In 1775 a spacious hall, with some side apartments, were added to the town hall, and there, during the carnival, masked balls were given under the supervision of the magistrate, as well as concerts and other entertainments. Mozart, who was fond of dancing and jokes, excelled in masquerading; Schiedenhofen mentions his having amused every one as a peasant bridegroom, and another time as a young dandy.
But even in Salzburg the most popular entertainment was the play; a theatre was built expressly for the court on the right bank of the Salzach, and there in winter performances were given by the Munich or some other travelling company,[ 9 ] sledge parties and others being formed for the purpose of attending. In summer, excursions were made to the numerous objects of interest in the neighbourhood, a very favourite one being to the royal park of Hellbronn.[ 10 ] The Mozarts rarely participated in these pleasures.
Although the father was able to write to his son (February 12,1778): "Consider whether I have not always helped you to procure every possible pleasure that was harmless and sensible, often at the cost of great personal inconvenience," yet his limited circumstances prohibited any very frequent indulgence in such pleasures.
The increasing expenses, which he justly ascribed to the parsimonious system of the government,[ 11 ] necessitated the strictest economy on his part. He laid these circumstances clearly before his son (February 16, 1778):—
It has been very hard work for me ever since your birth, and even before, to support a wife and seven children, besides your grandmother and several others, on twenty florins a month, taking into account child-births, deaths, and illnesses. If you calculate these expenses you will readily believe that not only have I never had a kreutzer to spend on my own pleasure, but that it has only been by the grace of God and hard work that I have kept free from debt. I have sacrificed my whole time to you two children in order that when the time came you might be able EARLY MANHOOD. both to maintain yourselves, and also provide me with the means of spending a peaceful old age, occupied only with thoughts for the safety of my soul, and preparations for a happy death."
But L. Mozart's economy was judicious. "Buy nothing that is bad," he wrote to his wife (October 26, 1771), "there is no saving in buying bad things." The simplicity of the manners of the household, and the modest nature of the enjoyments, may be proved by the extreme and constant popularity among the whole circle of a game called "bolt-shooting" (bölzelschiessen). A number of intimates formed themselves into a sort of little guild, and met every Sunday at the various houses of the members. Each player in turn threw a bolt or quoit, and numerous were the jokes to which the game gave rise. A sort of rivalry grew up in the furnishing of each quoit with inscriptions bearing on the foibles and peculiarities of the different players, and the tendency to joking and sarcasm of the good Salzburgers was thereby encouraged and indulged. A pleasant sociable kind of intercourse grew out of these constant meetings. The following instance will show the kind of pleasantry that was allowable on such occasions. Leopold tells his son (November 11, 1780) how one of the lady members, who was a little bit of a coquette, happened one day to trip on the step of a shop she was entering in full daylight, and to fall in a very inelegant posture. This was duly portrayed with appropriate verses on the quoit, to the uncontrollable merriment of the whole party. The bolt-shooting is never forgotten in the family correspondence; amusing quoit pictures are forwarded to absent members, and their share of the winnings received by their proxies. Mozart writes to his sister from Vienna (July 4, 1781) : "Is it not about time for the shooting supper? Pray do not forget to drink the health of a faithful shooter with due honours, and tell me when it comes to my turn, that I may paint a quoit."
Under these circumstances, the encouragement which Wolfgang needed to render his arduous labours pleasant and satisfactory could only be looked for from the sympathy of his colleagues, and the favour with which his performances were received. But, unfavourable as the state of things INTERCOURSE WITH FELLOW-MUSICIANS. was in Salzburg in other respects, on this point it was simply intolerable. Individual musicians, such as the faithful Schachtner, who were free from envy, and had cultivation and industry enough to appreciate intercourse with the Mozart family, formed a close and constant friendship with them. But, with the majority, intimacy was on many accounts out of the question, even when, as in the case of Michael Haydn and Adlgasser, they deserved all recognition as artists.[ 12 ] It was in contrast to Salzburg that L. Mozart praises the orchestra at Mannheim as "young men of good morals, neither tipplers nor gamblers, nor miserable blockheads, whose conduct and performances are alike admirable" (July 19, 1763). Wolfgang made similar observations in after years, and wrote to his father from Paris (July 9,1778) how businesslike everything was under Cannabich's conductorship, how implicitly he was obeyed, and what much better lives the musicians lived there than at Salzburg. "One of my chief reasons for detesting Salzburg is the impossibility of associating, as an honest man, with the coarse, stupid, dissolute musicians belonging to the court; one is quite ashamed of them, and it is they who bring music generally into disfavour." We can well understand how frequently the Mozart family would give offence to men of small cultivation and ill-regulated tastes. As a childish prodigy Mozart had amused them by his childlike candour and engaging confidence; but as a growing youth his performances became an intolerable source of annoyance and envy to them, not lessened by the brilliant recognition which he met with outside the walls of his native town. Their ill-will was doubtless also increased by the reserve of the Mozarts, their claims to superior cultivation, and the justification sometimes accorded to these claims; and although the father's prudence and the mother's good nature would prevent any open rupture with their colleagues, yet a tendency to severe criticism, sometimes jokingly, sometimes sarcastically expressed, is common to all the Mozarts. If we may judge of the tone of their actual EARLY MANHOOD. intercourse by the numerous allusions in their letters (and Wolfgang's forte was certainly not prudent reserve), then, indeed, Salzburg might well dread the sharpness of the Mozart tongue.
The family were on least friendly terms with the Italians attached to the service of the Archbishop. Almost everywhere in Germany the idea was firmly rooted that the reputation of the musical establishments could only be upheld by summoning composers and virtuosi from Italy. When Wolfgang wrote to his father from Munich (September 29, 1777): "So it is! All the great people have a rage for foreigners!" His father consoled him by answering (October 4,1777): "The rage for Italians is almost confined to Munich; it exists in an exaggerated degree. In Mannheim, everything is German, except a couple of male sopranos. At Trêves, under the Elector, Prince Clement of Saxony, the Maestro alone is Italian; Mayence is altogether German; and at Würzburg the only foreigner is Signor Fracassini, a violinist, now, I believe, kapellmeister, and that only for the sake of his German wife, a vocalist and a native of Würzburg. There are no foreigners at any of the smaller Protestant courts." Notwithstanding, however, the reduction of the operatic and court establishment of Stuttgart in 1768, by the dismissal of some of its chief members, the taste and feeling, as well as the majority of the personnel, continued to be purely Italian;[ 13 ] and at Bonn many Italians belonged to the court establishment, under the leadership of Lucchesi.[ 14 ] L. Mozart does not allude to North Germany, since it lay out of Wolfgang's projected path. The natural consequence of the intrusion of foreigners was ceaseless contention between the German musicians, who saw themselves slighted and aggrieved, and the Italians, who made their superiority most offensively felt.[ 15 ] Mozart had to suffer from foreign intrigues ITALIANS IN SALZBURG. not only in Milan while composing his opera (p. 130), but perhaps also in Munich, and certainly in Salzburg. Archbishop Hieronymus, who set a low value on anything belonging to Salzburg, although he paid a high price for many a native manufacture bearing a foreign stamp,[ 16 ] introduced Italians into his band, because it had been blamed as "rough and rapid in execution, and not delicate nor in the best taste."[ 17 ] The kapellmeister Lolli, having become old and incapable, was replaced by Fischietti in 1772; this was a disappointment to L. Mozart, whose claims to the office were well founded, since he was considered to have placed music on its then excellent footing.[ 18 ] Among the soloists Brunetti was appointed to the violin, Ferrari to the violoncello, Ferlendi to the oboe, and Ceccarelli was male soprano. These Italians were not only better paid than native artists, but the "foreign asses," as Michael Haydn called them, relying on the favour of the Archbishop, conducted themselves with insolence and ill-breeding.[ 19 ] There can be no question that the annoyance to the two Mozarts was great at seeing strangers, far below them in social position and talent, preferred before them, while all the hard labour devolved upon themselves. Fischietti's compositions were few and far between; Wolfgang was always ready to compose operatic or sacred, vocal or instrumental music, as occasion arose. All this implanted a rooted dislike to foreigners in Mozart's young mind which the experiences of his later years did much to confirm. But the artistic element of his nature was far too strong and too pure to allow personal consideration to influence his judgment on Italian music; his heart was so sound and good that he EARLY MANHOOD. could overcome his dislike to the nation in his intercourse with individuals: it only transpires every now and then.
It was not very likely that the Mozarts—father or son—would be in high favour at court. We do not know much of their dealings with Archbishop Sigismund; but the difficulty L. Mozart had in renewing his leave of absence proves that the Archbishop was not overpleased with his repeated and lengthened stays abroad.[ 20 ] Wolfgang received an official post and the title of Concertmeister some time before 1770, but no salary; and even after the production of "Ascanio in Alba" L. Mozart was in doubt as to whether the Archbishop would remember his son if any vacancy occurred (p. 134). It is not known whether the salary of 150 gulden a year which he drew as Concertmeister had been granted to him by Sigismund; in any case it was not raised until 1777 by his successor, whose own sister, the Countess Schönborn, as Wolfgang writes (September 26, 1777), "positively refused to believe that he had had a monthly keepsake of twelve florins thirty kreutzers."
Mozart's position was still more unfavourable under Hieronymus, who never forgave the inhabitants of Salzburg their strongly expressed opposition to his election as Archbishop.[ 21 ] He knew himself to be unpopular, and, instead of courting popularity, openly displayed his contempt for his subjects.[ 22 ] He was a man of acute and enlightened intellect, and carried out some important reforms in his government ARCHBISHOP HIERONYMUS. with a firm hand; but he was self-willed, parsimonious, and unscrupulous.[ 23 ] He seldom expressed satisfaction with his officials. His disdainful mode of address to all but those of the highest nobility, and the irritable tone of his conversation, kept all about him in timid subordination. Even his appearance (although he was of mean stature and sickly complexion)—the sharp glance of his grey eyes, the left eye rarely fully open, and the decided lines round his mouth—commanded respect and fear.[ 24 ] There were other circumstances besides their German extraction and Salzburg birth which rendered the two Mozarts obnoxious to the Archbishop. Count Ferdinand von Zeil, afterwards Bishop of Chiemsee, to whose generous withdrawal Hieronymus owed his election,[ 25 ] was one of Mozart's warmest and most constant supporters, and for him Mozart, like all Salzburg, felt the deepest love and respect. This was not the way to the favour of Hieronymus. L. Mozart's independent demeanour, doing his duty and going his way without obsequiousness or flattery, and Wolfgang's open-mouthed candour, causing him occasionally to forget his official position and the reserve it should have entailed, were so many reasons for additional tyranny on the part of the Archbishop. Added to this was the fact that Mozart, with his slender figure and boyish countenance, made a poor personal impression on Hieronymus, who was singularly apt to be imposed upon by men of commanding height and appearance.[ 26 ] He refused any recognition of Wolfgang's musical accomplishments, and was unsparing in his criticism of them,[ 27 ] telling him—as EARLY MANHOOD. Leopold wrote to Padre Martini (December 22, 1777)—that he knew nothing of his art, and should go and study at the Naples Conservatoire that he might learn something; a sufficiently unreasonable proposal to an academician of Bologna and Verona—to a young man who had traversed Italy in triumph as a composer and virtuoso. True, Mozart had no great respect for the Archbishop's critical judgment, but in the mouth of his Prince such an expression of opinion was of very unpleasant significance; for, in point of fact, Hieronymus was well aware of Mozart's genius, and never failed to honour him with commissions when any new composition was required, for which he never paid him a penny. Even if otherwise, those around him would have put him right on the point; it was of set purpose that he gave vent to these insults. He imagined that contemptuous expressions of opinion as to his performances would be the most effectual means of preventing the younger Concertmeister from preferring his claim to a higher salary than 150 gulden a year.
