Wolfgang's performances on the clavier, organ, and violin, extraordinary as they were, were thrown into the shade by the proofs he gave of almost incredible musical genius.[24] He not only accompanied at sight Italian and French airs, but he transposed them [prima vista].
At that time, accompanying meant more than the playing of prepared passages for the piano or clavier; it involved the choice at the moment of a fitting accompaniment for the FIRST PRINTED COMPOSITIONS. several parts of the score, or the supplying of harmonies to the bass.
On the other hand, the simplicity of the harmony, and the adherence to certain fixed forms, gave to such exercises facilities not afforded by the license and want of form of modern music. Grimm relates in his correspondence a truly astonishing instance of the boy's genius. Wolfgang accompanied a lady in an Italian air without seeing the music, supplying the harmony for the passage which was to follow from that which he had just heard. This could not be done without some mistakes, but when the song was ended he begged the lady to sing it again, played the accompaniment and the melody itself with perfect correctness, and repeated it ten times, altering the character of the accompaniment for each. On a melody being dictated to him, he supplied the bass and the parts without using the clavier at all; he showed himself in all ways so accomplished that his father was convinced he would obtain service at court on his return home. Leopold Mozart now thought the time was come for introducing the boy as a composer, and he printed four sonatas for the piano and violin, rejoicing at the idea of the noise which they would make in the world, appearing with the announcement on the title-page that they were the work of a child of seven years old. He thought well of these sonatas, independently of their childish authorship; one andante especially "shows remarkable taste." When it happened that in the last trio of Op. 2, a mistake of the young master, which his father had corrected (consisting of three consecutive fifths for the violin), was printed, he consoled himself by reflecting that "they can serve as a proof that Wolfgangerl wrote the sonatas himself, which, naturally, not every one would believe." The little composer dedicated his first printed sonatas (6, 7, K.), to the good-natured Princesse Victoire, both she and her sisters being very fond of music. The next (8,9, K.), were dedicated to the amiable and witty Comtesse de Tessê, lady-in-waiting to the Dauphiness.
Grimm had written a dedication in Mozart's name, in which both he and the Dauphiness were well touched off. FIRST JOURNEY. To L. Mozart's vexation she declined it as too eulogistic, and a simpler one had to be substituted.
The prodigies were overwhelmed with distinctions, complimentary verses, and gifts. M. de Carmontelle, an admirable amateur portrait painter, made a charming picture of the family group;[25] it was engraved by Delafosse at Grimm's instigation.
The unprecedented success of the two children was the more significant since musical culture was not nearly so predominant in Paris as in most of the German courts. "It is a pity," says Grimm, "that people in this country understand so little of music."
L. Mozart notes the standing war between French and Italian music, and the position which Grimm took up on the side of the Italians served to confirm him in his preconceived opinions. According to him none of the French music was worth a groat; in church music all the solos and everything approaching to an air, were "empty, cold, and wretched, in fact French." But he did justice to the choruses, and lost no opportunity of letting his son hear them.[26] In instrumental music the German composers, among them Schobert, Eckart, and Hannauer, were beginning to make their influence felt, so much so that Le Grand[27] abandoned the French style and composed sonatas after German models. The revolution to be wrought by Gluck, was as yet, indeed, not to be foreseen; but L. Mozart hoped that in ten or fifteen years the French style would be extinguished.
On April 10, 1764, the Mozart family left Paris. At Calais, Marianne notes in her diary, "how the sea runs away and comes back again." Thence they crossed to Dover in a small vessel, the packet being over full, and were very sea-sick; an experienced courier, whom they had brought with them from Paris, arranged the journey direct LONDON, 1764-65. to London.[28] They were heard at court on April 27, and their reception surpassed all expectation. "The favour shown to us by both royal personages is incredible," writes L. Mozart; "we should never imagine from their familiar manner that they were the King and Queen of England. We have met with extraordinary politeness at every court, but this surpasses them all. A week ago we were walking in St. James's Park; the King and Queen drove past, and although we were differently dressed, they recognised us, and the King leant out of the window smiling and nodding, especially towards Wolfgang."
George III. was a connoisseur and passionate admirer of Handel's music, and Queen Charlotte sang and played; both had German taste, and gave special honour to German artists, as Jos. Haydn found in later years.[29] The Mozarts were summoned to court on May 19, and played before a limited circle from six to ten o'clock. Pieces by Wagenseil, Bach, Abel, and Handel were placed by the King before the "invincible" Wolfgang, who played them all at sight; he surpassed his clavier-playing when he sat down to the King's organ; he accompanied the Queen in a song, a flute-player in a solo, and, finally, he took the bass of an air by Handel and improvised a charming melody to it. None took more interest in the young musician than the Queen's music-master, Joh. Christian Bach,[30] the son of Sebastian Bach, settled in London since 1762, and the author of several popular operas and numerous pianoforte compositions. He looked upon his art after an easy careless fashion; but his kindness and goodwill won Wolfgang's heart for ever. He liked to play with the boy; took him upon his knee and went through a sonata with him, each in turn playing a bar with so much precision that no one would have suspected two performers. He began a fugue, which Wolfgang took up and completed when Bach broke off. FIRST JOURNEY. At last L. Mozart thought the time had come to introduce to the public "the greatest wonder of which Europe or the world can boast," as the grandiloquent announcement ran. Not without due calculation, the concert was fixed for June 5, the King's birthday, which was sure to bring a large public to London. The speculation succeeded, and L. Mozart "was terrified" by taking one hundred guineas in three hours—a satisfactory sum to send home. On the 29th Wolfgang played at a concert given at Ranelagh Gardens, with a charitable object, and "astonished and delighted the greatest connoisseurs in England." This prosperous career was, however, temporarily cut short; Leopold Mozart was seized with dangerous inflammation of the throat, and retired with his children to Chelsea, where they remained seven weeks before his cure was completed. During this time Wolfgang, out of consideration for his father, left his instrument untouched; but he set to work to write orchestral symphonies, and his sister tells[31] how he said to her, sitting near: "Remind me to give something really good to the horn." The horn was at that time a favourite instrument in England, and in many of Wolfgang's youthful compositions it has a prominent part. The first symphony, in E flat major (1 K.), in the three usual movements, has many corrections which the boy made, partly to improve the instrumentation, partly to moderate the too rapid transition to the principal theme of the first movement. Originality is scarcely to be expected, but it is something that a due regard to form and continuity should be everywhere apparent. He worked so diligently that at the next concert it was announced that all the instrumental pieces were of Wolfgang's composition. Three symphonies (17,18,19, K.), in B flat major (with two minuets, the instrumentation not quite complete), in E flat major (with clarinets, instead of oboes, and bassoons), and in D major (Londra, 1765), which all fall within the London visit, show marked progress. The subjects are better defined, the disposition of the parts is freer and more orchestral, and some instrumental effects LONDON, 1764-65. begin to be heard. On October 29, they were in town again, and invited to court to celebrate the fourth anniversary of the King's accession. As a memento of the royal favour, L. Mozart printed six sonatas for piano and violin or flute, composed by Wolfgang, and dedicated to the Queen on January 18, 1765, which dedication she rewarded with a present of fifty guineas.[32] The opening of the Italian Opera House on November 24, 1764, had no small influence on Wolfgang's genius; here, for the first time, he heard singers of note. Giovanni Manzuoli (born in Florence, 1720),[33] whose singing and acting were then exciting the London public to the highest enthusiasm,[34] became acquainted with the Mozart family, and gave Wolfgang lessons in singing. His voice was, of course, a boyish treble; his style that of an artist. The following year, in Paris, Grimm declared that he had so profited by Manzuoli's instruction as to sing with extreme taste and feeling, notwithstanding the weakness of his voice. Thus early did Mozart acquire, as if by natural instinct, all the requisites for a great composer which are, to most men, the result of years of painful study.
During Lent, he enjoyed the opportunity of hearing Handel's Oratorios, but we hear nothing of any special influence which they may have had on his mind; indeed, he knew little of Handel in later years, until Van Swieten made him acquainted with his works.