The time of their stay in Naples was favourable to musical interests. Simultaneously with the excellent representations of comic opera in the Teatro Nuovo, there was opened on May 30, the King's fête-day, the Grand Opera in San Carlo, THE ITALIAN TOUR. for which Jomelli, Caffaro, and Ciccio di Majo were engaged; Anna de Amicis was prima donna, Aprile principal male singer. By a curious coincidence, Wolfgang was a witness of the first attempt made by Jomelli, who had left Stuttgart for Naples in 1768, to regain the favour of his countrymen. De Rogatis' opera "Armida Abbandonata," in which he made his reappearance, was designed to satisfy the higher claims of dramatic music, and to bring the results of his studies in Germany before the Italians, who were, however, slow to appreciate them. Wolfgang thought the opera fine, but too pedantic and old-fashioned for the theatre. This seems to have been the universal opinion; and later the increasing distaste to Jomelli's operas obliged the withdrawal of his "Iphigenia in Aulide," and the substitution of "Demofoonte" (November 4, 1770).[41]
The Mozarts found Jomelli polite and friendly. Through him they became acquainted with the impresario Amadori, who offered Wolfgang a libretto for San Carlo; but this, owing to his previous engagement in Milan, he was obliged to refuse, together with similar offers which had been made to him in Bologna and Rome.
On June 25, they travelled with post-horses back to Rome. Through the fault of a clumsy postilion their carriage was upset; Leopold saved his son by springing out before the danger came; he himself sustained considerable injury to his leg. Wolfgang was so tired by the journey (they had driven twenty-seven hours without a stop), that after he had eaten a little he fell asleep in his chair and was undressed and put to bed by his father, without waking.
This stay in Rome, during which they were present at the illumination of St. Peter's, at the delivery of Neapolitan tribute, and other ceremonies, brought Wolfgang a new distinction; he was invested by the Pope, in an "RITTER MOZART"—BOLOGNA, 1770. audience of July 8, with the order of the Golden Spur, which the father announces, not without pride, as "a piece of good luck."[42] "You may imagine how I laugh," he writes, "to hear him called Signor Cavaliere."
The honour apparently made little impression on Wolfgang. For some years his father insisted on his signing his compositions "Del Sign. Cavaliere W. A. Mozart," and advised him to wear his order in Paris; but later he let it drop, and one never hears of Ritter Mozart, whereas Gluck, who like Klopstock, wished to be outwardly recognised as the prophet of higher culture, was very tenacious of his dignity as a Ritter. Mozart was too simple-natured, and too essentially a musician, to set any store by outward distinctions.
On July 10, they left Rome, where Pomp. Battoni had painted a fine portrait of the young maestro, and travelled by way of Cività Castellana, Loretto, and Sini-gaglia to Bologna. They arrived on July 20, intending to remain here quietly until the completion and rehearsal of his opera should render Wolfgang's presence in Milan indispensable. L. Mozart's injured leg was still troublesome, and he was otherwise unwell, so that the friendly invitation of Count Pallavicini, to pass the hot season at his country-house in the neighbourhood of Bologna, was joyfully accepted. They found the coolest, best-appointed rooms prepared for them; couriers and servants were placed at their disposal, and their intercourse with the noble family was pleasant and unrestrained. The father was most carefully tended, and Wolfgang struck up a firm friendship with the young Count, who was just his own age, played the piano, spoke three languages, had six tutors, and was already a chamberlain.
Wolfgang composed industriously, and writes to his sister about four Italian symphonies, five or six songs, and a motett, which he had written. His only distress was that he had lost his singing voice; he had not five clear notes left, either high or low, and could no longer sing his own compositions. At Bologna they made the acquaintance of the operatic composer, Joh. Misliweczeck (1737-1781), who was finishing an oratorio for Padua, and was to write the opera in Milan for 1772. "He is an honest man," writes L. Mozart, "and we have become great friends." But their principal intercourse was with Padre Martini, with whom they became very intimate, visiting him daily, and holding long musical discussions. The discourse and instruction of the great contrapuntist could not be without influence on Wolfgang's work. A list of sketches in difficult contrapuntal forms, which according to the handwriting belong to this time, must have been studies suggested by Padre Martini. Of peculiar interest is a three-part Miserere for alto, tenor, and bass, with figured Continuo, superscribed Del Sigr. Caval. W. A. Mozart, in Bologna, 1770 (85 K.). It is evidently written under the influence of Allegri's Roman Miserere, generally harmonic, with some few imitative introductory passages, simple and very beautiful. The three last movements, Quoniam, Benigne, Tunc acceptabis, are written by another hand, and evidently not composed by Mozart; the subjects are severer and more simple. Probably Padre Martini wound up the youth's exercises by these movements of his own composition.[43]
The Philharmonic Society of Naples, whose festival performance Mozart had attended in company with Burney,[44] ELECTION TO THE ÀCCÀDEMIA FILARMONICA. honoured him with a signal proof of admiration and esteem. This famous society, founded in 1666, upon the presentation by Wolfgang of a memorial, and his accomplishment of a prescribed task, elected him a member of their body as Compositore. This honour was eagerly sought after by the most distinguished composers. For composers of church music it was important, since Benedict XIV., in a bull of 1749, had given a kind of overseership to the Philharmonic Society; only its members could become kapellmeisters to churches in Bologna, and by a Papal decree this membership was allowed to take the place of any examination.[45] The distinction was the greater since members were required[46] to be twenty years old, to have been admitted into the first class of compositore, and to have been a year in the second class of cantori and sonatori. Leopold describes the election as follows:—
At 4 o'clock in the afternoon of October 9 Wolfgang was required to appear at the hall of the society. There the Princeps Academiæ and the two censors (who are old kapellmeisters) gave him an antiphon from the Antiphonary; he was then conducted by the verger to a neighbouring apartment and locked in, there to set it in three parts. When it was ready it was examined by the censor, and all the kapellmeistem and composers, who voted on it by means of black and white balls. All the balls being white he was called in, and amid clapping of hands and congratulations the Princeps Academiæ in the name of the society announced his election. He returned thanks, and the thing was over. I was all the time on the other side of the hall cooped up in the Academical Library. Every one was astonished that he was ready so soon, for many have spent three hours over an antiphon of three lines. N.B.—You must know that it was not an easy task, for this kind of composition excludes many things of which he had been told beforehand. He finished it in exactly half an hour.