I kiss your hand, and thank you humbly for your good wishes on my fête-day. Have no concern for me; I have God ever before my eyes; I acknowledge His omnipotence, I fear His anger; but I also acknowledge His love, His mercy and pity towards His creatures; He will never forsake His servants. I submit myself wholly to His will, and so it cannot fail I must be happy and content. I shall also be diligent to follow the commands and the counsel which you are so good as to give me.
On October 26 Wolfgang and his mother left Augsburg, and proceeded by way of Donauwörth and Nordlingen to Hohenaltheim, the residence of the Prince von Oetting-Wallerstein.[ 19 ] Music was held in high honour at this little court; not only were celebrated performers, such as Janitsch, the violinist, Reicha, the violoncellist, Perwein, the oboist, &c., encouraged to settle there, but the whole orchestra was distinguished for its delicacy of execution. Rosetti, the conductor, had "carried his observance of the most delicate gradations of tone sometimes to the bounds of pedantry."[ 20 ] Ignaz von Beecké, captain in a Wurtemberg dragoon regiment, was manager of the court music, and himself a distinguished clavier-player and composer. The Prince, a handsome young man, who had formerly invited Wolfgang to visit him in Naples, was suffering from an attack of melancholy, and unable to bear music; but the Mozarts were obliged to remain several days at Hohenaltheim on account of the mother's severe cold. A rumour reached L. Mozart that Wolfgang had been playing the buffoon there, that he had danced about, playing the violin, and had gained the reputation of being a wild, merry fellow. He considered that this would afford Beecké, who was jealous of Wolfgang, an excellent opportunity of depreciating his powers as an artist (January 26, 1778), Wolfgang gave a decided contradiction to this report; he had "sat at the officers' table with all due honour, and had not said a word to any one; when with Beecké, too, he had been quite serious." Beecké had received him kindly, had promised him advice and support should he ever go to Paris, and had heard him play. They had talked about Vienna, too, and agreed that the Emperor Joseph was a fair executant, but not a true lover of music. Beecké said that he had only played fugues and such like "trifles" before him, and that he had heard music in the Emperor's cabinet which was enough to frighten the very dogs away. They also confided to each other that music gave them both the headache; only good music had this effect with Beecké, and bad with Mozart.
The travellers entered Mannheim on October 30. Their stay was longer than they had intended, and although the hopes with which it opened were not destined to be fulfilled, yet the months passed in Mannheim were fruitful in their effect on Wolfgang's development, both musical and
The Elector, Karl Theodor,[ 21 ] had studied in his early youth under the Jesuits, and had then visited the Universities of Leyden and Lowen, displaying a great taste for science, poetry, art, and music, the last of which he practised himself. The extravagance which he lavished on his court and on his park of Schwetzingen—the Versailles of the palatinate—was carried also in some degree into the affairs of science and art.
CHAPTER XVII. MANNHEIM
The Palatinate Academy of Science, founded in 1763, encouraged historical and scientific research; collections of pictures and engravings, and an exhibition of plaster casts from the antique—at that time the only, and much-thought-of collection of the kind in Germany[ 2 ]—served, in connection with an academy, to encourage the formative arts; and a German society, founded in Mannheim by the Elector in 1775, proved the desire of its members to take their share in the new impulse which German literature had then received.[ 3 ]
Klopstock's presence ART IN THE PALATINATE. in this year had not been without its influence; not content with native authors, such as Gemmingen, Klein, Dalberg, the painter Müller, the Elector sought, but in vain, to attract acknowledged celebrities, such as Lessing[ 4 ] and Wieland.[ 5 ] His zealous co-operation was given to the plan of founding a German drama in the place of the usual French one;[ 6 ] the national theatre was built,[ 7 ] and efforts were made to retain Lessing as dramatist and Eckhoff as actor.[ 8 ] When this failed, the engagement of Marchand secured them at least a first-rate actor.[ 9 ]
But music was incontestably the peculiar province of Mannhein, the "paradise of musicians."[ 10 ] Here too, patriotic MANNHEIM. feeling was supreme.[ 11 ] Original German operas took the place of the grand Italian opera, with its appendage of translated comic opera, generally borrowed from the French.[ 12 ]
