm. While often overflowing with fun, they also show how acute a critic he was of the music which he heard, and how keen an observer of all that passed around him. In this respect they may be compared with the letters written from Italy more than sixty years later by Mendelssohn.
Travelling by way of Innsbruck, Roveredo, and Verona, and meeting everywhere with a most enthusiastic reception, Mozart, with his father, reached Mantua on January 10, 1770. The Philharmonic Society of the city gave a concert on the 16th of the same month, which was in reality a public exhibition of Wolfgang's powers. The programme has fortunately been preserved, and we learn from it that in addition to two of his symphonies, of which he probably directed the performance, he played at first sight a concerto for the harpsichord that was placed before him. He also played at sight a sonata, introducing variations of his own, and afterwards transposed the whole piece into another key. More remarkable still was his improvisation. He extemporized a sonata and a regularly constructed fugue on themes given him at the moment. He also sang and composed extempore a song on words not previously seen, accompanying himself on the harpsichord.
The travellers' next stay was at Milan, where they found a warm friend in Count Firmian, the Governor-General of Lombardy, who interested himself with such success on behalf of Wolfgang that the latter received a commission to compose an opera for the next season, after giving proof of his powers for serious opera by setting three songs from the poems of Metastasio.
Passing through Parma, Bologna (where they made the acquaintance of the celebrated theorist Padre Martini) and Florence, the Mozarts arrived in Rome during Holy Week. It was on this occasion that Wolfgang performed the feat, so often recorded, of writing down from memory Allegri's Miserere after having heard it sung, in the Sistine Chapel. After a visit for a month to Naples, they returned to Rome, where the Pope invested Wolfgang with the order of the Golden Spur.
Revisiting Bologna on his return journey, the lad received the honour of being elected a member of the Philharmonic Society of that city. As a test-piece he composed an antiphon in four parts, Quœrite primum regnum Dei, in the strict contrapuntal style of the old Church music. His father, writing home an account of the affair, says:
"The princeps academiæ and the two censors, who are all old kapellmeisters, put before him in the presence of all the members an antiphon from the Antiphonarium, which he was to set in four parts in an adjoining room, to which he was conducted by the beadle and locked in. When he had finished it, it was examined by the censors and all the kapellmeisters and composers, who then voted upon it with black and white balls. As all the balls were white, he was called in, and all clapped on his entry, and applauded him after the princeps academiæ had announced his reception in the name of the society. He returned thanks, and all was over. I was meantime shut up in the library on the other side of the hall. All were astonished that he had done it so quickly, as many take three hours over an antiphon of three lines. You should know, though, that it is no easy task, for there are many things forbidden in this kind of composition, as he had been previously told. He finished it in exactly half an hour."
While staying at Bologna, Mozart received from Milan the libretto of the opera which he was to write. According to his custom, he wrote the recitatives first, deferring the composition of the airs till he had made acquaintance with the singers, in order that he might suit them the better with their parts. On October 18, Wolfgang and his father returned to Milan, and the boy at once set to work diligently to finish the opera, which was to be produced at Christmas. The subject of the work was Mitridate, Re di Ponto, the libretto being written by a poet of Turin named Cigna-Santi. All the airs were written after consultation with those who were to sing them.
As at Vienna, so at Milan: jealous musicians intrigued to hinder the success of the work, but their efforts were in vain. The principal singers and the members of the orchestra were delighted with the music, and on December 26 it was produced, with so brilliant a result as to silence the detractors. The opera was repeated twenty times to always crowded houses, and with ever-increasing success. At the end of March, 1771, Wolfgang was again in Salzburg.
Two important musical works were the result of the success of Mitridate. The impresario at Milan engaged Wolfgang to write an opera for the season of 1773, while the Empress Maria Theresa commissioned him to compose a theatrical serenata for the marriage of the Archduke Ferdinand, which was to take place at Milan in October, 1771. The work was Ascanio in Alba, which was produced on October 17 with very complete success. The celebrated Hasse, a friend of the Mozarts, and an honourable man, who had always sided with Wolfgang against his detractors, had written an opera, Ruggiero, for the same festivities. Leopold Mozart writes home: "I am sorry that Wolfgang's serenata has so eclipsed Hasse's opera that it is indescribable." Hasse himself was generous enough to acknowledge his defeat, and to say: "This youth will make us all to be forgotten," a prophecy that has been amply fulfilled.
During the greater part of the year 1772 Wolfgang was at home, composing music of almost every kind. An event which took place at this time had an important influence on his future. This was the death of the Archbishop of Salzburg, and the election in his place of Hieronymus, Count of Colloredo, a haughty and surly man, who cared nothing whatever for music. For his installation Mozart composed the one-act allegorical opera, Il Sogno di Scipione—not one of his stronger works. In November of the same year we find him once more in Milan, busy with the new opera that he had been engaged to write. This was Lucio Silla, the words of which were written by a local poet. It was produced on December 26, and repeated more than twenty times to crowded houses. The opera contains some beautiful numbers; but Mozart had not yet emancipated himself from tradition, and it is not till some years later that his dramatic genius shows itself in its full strength. After the production of Lucio Silla, Leopold Mozart, with his son, remained some time in Italy, in the hope of the latter obtaining an appointment in the Court of the Grand Duke Leopold at Florence. This hope was not realized, and in March they returned to Salzburg.
THE MOZART FAMILY.
(From the painting by Van de la Croce, 1780,
in the Mozart Museum.)
With the exception of a two months' visit to Vienna, Mozart remained at home for the rest of the year and for nearly the whole of the following one, composing almost incessantly and in nearly every style. To this period belong two of his best Masses—those in F and D—the fine Litaniœ Lauretanœ in D, four symphonies, six quartetts, concertos for various instruments, serenades, divertimenti, and smaller pieces of all kinds. In the course of the year 1774 Mozart received a commission to write a comic opera for Munich for the Carnival of 1775, and in December of that year he went there with his father. The opera which he had to write was La Finta Giardiniera, the libretto of which had already been set to music by Piccinni in 1770 and Anfossi in 1774. The first performance took place on January 13, 1775, with a success which the composer described the next day in a letter to his mother:
"My opera was produced yesterday, and had, thank God! such success that I cannot possibly describe to mamma the noise and commotion.... At the close of every air there was a terrible noise with clapping and shouting 'Viva maestro!' ... I and my father afterwards went into a room through which the whole Court pass, and where I kissed the hands of the Elector, the Electress, and others of the nobility, who were all very gracious. His Highness the Bishop of Chiemsee sent to me early this morning with congratulations on my success."
Very interesting is the following extract from Schubert's "Teutsche Chronik":
"I have also heard an opera buffa by the wonderful genius Mozart; it is called La Finta Ciardiniera. Flames of genius flashed forth here and there; but it is not yet the quiet fire on the altar which rises to heaven in clouds of incense—a perfume sweet to the gods. If Mozart is not a plant forced in a hot-house, he must become one of the greatest musical composers that has ever lived."
In the music of La Finta Giardiniera a great advance on any of Mozart's previous operas is to be seen. Not only is there a richness of melodic invention worthy to compare with that of his later and greater works, but there is more organic unity in the music as a whole. Though some of the airs now appear unduly spun out, it must be remembered that long solos were the fashion of the day. The orchestra is treated with more independence than hitherto, and the score abounds with beautiful effects of colouring, though in most numbers but few wind instruments are employed. The great duet toward the close of the third act and the elaborate finales which conclude the first and second acts are admirable, and might be inserted into Figaro without producing too strong a feeling of incongruity.
Among those who witnessed the triumph of Mozart's opera was the Archbishop of Salzburg, who was at the time on a visit to the Elector of Bavaria. Though he did not himself hear the work, he was congratulated upon it by the members of the Court, and, as Mozart records, "was so embarrassed as to be unable to make any reply except by shaking his head and shrugging his shoulders."
Returning to Salzburg in March, 1775, Mozart remained there for nearly three years—probably the least happy of his life. The entire want of appreciation showed him by the tyrannical Archbishop rendered his position most irksome. Though the final rupture did not come till later, he was subjected to constant indignities, while the remuneration he received was ridiculously disproportionate to the services that he rendered, both as composer and performer. Yet his activity in production never ceased. The catalogue of the compositions he produced during these years is nearly as astonishing for the large number of masterpieces it contains as for the variety of style that it shows. Nearly a hundred works, including four symphonies, fifteen serenades and divertimenti, ten concertos for various instruments, six sonatas for clavier, six Masses, the grand Litany in E flat, a number of smaller works for the Church, the opera Il Rè Pastore, many songs, some with orchestra, others with piano, bear witness no less to his industry than to the fecundity of his genius. Many of these works were written for performance at the Archbishop's palace, at which concerts were frequently given; but the Archbishop, though fully knowing what a treasure he had in Mozart, not only never paid him for any of his compositions, but insulted him by contemptuous remarks about them, thinking this the best means of keeping the young master from asking for an advance in his salary, which, it should be said, amounted at this time to about £15 sterling per annum! On one occasion, as we learn from a letter written by Leopold to Padre Martini, the Archbishop went so far as to tell Wolfgang that he knew nothing about his art, and that he ought to go to Naples to study. It became more and more evident that there was no prospect of the young man's obtaining an honourable and remunerative post at Salzburg. It was therefore decided that Wolfgang should make another tour, in the hope of obtaining a better appointment. But when he applied for leave of absence that he might earn some money as an addition to his small salary, the Archbishop refused with the ungracious remark that "he could not suffer a man going on begging expeditions." Wolfgang thereupon tendered his resignation, which the Archbishop angrily accepted.
As it was impossible for Leopold to accompany his son on this journey—the Archbishop having refused him leave of absence—Wolfgang's mother went with him. They left Salzburg on September 23, 1777, for Munich, where they stayed till October 11, Wolfgang hoping either to find a post there or to obtain a commission to write an opera. From Munich they went to Augsburg, where Mozart gave a concert which brought him much glory but very little profit.
On October 30 Mozart and his mother arrived at Mannheim. The long stay of between four and five months which they made in this place had in more than one respect an important influence on Mozart's future. The orchestra at Mannheim was considered the finest in Europe, and the young composer writes of it to his father in enthusiastic terms. He was especially struck by the clarinets, which he here for the first time met with in the orchestra. He writes: "Ah, if we only had clarinets! You cannot believe what a splendid effect a symphony makes with flutes, oboes, and clarinets." The Mannheim orchestra included among its members many of the finest performers on their respective instruments then living, and contemporary testimony was to the effect that they were unsurpassed in execution and finish. The first kapellmeister was Christian Cannabich, an excellent violinist, and a very good friend to Mozart; the second was the Abbé Vogler, a clever but eccentric man, of whom Mozart writes: "He is a fool, who fancies that there can exist nothing better or more perfect than himself. He is hated by the whole orchestra. His book will better teach arithmetic than composition." In another letter he gives a criticism of Vogler's music which is so characteristic as to deserve quotation:
"Yesterday was again a gala day. I attended the service, at which was produced a bran new Mass by Vogler, which had been rehearsed only the day before yesterday in the afternoon. I stayed, however, no longer than the end of the 'Kyrie.' Such music I never before heard in my life, for not only is the harmony often wrong, but he goes into keys as if he would pull them in by the hair of the head, not artistically, but plump, and without preparation. Of the treatment of the ideas I will not try to speak; I will only say that it is quite impossible that any Mass by Vogler can satisfy a composer worthy of the name. For though one should discover an idea that is not bad, that idea does not long remain in a negative condition, but soon becomes—beautiful? Heaven save the mark! it becomes bad—extremely bad, and this in two or three different ways. The thought has scarcely had time to appear before something else comes and destroys it, or it does not close so naturally as to remain good, or it is not brought in in the right place, or it is spoiled by the injudicious employment of the accompanying instruments. Such is Vogler's composition."
It is hardly surprising that there should be little sympathy or cordiality between Vogler and Mozart, but there is no ground for the suspicion entertained by Leopold Mozart that the Abbé was plotting against his son.
Mozart was very desirous of obtaining an appointment at Mannheim under the Elector, and this was one of the causes of his long stay there. But, as usual, nothing came of it. The Elector was very complimentary to the composer, but after a delay of nearly two months finally said that he could do nothing. It was therefore the father's wish that they should continue the journey towards Paris. Mozart, however, was in no hurry to leave Mannheim; the society of the members of the orchestra, some of whom—among them Wendling, the flutist, and Ramm, the oboist—were close personal friends, was very congenial. But there was another and more powerful reason: he had for the first time fallen seriously in love. The object of his affection was a young singer, Aloysia Weber, the second daughter of Fridolin von Weber, at that time copyist and prompter in the Mannheim theatre. She was very beautiful, had a fine voice, and sang with great taste and expression. For her Mozart wrote one of the finest of his concert arias, Non so donde viene; he also gave her lessons. His affection would seem to have been returned, but his father was not unnaturally opposed to the youth's fettering himself by such a union. Wolfgang's idea was to make a professional tour in company with the Webers, and to try to procure engagements in Italy for the young lady as a prima donna, and for himself as a composer, Leopold, however, was experienced enough to see clearly that such a scheme was impracticable, and that a young girl who had never appeared on the stage would have no chance of success in an Italian theatre, however well she might sing. He therefore, in order to free his son from the entanglement, wrote a long letter to him, putting the case very plainly and sensibly, and urging him at once to go to Paris to try to make a position there. Like a dutiful son, as he always showed himself, Wolfgang obeyed, and left Mannheim with a heavy heart on March 14, 1778, arriving nine days later at Paris.
The time of his visit was not favourable to his hopes. Musicians in the French capital were busy with the great struggle for supremacy in opera between Gluck and Piccinni, which was then at its height. Besides this, the frivolous Parisian public, who had been so attracted by the infant prodigy, cared little for the mature artist. Mozart obtained an introduction to Le Gros, the director of the Concert Spirituel, who gave him a commission to write some movements of a Miserere, of which, however, only two choruses were performed. Besides this, Mozart composed for the same concerts a Sinfonie Concertante for four wind instruments, with orchestra. But once more the intrigues of enemies pursued him. Two days before the concert was to be given the parts of the new work had not been copied, and when Mozart went to Le Gros to inquire the reason, the latter merely said that he had forgotten it. Mozart suspected, and probably correctly, that Cambini, an Italian composer whom he had unintentionally offended, was at the bottom of it.
For the Duc de Guines, to whom he obtained an introduction through his old friend Grimm, Mozart wrote a double concerto for the unusual combination of flute and harp, to be played by the Duke and his daughter. The two instruments were those which Mozart detested; yet the concerto, though not a great work, is most effectively written for both instruments, and is very pleasing music. Besides this, he gave lessons in composition to the Duke's daughter, who, though a clever performer, seems to have had but little idea of writing. Mozart, in one of his letters to his father, gives a very amusing account of a lesson in which he had tried to make the young lady compose a minuet. He wrote later that she was both stupid and lazy, and he finally gave up the lessons in disgust.
Mozart's great desire, as always, was to write an opera, and, through Noverre, the ballet-master of the Grand Opera, whose acquaintance he had made in Vienna six years before, there seemed to be a fair prospect of the realization of his wish. Noverre set a librettist to work, and the text of the first act of an opera was soon ready. Meanwhile Noverre wanted some ballet music, and Mozart wrote for him the overture and incidental dances for Les Petits Riens. Nothing more, however, came of the opera. The composer, nevertheless, had one musical success during his stay in Paris. This was the production at the Concert Spirituel of his symphony in D, known as the "Parisian." In a letter to his father Mozart tells how warmly it was received, and how the audience were struck with certain passages and began applauding in the middle of the movements. There is no doubt that the symphony was the finest that he had composed up to that time; being written to suit the Parisian taste, it is lighter and more brilliant in style than most of its predecessors, without becoming thereby tawdry or frivolous. This was the first symphony that Mozart had scored for full orchestra, and the rich and varied colouring of the wind instruments shows how he had profited by listening to the fine performances at Mannheim.
Whether the success of his symphony would have led to Mozart's ultimately obtaining a good appointment at Paris cannot be said, for almost immediately after the production of the work a sad event brought about an entire change in his plans. This was the death of his mother, which occurred on July 3, 1778, after a fortnight's illness. His father was anxious, for more than one reason, that he should return home. Not only was there the natural desire for his son's company and support in his bereavement, there was also the apprehension that the young man, now that his mother's restraining influence was removed, might fall into the hands of bad companions.
At this juncture an opening unexpectedly presented itself in Salzburg. The Archbishop had by this time become conscious of the mistake he had made in allowing the young genius to leave him, and was anxious to have him back if possible. The death of the old kapellmeister Lolli, which occurred at this time, gave the Archbishop the opportunity he desired, and, after long negotiations, Lolli's post was offered to Leopold Mozart, and that of second kapellmeister to his son, whose salary was to be 500 florins a year. It was also conceded that he should have leave of absence whenever he wanted to write an opera.
Greatly as Mozart disliked Salzburg—and with good reason, after the Archbishop's treatment of him—he at once yielded to his father's wishes, and accepted the post. There can be no doubt that he did so all the more readily in consequence of one piece of news contained in his father's letter. This was that his beloved Aloysia Weber was engaged to sing at Salzburg, and would be living with the Mozarts. He therefore left Paris on September 26, travelling by way of Strasburg, Mannheim, and Munich, at each of which places he remained for some time. At Munich he visited the Webers, who had removed thither from Mannheim. Here a great disappointment awaited him. His beloved Aloysia had proved faithless, and received him coldly. Mozart thereupon sat down to the piano and sang, "Ich lass das Madel gern, das mich nicht will," (I willingly leave the maid who does not want me). Aloysia subsequently made an unhappy marriage with an actor named Lange, and became a distinguished prima donna. In her later years she confessed that she had failed to realize the genius of Mozart, and saw in him nothing but a little man.