But such personal failings as these are cast into the shade by the merit which is due to Van Swieten as the man who awoke interest in Vienna for severe and classical music. His influence upon Mozart is unmistakable. At the beginning of 1782 we find them in constant intercourse, and Mozart habitually present at Van Swieten's musical Sunday mornings, at which music in the severe style only was performed. He had, as Mozart writes to his sister (April 20, 1782), "a stock of music good in point of value, but small in quantity"; and in order to add to it, Mozart requests his father to send him both his own church compositions, and VAN SWIETEN AND CLASSICAL MUSIC. some select works of Michael Haydn and Eberlin, which he had formerly copied (Vol. I., p. 238); they were performed with great applause in the little circle, These performances were clearly not intended for an audience; for Van Swieten sang tenor, Mozart alto (at the same time playing the pianoforte), Starzer[ 69 ] tenor, and young Tebery,[ 70 ] who had just returned from Italy, bass (Märch 12, 1783). But in this way they became familiar with the best works of masters who had been hitherto unheard in Vienna. "It is a fact," writes Mozart (April 12,1783), "that the change of taste has extended even to church music, which is much to be regretted; so it comes that the best church music lies worm-eaten in the garret."[ 71 ]
Clavier music of the same school also found a place in Van Swieten's musical meetings. Mozart writes to his father (April 10, 1782):—
I wish you would send me Handel's six fugues and the toccata and fugues by Eberlin. I go every Sunday morning to the Baron van Swieten, and nothing is played there but Handel and Bach. I am making a collection of the Bach fugues, Sebastian's as well as Emanuel's and Friedemann's, and also of Handel's, and I want just these six. Also, I should like to let the Baron hear Eberlin's.
Concerning the latter, however, he writes soon after to his sister (April 20, 1782):—
If my father has not yet had Eberlin's works copied, pray countermand them. I have found them here, and see (now that I refresh my memory of them) that they are very trivial and unworthy of a place with Handel and Bach. His four-part movement deserves all respect, but his clavier fugues are simply versetti spun out to great length.
We have seen already how Mozart's interest in the study of these masters was still further kindled by the pleasure his wife took in fugues (Vol. II., p. 267). When he sent his sister a three-part fugue with a prelude, he wrote to her (April 20, 1782) that if time and opportunity served, he meant to write five more fugues, and present them all to Van Swieten; she must therefore keep this one to herself, learn it by heart, and play it; "it is not so easy to play fugues." A second (39 Anh. K.) has only the theme with one answer written down:—[See Page Images]
A third is rather more finished (40 Anh. K.), and its very original subject promises an interesting elaboration—
which causes the more regret that it should have stopped short of completion.
Mozart twice projected arranging Frohberger's "Phantasia supra Ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la" for the pianoforte,[ 72 ] but neither time did he accomplish his intention (292 Anh. K.). The three-part fugue in C major, which has been published (394 K.), probably the same that Mozart sent to his sister with a prelude, gives an idea of his intentions. A four-part fugue in G minor, wanting only a few bars, was finished and published by Stadler (401 K.). Only sketches remain of other clavier fugues. The most finished (26 bars) is a fugue in G major (23 Anh. K.):—[See Page Images (next page)]