Mozart: A Life in Letters: A Life in Letters (2 page)

During the autumn of 1791, Mozart was engaged with another work, the Requiem, which served ultimately to cement his reputation as a composer of both human and metaphysical importance. The wife of Count Franz Walsegg-Stuppach had died on 14 February 1791, and in July the count approached Mozart to write a Requiem to be performed on the first anniversary of her death. Although numerous stories swirl around the Requiem, Mozart probably knew Walsegg’s identity and the occasion for which it was intended. By the same token, there is no compelling evidence that Mozart believed he was writing the Requiem for himself, nor reason to think he was poisoned by the composer Antonio Salieri, jealous of Mozart’s superior talent, or by anyone else. Mozart had been ill in Prague in September but seems to have recovered, and his letters of October and November – when he also completed the clarinet concerto K622 – are full of high
spirits. If he had not fallen ill again, this time fatally, no mystery would surround the Requiem’s composition. His premature death, on 5 December, probably of rheumatic inflammatory fever, was an unfortunate accident, though no less compelling for that. He was not buried– as the stories would have it – in a pauper’s grave, but was given a simple funeral according to Viennese customs of the time.

The letters

The texts of the letters given here, newly translated by Stewart Spencer, are based on those of the standard, critical complete edition: Wilhelm A. Bauer, Otto Erich Deutsch and Joseph Heinz Eibl, eds.,
Mozart: Briefe undAufzeichnungen
(eight volumes, Kassel, 1962–2005); this was not the first complete edition of Mozart’s letters but it is certainly the best. Among English-language selections from the letters, the edition by Emily Anderson (London, 1935) takes pride of place. What distinguishes Anderson in particular is its inclusion of every single word written by Mozart – indeed, that was explicitly its purpose – but by omitting significant stretches of Leopold’s letters, it does not give a balanced picture of the events it recounts – by even a rough accounting, letters by Leopold Mozart account for two-thirds of the family correspondence. There is an implied presumption, not only that Mozart’s words speak for themselves but also, perhaps, that they are the only authentic source of information about the composer. By this reckoning, not even Leopold, who is often the villain in many later accounts of Mozart’s life, is considered a reliable witness.

In this respect, the most interesting edition of the letters may be one that was never intended as such: Georg Nikolaus Nissen’s
Biographie W. A. Mozarts
(Leipzig, 1828). Nissen, a Danish diplomat and Constanze Mozart’s second husband (they married in 1809), decided in the 1820s to write Mozart’s biography based largely on the family correspondence still in her possession. Although he died before it was finished, Constanze arranged for its completion band it appeared in print two years later. What is remarkable about this work, at least for its time, is its attempt to tell Mozart’s story through ‘authentic’
documents, through the family letters, which are generously extracted and which until then had been otherwise unpublished and unavailable. It is, in effect, an ‘epistolary biography’, not so far in spirit from the then-popular ‘epistolary novel’. The comparison is an apt one, for even a cursory reading of the letters shows that it is not just the record of a life, but also the record of a very specific relationship, that between Mozart and his father. Both show their good sides and their bedsides, both cajole and argue with the other, both strive for the upper hand, for independence or for peace of mind.

It seemed to me important, then, to treat these letters differently here than they have been previously, to allow them to tell their story without editorial intervention, without omitting Leopold’s letters and without censoring the material. Accordingly, I have included only complete letters, including long letters from Leopold that go into considerable detail about what they saw and whom they met on their travels, his concerns with contemporary politics and church affairs, his interest in medical remedies and his attention to Wolfgang’s welfare. For it is only in the context of complete letters – letters that show both Wolfgang and his father to the fullest, as real human beings rather than historically predetermined constructions – that a story emerges.

By and large the translation preserves the linguistic style and informal character of the originals. (This extends even to the scatological letters: it is important to bear in mind that all four of the Mozarts indulged themselves – Mozart’s scatological letters are typical not only of the Mozart family’s sense of humour, but of eighteenth-century Salzburg humour generally.) I have not, however, retained the original orthography of places and names, which is variable throughout the letters, sometimes phonetic, sometimes correct and sometimes just wrong; nor have I reproduced the addresses or layout of the letters in every respect: this edition strives for readability rather than literal transcription. However, some things, such as the liberal use of dashes (especially Leopold’s), abbreviations of place names and writing of numbers, have been retained to give a flavour of the original. Where appropriate, I have also included selections from contemporary documents describing the events referred to in the
letters. My sources for these are Otto Erich Deutsch’s
Mozart: A Documentary Biography
(1966) and Cliff Eisen,
New Mozart Documents
(1991); for contemporary pictures of Mozart, his family and acquaintances and the places he visited, the best source is Otto Erich Deutsch,
Mozart und seine Welt in zeitgenössichen Bildern
(1961).

The number of people mentioned in the correspondence is enormous. Wherever possible, they are identified in the footnotes on first mention, or the reader is directed to the List of Important People before the
Life in Letters;
if there is no note, either the person named remains unidentifiable, or what is known of him or her does not contribute to our understanding of the correspondence. For many figures who recur throughout the letters, or whose presence is not always explicit but constantly hovering in the background, readers can always consult this list. I have been greatly helped in the matter of identification by the commentary volumes to the complete German-language edition of the letters, by Heinz Schuler’s
Mozarts Salzburger Freunde und Bekannte: Biographien und Kommentare
(Wilhelmshaven, 2004) and by Peter Clive’s
Mozart and his Circle
(1993).

A Note on Currencies

Currency conversions – whether among local currencies during the eighteenth century or between eighteenth- and twenty-first century currencies – are problematic at best. The principal unit of currency circulating in Habsburg lands at the time was the florin or gulden, which was divided into 60 kreuzer; the ducat was a gold coin worth about
4½
florins while 2 florins were equivalent to a common thaler. These values were not, however, absolutely consistent between different regions of Austria and thalers could be either Reichsthalers
(1½
florins) or Konventionsthalers (2 florins). Currency conventions in Salzburg were slightly different – 1 Viennese florin was worth about 1 florin 12 kreuzer – and international conventions more complex still. The English pound was approximately 8 or 9 Viennese florins, the French louis d’or was about
7½
florins and the Venetian zecchino about 5 florins. Other currencies are mentioned in the Mozart family
letters as well, including the Bavarian max d’or (similar to the French louis d’or) and the Salzburg half-batzen, a small silver coin whose value cannot now be exactly determined. It is useful, when dealing with currencies, to bear in mind that during the 1760s Leopold Mozart’s basic annual salary in Salzburg was 300 florins and that when Mozart was reappointed to the Salzburg court music in 1779 his and his father’s joint salary was 1,000 florins, including a subsistence allowance. When Mozart was appointed imperial chamber musician in 1787 he received 800 florins salary; and the normal fee for composing an opera for the imperial theatres was 450 florins. To put these figures in perspective, Johann Pezzl, writing in Vienna in 1786, calculated that a single person could live ‘quite comfortably’ on 500 or 550 gulden.
³
It is likely, then, that Mozart and his family could have managed reasonably well, if they were not extravagant and remained healthy, on his income. The cost of living in Salzburg was less.

I am grateful to Penguin Books for their help and advice in preparing this edition and in particular to Susan Kennedy, who copyedited the text and notes and made innumerable good suggestions for their improvement. I am also grateful to Stewart Spencer, who translated the text and pointed out numerous interesting details to me as well as answering all my questions and setting me straight on a number of matters. He also compiled the index. Finally, my wife, Katy, gave me invaluable advice, as always, and for that I am grateful.

Braunbehrens, Volkmar,
Mozart in Vienna
(New York, 1990)

Clive, Peter,
Mozart and his Circle
(New Haven, CT, 1993)

Einstein, Alfred,
Mozart: His Character, His Work
(New York, 1945)

Eisen, Cliff,
New Mozart Documents
(London, 1991)

Eisen, Cliff and Stanley Sadie, eds.,
The New Grove Mozart
(London, 2002)

Eisen, Cliff and Simon P. Keefe, eds.,
The Cambridge Mozart Encyclopedia
(Cambridge, 2005)

Halliwell, Ruth,
The Mozart Family: Four Lives in a Social Context
(Oxford, 1998)

Keefe, Simon P., ed.,
The Cambridge Companion to Mozart
(Cambridge, 2003)

Küster, Konrad,
Mozart: A Musical Biography
(Oxford, 1996)

Landon, H. C. Robbins,
Mozart’s Last Year
(London, 1988)

Schroder, David,
Mozart in Revolt
(London, 1999)

ADLGASSER, ANTON CAJETAN
(1729—77) Court and cathedral organist in Salzburg from 1750 until his death, and a close friend of the Mozart family; Leopold was a witness at all three of his weddings. He was chiefly a composer of sacred music, and collaborated with Michael Haydn and Mozart on the oratorio
Die Schuldig-keit des ersten Gebots.
Adlgasser died after suffering a stroke while playing the organ; Leopold describedthe event in a letter of 22 December 1777. Mozart succeeded him as court and cathedral organist in 1779.

ARCO FAMILY
Head of one of Salzburg’s most illustrious noble families, Georg Anton Felix, Count von Arco (1705—92), chief stewardin Salzburg from 1786, and his wife Maria Josepha Viktoria (née von Hardegg, 1710—75) were among the Mozarts’ greatest supporters at the archbishop’s court. Their son Joseph Adam (1733—1802), bishop of Koniggratz in Bohemia, helped secure Mozart’s appointment as organist at Salzburg in 1779. Another son, Karl Joseph Maria Felix (1743—1830), was a member of Archbishop Colloredo’s household and figured prominently in Mozart’s second departure from Colloredo’s service in 1781. Their daughter Maria Anna Felicitas (1741—64) was married to the Bavarian ambassador at Paris, Count Maximilian van Eyck; she died while the Mozarts were staying at her house during their visit to Paris in 1763—4. Another daughter, Antonia Maria, was married to Count Lodron (see below).

AUERNHAMMER, JOSEPHA BARBARA
(1758 —1820) A Student of Mozart’s in Vienna in the early 1780s and a fine pianist, judging by
contemporary accounts; the Viennese musician Benedikt Schwarz described her as ‘a great dilettante on the pianoforte’, while Mozart admiredher ‘enchanting’ playing but noted that ‘in cantabile playing she has not got the real delicate singing style’. Mozart and Auernhammer are known to have performed together on a number of occasions. He dedicated the accompanied sonatas K296 and K376–380 to her. Auernhammer fell in love with Mozart in 1781, but he did not reciprocate.

BULLINGER, FRANZ JOSEPH JOHANN NEPOMUK
(1744–1810) Tutor to the Arco family, he settled in Salzburg between 1774 and 1776 and became the intimate friend and confidant of Leopold Mozart, loaning him a substantial sum of money when Mozart resigned court service in 1777 and set out on his travels with his mother. Wolfgang turned to Bullinger for help when he had to tell Leopold of Maria Anna Mozart’s death in Paris in July 1778.

COLLOREDO, HIERONYMUS JOSEPH FRANZ DE PAULA VON
(1732–1812) Prince-archbishop of Salzburg from 1772 to 1803. Educated in Vienna and Rome, Colloredo became a canon of Salzburg cathedral in 1747. His election as prince-archbishop on 14 March 1772 was bitterly controversial. Although a reformer who created at Salzburg an intellectual environment attractive to artists and thinkers alike, both Mozarts were unhappy in his service, complaining that travel leave was difficult to obtain, that extra presents of money for compositions were stingy and that Italian musicians were promoted over Germans. Colloredo is generally condemned for his insensitive and mean-spirited attitude towards the Mozarts, but there is blame to be apportionedon both sides. His father, Rudolf Wenzel Joseph, Count Colloredo-Mels und Wallsee (1706– 88) was imperial vice-chancellor in Vienna and met the Mozarts there in 1762; his sister, Maria Franziska, Countess Wallis (1746– 95), was the most influential woman at the Salzburg court.

DA PONTE, LORENZO
(1749–1838) Italian librettist and Mozart’s collaborator on
Le nozze di Figaro
(1786),
Don Giovanni
(1787) and
Così fan tutte
(1790). Exiled from Venice (where he had been a friend of Casanova), Da Ponte worked briefly in Dresden before moving to Vienna in late 1781, where he attracted the favour of
Emperor Joseph II. When in 1783 the emperor abandoned his pursuit of German opera and revived the Italian company at the Burgtheater, Da Ponte was appointed chief poet; his subsequent involvement in the remarkable flowering of
opera buffa
in Vienna between 1783 and 1790 made him the most significant librettist of his generation. Mozart was suspicious of his arrogance and penchant for intrigue, while Da Ponte was ambivalent about Mozart in his memoirs, recognizing his genius but doubting his stage skills.

DUSCHEK FAMILY
Czech musician Franz Xaver Duschek (1731– 99) settled in Prague about 1770 and was influential there as a music teacher and pianist; he was also a successful composer of instrumental music. His wife Josepha (née Hambacher, 1754–1824), a singer, had been his pupil before they married in 1776. Josepha’s maternal grandfather was the merchant Ignaz Anton Weiser, mayor of Salzburg from 1772 to 1775 and author of the text of the oratorio
Die Schuldigkeit des ersten Gebots.
The Duscheks first met the Mozarts in Salzburg in August 1777, when Mozart wrote the scena
Ah, lo previdi – Ah, t’invola agl’occhi miei
K272 for Josepha. He stayed at their summer home, the Villa Betramka, when he was in Prague for the premiere
of Don Giovanni
in 1787, on this occasion composing the scena
Bella mia fiamma – Resta, o cara
K528 for her. In March 1786 Mozart accompanied Josepha at the Viennese court and in 1789 she sang at concerts he gave in Dresden and Leipzig.

FIRMIAN FAMILY
One of Salzburg’s leading noble families; Leopold Anton Eleutherius (1679–1744), prince-archbishop of Salzburg from 1727, was Leopold Mozart’s first court employer. His brother, Franz Alphons Georg (1686–1756), had four sons, three of whom are mentioned in the letters. Leopold Ernst (1708–83) was bishop of Passau and later a cardinal; Leopold and Wolfgang Mozart celebrated this promotion in Milan in 1772. Franz Lactanz (1712– 86) was chief steward at the Salzburg court from 1736; he represented the archbishop in secular matters and had jurisdiction over the court music. Karl Joseph (1718–82) was governor general of Lombardy and a prominent patron of the arts. He did much to promote Mozart’s career during his first visit to Italy in 1769–71.

GILOWSKY VON URAZOWA FAMILY
The families of the two barber surgeons Franz Anton (1708–70) and Johann Wenzel Andreas (1716–99) Gilowsky were well known to the Mozarts in Salzburg. Franz Anton’s son Johann Joseph Anton Ernst (1739–89) was a court councillor and represented Mozart in the settlement of Leopold Mozart’s estate; it seems that his daughter Maria Anna Katharina (1753–1809) was a ‘Figaro’ chambermaid; Franz Lactanz, Count Firmian is said to have arranged her marriage to his servant Simon Ankner in order to have her sexual services close at hand. Johann Wenzel Andreas’s daughter, also Maria Anna Katharina (1750–1802), was a friend of Nannerl Mozart’s; she is referred to in the letters as ‘Katherl’. Her brother Franz Xaver Wenzel (1757– 1816), a doctor, was best man at Mozart’s wedding.

GRIMM, FRIEDRICH MELCHIOR, BARON VON
(1723 –1807) Author and diplomat, Grimm was born in Regensburg, Bavaria, and educated in Leipzig. He settled in Paris in 1749, where he became part of the circle around the
Encyclopédistes
and was for a time secretary to the Duc d’Orléans. In 1757 he began to write a weekly newsletter on cultural affairs that circulated throughout Europe in handwritten copies; they were later published as
Correspondance littéraire
(1812). Grimm was the Mozarts’ chief patron during their first visit to Paris in 1763–4, arranging for Wolfgang and Nannerl to appear at Versailles, as well as two public concerts in March and April 1764. On 1 December 1763 he wrote: ‘I cannot be sure that this child will not turn my head if I go on hearing him often; he makes me realize that it is difficult to guard against madness on seeing prodigies.’ Grimm again helped Mozart and his mother in Paris in 1778, but after Maria Anna Mozart’s death, relations between Grimm and Mozart became strained.

HAFFNER FAMILY
Prominent Salzburg family of factors, whose business encompassed banking, haulage and the import and export of goods for merchants; the firm reached its zenith under Siegmund Haffner the elder (1699–1772), mayor of Salzburg from 1768 to 1772, who left a great fortune. Mozart wrote the ‘Haffner’ serenade K250 (plus the march K249), in celebration of the marriage of one of his daughters, Maria Elisabeth (1753–81), to Franz Xaver Anton
Späth on 22 July 1776. It was performed on the eve of the wedding at the Haffners’ summer residence. He wrote what became the ‘Haffner’ symphony K385 to mark the ennoblement of Siegmund the younger (1756—87) on 29 July 1782.

HAGENAUER FAMILY
(Johann) Lorenz Hagenauer (1712—92) was Leopold Mozart’s closest friend in Salzburg. He inherited the family business, which dealt in medicaments, in Salzburg’s Getreidegasse, and married Maria Theresia Schuster (died 1800). The Mozarts rented an apartment from the Hagenauers in the Getreidegasse house from 1747—73, and the eleven Hagenauer children grew up with Mozart and Nannerl. Lorenz another members of the extended Hagenauer family, as well as his business associates, provided loans, put their mercantile credit network at Leopold’s disposal during the family’s European travels, and performed numerous extra favours. Their fifth child, Cajetan Rupert (1746— 1811), became a Benedictine monk at St Peter’s abbey, Salzburg, taking the name Dominicus; Mozart wrote the ‘Dominicus’ mass K66 to mark the celebration of his first mass on 15 October 1769.

HAYDN, (FRANZ) JOSEPH
(1732—1809) Arguably the most famous composer of his day, Haydn was in the employ of the Esterházy family, at their residences at Eisenstadt, Eszterháza and Vienna, from 1761 until his death. It is unlikely that Haydn and Mozart met before Mozart moved to Vienna in 1781; a plausible first meeting has been suggested for 22 and 23 December 1783, when works by them both were played at two charity concerts in the Burgtheater. Certainly they were acquainted by 1784, at which time Mozart was composing the final three of his six quartets dedicated to Haydn (K387, 421, 428, 458, 464, 465). Their last meeting was in 1791, shortly before Haydn’s departure for England. It is likely that they saw each other often in the intervening years, and their relationship was characterized by mutual affection and admiration.

HAYDN, (JOHANN) MICHAEL
(1737—1806) Younger brother of Joseph Haydn and a prolific and successful composer of sacred and secular music (some of his compositions were mistakenly attributed to Mozart). He joined the Salzburg court music establishment as
concert master in 1763 and was appointed court and cathedral organist in 1782, in succession to Mozart. Mozart copied out several of Haydn’s church works, presumably for study purposes. In 1783 he asked his father to send some of Haydn’s music to him in Vienna, for performance at Gottfriedvan Swieten’s. But despite their admiration of his music, the Mozarts were frequently critical of Haydn’s personal behaviour and in particular his excessive drinking. In 1778, Haydn married the soprano Maria Magdalena Lipp (1745–1827), daughter of the third court organist Franz Ignaz Lipp (1718–98); she sang the roles of Gottliche Barmherzigkeit in
Die Schuldigkeit des ersten Gebots
andRosina in
La finta semplice.

JACQUIN FAMILY
(Emilian) Gottfriedvon Jacquin (1767–92), who worked at the court chancellery, was one of Mozart’s closest friends during his years in Vienna after 1781. Not only did they socialize frequently, but Jacquin was a keen amateur composer and singer, and Mozart composed some works jointly with him, including the five
notturni
K346 and K436–439; in 1791 Gottfried published under his name six songs, two of which were composedly Mozart. Jacquin’s sister Franziska (1769–1850) was a keyboard student of Mozart’s; it was for her that he wrote the so-called’Kegelstatt’ trio for clarinet, viola and piano K498, and the piano duet sonata K521.

JOSEPH II, EMPEROR
(1741–90) The eldest son of Emperor Francis I and Empress Maria Theresa, he succeeded his father as Holy Roman Emperor in 1765 and was co-regent of Austria until his mother’s death in 1780. He was married twice: first, happily, to Isabella of Parma (1760–3), and then, miserably, to Josepha of Bavaria (1765–7). An ‘enlightened despot’, his policies included religious toleration, the suppression of the monasteries and repossession of church property, and the liberalization of censorship. His musical knowledge and attainment were considerable and his preferences for German opera,
opera buffa,
wind music and short and simple church music, together with his dislike of court entertainments,
opera seria
and ballets, set the pattern of Viennese music of the 1780s. He advanced Mozart’s career in Vienna by encouraging him to compose
Le nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni
and
Così fan tutte
uncreated post for him in 1787 with limited
duties and at a salary that many musicians would have considered generous. Nonetheless, history has condemned him for failing to do enough to support Mozart’s genius.

KARL THEODOR, ELECTOR PALATINE AND ELECTOR OF BAVARIA
(1724–99) On becoming Elector Palatine in 1742, Karl Theodor, a flautist and cellist, transformed his court at Mannheim into one of the outstanding musical centres of eighteenth-century Europe. When, at the endow December 1777, he succeeded his distant cousin Maximilian III Joseph as Elector and Duke of Bavaria, he moved his court to Munich. The Mozart children first played for Karl Theodor at his country home, Schwetzingen, in July 1763, and Mozart visited Mannheim twice in 1777 and 1778. Although he hoped to gain an appointment at court, he was not successful; he was also unsuccessful in Munich in December 1778.