Life of Mozart. I. Childhood: Schachtner's letter

Most of the anecdotes of Mozart's childhood which testify to  his  wonderful  genius,   are   contained  in   a letter from Schachtner, which is here given entire, as the direct testimony of a contemporary.

Joh. Andre Schachtner (died 1795) had been court trumpeter at Salzburg from 1754, for which post a higher degree of musical attainment was necessary then than at the present day. He was not only a skilled musician, but displayed considerable literary cultivation, which he had obtained at the Jesuit school of Ingolstadt. The translation of a religious drama, "The Conversion of St. Augustine" from the Latin of Father Franz Neumayer, gained him the somewhat ambiguous praise of Gottsched, who writes : " We may even say that he wrote good German, nay, almost that he wrote good German poetry."²⁹ We shall find him later acting as librettist to Mozart.

Life of Mozart. I. Childhood: His Birth

The social relations of the Mozart family were, however, cheerful and unconstrained; their intercourse with their friends had more of innocent merriment than of intellectual enjoyment. "The Salzburg mind," says Schubart,²⁴ "is tuned to low comedy.

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.

Life of Mozart by O. Jahn. I. Childhood: L. Mozart's Violin Method - 1 part

We have no detailed information of L. Mozart's youthful life. His recollections of his position at Augsburg are bitter and sarcastic. Even with his brothers and sisters, whom he accused of having turned the weakness of their mother to his disadvantage, he had no close or intimate connection, although they had never any scruples in applying for his support.

Life of Mozart by O. Jahn. I. Childhood

Wolfgang Amade Mozart came of a family belonging originally to the artisan class. We find his ancestors settled in Augsburg early in the seventeenth century, and following their calling there without any great success.1 His grandfather, Johann Georg Mozart, a book binder, married, October 7, 1708, Anna Maria Peterin, the widow of another bookbinder, Augustin Banneger.2 From this union sprang two daughters and three sons, viz.: Fr. Joseph Ignaz, Franz Alois (who carried on his father's trade in his native town), and Johann Georg Leopold Mozart, born on November 14, 1719, the father of the Mozart of our biography.3 Gifted with a keen intellect and firm will he early formed the resolution of raising himself to a higher position in the world than that hitherto occupied by his family; and in his later years he could point with just elation to his own arduous efforts, and the success which had crowned them, when he was urging his son to the same steady perseverance.

Life of Mozart by O. Jahn. Translator's note

CONSIDERABLE doubt has existed in the mind of the translator as to the proper English equivalent for the word "clavier" throughout this work. Clavier is a generic term in German, and is used to denote any keyed instrument, whether harpsichord, clavichord, or pianoforte. Mozart's compositions for the clavier are equally available for all these instruments, and in his early years he performed indifferently on the harpsichord or clavichord. His first introduction to the pianoforte was at Augsburg, in 1777, and he did not become familiar with the instrument until after his settlement in Vienna in 1781.

Life of Mozart by O. Jahn. Preface to the English edition (1882)

I have been asked to say a few words by way of welcome to the translation of Jahn's Life of Mozart, and I do so with pleasure. The book has been long familiar to me, and I regard its appearance in an English dress as an event in our musical history. It will be a great boon to students and lovers of music, and it shows how much the study of music has advanced among us when so large and serious a work is sufficiently appreciated to repay the heavy expense attendant on its translation and publication. The book itself is what the Germans call an "epoch-making work." The old biographies of musicians, such as Forkel's Life of Bach (1802) and Dies's of Haydn (1810), are pleasant gossipy accounts of the outward life of the composers; but they concern themselves mainly with the exterior both of the man and his productions, and there is a sort of tacit understanding throughout that if the reader is a professional musician he will know all about the music, if he is an amateur it is altogether out of his reach.