Mozart: A Life in Letters: A Life in Letters (64 page)

Now for Herr von Aman; – Herr von Fichtl told me that Privy Councillor Aman is completely mad and has been locked up. – This came as no surprise as he always used to go around looking thoroughly morose. – I told Herr von Fichtl that
study was probably not the cause
, whereupon he laughed not a little. But I’m sorry for Basilius Aman; – and I’d certainly never have thought it of him; – I’d sooner have conceded that he’d become more sensible. – Well, perhaps he’ll take me into his service when I come to Salzburg?
⁴
– I’ll certainly call on him. – If you were able to get hold of a German song of his own composition, I wonder if you’d be kind enough to send it to me so that I’ve something to laugh at. I’ll set it to music. – But no! – I know a fool here who’ll do it just as well. –

Have you still not heard from Varesco?
⁵
– Please don’t forget; – while I’m in Salzburg
⁶
we should be able to work together very well if we’ve come up with a plan by then. –

Farewell for now; my wife and I kiss your hands 1000 times and
embrace our dear sister with all our hearts. We are ever your most obedient children

W. and C. Mozart

P.S.: I hope you’ve received the ornamented voice part for the aria ‘
Non sò d’onde viene
’?–

Mon très cher Père
,

Congratulations, you’re a grandfather! – Yesterday morning, the 17th, at half past 6 my dear wife was safely delivered of a big strong boy who’s as round as a ball; – she went into labour at half past 1 in the morning so that neither of us got any rest or sleep. – At 4 o’clock I sent for my mother-in-law – and then for the midwife; – at 6 she was placed in the delivery chair – and by half past 6 it was all over.– My mother-in-law has now made up for all the harm that she caused her daughter while she was
single
. – She remains with her all day. –

My dear wife, who kisses your hands and embraces my dear sister with all her heart, is as well as can be expected in the circumstances;–

I hope to God that by taking good care of herself she’ll make a full recovery. –

I’m worried about milk-fever! – Her breasts are quite swollen! – Against my will but with my agreement, the child has now got a foster-nurse! – It was always my firm resolve that, whether she was able to or not, my wife should never feed her child herself! – But nor would my child drink the milk of a stranger! – No, I meant to bring it up on water, like my sister and me. – But the midwife, my mother-in-law and most other people here have literally pleaded with me not to do so, simply because most of the children here don’t survive on water as the people here don’t know how to do it properly – it was this that made me relent as I don’t want to have to reproach myself. –

No
w
fo
r
you
r
godfathership
!
– Let me tell you what’s happened. –
I immediately sent word to Baron Wetzlar
¹
– a good and true friend of mine – to let him know about my wife’s safe delivery; – he immediately came in person – and offered himself as godfather – I couldn’t refuse him – and I thought to myself, I can still call him Leopold – and as I was saying this – he said, beside himself with delight, Ah, now you have a little Raimund – and kissed the child – so what could I do? – I had the boy christened Raimund Leopold. – I can honestly say that if you’d not told me your views on this matter in one of your letters, I’d have been deeply embarrassed – and I can’t guarantee that I wouldn’t have refused him outright! – But your letter consoles me and makes me think that you won’t be unhappy with what I’ve done! – After all, he’s also called Leopold.– I must close now, – I and my newly confined wife kiss your hands 1000 times and we embrace our dear sister 1000 times. We are ever your most obedient children

W. A. C. Mozart

Mon très cher Père
,

Your letter of the 8th inst. has arrived safely, and I’m delighted to hear that, all praise and thanks be to God, you’re both well.

If you insist on regarding genuine obstacles as a ploy designed to pull the wool over your eyes, there’s nothing I can do to stop you; – anyone can give something the wrong name if it pleases him to do so – but whether it’s right to do so is another question. – Have I ever suggested that I’ve no wish or desire to see you? – Certainly not! – But you’ve no doubt noticed that I’ve no wish to see Salzburg or the archbishop; – if we were to meet on neutral ground, who then would have the wool pulled over his eyes?
The archbishop and not you
.–
I hope I don’t need to say that I care very little for Salzburg and nothing whatsoever for the archb., and that I shit on both of them – and that it would never in my life enter my head to go there specially, if you and my sister weren’t there. – So the whole affair was due simply to the well-meaning care of my good friends, who do after all have a certain amount of sound common sense; – and I didn’t think I was acting unreasonably when I made enquiries with you in the matter with a view to following your advice; – my friends’ concern was due entirely to the fact that, as I haven’t been discharged, he might have me arrested. – – But they’ve now entirely reassured me – and we’re definitely coming in August – or September at the latest; – Herr von Bapius met me in the street and walked home with me; – he left today. – And if he’d not had a prior engagement yesterday, he’d have lunched with me; – dearest father! – You mustn’t think that because it’s summer, I’ve nothing to do. – – Not everyone is out of town. – I still have a few pupils to attend to; – I’ve now got one in composition – he’ll no doubt pull a curious face when I tell him about my journey. – I must close now as I still have lots to do. – In the meantime set up the bowling alley in the garden, as my wife is a very great lover of the game; – my wife is still a little concerned that you may not like her as she’s not pretty – but I console her as best I can by telling her that my dearest father thinks less of outward than of inner beauty. – Farewell for now. My wife and I kiss your hands 1000 times and embrace our dear sister with all our hearts. We are ever your most obedient children

W. A C. Mozart

In late July 1783, Mozart and Constanze finally set out to visit Leopold and Nannerl in Salzburg, leaving their son in the care of his foster-nurse. Little is known of their time there: Mozart apparently composed the violin and viola duos K423 and 424 for Michael Haydn, who was ill and unable to complete a commission for six such works, and on 26 October the unfinished C minor mass K427 was performed at St Peter’s, Constanze singing one of the soprano parts. On 19 August, Raimund Leopold, just
two months old, died of ‘intestinal cramp’. Wolfgang and Constanze left Salzburg on 27 October; on the way to Vienna they stopped at Linz, where Mozart composed the symphony K425, which was performed on 4 November. They arrived home about mid-November.

Mon très cher Père
,–

I’d never expected you to write to me in Vienna until I’d told you about my arrival here, and so it was only today that I went to Peisser to ask about letters and found your letter of 21 November, which had already been lying there for 12 days. – I hope you’ll have received my letter from here. – There’s something I have to ask you. – You’ll remember that when you came to Munich and I was writing my grand opera,
¹
you complained about the debt of 12 louis d’or that I’d run up with Herr Scherz in Strasbourg, saying:
What really annoys me is your lackof trust in me – but enough of this – I now have the honour of paying 12 louis d’or
. – I travelled to Vienna; – you returned to Salzburg. – From what you said I was bound to think that I no longer needed to worry about this. – Moreover, I assumed that you’d have written to tell me if nothing had been done – or that you would have told me in person when I was with you. – So you can imagine my embarrassment and surprise when two days ago a clerk from the office of the banker Herr ö chser came to see me and brought with him a letter; – the letter was from Herr Haffner in Salzburg and contained an enclosure from Herr Scherz. – As it’s now 5 years ago, he’s also demanding interest, but I told him at once that there was nothing doing and added that legally I did not owe him a farthing as the bill was payable 6 weeks after the date and had therefore expired.– But in view of Herr Scherz’s friendship I agreed that I would pay the capital. – No interest was included, and so I’m not liable for any.– All I ask of you, dearest father, is that you will be kind enough to
stand surety for me with Herr Haffner or rather Herr Triendl for just a month. – With your experience, you can easily imagine how inconvenient it would be for me to be short of cash right now. Herr ö chser’s clerk had to admit that I was right but said only that they’d inform Herr Haffner. – For me, the most disagreeable part of the whole affair is that Herr Scherz won’t have a very high opinion of me – proof that chance, coincidence, circumstances, misunderstanding and heaven knows what else can often – and quite innocently – deprive a man of his honour! – Why did Herr Scherz make no attempt to contact me all this time? – Surely my name isn’t all that obscure!– My opera – which was performed in Strasbourg – must at least have allowed him to surmise that I was in Vienna. – And then there was his correspondence with Haffner in Salzburg! – If he’d contacted me during the first year, I’d happily have paid him there and then; – I would also do so now – but I’m not in a position to do so at present; – or perhaps he thought he was dealing with a fool who’d pay what he didn’t owe. – In that case he can keep the title for himself. – Now for something else. – Only 3 arias are still missing, and then I’ll have finished the first act of my opera. – I can really say that I’m entirely satisfied with the
buffa
aria – the quartet – and the finale and that I’m really looking forward to them.
²
– And so I’d be sorry if I’d written this music to no avail, in other words if what is indispensably necessary doesn’t happen. – Neither you nor Abbate Varesco nor I have given proper consideration to the thought that it’s very bad and may even cause the opera to fail if neither of the 2 main female characters appear on stage until the very last minute but have to keep pacing around in the fortress, either on the bastion or on the ramparts. – I’m confident that I can rely on audiences to remain patient for one act – but they can’t possibly hold out for the 2nd act, it’s out of the question. – This thought occurred to me only in Linz. – And so there’s nothing for it but to have some of the scenes in the 2nd act take place
in the fortress
.–
Camera della fortezza
. – The scene can be
arranged in such a way that when Don Pippo orders the goose to be brought into the fortress, we see the room in the fortress where we discover Celidora and Lavina. – Pantea comes in with the goose. – Biondello
slips out
. – They hear Don Pippo coming. Biondello
again becomes the goose
. – At this point we could have a good quintet that would be all the funnier in that the goose could join in. – But I have to say that I raised no objections to this whole story about the goose only because it never occurred to 2 men of greater insight and understanding than I to complain about it. And these 2 men are you and Varesco. – But there’s still time to think of some alternative – Biondello once swore that he’d enter the tower; – how he sets about this; whether he enters in the form of a goose or by some other stratagem is all the same. – I’d have thought that it would be far funnier and more natural if Biondello remained in human form. – For example, we could be told right at the start of the 2nd act that Biondello has thrown himself into the sea in his despair at not being able to enter the fortress. – He could then disguise himself as a Turk or whatever and introduce Pantea as a slave girl – a Mooress, of course. – Don Pippo is willing to buy the slave girl as a bride. – As a result the slave dealer and the Moorish girl can enter the fortress in order to be examined. – In this way Pantea has a chance to bully her husband and to be insolent to him in a thousand different ways. And she’d also have a better role, for the more comic an Italian opera the better. – Please make my views known to Abbate Varesco and tell him to get on with it. – I’ve already worked fast enough in this short space of time. – Indeed, I could have finished the whole of the first act if I didn’t need to have some of the words changed in a number of the arias; –
but please don’t tell him this at present
. – – My German opera
Die Entführung aus dem Serail
has been given in Prague and Leipzig – very well – and to great applause. – I know this from people who saw them there – I’ll make an effort to go and see Herr von Deglmann
³
and give him the cadenzas together with the concerto and the 4 ducats. – But please send me
my Idomeneo
as soon as
possible – also the 2 violin duets – and Seb. Bach’s fugues
⁴
– I need Idomeneo as I’ll be giving 6 subscription concerts this Lent in addition to my concert
⁵
at the theatre. And I’d like to perform this opera then;–could you also ask Tomaselli to let us have the prescription for the ointment for rashes, which has done us sterling service: – you never know when you may need it again – or at least be able to help someone else with it. – It’s always better for me to have it than to wish I had it. – Adieu for now – my wife and I kiss your hands 1000 times and embrace our dear sister with all our hearts. We are ever your most obedient children

W. and C. Mozart