Mozart: A Life in Letters: A Life in Letters (23 page)

Herr von Antretter
¹
has now really bought the cornet post in Prince Taxis’s Cuirassier Regiment. His father will have received the news this morning, he’ll soon be having his uniform made and presumably will be travelling back to Salzb. with us. All 3 of us are well, thank God. I’ll be glad when this carnival is over, I expect we’ll be returning home on Ash Wednesday.
Herr von Moser
is here, also Count
Joseph von Überacker
,
²
I knew they’d come. Herr
von Moser
arrived on Monday,
Überacker
at midday on Tuesday. I gathered from a letter from the Guards Lieutenant
³
that you’re not going out much, as he
asked me in his letter to give you his best wishes, evidently in the belief that you’re here with us in Munich. But you should at least go to the ball, even if only once, and see how magnificent it is. Herr von Moser, Count Überacker and the 3 of us met yesterday at the masked ball in the Kiehmgarten. Last Sunday a short mass
⁴
by Wolfg. was performed in the court chapel, and I conducted. Another will be performed this Sunday. We had some amazing April weather yesterday, now fine, now rain. And at 1 o’clock there was a fire alarm. Fire was coming out of the chimney and had already spread but was immediately put out by the crowd of people that gathered. We’re not going to the masked ball today as we have to rest; it’s the first one that we’ve missed. Yesterday Nannerl went dressed as an Amazon, which really suited her. All this is being written up every day, so it will all be read to you. Farewell, we kiss you all many 100, 000 times and send everyone our best wishes. I am your old

Mozart

Frau von Durst, Herr von Belval, Herr Pernat, Herr Dufraisne etc. have been pestering us to send you their best wishes.

Don’t tell anyone about the letter from the Guards Lieutenant as he wrote to me about Lene in secret through Überacker. He also told me that Fischietti
⁵
is putting it about that he’ll be taking up an appointment in Naples at the end of March. If he’s to go there in style and if we’re to believe him, he’ll have to compose something first.

The family arrived backin Salzburg on 7 March. On 23 April, Mozart’s serenata
Il re pastore
was performed to celebrate the visit to Salzburg of Archduke Maximilian Franz and in August the serenade K204 may have been given as part of the annual graduation ceremonies at the Salzburg
Benedictine University. In early 1776 a performance of Tobias Philipp von Gebler’s tragedy
Thamos, König in Ägypten
by Karl Wahr’s company may have included incidental music by Mozart (K345). His litany K243 was performed on Palm Sunday, 31 March, and in June he composed the divertimento K247 to celebrate the name day of Antonia Maria, Countess Lodron. In July he composed the serenade K250 for the wedding festivities of Elisabeth Haffner and Franz Xaver Anton Späth.

Most Reverend Padre Maestro,

My Most Esteemed Patron,

The veneration, esteem and respect that I bear towards your most distinguished person have impelled me to importune you with the present letter and to send you a feeble Piece of my Music, which I submit to your magisterial Judgement. For last year’s carnival in Munich in Bavaria, I wrote an
opera buffa
,
La finta giardiniera
. A few days before I left, His Excellency the Elector asked to hear some of my contrapuntal music: and so I was obliged to write this motet
²
in some haste in order to leave time to have the score copied for His Highness and the parts to be extracted from it so that it could be performed the following Sunday during the offertory at High Mass. Dearest and most esteemed Sgr Padre Maestro! You are fervently entreated to tell me frankly and without reserve what you think of it. We live in this world in order that we may always learn industriously, and by means of rational discussion enlighten each other and strive to promote the sciences and the fine arts. Oh, how many times I have longed to be nearer you in order to speak to you, Most Reverend Father, and discuss these matters with you. I live in a country where
Music suffers a most wretched fate, even though, apart from those who have left us, we still have some excellent teachers and, in particular, composers of great knowledge, wisdom and taste. As for the theatre, we are in a bad way as a result of the lack of singers. We have no
musici
, and we shall not get them so easily because they want to be well paid: and generosity is not one of our failings. Meanwhile I am amusing myself by writing for the chamber and the church: and we have two of the finest contrapuntalists here, namely, Sgr Haydn and Sgr Adlgasser. My father is in charge of music at the cathedral, which gives me an opportunity to write music for the church whenever I want to. My father has been
in the service of this court for 36 years and, knowing that the present archbishop is neither able nor willing to tolerate people of an advanced age
, he no longer puts his whole heart into it but has taken an interest in literature, which was always his favourite study. Our church music is very different from that in Italy in that a complete mass, including the
Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Epistle sonata, Offertory or motet, Sanctus and Agnus Dei
– and even the most solemn Mass said by the Prince himself – must not last longer than 3 quarters of an hour.
³
A special study of this kind of composition is necessary. And yet such a mass must have all the instruments –
trombe di guerra
,
timpani
etc. Oh, if only we were less far apart, my dearest Sgr Padre Maestro! How many things I’d have to tell you! – – Please give my humble good wishes to the Signori Filarmonici: I commend myself to you and never cease to grieve that I am so remote from the one person in the world whom I love, revere and esteem more than any other. I am

My Reverend Father’s

Most Humble and Devoted Servant,

Wolfgango Amadeo Mozart

If you would be so kind as to write to me, please send your letter
via Trento to Salzburg.

Little is known of Mozart’s activities in early 1777; his most significant workof the time was the keyboard concerto K271. But it is clear that both Wolfgang and his father found their situation in Salzburg increasingly intolerable
,
and in the summer Mozart asked to be released from the archbishop’s service.

Your Grace,

Most Worthy Prince of the Holy Roman Empire,

Most Merciful Prince of the Realm

and

Lord!

I shall not presume to importune Your Grace with a detailed account of our sad circumstances, which my father most meekly set forth in the most humble petition that he submitted on 14 March
¹
and which he swears by his honour and his conscience contains nothing but the truth. But the favourable decision that he hoped that Your Grace would reach was not taken, and so my father would have asked Your Grace most humbly in June to allow us most graciously to travel for several months in order for us to make ends meet, had Your Grace not given his most gracious instructions that the orchestra should prepare for the imminent visit by His Majesty the Emperor.
²
My father afterwards asked most humbly for this permission; but Your Grace refused his request, while most graciously allowing me myself, part-time servant as I am, to travel alone. Our situation is pressing, and so my father has decided to send me away on my own. Yet even here Your Grace has been gracious enough to raise a number of
objections. Most Gracious Prince of the Realm and Lord! Parents strive to place their children in a position in which they can earn their own livelihood: they owe this to their own interest and to that of the state. The greater the talents that the children have received from God, the more they are obliged to make use of them in order to improve their own and their parents’ circumstances, to assist their parents and see to their own advancement and look to the future in general. The Gospel tells us to use our talents in this way. And so I believe in my conscience and in the sight of God that I owe it to my father, who has devoted his time untiringly to my education, to show him my gratitude as best I can, to lighten his burden and look after myself and also my sister, for I should be sorry to think that she has spent so many hours at the harpsichord without being able to put it to any profitable use.

Your Grace will therefore permit me most humbly to ask most submissively for my discharge as I am obliged to take advantage of this before the coming month of September in order not to be exposed to the bad weather during the cold months that will soon follow. Your Grace will not respond ungraciously to this most humble request as you yourself most graciously declared three years ago, when I asked for your permission to travel to Vienna, that I had nothing to hope for and would do better to try my luck elsewhere. I thank Your Grace in the deepest humility for all the favours that I have received, and in the most flattering hope of being able to serve Your Grace with greater success in my years of manhood, I commend myself to your continuing grace and favour,

the most humble and obedient servant

of Your Grace,

My Most Gracious Sovereign Prince

and

Lord,

Wolfgang Amade Mozart

To His Grace the Archbishop of Salzburg the most humble and submissive petition of Wolfgang Amade Mozart By His Most Serene Highness’s decree, 28 August 1777.

To the Court Exchequer with the request that father and son be given permission to seek their fortune elsewhere, according to the Gospel.

In Cons[ili]o C[ame]rae, 1 September of this year. By Decree

Decree to His Highness of Salzburg’s Konzertmeister Wolfgang Amade Mozart.

His Highness having received the most humble petition of the aforenamed asking to be released from His Highness’s most gracious service, he most graciously decrees that father and son have permission to seek their fortune elsewhere, the aforementioned Mozart herewith informed accordingly of His Highness’s supreame decision.

Decretum in Consilio Camerae Salzburgensi
¹

1 September 1777

Decree to the Court Treasury here.

The Court Treasury hereby informed, so that it may regulate his salary in the event of his leaving the court’s service.

Decretum ut supra.
²

In an act of calculated maliciousness, Archbishop Colloredo had granted both Wolfgang and his father permission to leave his service, but Leopold
himself had no intention of doing so. He remained behind in Salzburg when on 23 September Mozart, accompanied by his mother, set out on a journey to secure a position for himself. It was the first time the twenty-one-year-old had travelled without his father. Their immediate destination was Munich.

Mon très cher Père
,

Praise and thanks be to God, we arrived safely in Waging, Stein, Frabertsham and Wasserburg; now for a brief description of our journey. As soon as we reached the gates, we were held up for almost a quarter of an hour until the gates were fully opened, as some work was being done there. Outside Schign we encountered a number of cows, one of which was remarkable – – it had
only one side
, something we’ve never seen before. At Schign, finally, we saw a carriage that was stationary, and lo and behold – our postilion called out – – we have to change here – – as you like, I said. As my Mama and I were talking, a fat gentleman came up to our carriage, and I recognized his symphony
¹
at once – – he’s a businessman from Memmingen. He looked at me for a while, then finally said: you’re Herr Mozart, aren’t you? At your service. I recognize you, too, but I don’t know your name. I saw you at a concert at Mirabell a year ago. He then told me his name, but, praise and thanks be to God, I’ve forgotten it. But I’ve remembered someone who’s possibly more important. When I saw him in Salzburg, he had a young man with him, and this time he had this young man’s brother with him, someone from Memmingen by the name of Unold;
²
this young man urged me to go Memmingen if at all possible. We gave these gentlemen 100, 000 good wishes for Papa and my
scoundrel
of a sister; they promised that they would
certainly pass them on. This change of mail coaches was most unwelcome as I wanted to give the postilion a letter to take with him from Waging. After we’d had a bite to eat at Waging, we had the honour of being taken to Stein by the same horses as those that we’d had for the last hour and a half. In Stein I was briefly alone with the priest, who was wide-eyed with amazement as he didn’t know our story. From Stein we travelled with a postilion who was terribly phlegmatic –
as a driver, I mean
We thought we’d never reach the post house but finally got there. Mama is already half asleep as I’m writing this. From Frabertsham to Wasserburg everything went very well.
Viviamo come i Principi
.
³
All that’s missing is Papa, but, then, that’s God’s will. Everything will turn out for the best. I hope that Papa is well and that he’s as happy as I am. I’m coping well. I’m a second Papa. I’m seeing to everything. I immediately asked to be able to pay the postilions as I can speak to these fellows better than Mama. We’re being splendidly well looked after at the Star here in Wasserburg. I’m sitting here like a prince. Half an hour ago – Mama was just in the pr--y – the innkeeper knocked and asked about all manner of things, and I replied with all the seriousness that you know from my portrait;
⁴
I must stop, Mama has finished undressing. Both of us ask Papa to take good care of his health, not to go out too early; not to get worked up, to have a good laugh and be merry and all the time be pleased to remember, as we do, that Mufti H. C.
⁵
is a prick, but God is merciful, compassionate and loving. I kiss Papa’s hands 1000 times and embrace my scoundrel of a sister as often as I’ve––– taken snuff today.