W. A. Mozart
Leopold Mozart died on 28 May.
158. Mozart to his sister, 2 June 1787, Vienna
Dearest Sister,
You can well imagine how distressed I was by the sad news of our dearest father’s sudden death, as the loss affects us both equally. – – As it’s impossible for me to leave Vienna at present – which I’d do if only to have the pleasure of embracing you – and as it would hardly be worth coming simply to sort out our late father’s effects, I must confess that I’m entirely of your opinion with regard to a public auction; but I shall first wait to see an inventory in order to be able to choose one or two items from it; – but if, as Herr von d’Ippold1 tells me, there’s a dispositio paterna inter liberos,2 I first need to know about this before I can make any further arrangements; – – I’m now awaiting an exact copy of it and after a brief perusal of its contents I’ll inform you of my opinion at once. – Please ensure that the enclosed letter is handed to our good and true friend Herr von d’Ippold; – as he has already proved to be a friend of our family on so many other occasions, I hope that he will again demonstrate his friendship and represent me in any way that’s necessary. – – Farewell, dearest sister! I am ever your faithful brother
W. A. Mozart
P.S.: My wife sends her best wishes to you and your husband, as do I.– –
159. Mozart’s poem to his dead starling, 4 June 1787, Vienna1
Here lies my foolish darling who
In life was my pet starling. You
Were taken from me in your prime
And snatched away before your time
And made to feel death’s bitter blow.
The merest thought of it, I know,
Will cause my heart to bleed. So shed
A little tear for him. No shred
Of malice, gentle reader, lay
Within his heart. I’ll only say
He was a rather lively bird,
A dear and playful rogue. No word
Shall I hear said against a friend
Whom none could ever reprehend.
I’ll wager he’s already there
At God’s right hand and that he’ll swear
He’s never known a friend as kind
And selfless as the undersigned.
For when he unexpectedly
Fell off his perch and jilted me,
He didn’t think about the man
Who rhymes as well as any can.
4 June 1787.
Mozart.
160. Mozart to his sister, 16 June 1787, Vienna
Dearest, most beloved Sister,
It didn’t surprise me at all that you didn’t inform me yourself about our very dear father’s sad and, to me, entirely unexpected, death, as I could easily guess the reason. – May God take him to His bosom! – Rest assured, my dear, that if you want a kind-hearted brother to love and protect you, you’ll undoubtedly find one in me, whatever the occasion. – My dearest, most beloved sister, if you were still unprovided for, I’d need none of this. As I’ve thought and said a thousand times, I’d leave it all to you with genuine pleasure; but as it is of no use to you but, conversely, would be of considerable help to me, I consider it my duty to think of my wife and child.
161. Mozart to his sister, 1 August 1787, Vienna
Dearest, most beloved Sister, –
I’m writing at present only in order to reply to your letter – not much, and even this is in a hurry, as I have too much to do. – As both your husband, my dear brother-in-law, whom I ask you to kiss 1000 times for me, and I are keen to conclude this whole matter as soon as possible, I accept his offer, but on one condition, namely, that he pays me the 1000 florins not in imperial currency but in Viennese currency and, moreover, as a bill of exchange. – I’ll send your husband the draft of an agreement or, rather, of a contract between us next post day, to be followed by 2 original copies, one signed by me, the other to be signed by him. – I’ll send you some new pieces of mine for the piano as soon as I can. Please don’t forget my scores.1
– Farewell a thousand times. I must close. – My wife and Carl send a 1000 good wishes to you and your husband. I am ever your honest brother who loves you,
W. A. Mozart
On 1 October Mozart and Constanze set out for Prague for the preparations for the first performance of his opera Don Giovanni, his second collaboration with Da Ponte, commissioned earlier that year in the wake of Figaro ’s Prague success. On 14 October Mozart conducted Le nozze di Figaro as part of the festivities celebrating the wedding of Archduchess Maria Theresa, niece of Joseph II, and Prince Anton Clemens of Saxony; Don Giovanni was premiered on 29 October.
162. Mozart to Gottfried von Jacquin, 4 November 1787, Prague
Dearest, most beloved Friend,
I hope you received my letter; – my opera Don Giovanni was staged on 29 Oct. and met with the most tremendous acclaim. – It was given yesterday for the 4th time – for my benefit; – I’m planning to leave here on the 12th or 13th; as soon as I’m back, you’ll have the aria1 straightaway; N. B. between ourselves;– I wish that my good friends – especially you and Bridi2 – could have been here for just one evening to share in my pleasure! – But perhaps it’ll be performed in Vienna? – I hope so. – People here are doing everything possible to persuade me to remain here for another couple of months and write another opera. – But, however flattering their offer, I can’t accept it. – Now, my dearest friend, how are you? – I hope that you’re all as well and as healthy as we are; – you can’t fail to be happy, dearest friend, as you possess everything you could wish for at your age and in your situation! – especially since you appear to have entirely abandoned your former somewhat unsettled lifestyle; – I guess that with each passing day you’re becoming more and more convinced of the truth of the little lectures I gave you. – Surely the pleasures of a fickle and flighty passion are worlds apart from the happiness afforded by a true and sensible love. – In your heart I expect that you often thank me for my teachings! – You’ll make me quite conceited. – But, joking apart, I deserve at least some thanks if you’re now more worthy of Fräulein N3....... as I played a by no means insignificant part in reforming or converting you; – my great-grandfather used to say to his wife, my great-grandmother, who then told her daughter, my grandmother, who in turn told her daughter, my mother, who in turn told her daughter, my own sister, that to speak well and to talk a flowery language is a very great art but perhaps a no less great art is knowing when to stop; – and so I’ll heed the advice of my sister, which she owed to our mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, and put a stop not only to my moral excursus but also to this letter as a whole.
The 9th.– I’ve received your 2nd letter with a mixture of surprise and pleasure; – if you needed the song4 in question to be assured of > my friendship for you, you’ve no further cause to doubt it – for here it is: – but I hope that you’re convinced of my true friendship even without this song, and in this hope I remain ever your most sincere friend
W. A. Mozart
P. S.: I really can’t believe that neither your dear parents nor your sister nor your brother remembered me! – I ascribe that entirely to your forgetfulness, my friend. And I flatter myself that I’m not mistaken. – As for the double seal, it’s like this: the red wax was useless – so I sealed it on top in black; – and I left my usual seal in Vienna. – Adieu, – I hope to embrace you soon.
We both send our best wishes to your whole family and also to the Natorps. –
Mozart and Constanze returned to Vienna about 16 November. The composer Christoph Willibald Gluckhad died in Vienna on 15 November, and on 7 December Joseph II appointed Mozart imperial and royal chamber composer with an annual salary of 800 florins. Mozart and Constanze’s fourth child, Theresia Constanzia Adelheid, was born on 27 December. Other details of Mozart’s life at this time are scarce. On 10 February 1788 he played at a concert given by the Venetian ambassador Andrea Dolfin, and in February and
March he performed his arrangement of C. P. E. Bach’s cantata Auferstehung und Himmelfart Jesu at Count Esterházy’s. In March he composed the aria Ah se in ciel, benigne stelle K588 for Aloysia Lange and on 2 April he began a subscription for three string quintets (K406, 515 and 516) that failed to fill. A revised version of Don Giovanni was premiered at the court theatre in Vienna on 7 May. On 17 June, Mozart and Constanze moved to the Alsergrund suburb, in the Währingerstrasse.
163. Mozart to Michael Puchberg, 27 June 1788, Vienna
Most honourable B. O.,1
Dearest and most beloved Friend,
I kept thinking that I’d get into town one of these days in order to thank you in person for the kindness that you’ve shown me – but now I don’t even have the heart to appear before you as I’m obliged to admit quite candidly that I can’t possibly pay you back the money you lent me as soon as I’d intended and I must ask you to be patient with me! – It worries me greatly that the situation is what it is and that you can’t help me as much as I’d like! – My position is such that I’m absolutely forced to raise some money. – But, in God’s name, in whom can I confide? No one but you, my dearest of friends! – If you would at least be kind enough to obtain the money for me by some other means! – I’ll gladly pay the interest, and whoever lends it to me is, I think, sufficiently indemnified by my character & my income – I’m only sorry to be in this position, but that’s why I’d like to have a fairly substantial sum for a somewhat longer period of time in order to be able to obviate the situation. – If you, my most worthy brother, don’t help me in my present situation, I shall lose my honour and my credit, which is the one thing I’d like to keep. – I rely entirely on your genuine friendship and brotherly love and confidently expect that you’ll help me in word and deed. If I obtain what I want, I’ll be able to breathe freely again as I’ll then be in a position to put my affairs in order and keep them like that; – do come and see me; I’m always at home; – in the 10 days that I’ve been here I’ve done more work than in 2 months in my other lodgings, and if I weren’t so often plagued by black thoughts that I can banish only with great effort, things would be even better, as my rooms are pleasant – comfortable – and cheap!– I don’t want to detain you any longer with my nonsense and shall say no more– and hope.
Ever your obedient servant and true friend and B. O.
W. A. Mozart
164. Mozart to his sister, 2 August 1788, Vienna
Dearest Sister,
You’d have every reason to be angry with me!1 – But will you still be cross when you receive my latest piano pieces by this mail coach? – Oh no! – This, I hope, will put us back on course. –
As you’ll be convinced that not a day goes by without my wishing you every possible happiness, you’ll not mind if I’m a little late in sending you my best wishes on your name day; – dearest sister; – with all my heart and soul I wish you all that you believe is most beneficial to yourself, and that’s that. –
Dear sister! – You can’t doubt that I’ve a lot to do – you also know that I’m rather lazy when it comes to writing letters; – so don’t take it amiss if I write to you only rarely; – but this shouldn’t prevent you from often writing to me; – however much I dislike writing letters, I like receiving them. – Also, you’ve got more to write about than I have as there are more things that interest me in Salzburg than is the case with you and Vienna. –
I now have something to ask of you: – I wonder if Haydn would lend me his 2 tutti masses and the graduals that he’s written?2 I’d like to borrow them for a time in full score and will return them with many thanks. – It’s now a year since I wrote to him and invited him to visit me, but he hasn’t replied; – in terms of answering letters he seems to have a lot in common with me, doesn’t he? – So I would ask you to arrange these matters as follows: – invite him out to your house and play him some of my new works; – the trio and the quartet will surely not displease him.3 – Adieu, dearest sister! – As soon as I’ve collected together some more new music, I’ll send it to you; – I am ever your sincere brother
W. A. Mozart
P.S.: My wife sends her very best wishes. And we send ours to our dear brother-in-law.
P.S.: In reply to your point about my terms of service, the emperor has taken me into his household and as a result has made a formal appointment; for the present, however, I’m on only 800 florins – but no one else in the household is getting so much. – Although the playbill for my Prague opera Don Giovanni– which is being given again today – could hardly be accused of including too much information as the management of the Imperial and Royal Theatres was responsible for it, it did say that the music was by Herr Mozart, Kapellmeister in the actual service of His Imperial and Royal Majesty.
Between June and August 1788 Mozart composed his last three symphonies, K543, 550 and 551 (‘Jupiter’). His daughter Theresia died on 29 June. In November he arranged Handel’s masque Acis and Galatea (1718/32) for Gottfried van Swieten; his arrangement of Handel’s Messiah (1742) was performed at Count Esterhaázy’s on 6 March 1789. In January he and Constanze had moved backinto the city, to Judenplatz 245, and later that spring Mozart decided to undertake a concert tour to Dresden, Leipzig and Berlin. He left Vienna on 8 April in the company of Prince Karl Lichnowsky (1761–1814), a prominent Viennese patron of music (he was later a patron of Beethoven’s, who dedicated several works to him).
165. Mozart to his wife, 10 April (Good Friday) 1789, Prague
Dearest and most beloved little wife,
We arrived here safely at half past 1 today; meanwhile I hope you’ve received my note from Budwitz. – Now for my report on Prague. – We put up at the Unicorn; – after I’d been shaved, had my hair done and got dressed, I drove out to Canal’s, intending to dine with him; but as I had to drive past the Duscheks, I made enquiries there and discovered that Madame had yesterday left for Dresden!!! – – – So I’ll meet her there. He was dining at Leliborn’s, where I too often used to dine; – so I drove straight there. – I sent in a message to the effect that someone was wanting to speak to Duschek and that he should come out. You can imagine his delight. – So I dined at Leliborn’s. – After we’d eaten, I drove off to see Canal and Pachta,1 but they weren’t at home; – and so I went to Guardasoni’s – who has virtually arranged for me to be given 200 ducats for the opera next autumn2 and 50 ducats as travelling expenses. – I then returned home in order to write all this to my dear little wife – something else; – Ramm left here only a week ago to return home, he’d come from Berlin and said that the king3 had frequently and insistently asked if it was certain that I was going to Berlin, and as I’d not yet come, he then said he was afraid that I wasn’t coming. – Ramm got very anxious and tried to reassure him; – to judge from this, things shouldn’t go too badly for me. – I’m now taking the prince4 to meet Duschek, who’s waiting for us, and at 9 o’clock we’re leaving for Dresden, where we’ll arrive tomorrow evening. – My dear little wife, I long so much for news of you – perhaps I’ll find a letter waiting for me in Dresden! O God! make my wishes come true! On receiving this letter you must write to me poste restante in Leipzig, you understand; adieu, my dear, I must close, otherwise the post will leave without me. – I kiss our Carl a thousand times and kiss you with all my heart. I am ever your faithful
Mozart: A Life in Letters: A Life in Letters Page 57
