CHAPTER XLVI. AT THE GRAVE.
MOZART'S early and unexpected death, removing him from the eyes of the world at the moment when he might seem to have attained the height of his artistic greatness, had the effect of silencing the detractions and the envy of the few who were blinded by jealousy to his merits, and of exalting his works in the minds of those who felt his loss to be an irreparable one. Public feeling took the form of sympathy for his bereaved family, who were left in pressing need; and they found generous support, not in Vienna and Prague alone, but in many other places to which the widow made professional visits. When she was in Berlin, in 1796, Frederick William II. allowed her the use of the opera-house and the royal musicians for a benefit concert, at which she
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appeared as a vocalist (February 28). The King, as was stated in the programme (Niemetschek, p. 63), "took great pleasure in thus proving to the widow how highly he esteemed the talent of her late husband, and how much he regretted the unfortunate circumstances which had prevented his reaping the due reward of his labours." But such efforts as these could not assure her a livelihood for any length of time; nor would the manuscripts left by Mozart realise, as matters then stood, anything like a sum sufficient for her future needs. His compositions might be spread abroad, either in MS. or in print, without her consent or authorisation. Indeed, when reference was made to her, she considered it as a favour,[1] and was well pleased when, in 1799, André purchased from her all the manuscripts in her possession for a sum of one thousand ducats.
Some of Mozart's manuscripts had been lost before his death, others have been made over to other people by André himself, and the remainder are included in the "Thematic Catalogue of Mozart's Original Manuscripts in the Possession of Hofrath André of Offenbach" (Offenbach, 1841). Unhappily, no public library has been able to obtain this most important collection, and its dispersion, owing to testamentary dispositions, must be a source of regret to all musicians.
Mozart's widow found a means of secure and untroubled existence in her second marriage. Georg Nic. Nissen (b. 1765) made her acquaintance, in 1797, at Vienna, where he was attached to the diplomatic service of Denmark, and rendered her great service in the arrangement of her affairs, as the numerous letters written by him in her name sufficiently show. He appears to have been a tiresome, but an upright and honourable man, and to have acted well towards Constanze and her children from the time of their marriage in 1809. After resigning his state service, in 1820, he lived with her in Salzburg, where also Mozart's sister resided (App. I.). He died in 1826, and was followed by his widow on
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March 6, 1842, a few hours after the arrival of the model for Mozart's statue; after Nissen's death she had lived with her widowed sister, Sophie Haibl.[2]
Karl, the elder of Mozart's two surviving sons, began life as a merchant, then tried music,[3] and finally embraced an official career. He was a good pianist, and conducted musical performances, first at the house of Colonel Casella, afterwards at his own;[4] he died in a subordinate official post at Milan in 1859. The younger son, Wolfgang, became a musician. He first appeared in public in 1805,[5] made repeated professional tours, and after 1814 lived as musical director, first at Lemberg, afterwards in Vienna; he died at Carlsbad in 1844. He was esteemed both as a pianist and composer, but the greatness of his name prevented his attaining to more.[6]
Appreciation and honour had not been wanting to Mozart in his lifetime, but they had been far from unalloyed; after his death they were showered in fullest measure on his memory.[7] His loss was commemorated in many places by the performance of his own works or of specially composed funeral cantatas,[8] and the anniversaries of his birth and of his death are still kept, both in private musical circles[9] and publicly, by concerts. The hundredth anniversary of his birth, which in 1856 caused all Germany to ring with Mozart's name and Mozart's music, united every voice into a chorus of praise and honour, and gave a new impulse to the study of his works.[10]
Mozart's personal appearance has become so familiar by means of well-known portraits that he may in this respect
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be compared to Frederick the Great or Luther; his music and his countenance have alike become common property (App. III.).
In the year 1799 the Duchess Amalie of Weimar placed a memorial of Mozart in the park of Siefurt; it is in terra cotta: a lyre on a pedestal, and leaning on it a tragic and a comic mask.[11] Bridi (Vol. II., p. 359), in the "Temple to Harmony" which he erected in his garden, has given to Mozart the first place among the seven musicians there represented, and has placed a monument dedicated to him in a melancholy grotto, with the inscription, "Herrscher der Seele durch melodische Denkkraft."[12] The same inscription is on the reverse of a medal by Guillemard together with a muse playing a lyre and a Cupid with a flute; the other side has a portrait of Mozart. A medallion by Bàrend has also a portrait in front, the reverse representing Orpheus and a captive lion, with the inscription, "Auditus saxis intellectusque ferarum sensibus." The design for a medallion by Böhm, which was never struck, was shown to me by my friend Karajan. It consists of a refined and intellectual representation of Mozart's profile.
In 1835 the idea took shape of erecting a statue to Mozart in Salzburg. An appeal for subscriptions was made in September, 1836,[13] and the cast of the statue was completed on May 22, 1841. The ceremony of unveiling the figure took place on the Michaelsplatz, September 4, 1842.[14] Unhappily it cannot be said that Schwanthaler has succeeded in investing the accepted idea of Mozart as an artist and a man with any ideal force and dignity. He is represented clothed in the traditional toga, standing with his head turned sidewards and upwards, and in his hand a scroll with the inscription, "Tuba mirum." In bas-relief on the pedestal are allegorical representations of church, concert, and dramatic music, and an eagle flying heavenwards with
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a lyre. The simple inscription is "Mozart."[15] In 1856 the city of Vienna determined upon erecting a monument to Mozart in the churchyard of St. Mark's. It was designed by Hans Gasser, and solemnly unveiled December 5, 1859. A mourning muse reposes on a granite pillar, holding in her right hand the score of the Requiem, and resting her left, with a laurel wreath, on a pile of Mozart's works. On the pedestal are Mozart's portrait and the Vienna arms, with a short inscription.[16]
Mozart's name has been more worthily honoured by the foundation of various institutions. The Salzburg Mozarteum, founded in 1842, not only preserves the most important family documents and interesting relics which were in the possession of Mozart's sons; it has the further aim of fostering and advancing music, and more especially church music, in Mozart's native town.[17] The Mozart Institution at Frankfort, founded in 1838, encourages talent by means of prizes and scholarships;[18] and a Mozart Society, founded in 1855, undertakes to assist needy musicians.[19]
But after all that may be accomplished in honour of Mozart by the most enthusiastic of his admirers, his true and imperishable fame rests upon his works. A history of modern music will be concerned to show how his influence has worked upon his successors, displaying itself sometimes in conscious or slavish imitation, sometimes in the freer impulse it has given to closely allied natures; and it may truly be said that of all the composers who have lived and worked since Mozart there is not one who has not felt his inspiration, not one who has not learnt from him, not one who at some time or another has not encroached upon his domain. Like all great and original geniuses, he belongs to two ages which it was his mission to bring together; while quickening and transforming all that his own age can offer him as the
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inheritance of the past, he leaves to posterity the offspring of his individual mind to serve as a germ for new and more perfect life.
It would be presumptuous to attempt to summarise in a few phrases the result of a life of ceaseless mental activity, and of strongly marked individuality. In view of this difficulty many biographers take refuge in a comparison of the subject of their work with other great men, and thus emphasise the points of resemblance or divergence which exist in their natures. No such parallel appears to me more justifiable than one between Mozart and Raphael.[20] The majestic beauty which appears to absorb all the other conditions of art production, and to blend them into purest harmony, is so overpoweringly present in the works of both masters that there is no need to enforce the comparison by dwelling on the many points of resemblance in their career both as men and artists, and in their moral and intellectual natures. Such a comparison, however, is not profitable unless it can be shown how and under what conditions this beauty, so varied in its manifestations, so similar in its effects, is produced.[21] Although it will readily be acknowledged that Mozart is closely related to Shakespeare[22] in fertility, force, and reality of dramatic invention and in breadth of humour, and to Goethe[23] in simplicity and naturalness of human sentiment and in plastic clearness of idea, yet here again we are confronted with the distinguishing qualities of great artists in different provinces of art, and Mozart's individuality in his own art is as far as ever from explanation. The frequently attempted parallels with great
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musicians, with Haydn[24] or Beethoven,[25] bring out still more clearly the characteristics which distinguish him from all others; and it is to be feared that the more ingeniously these comparisons are carried out in detail the more the images are distorted and the judgment biassed.
With whatever feelings, and from whatever point of view, we regard Mozart, we are invariably met by the genuine purity of an artist's nature, with its irrepressible impulses, its inexhaustible power of production, its overflowing love; it is a nature which rejoices in nothing but in the manifestation of beauty which is inspired by the spirit of truth; it infuses all that it approaches with the breath of its own life, and, while conscientious in serious work, it never ceases to rejoice in the freedom of genius. All human emotions took a musical form for him, and were by him embodied in music; his quick mind grasped at once all that could fittingly be expressed in music, and made it his own according to the laws of his art. This universality, which is rightly prized as Mozart's distinguishing quality, is not confined to the external phenomena which he has successfully portrayed in every region of his art--in vocal and instrumental, in chamber and orchestral, in sacred and secular music. His fertility and many-sidedness, even from this outward point of view, can scarcely indeed be too highly extolled; but there is something higher to be sought in Mozart: that which makes music to him not a conquered territory but a native home, that which renders every form of musical expression the necessary outcome of his inner experience, that by means of which he touches every one of his conceptions with the torch of genius whose undying flame is visible to all who approach his works with the eyes
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of their imagination unbound. His universality has its limits only in the limits of human nature, and consequently of his own individual nature. It cannot be considered apart from the harmony of his artistic nature, which never allowed his will and his power, his intentions and his resources, to come into conflict with each other; the centre of his being was the point from which his compositions proceeded as by natural necessity. All that his mind perceived, or that his spirit felt, every experience of his inner life, was turned by him into music; from his inner life proceeded those works of imperishable truth and beauty, clothed in the forms and obedient to the laws of his art, just as the works of the Divine Spirit are manifested in the forms and the laws of nature and history.[26]
And, while our gaze is lifted in reverence and admiration to the great musician, it may rest with equal sympathy and love upon the pure-hearted man. We can trace in his career, lying clear and open before us, the dispensation which led him to the goal of his desires; and, hard as he was pressed by life's needs and sorrows, the highest joy which is granted to mortals, the joy of successful attainment, was his in fullest measure.
"And he was one of us!" his countrymen may exclaim with just pride.[27] For, wherever the highest and best names of every art and every age are called for, there, among the first, will be the name of Wolfgang Amade Mozart.
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APPENDIX I. MARIANNE MOZART.
OLFGANG MOZART'S sister, Maria Anna Walburga Ignatia, known to her family and friends as Nannerl, was born July 30, 1751, and was thus five years older than her brother. She early showed a decided talent for music, and made extraordinary progress under her father's tuition. She made her appearance as a clavier-player during the early professional tours of the Mozart family in 1762, 1763-1766, and 1767, competing successfully with the first performers of the day, and overshadowed only by the accomplishments of her younger brother. Her father writes (London, June 8, 1764): "It suffices to say that my little lass at twelve years old is one of the most accomplished players in Europe"; and independent accounts which have come down to us coincide in this expression of opinion. During their stay at the Hague in October, 1765, she was seized with a serious illness and brought to the brink of the grave; her recovery, which had been despaired of by her parents, was hailed by them with delight. In November, 1767, she and Wolfgang were both struck down by smallpox at Olmütz; this also she happily recovered.
She did not accompany her father and brother in their subsequent journeys to Italy, but remained at home with her mother. Nevertheless she continued her studies as a clavier-player, and made good her claim to be considered a virtuoso; as such she was recognised by Burney's informant in 1772 (Burney, Reise, III., p. 262). She owed much, as she was the first to acknowledge, to the example and instruction of her brother, who threw himself eagerly into her studies whenever he was in Salzburg. Leopold writes to his son (January 26, 1778) that the violinist Janitsch and the violoncellist Reicha of the Wallerstein Capelle, who were giving a concert in Salzburg, "absolutely insisted upon hearing Nannerl play. They let out by their great anxiety to hear your compositions that their object was to judge from her _gusto_ of your way of playing. She played your Mannheim sonata excellently well, with charming expression. They were delighted both with her playing and with the composition. They accompanied Nannerl in your trio in B flat (254 K.) exceedingly well." He goes on to tell Wolfgang of the high opinions formed by these musicians both of his compositions and of Nannerl's style of playing; and how she always repeated: "I am but the pupil of my brother." Wolfgang used in after years, when they were separated, to send her his pianoforte compositions, and set great store on her
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judgment, frequently also giving her his own opinions and criticisms on music and musicians--as, for instance, on Clementi.
Marianne made some few attempts at composition; a song which she sent to her brother in Rome excited Wolfgang's astonishment at its excellence, and she wrote exercises in thorough-bass which were quite free from mistakes, and gave him great satisfaction. Her father remarks at a later date (February 25, 1778) that she had learnt to play thoroughbass and to prelude exceedingly well, feeling that she would have to support herself and her mother after his death. Once (July 20, 1779) when Wolfgang sent her from Paris a prelude--"a sort of capriccio to try the piano with"--as a birthday greeting, she jokingly put her father to the test. She received it at four o'clock in the afternoon, and at once set to work to practise it till she knew it by heart. When her father came in at five she told him that she had an idea, and that if he liked she would write it down, and thereupon began the prelude. "I rubbed my eyes," says Leopold Mozart, "and said, 'Where the deuce did you get that idea?' She laughed and drew the letter from her pocket."
She early began to give lessons on the clavier, her father writing from Milan (December 12, 1772): "Tell Nannerl that I wish her to teach little Zezi carefully and patiently; it will be to her own advantage to instruct another person thoroughly and with patience; I know what I am saying." These lessons afterwards became a source of income which could hardly have been dispensed with in the needy circumstances of the Mozart family; they enabled her to support herself as long as she lived at home, and thus lightened her father's pecuniary anxieties. She was considered even by her own family as somewhat parsimonious, and her father was agreeably surprised at hearing her exclaim, when told of Wolfgang's difficulties on his Parisian journey: "Thank God that it is no worse!" although she well knew that her own interests would have to be sacrificed to help her brother out of his scrape. But there is in fact every reason to believe that her heart was a tender one, and easily touched; she felt the loss of her mother very deeply, and had the warmest sympathy for her brother; sometimes indeed this took a livelier form than he cared for, and we find him once writing with ill-humour (Mannheim, February 19, 1778): "My best love to my sister, and pray tell her not to cry over every trifle, or I shall take good care never to come back"--an expression which did not fail to call down a reproof from his father. The relation of the brother and sister to each other was from childhood of the tenderest and closest description. The severe discipline to which they were both subjected, the journeys they took together, and above all the concentration of all the thoughts and energies of both upon music, increased their natural affection, in which there was not a trace of envy or jealousy on either side. Wolfgang vented his love of joking and teasing upon his "Schwester Canaglie"; and the letters which he wrote to her while on his Italian tour give abundant proofs of their unrestrained and innocent intercourse. The joking tone of
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Wolfgang's correspondence with his sister was not entirely dropped even when they had passed their childhood, but they also shared the more serious concerns of life together in fullest sympathy. We have seen how unendurable life at Salzburg became to Wolfgang as he grew up, and his sister's position was in no way a more enviable one. When her mother and brother left home for their journey to Paris, she remained to keep house for her father, who praised her for her attention, economy, and industry, and for her good management of the maid-servant, who was both dirty and untruthful. After her mother's death she continued her care of the household, which was occasionally increased by their receiving boarders. Pianoforte practice, generally with her father for some hours in the evening, and lessons to various young ladies, filled up her time. She was much liked as a teacher, and her pupils were distinguished for precision and accuracy of playing. When Wolfgang was at home, the house was full of life, her father was cheerful, and she had a companion with whom to share her joys and sorrows; but if he was away, the father, who could scarcely live without him, was often gloomy and preoccupied, and not even her tender ministrations could compensate him for the absence of his son. Marianne had but few distractions from her quiet domestic life in the form of gaiety or company; she took a lively interest in the persons and concerns of her few acquaintances, an interest which was shared by Wolfgang even when he had left Salzburg. "Write to me often--that is, of course, when you have nothing better to do," he writes from Vienna (July 4, 1781) "for a bit of news is a great treat to me, and you are the veritable Salzburg Intelligencer, for you write about everything that ever happens, and sometimes, no doubt to please me, you write the same thing twice over." Their father had impressed upon them the importance of keeping a regular diary, and this Wolfgang did in his earlier years; Marianne continued the habit much longer. Fragments of her diary still exist, and among her letters to her brother are two which contain very detailed accounts of the performances of Schikaneder's theatrical company at Salzburg.
Towards the end of 1780, while Wolfgang was at Munich busy with his "Idomeneo," Marianne was seized with an illness which for a time threatened to turn into consumption; it was long before she completely recovered. It appears probable that an attachment which did not turn out happily had something to do with this illness. Marianne, who had been a pretty and attractive child, became, as the family picture in the Mozarteum shows, a handsome woman, to whom suitors would not be wanting. Wolfgang's jokes about Herr von Mölk, an unfavoured admirer of Marianne's, as well as other mysterious allusions in his letters, prove that the brother and sister shared with each other their tenderest feelings. When Mozart was finally settled in Vienna, he lost no opportunity of being useful to his sister: "Ma très chère soeur," he writes (Vienna, July 4, 1781)--"I am very glad that you liked the ribbons, and will inquire as to the price of them; at
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present I do not know it, since Fr. von Auerhammer, who was so kind as to get them for me, would accept no payment, but begged me to say all that was nice to you from her as a stranger, and to assure you that it gives her very great pleasure to be of any service to you; I have already expressed your acknowledgments to her for her kindness. Dearest sister! I have already told our father that if you would like anything from Vienna, whatever it may be, I will get it for you with the utmost pleasure; this I now repeat to you, with the addition that I shall be extremely vexed if I hear that you have intrusted your commissions to any one else in Vienna." Constanze was always ready at a later time to perform the same sort of service for her sister-in-law. But Wolfgang's sympathy with his sister was displayed in more serious matters. On July 4, 1781, he writes: "And now I should like to know how it stands with you and our very good friend? Write and tell me about it. Or have I lost your confidence in this affair?" This good friend was Franz D'Yppold, captain in the imperial army, who came to Salzburg as Governor to the Pages, and was made Councillor of War in 1777. He conceived an attachment to Marianne, which she returned, but his circumstances did not allow him to marry. Mozart, seeing that his sister's health and happiness were at stake, represented to her that there was nothing to hope for in Salzburg, and begged her to induce D'Yppold to try his fortune in Vienna, where he, Wolfgang, would do his utmost to advance his prospects. She would be able to earn far more by giving lessons in Vienna than in Salzburg, and there could be no doubt they would soon be able to marry; then the father would be obliged to give up his service at Salzburg, and join his children in Vienna. Unfortunately these promising plans remained unfulfilled; and as there appeared to the lovers no prospect of a possible union, the connection between them ceased. D'Yppold never ceased to be on friendly terms with L. Mozart, and always testified great sympathy and esteem for Marianne herself. He was very fond of her little son, who lived with his grandfather; and, during an absence from home of L. Mozart, he came to the house every day to see how the child was getting on.
Marianne returned in kind her brother's interest and sympathy in her love affairs. To her he poured out his complaints of the hard fate of himself and his Constanze, and the latter began a correspondence with her long before her father had reconciled himself to the connection. Correspondence between the brother and sister naturally flagged somewhat when Wolfgang became engrossed in his life and occupation at Vienna. He justifies himself against her reproaches (February 13, 1782): "You must not think because I do not answer your letters that I do not like to have them. I shall always accept the favour of a letter from you, my dear sister, with the utmost pleasure; and if my necessary occupations (for my livelihood) allow of it, I will most certainly answer it. You do not mean that I never answer your letters? You cannot suppose that
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I forget, or that I am careless--therefore they must be real hindrances, real impossibilities that come in the way. Bad enough, you will say! But, good heavens I do I write any oftener to my father? You both know Vienna t How can a man without a penny of income do anything here but work day and night to earn a living? My father, when his church service is over, and you, when you have given a couple of music lessons, can sit down and write letters all day if you choose; but not I.... Dearest sister, if you could imagine that I should ever forget my best and dearest father or yourself, then--but no! God knows, and that is enough for me--He will punish me if it should ever happen."
In 1784 Marianne married Johann Baptist, Baron von Berchthold, of Sonnenburg, councillor of Salzburg and steward of St. Gilgen. Wolfgang wrote on her marriage (August 18, 1784): "Ma très chère soeur,--_Potz Sapperment!_ it is time that I write to you if my letter is to find you still a virgin! In a couple of days it will be all over! My wife and I wish you all manner of happiness and good fortune in your new life, and are full of regret that we cannot be present at your wedding; but we are in hopes of meeting you and your husband next spring at Salzburg, and perhaps also at St. Gilgen. We regret nothing now but the solitude in which our father will be left. True, you will be near him, and he can often walk over to see you, but he is so tied to that confounded Kapelle! If I were in my father's place, this is what I should do: I should ask the Archbishop in consideration of my long service to set me free--and I should take my pension and go and live quietly with my daughter at St. Gilgen; if the Archbishop refused, I should hand in my resignation and join my son in Vienna. And to this I wish you would try every means of persuading him. I have written the same thing in my letter to him to-day. And now I send you a thousand good wishes from Vienna to Salzburg, summed up in the hope that you two may live as happily together as we two. Your loving brother, W. A. Mozart."
A long list of letters from L. Mozart to his daughter testify to his care for her welfare. He is indefatigable in his attention to household matters, and occasionally receives from her presents of game or fish; he also keeps her constantly informed of what is going on in town. He is, as may be supposed, always ready with advice or remonstrance, both to his daughter and her husband, whom he considers "too absorbed in the spirit of economy"; he makes plenty of sarcastic remarks, but is, on the whole, under more restraint with them than with Wolfgang. His keen glance and shrewd sense never fail him. His son-in-law's hasty application for the stewardship of Neumark drew from him serious advice to weigh everything well beforehand, and then to be resigned to what should happen. "I write all this," he adds (November 20, 1786), "because I can easily imagine how many useless and vexatious ideas and remarks will be let fall upon the subject; whereas, if it is to be, the course of Providence cannot be withstood." Report said that Marianne
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had not always an easy time of it with her husband; and five stepchildren cannot have left her much leisure for repining. L. Mozart describes them as naughty, ill brought up, and ignorant; one of the boys, Wolfgang, was heard to boast that "he had got the better of his second mamma, and, when he was naughty, papa always laid the blame on her and the servants, and blew them up."
In June, 1785, she came to Salzburg to be confined in her father's house. As her health long remained delicate, L. Mozart kept his little grandson, bestowing upon it the tenderest care, and informing his daughter of the child's well-being in every letter. "I can never look at the child's right hand without emotion," he writes (November 11,1785); "the cleverest pianist could not place his hand upon the keys more charmingly than he holds his little hand; whenever he is not moving his fingers they are all in position for playing, and when he is asleep the tiny fingers are bent or stretched exactly in the right proportion, as if they were resting on the keys; in short, it is the most charming sight in the world. It often makes me sad to see it, and I wish he were three years old, so that he might begin to play at once." He could not persuade himself to part with the child, and although he often abused the father for never coming to see it, he declared himself: "I tell you I mean to keep little Leopold as long as I live."
After their father's death Wolfgang wrote to Marianne (June 16, 1787): "Dearest Sister,--I am not at all surprised at your not writing to me yourself the sad and totally unexpected news of our dear father's death; I can readily imagine the cause of your silence. May God receive him to Himself! Be assured, my darling, that if you are in need of a faithful, loving brother, you will find one in me. My dearest sister, if you were still unprovided for, there would be no need of all this. I would, as I have intended and said over and over again, have left all to you with the greatest pleasure; but as it is, one may almost say, useless to you, while to me, on the contrary, it would be of the greatest advantage, I think it my duty to consider my wife and child."
This letter affords no clue to the share of his father's inheritance claimed by Mozart, and it is not known how the matter was arranged. It was doubtless not without some reference to this that a letter written soon after by Mozart to his sister (August, 1787) treated of his pecuniary position. "In answer to your question as to my service," he says, "the Emperor has taken me into the household, and I am formally appointed, but have only 800 florins--this is more, however, than any other member of the household. The announcement of my Prague opera 'Don Giovanni' (which is to be given again to-day) ran: 'The music is by Herr Mozart, Kapellmeister in the actual service of his Imperial Majesty.'"
I do not know of any later letters. Marianne kept up no correspondence with her brother's widow; from a letter to Sonnleithner (July 2, 1819), we gather that she had not heard from her sister-in-law
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since 1801, that she knew nothing of the children, and had only heard of her second marriage by chance.
In 1801 the Baron von Sonnenburg died, and his widow retired with her children to Salzburg, where she lived in comfort, if not in wealth. She returned to her old occupation, and gave music lessons--for money certainly, but not from need, since her simple and frugal way of life enabled her even to lay by a portion of her income. She was always much respected and liked in Salzburg. In 1820 she became blind, a misfortune which she bore with equanimity, and even cheerfulness, as the following anecdote will show: Receiving a visit from a lady whom she disliked--people who were fond of her paid her frequent visits to afford her amusement in her misfortune--she exclaimed, when at last the visitor had departed, "What an infliction to be obliged to converse with that person! I am glad that I cannot see her!"
She died at an advanced age in her native town, October 29, 1829.
APPENDIX II. ARRANGEMENTS OF MOZART'S CHURCH MUSIC.
EVEN cantatas which appeared under Mozart's name (Leipzig: Breitkopf and Hartel, and elsewhere) are perhaps, after his operas, the most widely known of his works, and upon them in a great measure rests his fame as a composer of church music. Of these cantatas, however, only one, the second (and that with altered words), was left in its present state by Mozart; the others were all put together after his death from separate portions of various church compositions, often widely differing in the time, the object and the style of their composition, and having undergone arbitrary alterations and additions. Nothing but the newly adopted words holds them together, and these are generally trivial, often in direct contradiction to the spirit of the original words.
The parody of Goethe's song "Der du Leid und Sehnsucht stillest," which in Cantata III. replaces the original "Alma redemptoris," may serve as an example. This double injustice done to the composer may be explained as arising from the tendency of an age which turned to its own immediate convenience any music which came to hand, with little feeling for the work of art as a whole and little respect for the right of the author to the integrity of his work or for the claims of historical accuracy.
The following is the result of a survey of the cantatas and their component parts (Anh., 124-130 K.):--[See Page Image]
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Cantata I. consists of the Kyrie (p. i), Panis omnipotent!ae (p. 10), Viaticum (p. 15), and Pignus futurz gloriae (p. 16) of the Litany 125 K-
Cantata II. is the Litany 109 K.
Cantata III. is pot together from the Sanctus of the Mass 259 K. (p. 3); the Benedictus of the Mass 220 K.; the Gloria of the Mass 259 K. (p. 9); the Offertorium 72 K. (p. 15); and the Credo of the Mass 259 K. (p. 25).
Cantata IV. consists of the Kyrie and Gloria of the Mass 220 K. (p. 3); Motetto 277 K. (p. 12); Gratias (p. 19); and Domine (p. 21) of the Mass in C minor 427 K. [employed in the "Davidde Penitente" 469 K. as Chorus 4» "Si pur sempre," and Duet 5, "Sorgi o Signore **]; Magnificat of the Vesper 193 K. (p. 26).
Cantata V. is formed of the Kyrie (p. 1), Et incarnatus, to the close of the Credo (p. 6), Benedictus (p. 12), Agnus Dei (p. 20), and Gloria (p. 25) of the Mass 258 K.
Cantata VI. contains the Dixit of the Vesper 193 K. (p. 1); Laudate Dominum (p. 13) and Magnificat (p. 20) of the Vesper 321 K. Cantata VII. is put together from the Kyrie (p. 1) and Benedictus (p. 5) of the Mass 259 K.; an air from "Davidde Penitente" (469 IL, 3) "Lungi le cure ingrate" (p. 14); the Agnus Dei (p. 26) and Dona nobis (p. 29) of the Mass 259 K.; and the Dixit of the Vesper 321 K. (p. 33).
After this, it was not surprising that the choruses from "Konig Tham os" should have been used as sacred music, or that the "Frei-maurercantaten" (429,471 K.) should have been treated in the same way (Vol. II., p. 407). Nor was it unusual to find an altered text (church-like in character) supplied to sacred compositions. But secular music was also appropriated by the Church. The beautiful adagio of the grand serenata for wind instruments (361 K.) has been turned into an offertory, "Quis te comprehendat" (Anh., 110 K.). The air for Nancy Storace (405 K.),"Ch' io mi scordi di te," has been fitted to the words "In te domine speravi," and the obbligato piano part transferred to the organ (Anh., 120 K.). The air from "Titus" (19),"Deh per questo istante," with the words "O Deus, ego te amo" (Anh., 112 K.), and Adamberger's air, "Per pietà non ricercate" (420), with the words "Omni die die Mariae" (Anh., hi K.), are both used as offertories. V. Novello published the wonderful ensemble from the second finale in "Figaro" "Più docile io sono e dico di si," with the words "O Jesu mi, miserere nobis!" as a motett with organ accompaniment, and has appended the remark: "This motett may be used at Benediction." It is to be hoped that there is no truth in the report that Leparello's "Notte e giorno faticar" and Don Giovanni's "Fin che dal vino," have been travestied as a "Docti sacris" and a "Lauda Sion."
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Further than this, however, whole Masses have been arranged from Mozart's operas; and at the beginning of this century a "Missa di Figaro. Don Giovanni" was not unknown to church choirs. One example of the kind may be described as evidence of the fact. In the collection of K. Zulehner of Mayence there was preserved a "Coronation Mass" in C major, with Mozart's name as composer, of which a copy was sent to me by Herr Schott of Mayence. All the movements, with the exception of the Credo, are identical with whole movements or smaller portions of "Cosî fan Tutte," with alterations of key and instrumentation, and here and there the addition or omission of a part, as follows:--
The Kyrie is the terzet (10) "Soave sio il vento," transposed into C major and turned into a four-part chorus by the addition of a tenor part, and with two flutes to fill in the harmonies. Christe eleison is the first movement of the duet (4), "Ah guarda sorella," transposed into G major, for soprano and tenor, with two oboes and two horns, shortened here and there, and the ritomello placed at the end. At the beginning of the Gloria, after a few unimportant bars by the adapter, the motif of the first chorus of the second finale is made use of (p. 230); then follow for the Gratias agimus the first seventy bars of the air (11) "Smanie implacabile" as a soprano solo in F major. The Qui tollis consists of seven bars not borrowed, but at the Miserere occur four bars from the first finale (p. 115), "Ed il polso," and after the repetition of the original Qui tollis at the word "suscipe," the first finale (p. 115), "Ah se tardo," is continued to the end of the movement. "Quoniam tu solus" to the end of the Gloria is the terzet (3) "Una bella serenata," unaltered up to the addition of the fourth part in the tutti passages; the closing ritornello is omitted. In the Gloria, flutes, oboes, horns, and drums and trumpets are employed in the customary alternations. Sanctus and Osanna are the andante of the first finale shortened by six bars, transposed into C major, and the parts rather differently arranged to suit the words. Benedictus is the duet and chorus (21) "Secondate," transposed into F major, and accompanied by stringed instruments flutes, and oboes; the chorus enters at "Osanna." Agnus Dei begins with eleven original bars, then follows "Idol mio" from the second finale, with the part of Despina omitted. Dona nobis is the closing ensemble of the opera. I gather from a letter addressed to G. Weber that Zulehner was of opinion that Mozart wrote the Mass before the opera; that, on the contrary, the Mass was pieced together from the opera by some church musician, no external evidence is required to prove.
APPENDIX III. PORTRAITS OF MOZART.
HE earliest portrait of Mozart, a half-length in oils, now in the
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Mozarteum, lithographed in Nissen, represents him as a boy of seven years old, standing near the clavier, clad in the violet gold-laced court dress of the Archduke Maximilian, which had been presented to him in 1762 (Vol. I., p. 28). His hair is frizzed and powdered, his hat under his arm, his sword by his side; his left hand is thrust into his vest; his right on his side. The round good-humoured boyish face, with its candid eyes, looks out as if from a disguise. During the stay of the Mozart family in Paris in 1763, an accomplished admirer, L. C. de Carmontelle, painted them in a group; the picture was engraved by Delafosse in small folio, with the title under:--
"LEOPOLD MOZART, Père de MARIANNE MOZART, Virtuose ägée de onze ans, et de J. G. WOLFGANG, Compositeur et Maître de Musique ägé de sept ans."
Wolfgang, finely dressed and frizzed, is sitting at the harpsichord in a pillared hall, apparently open to the air, and playing from some open music. The little head is evidently a good likeness, and there is a charming expression of earnest attention. His father stands close behind him, and accompanies on the violin; the sister is standing on the other side of the harpsichord, turning towards her brother and singing from some music. In the same year a small oil picture, containing many figures, was painted; it was formerly in the gallery of the Duke of Rohan-Chabot at Schloss-Rurik, and is now in the Museum at Versailles. Mozart is seated at the clavier, on which a "basse de viole" is lying, and playing or singing; he is accompanied on the guitar by the opera-singer Veliotte. The Prince de Beauveau, in a cherry-coloured coat decorated with the blue Grand Cross, is seated behind the young musician, glancing absently at a paper which he holds in his left hand. The Chevalier de la Laurency, gentilhomme to the Prince de Conti, is standing in a black velvet coat behind Mozart's chair; the Prince de Conti is talking to M. de Trudaine; Mdlle. Bagaroty is standing before a group of ladies, viz.: Madame la Maréchale de Mirepoix, Madame de Viervelle, Madame la Maréchale de Luxembourg, and Mdlle. de Boufflers, afterwards Duchesse de Lauzun. The Prince d'Henin is preparing tea, while listening attentively to Mozart's music. In another group are Dupont de Velse, brother to M. d'Argentai; the Countesses Egmont, mother and daughter, and President Henaut at the fireplace.
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The last group shows us the Comtesse de Boufflers standing before a well-spread table; by her side is the Comte de Chabot (Duc de Rohan) in conversation with the Comte de Jarnac. The Maréchal de Beauveau is pouring out a glass of wine for Bailli de Chabrillant; Meyrand, the famous geometrician, stands sidewards. The picture is full of life and expression. All the company are listening in amazement and delight to Mozart's bewitching tones. He is in an apple-green silk coat with knee breeches, and his feet do not touch the floor. His countenance is fresh, his look full of expression, and the little powdered perruque gives him a somewhat pedantic look, at which the spectators are evidently amused.
Wolfgang was painted several times during his Italian tour. At Verona Lugiati made a life-size portrait of him in oils, in two sittings, as his father writes home. "La dolce sua effigie mi è di conforto ed altresi di eccitamento a riprendere qualche fiata la musica," he writes to the mother (April 22, 1770). Sonnleithner, who discovered the picture by the aid of the Imperial Sectionsrath W. Booking, gives a detailed account of it. Mozart is seated playing the clavier, somewhat to the left of the spectator, in a carved arm-chair; his youthful and intellectual countenance is turned towards the spectator. He wears a red court dress embroidered in gold, and has a diamond ring on the little finger of his left hand. Upon the clavier, above the keyboard, is written: "Joanni Celestini Veneti, MDLXXXIII." Upon the open music-book can be distinctly read:--[See Page Image]
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This piece, therefore, must have possessed some peculiar interest for the Veronese. Below, in the centre of the narrow, beautifully carved gold frame, there is a white plate with the following inscription:--
Amadeo Wolfgango Mozarto Salisburgensi puero duodenni
In arte musica laudem omnem fidemque prætergresso eoque nomine Gallorum Anglorumque regi caro Petrus Lujatus hospiti suavissimo effigiem in domestico odeo pingi curavit anno MDCCLXX.
In the same year the celebrated artist Pompeo Battoni of Rome painted a life-size head of Mozart, which came into the possession of Mr. Haydon of London; it is now the property of J. Ella, who has placed it in the South Kensington Museum, and rendered it familiar in an engraving by H. Adlard. The head is turned almost full-face towards the spectator, the right-hand holding a roll of music-paper. The animated countenance has an évident resemblance to the Verona portrait, but with more of a view to
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effect, being in fact what is called idealised. After his return from Italy in 1772, a portrait of Wolfgang was painted which his sister possessed; it is the one of which she wrote to Sonnleithner (July 2, 1819) that he looked yellow and sickly in it, having only lately recovered from a severe illness. Before Mozart left Salzburg in 1777, a portrait was painted which, according to his father (November 27, 1777), was highly successful. Padre Martini, having begged for a likeness of Wolfgang for his collection, the father had a copy of this one made and sent it to him in the beginning of December, 1777, "in a black frame, with a handsomely gilt edge." "I delayed complying with your request until now," he writes to the Padre (December 22,1777), "for want of a skilful artist. There is, in fact, none such residing in our town; and I have always been in hopes that, as does sometimes happen, a clever artist might visit Salzburg--I therefore postponed it from time to time. At last, however, I was forced to commission a local artist to undertake the portrait. As a painting it is of little worth, but, as regards the likeness,
I assure you that it resembles him exactly. I have written his name and age behind the picture." In the library of the Liceo Filarmonico at Bologna there is an oil picture from Padre Martini's collection, of which Dr. Zangemeister sent me a photograph and a minute description. At the top of the frame, in white letters, stands:--
CAV. AMADEO WOLFGANGO MOZART ACCAD.
FILARMON. DI BOLOG. E DI VERONA.
On the back is written (probably by an Italian, not by L. Mozart):--Joannes Crisostomus Wolfgangus Amadeus Mozart Salisburgensis Teuto, auratæ Militiæ Eques
Bonnoniensis Veronensisque Accademicus Natus 27 Ianuarü 1756: Ætatis suæ 21.
The portrait represents a man in a brown coat, with the gold cross on a red ribbon round his neck; to the right is a stool, to the left a clavier with black under notes and white over notes; on the desk is a piece of music. But it is impossible to recognise Wolfgang in the portrait; it is that of a man of middle age, stiff in demeanour, and with no resemblance to Mozart. It might be meant for his father, who had promised (August 21, 1778) to send Padre Mardini his own portrait; but this is contradicted by the cross of the order. Probably some confusion has taken place in the arrangement of the collection. Wolfgang took with him on his journey a little medallion as a present to his cousin, among whose remains it was pointed out to me. He is in a red coat, his hair simply arranged, and the very youthful face with its
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intelligent eyes has an open light-hearted expression. Before Mozart went to Munich in 1780 the painter Della Croce at Salzburg began a large family group, and Wolfgang's portrait was fortunately finished before his departure. This large oil-painting, now in the Mozarteum at Salzburg, represents the brother and sister seated at the harpsichord playing a duet. Wolfgang is in a red coat with a white vest and neckcloth, Marianne in a dark rose-coloured dress trimmed with lace, and a red ribbon in her high coiffure; the father, in black, with a white vest and neckcloth, is seated behind the harpsichord, his left hand holding a violin, his right with the bow resting on the harpsichord. On the wall hangs an oval portrait of the mother, with a blue neckhandkerchief, and a blue ribbon in her hair. Wolfgang's sister considered this portrait very like him; and it does in fact give one an impression of individuality. The face is young for his age, but not so gay and animated as in earlier pictures; it has rather a depressed expression, corresponding very well to his mood at the time. After his marriage he had himself painted with Constanze, and sent the two miniatures to Salzburg. "I only hope," he writes (April 3, 1783), "that you may be pleased with them; they seem to me to be both good, and all who have seen them are of the same opinion." Mozart's brother-in-law, the actor Lange, who was an enthusiastic artist, began a portrait of him, seated at the piano, in a light brown coat and white neckcloth, and strove to render the expression of the artist absorbed in his reveries. The picture was only finished as far as the bust, and is now in the Mozarteum at Salzburg; Carl Mozart considered it very like. Mozart's short stay in Dresden in April, 1789, was utilised by Dora Stock, Korner's talented sister-in-law, in taking his portrait in crayons with much delicacy and animation; it was engraved in Berlin by E. H. Schroder, and published by Ed. Mandel. The conception of Mozart's appearance, which afterwards became typical, was formed from a small medallion carved in boxwood in relief by Posch, and now preserved in the Salzburg Mozarteum. This was engraved in octavo by J. G. Mans-feld, 1789 (Viennæ apud Art aria Societ.) with the inscription: "Dignum laude virum Musa vetat mori." On the lower edge of the medallion, among instruments and laurel branches, is a sheet of music with "An Chloe" written on it. This engraving is the foundation of most of the later ones; it was engraved afresh from the medallion by Thäter (Leipzig: Breitkopf und Hartel).
The last portrait of Mozart is a bust, life size, painted by Tischbein during his stay in Mayence in October, 1790. C. A. André discovered and obtained possession of it at Mayence in 1849; it was among the remains of the Electoral court violinist Stutzl. Two men who had themselves seen Mozart--Professor Arentz, of Mayence, and the former court organist, Schulz, of Mannheim, on being shown the picture, and asked whom it represented, recognised their beloved Mozart without a moment's hesitation. At the same time this likeness differs
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considerably from the others current, and it can scarcely be doubted that Tischbein has idealised the features, especially the nose; but the expression of the eyes and mouth has a mixture of sensuousness, roguery, and gentle melancholy, which testify to the artist's intellectual apprehension; while Posch is probably more accurate in outline, but more Philistine in conception. It has been engraved by Sichling in the "Bildnissen berühmter Deutschen" (Leipzig: Breitkopf und Hàrtel), and afterwards diminished for this book.
I consider as apocryphal a small medallion in the possession of Karajan, representing a slender well-dressed youth, inscribed as "Mozart's Portrait;" also a round miniature, belonging to Frz. Henser, of Cologne, of a full-grown man in a grey coat, his hand in his vest, which seems to me to have no resemblance to Mozart. It is signed "Jac. Dorn, pinx., 1780."
APPENDIX IV. (To the English Edition.)
A LIST OF MOZART'S WORKS,
COMPILED FROM THE FIRST COMPLETE
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AND CRITICALLY REVISED EDITION, NOW BEING PUBLISHED BY BREITKOFF AND HARTEL, LEIPZIG.
[See Page Image]
VOCAL MUSIC.
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FOOTNOTES OF CHAPTER XLVI.
[Footnote 1: Breitkopf and Hartel's edition of the "Ouvres" was prepared in concert with the widow, and from the autograph originals furnished by her; concerning which the entire correspondence lies before me.]
[Footnote 2: Wien. Mus. Ztg., 1842, p. 150.]
[Footnote 3: Reichardt, Briefe aus Wien., I., p. 244.]
[Footnote 4: A. M. Z.f XX., p. 512.]
[Footnote 5: A. M. Z., VII., pp. 427, 502.]
[Footnote 6: Cf. N. Ztschr. fur Mus., XXI., p. 169.]
[Footnote 7: A solemn funeral mass was celebrated at Prague, December 14, 1791 (Wien. Ztg., 1791, No. 103).]
[Footnote 8: Wessely in Berlin (Mus. Wochenbl., p. 191), and Cannabich in Munich, composed funeral cantatas on Mozart's death (Niemetschek, p. 66).]
[Footnote 9: A. M. Z., II., p. 239.]
[Footnote 10: It does not appear that any complete statement of all the ceremonies by which this jubilee was kept has been made.]
[Footnote 11: Journ. d. Lux. u. d. Mod., November, 1799. A. M. Z., II., pp. 239, 420.]
[Footnote 12: Bridi, Brevi Cenni, p. 63. A. M. Z., XXVI., p. 92.]
[Footnote 13: A. M. Z., XXXIX., p. 309.]
[Footnote 14: Cf. L. Mielichhofer, Das Mozart-Denkmal zu Salzburg und dessen Enthüllungsfeier (Salzburg, 1843). The amount subscribed was nearly 25,000 fl.]
[Footnote 15: The monument is familiar in Amsler's fine engraving.]
[Footnote 16: Zellner, Blätt. f. Mus., Theat. u. Kunst, 1859. No. 97.]
[Footnote 17: Since 1843 the Mozarteum has issued annual reports of its doings.]
[Footnote 18: A. M. Z., XLII., p. 735. The Mozart Institution also issues regular reports.]
[Footnote 19: Niederrh. Mus. Ztg., 1855, p. 398; 1856, pp. 296, 303; 1857, p.232.]
[Footnote 20: Rochlitz, Raphael u. Mozart (A. M. Z., II., p. 641). Alberti, Raphael u. Mozart: eine Parallele (Stettin, 1856).]
[Footnote 21: The different conceptions that are here possible is seen from Carpani's having bracketed in a comparison of Painters and Musicians (Le Haydine, p. 215) Pergolese and Raphael, Mozart and Giulio Romano. Beyle compares Mozart with Domenichino (Vie de Haydn, p. 260).]
[Footnote 22: Fr. Horn, A. M. Z., IV., p. 421.]
[Footnote 23: Th. Kriebitzsch, Poeten u. Componisten (A. M. Z., L., p. 545; Für Freunde d. Tonk., p. 52). He puts down the "Messiah" as Mozart's--no doubt without reflection.]
[Footnote 24: [Arnold] W. A. Mozart u. J. Haydn. Versuch einer Parallele (Erfurt, 1810). G. L. P. Sievers, Characteristik d. deutschen. Mus., A. M. Z., IX., p. 698.]
[Footnote 25: Graham, Account of the First Edinburgh Musical Festival, p. 121 (A. M. Z., XVIII., p. 635. My readers will be familiar with Reichardt's comparison of the three masters as quartet composers: Haydn, he says, built a charming fanciful summer-house, Mozart transformed it into a palace, and Beethoven crowned the edifice with a bold defiant tower (Briefe aus Wien., I., p. 231). E. T. A. Hoffmann finds in Haydn's instrumental works a childlike gaiety, while Mozart leads him into the depths of the spirit-world, and Beethoven into the region of prodigies and boundless space (Phantasiestucke, I., 4 Ges. Schr., VII., p. 55).]
[Footnote 26: O. Lindner, Zur Tonk., p. 173.]
[Footnote 27: Oehlenschläger, Erinnerungen, IV., p. 225.]
End of Project Gutenberg's Life Of Mozart, Vol. 3 (of 3), by Otto Jahn