Mozart: The Man and the Artist, as Revealed in His Own Words Part 11

while walking up and down revolving musical ideas in his mind and forming them into orderly compositions, so that the subsequent transcription was a mechanical occupation which required but little effort,--he was transported to the realm of tones, far from the miseries of this world. Nor would his happy disposition permit him long to remain under the influence of grief and care.

None of the letters which sound notes of despair lacks a jest in which the writer forcibly tears himself away from his gloomy thoughts. His sufferings came to him from without; the fate of a Beethoven was spared him. Others brought him pain,--his rivals through envy, the Archbishop through malevolence, the Emperor through ignorance. Sufferings of this character challenged opposition and called out his powers, presenting to us a Mozart full of temperament and capable of measuring himself with any opponent.

He never lost hope even when hope seemed most deceptive. It is therefore impossible to speak of a suffering Mozart in the sense that we speak of a suffering Beethoven; fate was kind even at his death, which was preceded by but a brief illness.

215. "I am still full of gall!...Three times this--I do not know what to call him--has a.s.sailed me to my face with impertinence and abuse of a kind that I did not want to write down, my best of fathers, and I did not immediately avenge the insult because I thought of you. He called me a wretch (Buben), a licentious fellow, told me to get out and I--suffered it all, feeling that not only my honor but yours as well was attacked; but,--it was your wish,--I held my tongue."

(Vienna, May 9, 1781, to his father, who had heard with deep concern of the treatment which his son was enduring at the hands of the Archbishop of Salzburg, and who feared for his own position. At the close of the letter Mozart writes: "I want to hear nothing more about Salzburg; I hate the archbishop to the verge of madness.")

216. "The edifying things which the Archbishop said to me in the three audiences, particularly in the last, and what I have again been told by this glorious man of G.o.d, had so admirable a physical effect on me that I had to leave the opera in the evening in the middle of the first act, go home, and to bed. I was in a fever, my whole body trembled, and I reeled like a drunken man in the street. The next day, yesterday, I remained at home and all forenoon in bed because I had taken the tamarind water."

(Vienna, May 12, 1781, to his father. The catastrophe between Mozart and the archbishop is approaching.)

217. "Twice the Archbishop gave me the grossest impertinences and I answered not a word; more, I played for him with the same zeal as if nothing had happened. Instead of recognizing the honesty of my service and my desire to please him at the moment when I was expecting something very different, he begins a third tirade in the most despicable manner in the world."

(Vienna, June 13, 1781, to his father. See the chapter "Self-Respect and Honor.")

218. "All the world a.s.serts that by my braggadocio and criticisms I have made enemies of the professional musicians! Which world?

Presumably that of Salzburg, for anybody living in Vienna sees and hears differently; there is my answer."

(Vienna, July 31, to his father, who had sent Mozart what the latter called "so indifferent and cold a letter," when informed by his son of the great success of his opera, "Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail." As on previous occasions Salzburg talebearers had been busying themselves.)

219. "I rejoice like a child at the prospect of being with you again. I should have to be ashamed of myself if people could look into my heart; so far as I am concerned it is cold,--cold as ice.

Yes, if you were with me I might find greater pleasure in the courteous treatment which I receive from the people; but as it is, it is all empty. Adieu!--Love!"

(Frankfort, September 30, 1790, to his wife. Mozart had made the journey to Frankfort to give concerts amidst the festivities accompanying the coronation of Leopold II, hoping that he could better his financial condition. Not having been sent at the cost of the Emperor, like other Court musicians, he p.a.w.ned his silver, bought a carriage and took with him his brother-in-law, a violinist named Hofer. "It took us only six days to make the journey." He was disappointed in his expectations. "I have now decided to do as well as I can here and look joyfully towards a meeting with you. What a glorious life we shall lead; I shall work--work!")

220. "Dreams give me no concern, for there is no mortal man on earth who does not sometimes dream. But merry dreams! quiet, refres.h.i.+ng, sweet dreams! Those are the thing! Dreams which, if they were realities, would make tolerable my life which has more of sadness in it than merriment."

(Munich, December 31, 1778, to his father. During Mozart's sojourn in Paris the love of Aloysia Weber had grown cold, and Mozart was in the dolors.)

221. "Happy man! Now see,--I have got to give still another lesson in order to earn some money."

(1786, to Gyrowetz, on the latter's departure for Italy.)

222. "You can not doubt my honesty, for you know me too well for that. Nor can you be suspicious of my words, my conduct or my mode of life, because you know my conduct and mode of life.

Therefore,--forgive my confidence in you,--I am still very unhappy,--always between fear and hope."

(Vienna, July 17, 1788, to his faithful friend, Puchberg, whom he has asked for money on account of the severe illness of his wife.)

223. "You know my circ.u.mstances;--to be brief, since I can not find a true friend, I am obliged to borrow money from usurers.

But as it takes time to hunt among these un-Christian persons for those who are the most Christian and to find them, I am so stripped that I must beg you, dear friend, for G.o.d's sake to help me out with what you can spare."

(One of many requests for help sent to Puchberg. It was sent in 1790 and the original bears an endors.e.m.e.nt: "May 17, sent 150 florins.")

224. "If you, worthy brother, do not help me out of my present predicament I shall lose my credit and honor, the only things which I care now to preserve."

(Vienna, June 27, 1788, to Puchberg, who had sent him 200 florins ten days before. Puchberg was a brother Mason.)

225. "How I felt then! How I felt then! Such things will never return. Now we are sunk in the emptiness of everyday life."

(Remarked on remembering that at the age of fourteen he had composed a "Requiem" at the command of Empress Maria Theresa and had conducted it as chapelmaster of the imperial orchestra.)

226. "Did I not tell you that I was composing this 'Requiem' for myself?"

(Said on the day of his death while still working on the "Requiem" for which he had received so mysterious a commission.

The work had been ordered by a Count Walsegg, who made pretensions to musical composition, and who wished to palm it off as a work of his own, written in memory of his wife. Mozart never knew him.)

227. "I shall not last much longer. I am sure that I have been poisoned! I can not rid myself of this thought."

(Mozart believed that he had been poisoned by one of his Italian rivals, his suspicion falling most strongly on Salieri. ["As regards Mozart, Salieri cannot escape censure, for though the accusation of having been the cause of his death has been long ago disproved, it is more than possible that he was not displeased at the removal of so formidable a rival. At any rate, though he had it in his power to influence the Emperor in Mozart's favor, he not only neglected to do so, but even intrigued against him as Mozart himself relates in a letter to his friend Puchberg. After his death, however, Salieri befriended his son, and gave him a testimonial which secured him his first appointment." C.F. Pohl, in "Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians."])

228. "Stay with me to-night; you must see me die. I have long had the taste of death on my tongue, I smell death, and who will stand by my Constanze, if you do not stay?"

(Reported by his sister-in-law, Sophie, sister of Constanze.)

229. "And now I must go just as it had become possible for me to live quietly. Now I must leave my art just as I had freed myself from the slavery of fas.h.i.+on, had broken the bonds of speculators, and won the privilege of following my own feelings and compose freely and independently whatever my heart prompted! I must away from my family, from my poor children in the moment when I should have been able better to care for their welfare!"

(Uttered on his death-bed.)

MORALS

As regards his manner of life and morals Mozart long stood in a bad light before the world. The slanderous stories all came from his enemies in Vienna, and a long time pa.s.sed before their true character was recognized. A great contribution to this end was made by the publication of his letters, which disclose an extraordinarily strong moral sense. The tale of an alleged liaison with a certain Frau Hofdamel, as a result of which the deceived husband was said to have committed suicide, has been proved to be wholly untrue and without warrant.

It may be said, indeed, that Mozart was an exception among the men of his period. The immorality of the Viennese was proverbial.

Karoline Pichler, a contemporary, writes as follows in her book of recollections of the eighth decade of the eighteenth century: "In Vienna at the time there reigned a spirit of appreciation for merriment and a susceptibility for every form of beauty and sensuous pleasure. There was the greatest freedom of thought and opinion; anything could be written and printed which was not, in the strictest sense of the words, contrary to religion and the state. Little thought was bestowed on good morals. There was considerable license in the current plays and novels. Kotzebue created a tremendous sensation. His plays...and a mult.i.tude of romances and tales (Meissner's sketches among other things) were all based on meretricious relations. All the world and every young girl read them without suspicion or offence. More than once had I read and seen these things; 'Oberon' was well known to me; so was Meissner's 'Alcibiades.' No mother hesitated to acquaint her daughter with such works and before our eyes there were so many living exemplars whose irregular conduct was notorious, that no mother could have kept her daughter in ignorance had she tried."

Mozart was a pa.s.sionate jester and his jokes were coa.r.s.e enough; of that there is no doubt. But these things were innocent at the time. The letters of the lad to his little cousin in Augsburg contain many pa.s.sages that would be called of questionable propriety now; but the little cousin does not seem to have even blushed. The best witness to the morality of Mozart's life is his wife, who, after his death, wrote to the publis.h.i.+ng firm of Breitkopf and Hartel: "His letters are beyond doubt the best criterion for his mode of thought, his peculiarities and his education. Admirably characteristic is his extraordinary love for me, which breathes through all his letters. Those of his last year on earth are just as tender as those which he must have written in the first year of our married life;--is it not so? I beg as a particular favor that special attention be called to this fact for the sake of his honor."

He was a Freemason with all his heart, and gave expression to his humanitarian feeling in his opera "The Magic Flute." Without suspicion himself, he thought everybody else good, which led to painful experiences with some of his friends.

230. "Parents strive to place their children in a position which shall enable them to earn their own living; and this they owe to their children and the state. The greater the talents with which the children have been endowed by G.o.d, the more are they bound to make use of those talents to improve the conditions of themselves and their parents, to aid their parents and to care for their own present and future welfare. We are taught thus to trade with our talents in the Gospels. I owe it, therefore, to G.o.d and my conscience to pay the highest grat.i.tude to my father, who tirelessly devoted all his hours to my education, and to lighten his burdens."

(From his request for dismissal from service in August, 1777. He wished to undertake an artistic tour with his father. He received his dismissal from the Archbishop of Salzburg, who granted it right unwillingly, however.)

231. "Only one thing vexed me a trifle,--the question whether I had forgotten confession. I have no complaint to make, but I do ask one favor, and that is that you do not think so ill of me!

I am fond of merriment, but, believe me, I can also be serious.

Since I left Salzburg (and while still in Salzburg) I have met persons whose conduct was such that I would have been ashamed to talk and act as they did though they were ten, twenty or thirty years older than I! Again I humbly beg of you to have a better opinion of me."

(Mannheim, December 30, 1777, to his father, in answer to a letter of reproaches.)

232. "With all my heart I do wish Herr von Schiedenhofen joy. It is another marriage for money and nothing else. I should not like to marry thus; I want to make my wife happy,--not have her make my fortune. For that reason I shall not marry but enjoy my golden freedom until I am so situated that I can support wife and children. It was necessary that Herr Sch. should marry a rich woman; that's the consequence of being a n.o.bleman. The n.o.bility must never marry from inclination or love, but only from considerations of interest, and all manner of side considerations. Nor would it be becoming in such persons if they were still to love their wives after the latter had done their duty and brought forth a plump heir."

(Mannheim, February 7, 1778, to his father.)

233. "In my opinion there is nothing more shameful than to deceive an honest girl."