Category: Biographies

Life of Mozart, Vol. 1 (of 3)

I HAVE been asked to say a few words by way of welcome to the translation of Jahn's Life of Mozart, and I do so with pleasure. The book has been long familiar to me, and I regard its appearance in an English dress as an event in our musical history. It will be a great boon to...

Chapters

19. CHAPTER XVII. MANNHEIM

and an exhibition of plaster casts from the antique--at that time the only, and much-thought-of collection of the kind in Germany[2]--served, in connection with an academy, to e...

6. CHAPTER V. THE ITALIAN TOUR.

THE Archbishop could not but feel flattered at the accomplishments of the young Salzburger, and he endeavoured, as far as lay in his power, to complete the partial success of th...

15. CHAPTER XIII. CHURCH MUSIC.

special instructors. They afterwards entered the choir as singers or passed into the service of the court; if they showed extraordinary talent, they were sent to finish their tr...

16. CHAPTER XIV. INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC.

DURING the last half of the eighteenth century it had become the fashion in Italy and elsewhere to perform detached instrumental pieces as introductions or intermezzi during the...

5. CHAPTER IV. THE FIRST OPERA IN VIENNA.

THE approaching marriage of the Archduchess Maria Josepha with King Ferdinand of Naples furnished Leopold Mozart with a pretext for repairing to Vienna with his whole family; th...

1. VOLUME I.

I HAVE been asked to say a few words by way of welcome to the translation of Jahn's Life of Mozart, and I do so with pleasure. The book has been long familiar to me, and I regar...

17. CHAPTER XV. EARLY MANHOOD.

OUR examination of the development of Mozart's youthful genius, as it is to be traced in the multiplicity and variety of his studies, may fitly be concluded by a rapid survey of...

3. CHAPTER II. EARLY JOURNEYS

It was in January of the year 1762 that L. Mozart first turned to account the precocious talent of his children in an expedition to Munich. Their visit extended over three weeks...

2. CHAPTER I. -- CHILDHOOD

WOLFGANG AMADE MOZART came of a family belonging originally to the artisan class. We find his ancestors settled in Augsburg early in the seventeenth century, and following their...

18. CHAPTER XVI. MUNICH AND AUGSBURG.

"After you had set off," he wrote (September 25, 1777), "I went upstairs quite exhausted, and threw myself on a couch. It was with a great effort that I had restrained myself at...

11. CHAPTER X. OPERA BUFFA.

Even so late as 1718, when Scarlatti's "Telemacco" was produced, there were scenes of coarse humour between Tersite and Silvina in this otherwise conventionally correct opera.[1...

9. CHAPTER VIII. MOZART'S EARLY OPERAS.

MOZART found rules as to the form and technicalities of the opera[1] seria rigidly laid down even to the minutest details, and he was the less tempted to disregard these, since...

8. CHAPTER VII. OPERA SERIA.

THE OPERA[1] owes its rise to the attempt which was made in Florence at the beginning of the sixteenth century to discover the musical method of ancient tragedy and to reproduce...

4. CHAPTER III. STUDY IN SALZBURG.

LEOPOLD MOZART had every reason to be satisfied with the result of his tour; the extraordinary talents of his children had been duly appreciated,[1] honours of every kind had be...

7. CHAPTER VI. WORKS IN GERMANY.

In the summer of this year the Archbishop repaired to Vienna, and Leopold Mozart seized the opportunity of following him thither with Wolfgang. He looked forward only to a short...

10. CHAPTER IX. ORATORIO.

and thrown into the form of a musical drama by Filippo Neri (1515-1595), is without foundation. All that can confidently be asserted is that he caused _laudi spirituali_, a kind...

13. CHAPTER XI. MOZART'S "RE PASTORE.

THE last opera of the series we have been considering is the festival opera, "Il Re Pastore," composed in honour of the Archduke Maximilian, at Salzburg, in 1775, to the text of...

14. CHAPTER XII. SONGS.

The earliest of them, composed for the two Licenze at Salzburg (p. 99), and those belonging to the first Italian journey, call for no special remark. Yet there occurs in the air...

12. Part II., p. 440) may be recognised in the majority of comic opera

[Footnote 15: Arteaga, Rivol., c. 13, II., p. 298; Part II. p. 263. Manfredini, Difesa d. Mas. Mod., p. 194. Mattei, Rif. del Teatro vor Metastasio, Opp. III., p. 37.]