Mozart: The Man and the Artist, as Revealed in His Own Words Part 10

"2do, that you take care of your health and not trust the spring air.

"3tio, that you refrain from walking out alone, or, better, do not walk out at all.

"4to, that you rest a.s.sured of my love. Not a letter have I written to you but that your portrait was placed in front of mine.

"5to, I beg of you to consider not only my honor and yours in your conduct but also in appearances. Do not get angry because of this request. You ought to love me all the more because I make so much of honor."

(Dresden, April 16, 1789, to his wife, in Vienna, who was fond of life's pleasures.)

198. "You can not imagine how slowly time goes when you are not with me! I can't describe the feeling; there is a sort of sense of emptiness, which hurts--a certain longing which can not be satisfied, and hence never ends, but grows day by day. When I remember how childishly merry we were in Baden, and what mournful, tedious hours I pa.s.s here, my work gives me no pleasure, because it is not possible as was my wont, to chat a few words with you when stopping for a moment. If I go to the Clavier and sing something from the opera (Die Zauberflote) I must stop at once because of my emotions.--Basta!"

(Vienna, July 7, 1791, to his wife, who was taking the waters at Baden.)

199. "I call only him or her a friend who is a friend under all circ.u.mstances, who thinks day or night of nothing else than to promote the welfare of a friend, who urges all well-to-do friends and works himself to make the other person happy."

(Kaisersheim, December 18, 1778, to his father. Mozart was making the journey from Mannheim to Munich in the carriage of a prelate.

The parting with his Mannheim friends, especially with Frau Cannab.i.+.c.h, his motherly friend, was hard. "For me, who never made a more painful parting than this, the journey was only half pleasant--it would even have been a bore, if from childhood I had not been accustomed to leave people, countries and cities.")

200. "Permit me to beg for a continuance of your precious friends.h.i.+p, and to ask you to accept mine for now and forever; with an honest heart I vow it to you everlastingly. True it will be of little use to you; but it will be the more durable and honest for that reason. You know that the best and truest friends are the poor. Rich people know nothing of friends.h.i.+p!--especially those who are born rich and those who have become rich fortuitously,--they are too often wrapped up completely in their own luck! But there is nothing to fear from a man who has been placed in advantageous circ.u.mstances, not through blind, but deserved good fortune, through merit,--a man who did not lose courage because of his first failures,--who remained true to his religion and trust in G.o.d, was a good Christian and an honest man and cherished and valued his true friend,--in a word,--a man who has deserved better fortune--from such a man, there is nothing to fear."

(Paris, August 7, 1778, to his friend Bullinger, in Salzburg, to whom he felt beholden for the gentle and considerate way in which he had broken the news of his mother's death to the family.)

201. "My friend, had I but the money which many a man who does not deserve it wastes so miserably,--if I only had it! O, with what joy would I not help you!--But, alas! those who can will not, and those who would like to can not!"

(Paris, July 29, 1778, to Fridolin Weber, father of Constanze.

The letter was found but recently among some Goethe autographs.)

WORLDLY WISDOM

Mozart's father brought him up to be worldly wise. While journeying at a tender age through the world with his father the lad became an eye witness of the paternal business management with all its attention to detail; of the art of utilizing persons and conditions in order to achieve material results. As a youth he repeats the journeys accompanied by his mother whom he loses by death in Paris. Regularly from Salzburg his father sends him letters full of admonitions and advice, the subjects almost systematically grouped. The worldly wisdom of the son is the fruit of paternal education, which he did not outgrow up to the day of his death. But life, experience, was also an educator; a seeming distrust of mankind speaks out of many a pa.s.sage in his letters, but on the whole he thought too well of his fellow men, and remained blind to the faults of his false friends who basely exploited him for their own ends. Although gifted with keen powers of observation he always followed his kind heart instead of his better judgment and his sister spoke no more than the truth when she said after his death: "Outside of music he was, and remained, nearly always, a child. This was the chief trait of his character on its shady side; he always needed a father, mother, or other guardian."

202. "Reflect, too, on this only too certain truth: it is not always wise to do all the things contemplated. Often one thinks one thing would be most advisable and another unadvisable and bad, when, if it were done, the opposite results would disclose themselves."

(Mannheim, December 10, 1777, to his father, when a plan for an appointment in Mannheim came to naught.)

203. "I am not indifferent but only resolved, and therefore, I can endure everything with patience,--provided, only, that neither my honor nor the good name of Mozart shall suffer therefrom. Well, since it must be so, so be it; only I beg, do not rejoice or sorrow prematurely; for let happen what may it will be all right so long as we remain well--happiness exists only in the imagination."

(Mannheim, November 29, 1777, to his father, who had upbraided him because of his reckless expenditures. At the time Mozart was hoping for an appointment at Mannheim.)

204. "Dearest and best of fathers:--You shall see that things go better and better with me. What use is this perpetual turmoil, this hurried fortune? It does not endure.--Che va piano va, sano.

One must adjust himself to circ.u.mstances."

(Vienna, December 22, 1781, to his father, just before Mozart's marriage engagement to Constanze Weber.)

205. "Now, to put your mind at ease, I am doing nothing without reasons, and well-founded ones, too."

(Vienna, October 21, 1781, to his "little cousin," who may still have cherished hopes of capturing her merry kinsman.)

206. "I have no news except that 35, 59, 60, 61, 62, were the winning numbers in the lottery, and, therefore, that if we had played those numbers we would have won; but that inasmuch as we did not play those numbers we neither won nor lost but had a good laugh at others."

(Milan, October 26, 1771, to his sister.)

207. "Everybody was extremely courteous, and therefore I was also very courteous; for it is my custom to conduct myself towards others as they conduct themselves towards me,--it's the best way to get along."

(Augsburg, October 14, 1777, to his father.)

208. "In Vienna and all the imperial hereditaments the theatres will all open in six weeks. It is wisely designed; for the dead are not so much benefited by the long mourning as many people are harmed."

(Munich, December 13, 1780, to his father. Empress Maria Theresa had died on November 29. Mozart had greatly revered her from his youth. Nevertheless he takes a practical view of the situation since the production of his opera "Idomeneo" is imminent. He requests of his father to have his "black coat thoroughly dusted, cleaned and put to rights," and to send it to him, since "everybody would go into mourning, and I, who will be summoned hither and thither, must weep along with the others.")

209. "Rest a.s.sured that I am a changed man; outside of my health I know of nothing more necessary than money. I am certainly not a miser,--it would be difficult for me to change myself into one--and yet the people here think me more disposed to be stingy than prodigal; and for a beginning that will suffice. So far as pupils are concerned I can have as many as I want; but I do not want many; I want better pay than the others, and therefore I am content with fewer. One must put on a few airs at the beginning or one is lost, i.e. one must travel the common road with the many."

(Vienna, May 26, 1781, to his father.)

210. "Depend confidently on me. I am no longer a fool, and you will still less believe that I am a wicked and ungrateful son.

Meanwhile trust my brains and my good heart implicitly, and you shall never be sorry. How should I have learned to value money? I never had enough of it in my hands. I remember that once when I had 20 ducats I thought myself rich. Need alone teaches the value of money."

(Vienna, May 26, 1781, to his father.)

211. "If it were possible that it should vex me I should do my best not to notice it; as it is, thank G.o.d, there is no need of my deceiving myself because only the opposite could vex me, and I should have had to decline, which is always too bad when one is dealing with a grand gentleman."

(Vienna, October 5, 1782, to his father. Mozart had expected to give music lessons to a princess, but another teacher was chosen.

Continuing in the same letter, he says: "I need only tell you his fee and you will easily be able to judge from it the strength of the master--400 florins. His name is Summerer.")

212. "I shall compose an opera but not in order, for the sake of 100 ducats, to see the theatre earn four times as much in a fortnight. I shall perform my opera at my own cost and make at least 1,200 florins in three performances; then the director can have the work for 50 ducats. If he does not want it I shall have received my pay and can utilize the opera elsewhere. I hope that you have never observed a tendency to dishonest dealing in me.

One ought not to be a bad fellow, but neither ought one to be a stupid who is willing to let others benefit from the work which cost him study, care and labor, and surrender all claims for the future."

(Vienna, October 5, 1782, to his father. Mozart's plans for exploiting his opera were never realized.)

213. "Yesterday I dined with the Countess Thun, and tomorrow I shall dine with her again. I let her hear all that was complete; she told me that she would wager her life that everything that I have written up to date would please. In such matters I care nothing for the praise or censure of anybody until the whole work has been seen or heard; instead I follow my own judgment and feelings."

(Vienna, August 8, 1781, to his father. The opera in question was "Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail.")

214. "Magnanimity and gentleness have often reconciled the worst enemies."

(Vienna, July 8, 1791, to his wife, who had somewhat rudely repulsed the advances of one of the visitors at Baden where she was taking the waters.)

IN SUFFERING

It is as difficult to call up in the fancy a picture of a suffering Mozart as a merry Beethoven. The effect of melancholy hours is scarcely to be found in Mozart's music. When he composed,--i.e. according to his own expression "speculated"