(Paris, July 3, 1778, to his father, who wished to see his son in the service of the archiepiscopal court at Salzburg.)
128. "The Prince must have confidence either in you or me, and give us complete control of everything relating to music; otherwise all will be in vain. For in Salzburg everybody or nobody has to do with music. If I were to undertake it I should demand free hands. In matters musical the Head Court Chamberlain should have nothing to say; a cavalier can not be a conductor, but a conductor can well be a cavalier."
(Paris, July 9, 1778.)
129. "If the Archbishop were to entrust it to me I would soon make his music famous, that's sure….But I have one request to make at Salzburg, and that is that I shall not be placed among the violins where I used to be; I'll never make a fiddler. I will conduct at the clavier and accompany the arias. It would have been a good thing if I had secured a written assurance of the conductorship."
(Paris, September 11, 1778, to his father who had urged him to return to Salzburg to receive an appointment to the conductorship. Mozart seems to have a premonition of the treatment which he received later from the Archbishop.)
130. "I must admit that I should reach Salzburg with a lighter heart if I were not aware that I have taken service there; it is only this thought that is intolerable. Put yourself in my place and think it over. At Salzburg I do not know who or what I am; I am everything and at times nothing. I do not demand too much or too little;—only something, if I am something."
(Strassburg, October 15, 1778, to his father, while returning from Paris filled with repugnance to the Archbishop. "For aside from obeying a praiseworthy and beautiful motive" (he means filial affection), "I am really committing the greatest folly in the world," he writes in the same letter.)
131. "The Archbishop can not recompense me for the slavery in Salzburg! As I have said I experience great pleasure when I think of visiting you again, but nothing but vexation and fear at the thought of seeing myself at that beggarly court again. The Archbishop must not attempt to put on grand airs with me as he used to; it is not impossible, it is even likely that I would put my fingers to my nose,—and I know full well that you would enjoy it as much as I."
(Mannheim, November 12, 1778, to his father.)
132. "At 11 o'clock in the forenoon, a little too early for me, unfortunately, we already go to table; we dine together,—the two temporal and spiritual valets, Mr. the Controller, Mr. Zetti, the Confectioner, Messrs. the two cooks, Ceccarelli, Brunetti and my insignificance. N.B. The two valets sit at the head of the table; I have at least the honor of sitting above the cooks. Well, I simply think I am at Salzburg. At dinner a great many coarse and silly jokes are cracked, but not at me, because I do not speak a word unless of necessity and then always with the utmost seriousness. As soon as I have dined I go my way."