Life of Mozart by O. Jahn. I. Childhood: L. Mozart's Violin Method - 2 part

Three clavier sonatas are printed,¹³ of which Faiszt remarks that they might well be the work of Leopold's great son, so strong is their similarity in form and spirit.¹⁴ His compositions were for the most part only in manuscript, as was almost all the music of that day.¹⁵ By way of practice in engraving, he engraved three trio sonatas himself in 1740, and revived the old accomplishment in 1778, when he engraved some variations for his son.

In later years he composed little or nothing; his position in Salzburg was so little to his mind that he did not feel himself called on to do more than his duty required; besides, the education of his children engrossed his whole time, and when his son had come forward as a composer, he would on no account have entered into competition with him.¹⁶ L. Mozart was proud of the estimation in which his works were held abroad, as the following extract from a letter to his friend Lotter shows :

November 24, 1755. I maytell you in strict confidence that I have received a letter
from a distant place inviting me to become a member--- don't be alarmed—or—don't laugh-- a member of the Corresponding Society of Musical Science.17 Potz Plunder! say I. But do not tell tales out of school, for it may be only talk. I never dreamt of such a thing in my life; that I can honestly say.

But the elder Mozart acquired his chief reputation as a musician by the publication in 1756 of his "Attempt towards a Fundamental Method for the Violin."¹⁸   

¹³ Haffner's œuvres melees (Würzb.), V. 4, VI. 5, IX. 4.

¹⁴ Cacilia, XXVI., p. 82.

¹⁵ A Max d'or (about thirteen shillings) was paid to him for copies of four flute concertos, a ducat for a pastoral symphony, and a florin for two shorter ones.

¹⁶ A. M. Z., XXIII., p. 685.

¹⁷ This was the Society of Musical Science, founded at Leipzig in 1738 by Mag. Lor. Mitzler ; s. Mitzler's Musik Bibl., III., p. 346; Musik. Almanach, 1782, p. 184. In his Violin Method, p. 7, L. Mozart praises this Society, and hopes that it will direct its scientific researches to questions of practical interest in music.

¹⁸ A long series of letters to his friendly publisher J. J. Lotter, at Augsburg, written during 1755 and 1756, when his work was in the press, testify to L. Mozart's care for accuracy of expression, orthography, and printing.

This work was spread abroad in numerous editions and translations, and was for many years the only published instruction on the art of violin-playing; proof enough that it rendered important service in its day, as far as technical knowledge was concerned. What makes the book still interesting to us is the earnest, intelligent spirit which speaks from it, and shows us the man as he was. He sought to impart to his pupils a sound, practical musical education; they were not only to practise their fingers, but were always clearly to understand what they had to execute and why: " It is dispiriting to go on playing at random, without knowing what you are about" (p. 245); a good violinist should even be practised in rhetoric and poetry to be able to execute with intelligence (p. 107). He insists strongly that the pupil should not advance until he is quite able for what he has to learn : " In this consists the gravest error that either master or pupil can fall into. The former often lack patience to wait for the right time; or they let themselves be carried away by the pupil, who thinks he has done wonders when he can scrape out a minuet or two. Often, too, the parents or guardians of the beginner are anxious to hear him play some of these imperfect tunes, and think with satisfaction how well their money has been spent on the lessons. How greatly they are mistaken! " (p. 57, cf. 121.)

The study is not to be made too easy or simple ; the learner must exert himself and work hard. Thus he writes at the beginning of the exercises (p. go): "These are the passages for practice. The more distasteful they are, the better I shall be pleased; I have striven to make them so "; that is, to guard against their being played from memory.

The same ability is displayed in his principles of taste. He exacts above all a "straightforward, manly tone" (p. 54); "nothing can be more absurd than to seem afraid even to grasp the violin firmly; or just to touch the strings with the bow (held perhaps with two fingers), and to attempt such an artistic up-bow to the very nut of the violin that only a note here and there is heard in a whisper, without any idea what it means, it is all so like a dream " (p. 101).

Simple, natural expression is the highest aim of the violinist, so that the instrument may imitate as far as possible the art of song (p. 50) ; "who does not grant that to sing their music has been the aim of all instrumentalists, because they have ever striven after nature ? " (p. 107.)¹⁹ He is severe on performers who "tremble upon every long note, or cannot play a couple of bars simply without introducing their senseless and ridiculous tricks and fancies " (p. 50). They are blamed the more as they are for the most part wanting in the necessary knowledge where to bring in their ornamentation without involving errors in the composition (pp. 209, 195). Other faults of the virtuoso are equally severely dealt with, such as the tremolo of the player " who shakes away on every note as if he had the ague" (p. 238), or the constant introduction of the so-called "flageolet tones" (p. 107), or the alternate hurrying and dragging of the "virtuoso of imagination." " Many," says he (p. 262), "who have no conception of taste, disdain to keep uniform time in the accompaniment of a concerted part, and strive to follow the principal part. That is accompanying like a bungler, not like an artist. It is true that in accompanying some Italian singers, who learn everything by heart and never adhere to time or measure, one has often to pass over whole bars to save them from open shame. But in accompanying a true artist, worthy of the name, not a note must be delayed or anticipated, there must be neither hurry nor dragging, so that every note may have proper expression, otherwise the accompaniment would destroy the effect of the composition. A clever accompanist should also be able to judge of the performer. He must not spoil the tempo rubato of an experienced artist by waiting to follow him. It is not easy to describe this ' stolen time.' A ' virtuoso of imagination' often gives to a semiquaver in an adagio cantabile the time of half a bar, before recovering from his paroxysm of feeling; and he cares nothing at all for the time : he plays in recitative."

¹⁹ Ph. Em. Bach advises clavier-players to hear as much good singing as possible; " it gives the habit of thinking in song, and it is well always to sing a new idea aloud to oneself, so as to catch the right delivery " (Versuch iiber die wahre Art das Klavier zu spielen, I., p. 90).

Technical instruction and skill are to him only the means to a higher end. The performer must be capable of expressing all the pathos of the piece before him, so as to. penetrate to the souls and stir the passions of the audience (pp. 52, 253).²⁰ As the most important requisite to the violinist for attaining this, he indicates the stroke of the bow (p. 122) as "the "medium by the judicious use of which we are able to communicate the pathos of the music to the audience." " I consider," he adds " that a composer attains his highest aim when he finds a suitable melody for every sentiment, and knows how to give it its right expression." "Many a second-rate composer," he says (p. 252), " is full of delight, and thinks more than ever of himself when he hears his nonsensical music executed by good artists, by whose artistic expression even such miserable trash is made intelligible to the audience."

²⁰ Wherein consists good execution ? " says Ph. Em. Bach (Versuch über die wahre Art das Klavier zu spielen, I., p. 86). " In the power of expressing musical ideas to the ear correctly and with full effect, whether singing or playing."

It is plain that he was a sworn enemy to smatterers and pretenders. Thorough technical study and an intellect trained to clear and rational thought he considered absolutely indispensable to a true artist. He grants, indeed, that genius may atone for the want of learning, and that a man highly gifted by nature may lack the opportunity of studying his art scientifically. But this does not detract from the main proposition nor make his demands less just.

The extracts given above illustrate the principles and the views with which L. Mozart undertook the musical education of his son, and these being united to a correct appreciation of the freedom and indulgence due to great natural powers, it must be acknowledged that no genius could have been trained under happier auspices.

This work, so remarkable for the age, met with suitable recognition. Marpurg, to whose judgment L. Mozart had submitted it in his preface, speaks of it as follows :²¹ " The want of a work of this kind has been long felt, but hitherto in vain. A thorough and skilled performer, a sensible and methodical teacher, a learned musician, a man possessing all those qualities which singly command our respect, are here to be found united in one individual—the author. What Geminiani did for the English nation, Mozart has accomplished for the German, and their works are worthy to live side by side in universal approbation."

After this it is not surprising that the first of the critical letters on music which were published under Marpurg's direction at Berlin in 1759 and 1760 should be addressed to L. Mozart, with the declaration that the society which proposed to address each letter to some person of distinction, could not make a fitter commencement than with him. Schubart says,²² " He gained great reputation through his 'Method,' which is written in good German, and with admirable judgment. The examples are well chosen, and the system of fingering not in the least pedantic ; the author doubtless inclines to the school of Tartini, but he permits greater freedom in the management of the bow." Zelter expresses himself in the same spirit:²³ " His ' Violin Method' is a work which will be of use as long as the violin is an instrument.    It is well written, too."

²¹        Marpurg's Hist. krit. Beitr., III., p. 160.

²²        Schubart's Aesth. d. Tonk., p. 157.

²³        Briefw. m. Goethe, V., p. 191.

The praise of the author's style of writing is characteristic and well deserved; it was then a far rarer distinction among artists than at present. L. Mozart's style is sharp and clear; his sarcastic turn of mind is so prominent that he apologises for it in the preface, although it is not unusual in the musical literature of the time. Both in this book and in his letters he proves himself a man who has not only acquired cultivation by intercourse with the world and by travel, but who is well acquainted with literature, has read with taste and discernment, and has well-defined and judicious opinionsboth on aesthetic and moral subjects. He addressed to the poet Gellert a letter so full of veneration that Gellert replied in the warmest terms, as the following extract will show :—

I should be insensible, indeed, if the extraordinary kindness with which you honoured me had left me unmoved, and I should be the most ungrateful of men if I could have received your letter without acknowledgment. I accept your love and friendship, my dear sir, with the same frankness with which they are offered. Do you, indeed, read my works and encourage your friends to do the same ? Such approbation, I can truly say, was more than I could have dared to hope from such a quarter. Does my last poem, " Der Christ," meet with your approval ? I venture to answer myself in the affirmative. To this I am encouraged by the subject of the poem, your own noble spirit, as unwittingly you display it in your letters, and by my consciousness of honest endeavour.

Baron von Bose presented "the little Orpheus of seven years old," when in Paris, with Gellert's songs, recommending him to borrow their irresistible harmonies, "so that the hardened atheist may read and mark them, may hear them and fall down and worship God." Perhaps this gift gave occasion to the letter. Wolfgang informs his sister at a later date, from Milan, of the death of Gellert, which took place there.

With this amount of cultivation, and the pretensions consequent on it, it is not surprising that Leopold Mozart felt himself isolated at Salzburg. He had his duties to perform at court, and the more contemptible their remuneration was, the more he and the other officials were made to feel their dependent position. He was employed as a teacher in most of the families of rank at Salzburg, for his instruction was justly considered as the best that could be had ; but this did not imply any degree of friendly intimacy. He was too proud to ingratiate himself with them by flattery or obsequiousness, although, as a man of the world, he knew how to moderate his satirical humour, and was always affable and well-bred. He seems to have had little intercourse with his colleagues. This was partly owing to circumstances, but partly also to their want of musical proficiency or mental cultivation, joined to their looser, less earnest mode of life.