L. Mozart's intention of taking Wolfgang to Italy remained firm as ever, and he considered their stay in Vienna as the first step towards its accomplishment. At that time, Italy was to musicians what she now is to painters and sculptors; a residence there was necessary to give the finishing touches to their education, and éclat to their reputation.
Music in Italy was not only an art universally diffused and esteemed, it was the Art par excellence. All classes shared the insatiable desire for music everywhere—in the churches, the theatres, the streets, and their own homes; and the delicate appreciation and enthusiasm for what was excellent were increased by practice and education. So in Italy a national tradition for production as well as for taste had been gradually formed, a sort of musical climate, in which artists found it easy to breathe. They knew that they might rely confidently on the appreciation of the public, whose attention and intelligence urged them to fresh efforts, while rewarding each success with sympathetic applause.
Opera and church music were almost in equal favour, and afforded mutual support to each other. It was accordant with the brilliancy of royal courts and rich cities to give operatic performances either at Carnival time or on special festive occasions; no expense was spared to engage the most famous singers, male and female, and for every season (stagione) new operas were written, if possible by famous and favourite composers. Again, the dignity of the Church required, at least on great holy days, that the musical part of the worship should be grand and imposing; and the more MUSIC IN ITALY. richly endowed churches and monasteries were quite able to rival the theatres. There was on every side a steady demand for musical production and execution, which offered abundant opportunity for the exercise of every kind of talent.
The musical education of youth was principally intrusted to the Church. Monasteries and religious institutions were careful to train the musical strength, which was later to be at their disposal; special institutions were founded, which were in part the origin of the future Conservatoires, whose mission it was to train their scholars as singers, instrumentalists, or composers, and in every case as thoroughly cultivated musicians. In Venice there were four such foundations in which boys, and more especially girls, received musical instruction, preparatory to devoting themselves to the service of the Church: the Ospidale della Pietà, intended for foundlings; Ospedaletto, where Sacchini was kapellmeister at this time; Gli Mendicanti, and Gli Incurabili, then under Galuppi's direction.[5] In Naples were similar establishments, De Poveridi Gesù-Christo; Della Pietà de' Turchini; S. Onofrio; Loretto. Though all were originally intended as nurseries for church music, yet they were of almost equal service to music of a secular nature; indeed, the most highly gifted among the scholars were likely to prefer the more brilliant and profitable career of the opera stage. But the separation was never complete; operatic composers for the most part worked also for the churches, where opera singers and even professional instrumentalists were often heard. Ecclesiastics, too, practised music in various branches, often with zeal and success. Although this union of musical forces, through the overpowering influence of the opera, worked in time prejudicially on the dignity and purity of church music, yet there can be no doubt of its good effect on the study of form and musical science. The result was all the greater, since the almost instinctive steadfastness of the national taste preserved musicians from aberrations which are only to be checked by rigid limitations as to style and form. An art so formed, THE ITALIAN TOUR. with so one-sided a cultivation, must of course die out in the end; but the extraordinary accomplishments of numerous Italian masters cannot fail to impress us with admiration of the share which Italian music, in its fulness of life and activity, had in producing a true musical atmosphere. It was indeed, this firm foundation of scientific knowledge which made possible a liberation of music from its confined Italian limits without abandoning the laws of artistic formation.
Under these circumstances Italy enjoyed undisputed and unlimited sovereignty in all matters relating to music. Spain and England acknowledged it almost without reserve; in France, where the impulse proceeding originally from Italy, had been modified by national characteristics, the influence of Italy was now beginning to reassert itself. In Germany alone, the works of great masters (we need only remind our readers of the Bach family as representatives of German church music; of Keiser, the creator of German opera in Hamburg) bore witness to an independent development of music. Even here it was not as "German as the German oaks," and bore many traces of Italian or French influences; but the comprehension and cultivation of form, the substance and spirit of the music, are purely German. This German music, however, was principally confined to Protestant North Germany; it was nourished by no favour from the great, and the colder artistic mind of North Germany hindered it from attaining the popularity which was enjoyed by music in Italy. At all the German courts, Protestant as well as Catholic, the opera was Italian; the Catholic church music was under the exclusive sway of Italian composers; all singers, male and female, were either born or educated in Italy, and so, for the most part, were the instrumentalists, although it was in instrumental music that Germany first challenged the supremacy of Italy.
The curious attraction of Germans to Italy, which has existed in all ages under different manifestations, must have worked with peculiar power on musicians.[6] The German LEOPOLD' MOZART'S HOPES. composers of the last century (with the exception of the North German Protestant church composers) all studied and laid the foundation of their fame in Italy, even those who, like Handel and Gluck, possessed original power enough to enable them later to strike out a path for themselves.[7]
It may be said that, in this sense, Mozart's pilgrimage to Rome was the last of its kind; to him it was accorded, not, only to attain to the highest aim of Italian opera but to break the bonds of nationality, by lending depth and substance to the Italian perfection of form, while, with the wealth of knowledge acquired in Italy, he furnished artistic form and expression to the national opera of Germany.
In taking his son to Italy, L. Mozart had a twofold end in view. Wolfgang was not so much to continue his scholastic training (that he could have done at home) as to emerge from a narrow provincial existence into the great world of art, and by extended experiences to gain the refined taste of a cultivated man of the world. He was also to gain fresh laurels, and to prepare the way for a prosperous and glorious future. L. Mozart expected from the excitable Italians special interest and applause on account of Wolfgang's youth; and in this he was not disappointed. But he soon found that no pecuniary gain was to be expected from this journey, since all concerts (accademie) were given by exclusive companies, or by a public institute without entrance money; so that the artist could count on no receipts but a voluntary fee from the entrepreneur, which was not usually large. Soon after his arrival in Italy L. Mozart remarks to his wife, a remark often repeated, that although not rich he has "always a little more than is absolutely necessary"; and so bearing his main object in view, he is quite content.
Considering the constant fulfilment of duty as the most important factor in education, he insisted on Wolfgang's continuing his regular studies during their journey. A long list of compositions, partly suggested by passing events, partly set studies, bear witness to this. Wolfgang, who was very fond of arithmetic (p. 22), asks his sister to send his arithmetic book after him, so that he may go on with his sums. In Rome he had a present of an Italian translation of the "Arabian Nights," which amused him very much. Soon after we find him reading "Telemachus." L. Mozart was too well informed himself to look upon this journey as instructive merely from a musical point of view. His letters show that he took interest in politics and social life, in nature, art, and antiquity; he sends home long descriptions of the journey, which are to serve as preliminaries to future conversations over the books and engravings he is collecting. Wolfgang evinced the same fresh interest in everything he saw, and offered no opposition to the care his father took of his health. "You know that he can be moderate," writes L. Mozart (February 17,1770), and I can assure you that I have never seen him so careful of his health as in this country. He leaves alone all that he does not think good for him, and many days he eats but little; yet he is always fat and well, and merry and happy the whole day long. And from Rome he writes (April 14, 1770), that Wolfgang "takes as much care of his health as if he were a grown man."