Mozart: A Life in Letters: A Life in Letters

by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

  Write and let me know what’s going on in Salzburg, as I’m being asked a frightful amount of questions about it, – the people here are far more eager for news of Salzburg than I am –

  Frau Mara is here; – she gave a concert at the theatre last Tuesday. – Her husband didn’t dare show himself, otherwise the orchestra wouldn’t have accompanied her as he’d published a piece in the newspapers, claiming that there was no one in the whole of Vienna capable of accompanying her. – Adieu.

  Herr von Moll17 called on me today – I’ll be having breakfast with him tomorrow or the day after and shall take my opera along with me. – He sends his best wishes to you both – I’ll visit Herr von Auernhammer and his fat daughter18 as soon as the weather improves. You’ll see from this that I’ve received your last letter of the 24th. Old Prince Colloredo19 – at whose house we gave a concert – gave each of us 5 ducats – Countess Rumbeke is now my pupil– Herr von Mesmer – the schools’ inspector – and his dear wife send their regards. – His son plays magnifique– except that, fancying he always knows enough, he’s lazy – he’s also a gifted composer – but is too indolent to devote himself to it – his father doesn’t like that. Adieu.

  106. Mozart to his father, 8 April 1781, Vienna

  Mon très cher Père,

  I’d already started a longer and more sensible letter – but I wrote too much about Brunetti in it; and was afraid that he might open it, perhaps out of curiosity as Ceccarelli is here –

  I’ll send you this letter by the next post and also be able to write more than I can now – in the meantime you’ll have received my other letter. – I told you about the applause at the theatre, but I should add that what delighted and surprised me most of all was – the amazing silence – and the cries of bravo while I was still playing. – For Vienna, where there are so many keyboard players and such good ones, too, this was an honour indeed. –

  Today – I’m writing this at 11 o’clock at night – we had a concert.1 3 of my pieces were played – new ones, of course; – a concerto rondeau for Brunetti – a sonata with violin accompaniment for me – I wrote it yesterday evening between 11 and 12 – but, in order to finish it, I wrote out only the accompanying part for Brunetti and retained my own part in my head – and then a rondeau for Ceccarelli2 – which he had to repeat. – I must now ask you to write as soon as possible and give me your fatherly and most friendly advice on the following. It’s said that we’re to return to Salzburg in two weeks’ time – I can stay here not just without detriment to myself but to my advantage– And so I intend to ask the archbishop to allow me to remain here – dearest father, I love you very much, you can see this from the fact that for your sake I am renouncing all my wishes and desires – if it weren’t for you, I swear to you on my honour that I wouldn’t hesitate for a moment but would resign my position at once – I’d give a big concert, – take four pupils and get on so well that I’d make at least a thousand thalers a year. – I assure you that it’s often hard enough to set aside my own happiness – As you say, I’m still young, that’s true, but to idle away one’s youth in inactivity in such a beggarly place is sad enough and such a loss – I’d value your fatherly and considered advice on this – but soon – – as I have to explain what I mean to do – but you must have every confidence in me – I’m now more sensible – farewell I kiss your hands 1000 times, and I embrace my sister with all my heart. I am ever your most obedient

  W. A. Mozart

  107. Mozart to his father, 28 April 1781, Vienna

  Mon très cher Père,

  You’re looking forward to seeing me again, my dearest father! – That’s the only thing that can decide me to leave Vienna – I’m writing all this in plain German as the whole world must know that it’s you alone, my most beloved father, whom the archbishop of Salzburg must thankfor the fact that he didn’t lose me yesterday for ever – I mean, as far as he personally is concerned– we had a big concert here yesterday1 – probably the last one; – it turned out very well, and in spite of all the obstacles put in my way by His Archiepiscopal Grace, I had a better orchestra than Brunetti, as Ceccarelli will tell you; – I had so much trouble arranging all this – it’s better if I tell you about it in person, rather than in writing; if anything like it were to happen again, which I hope it won’t, I can assure you that I shall lose all patience, and you’ll surely forgive me for doing so – and I would ask you, dearest father, to allow me to return to Vienna next Lent, towards the end of carnival – this depends only on you, not on the archbishop – for if he won’t allow me, I’ll still go, it won’t be to my disadvantage, it certainly won’t! – Oh, if only he could read this, how happy I’d be; – but in your next letter you must promise me this, for it’s only on this condition that I’ll come to Salzburg; – a definite promise, so that I can give my word to the ladies here – Stephanie will be giving me a German opera to write2 – and so I await your reply. –

  To date, Gilowsky still hasn’t brought me an apron – if he does bring one, I’ll not fail to lay it flat among the linen in the trunk, so that it’s not creased or ruined. I shan’t forget the ribbons either –

  I still can’t tell you when and how I’ll be leaving – it’s sad that these gentlemen never tell you anything – and then suddenly we’re told allons, we’re off! – One moment we’re told that a carriage is being prepared so that the contrôleur, Ceccarelli and I can return home, and the next moment it’s by diligence, only for us then to be told that each of us will be given our fare for the diligence and can travel in whatever way we like – which is in fact my preferred solution. One moment we’re told we’ll be leaving in a week, then in 2 weeks, then in 3 – and then even sooner – God! – We really don’t know where we are, and there’s nothing we can do about it; – but I hope to be able to let you know by next post day – à peu près–

  I must stop now as I’m off to see Countess Schönborn3 – after yesterday’s concert the ladies kept me at the keyboard for a whole hour – I think I’d still be sitting there if I’d not stolen away – I thought I’d played enough for nothing–

  Adieu – I kiss your hands 1000 times and embrace my sister with all my heart. I remain ever your obedient son

  W. A. Mozart

  P. S. Best wishes to all our friends – I embrace young Marchand4 with all my heart. – Please ask my sister to do me a favour: if she happens to write to Mlle Hepp, could she give her 1000 good wishes and explain that the reason why I’ve not written to her for so long is that I’d have to write and tell her not to reply to me until she’s received another letter from me – as I couldn’t say anything else to her in my second letter, I should never – as I’m in such a state of uncertainty – never receive another letter from her in Vienna – and that would be intolerable to me – but as things now stand, I’ve no right to expect one – I’ll write to her before I leave. Adieu.

  108. Mozart to his father, 9 May 1781, Vienna

  Mon très cher Père,

  I’m still seething with rage! – And you, my most beloved, dearest father, will undoubtedly be as well. – My patience has been tried for so long that it’s finally given out. I’m no longer so unfortunate as to be in the service of the Salzburg court – today has been a happy day for me; listen; –

  Twice that – I really don’t know what to call him1 – has said to my face the silliest and most impertinent things, which I’ve not told you about in my letters as I wanted to spare your feelings, and it was only because I kept thinking of you, my dearest father, that I didn’t avenge them there and then. – He called me a knave and a dissolute fellow – and told me I should leave – and I – I put up with it all – although I felt that not only my own honour but yours as well was under attack – but – you wanted it so – so I said nothing; – now listen; – a week ago the footman arrived unexpectedly and told me to leave that instant; – the others had all been given their date of departure, but not me; – so I quickly shoved everything into my trunk and – old Madame W
eber2 was kind enough to offer me her house, where I now have a nice room and where I’m with obliging people who’ve provided me with all the things that you often need in a hurry and that you can’t have when you’re on your own. –

  I arranged to return home by the ordinaire on Wednesday the 9th, in other words, today – but I didn’t have time to collect the money still due to me, so I delayed my journey till Saturday – when I turned up today, the valets told me that the archbishop wanted me to take a parcel for him – I asked if it was urgent; they said yes, it was of great importance. – Then I’m sorry that I can’t have the privilege of serving His Grace as I can’t leave before Saturday – for the reason given above; – I’m no longer staying here but have to live at my own expense – so I naturally can’t leave until I’m in a position to do so – no one will expect me to ruin myself. – Kleinmayr, Moll, Bönike and the 2 valets agreed with me. – When I went in to see him – by the way, I should have said that Schlauka3 advised me to make the excuse that the ordinaire was already full – he said this would carry more weight; – well, when I went in to see him, the first thing he said was: arch: Well, my lad, when are you leaving? – I: I wanted to leave tonight but there’s no room. He didn’t stop to draw breath. – Iwas the most dissolute lad that he knew – no one served him as badly as I did – he advised me to leave today, otherwise he’d write home and have my pay stopped – it was impossible to get a word in edgeways, it was like a fire out of control – I listened to it all calmly – he lied to my face that I was on 500 florins4 – he called me a scoundrel, a scurvy rogue and a cretin – oh, I’d prefer not to tell you all he said – finally, my blood began to boil, so I said – so Your Grace isn’t satisfied with me? – What, are you threatening me, you cretin, O you cretin! – Look, there’s the door, I want nothing more to do with such a miserable knave – finally I said – Nor I with you – Well, go then – and I, as I was leaving – so be it; you’ll have it in writing tomorrow. – Tell me, dearest father, didn’t I say this too late rather than too soon? – – Listen; – my honour means more to me than anything else, and I know that it’s the same with you. – Don’t worry about me; – I’m so sure of my position here that I’d have resigned for no reason at all – but now that I have a reason – and, indeed, thrice over – I can gain nothing by waiting; au contraire, I twice behaved shabbily and couldn’t do so for a third time; –

  As long as the archbishop is here, I shan’t give a concert. But you’re completely wrong if you think that I’ll get a bad name with the nobility and the emperor himself – the archbishop is hated here, and by the emperor most of all – he’s angry that the emperor didn’t invite him to Laxenburg – by the next mail coach I’ll send you some money to prove that I’m not starving.

  For the rest, I would ask you to be cheerful – my good luck is now beginning, and I hope that my good luck will be yours too. – Write to me in secret and let me know that you’re pleased, which you’ve good reason to be – but publicly rebuke me so that people don’t blame you – but if, in spite of this, the archbishop is in any way rude to you, you must come at once with my sister to Vienna – all 3 of us can live here, I give you my word of honour on this point – but I’d prefer it if you can hold out for another year – don’t send any more letters to the Deutsches Haus5 or with the archbishop’s parcel service – I don’t want to hear another word about Salzburg – I hate the archbishop so much it drives me mad just to think about it. Adieu – I kiss your hands 1000 times and I embrace my dear sister with all my heart. I am ever your obedient son

  W. A. Mozart

  Just write ‘To be delivered Auf dem Peter im Auge Gottes 2nd floor’.6

  Let me know soon that you’re pleased, as this is the only thing missing from my present happiness. Adieu.

  109. Mozart to his father, 19 May 1781, Vienna

  Mon très cher Père,

  I really don’t know what to say, my dearest father, as I can’t get over my astonishment and shall never be able to do so as long as you continue to think and write as you do; – I must confess that there isn’t a single line in your letter by which I recognize my father! – I see a father, of course, but not that most beloved and most loving father who cares for his own honour and that of his children – in a word, not my father; but it was all just a dream – you’ve now woken up and have no need of any reply from me to your points in order to convince yourself that – now more than ever– I cannot give up my resolve. – But I must reply to some of your points as your letter contains a number of passages in which my honour and character have been most grievously impugned. – You can never approve of the fact that I resigned in Vienna; – I think that if one wants to do a thing – although at the time I had no desire to do so, otherwise I’d have done so at the first available opportunity – it would be most sensible to do so in a place where one has a good standing and the best prospects in the world. – That you can’t approve of this in the presence of the archbishop is entirely possible, but to me you must surely approve of it; I can salvage my honour only by abandoning my resolve? – How can you be so self-contradictory? – When you wrote this, you evidently didn’t think that for me to go back on my word in this way would make me the most contemptible creature in the world. – The whole of Vienna knows that I’ve left the archbishop – and knows why! – knows that it was because my honour was impugned – and, moreover, that it was impugned three times – and you expect me publicly to prove the opposite? – Am I to make myself out to be a coward and the archbishop a fine upstanding prince? – No one can do the former, I myself least of all, and the latter is something that God alone can do if He elects to enlighten him. –

  So I’ve never shown you any love? – So I have to show it now for the first time? – Can you really say that? –

  I won’t sacrifice any of my pleasures for your sake?–––

  What sort of pleasures do I have here? – That I have to think of ways of filling my purse, with all the effort and worry that that involves? – You seem to think I’m living a life of pleasure and amusement. – Oh, how you deceive yourself! – That is, at present! – At present I’ve only as much as I need – the subscription for my 6 sonatas is now under way and I’ll be receiving some money from this – things are working out with the opera, too – and during Advent I’m giving a concert, after which things will continue to get better and better1 – in winter it’s possible to earn quite a lot here. – If you can call it pleasure to be rid of a prince who doesn’t pay you and who bullies you to death, then it’s true, I’m pleased; – if I had to do nothing but think and work from early morning till late at night, I’d gladly do so in order not to depend on the grace and favour of a – I prefer not to call him by his rightful name. – I was forced to take this step – and so I can no longer stray from this course by so much as a hair’s breadth – it’s impossible – all I can say to you is this, that because of you – and solely because of you, my father, – I’m very sorry that I was driven to such lengths and I wish the archbishop had acted more prudently, if only to have enabled me to devote my whole life to you. – To please you, dearest father, I’d sacrifice my happiness, health and life – but my honour – that means more to me than anything else, just as it should to you. – Let Count Arco and the whole of Salzburg read this. – After this insult – after this threefold insult – I wouldn’t accept the archbishop’s money even if he offered me 1200 florins in person – I’m not a lad or a knave – and if it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t have waited for him to say clear off three times before taking him at his word; what am I saying: waited!? – I, I should have said it, and not he! – I’m only surprised that the archbishop could have acted so thoughtlessly in a place like Vienna, that he could have been so thoughtless! – Well, he’ll see that he’s been deluding himself; – Prince Breuner and Count Arco need the archbishop, whereas I don’t. – And if it comes to the worst and he forgets all the obligations of a prince – a spiritual prince– then come and join me in Vienna
; you’ll have 400 florins wherever you are – if he were to do that, how do you think he’d disgrace himself in the eyes of the emperor, who already hates him! –

  My sister, too, would be much better off here than in Salzburg – there are many houses where the gentry have misgivings about engaging a man but who would pay a woman very well. –

  All this may still happen. –

  As soon as I have a chance – perhaps if Herr Kleinmayr, Bönike or Zetti travels to Salzburg – I’ll send you something towards the you know what – the contrôleur is leaving today and will be bringing the fine woollen fabric for my sister. –

  Dearest, most beloved father, demand of me what you will, but not that, anything but that – the mere thought of it makes me shake with anger – adieu – I kiss your hands 1000 times and embrace my sister with all my heart. I am ever your most obedient son

  Wolfgang Amadè Mozart

  110. Mozart to his father, [26] May 1781, Vienna

  Mon très cher Père

  You’re quite right, just as I am quite right, my dearest father!1 – I know and acknowledge all my faults; but – can’t a man change for the better? – May he not already have changed for the better? – In whatever way I examine the matter, I still think that I can best be of help to myself and to you, my beloved father and dear sister, by remaining in Vienna. It looks as if good fortune is about to welcome me here with open arms. – I feel as though I have to stay here. – I already felt this when I left Munich. – I was really looking forward to Vienna – I don’t know why. – You must be patient for a little while longer, for I shall soon be able to show you in fact just how useful Vienna will be to us all. – You really must believe me when I say that I’ve changed completely – apart from my health, I now recognize that nothing matters more than money; of course, I’m no miser – and it would be hard for me to become one, but people here think I’m more inclined to be stingy than a spendthrift – and that’s enough to be going on with. – As for pupils, I can have as many as I want; but I don’t want too many – I want to be paid more than the others – and so I prefer to have fewer. – You have to get on your high horse a little right from the outset, otherwise you’re permanently lost – you then have to stick to the common highway like the rest. As for the subscription, things are going well – and as for the opera,2 I don’t know why I should hold back. – Count Rosenberg received me most politely on the 2 occasions I called on him and, together with van Swieten and Herr von Sonnenfels,3 he heard my opera4 at Countess Thun’s. – And as Stephanie5 is a good friend of mine, everything’s going well. – Believe me, I don’t like idleness but prefer work. – In Salzburg, it’s true, it required an effort and I could hardly ever find the resolve. Why? Because my mind was not content; even you yourself must admit that in Salzburg – at least for me – there’s not a ha’penny’s worth of entertainment; and there are lots of people there with whom I refuse to associate. – And for most of the others I’m too unworthy. No encouragement for my talent! – Whenever I play or if any of my works are performed, it’s just as if the audience was made up entirely of tables and chairs. – If only there were a theatre there that was any good. – This is my sole entertainment here. – In Munich, it’s true, I involuntarily placed myself in a false light with you by enjoying myself too much – but I can swear to you on my honour that I never set foot in a theatre until my opera had been staged and that I never went anywhere except to the Cannabichs. – That I had to write most of the opera – and the most difficult part – at the last minute is true; but it wasn’t out of idleness or negligence, it was because for 2 weeks it was impossible for me to write a single note – of course I wrote it down, but not as a fair copy. – And in this way I lost a lot of time, of course. But I don’t regret it; – that I had too much fun afterwards was the result of youthful folly; I thought to myself, where are you off to next? – To Salzburg! – And so you must enjoy yourself! – It’s true that in Salzburg I pine for 100 entertainments, but not for a single one here. – Just being in Vienna is already entertainment enough. You really must have faith in me, I’m no longer a fool. – And still less can you believe that I’m a godless, ungrateful son. – So you should trust entirely in my brains and good heart – you’ll certainly not regret it. –