Mozart: A Life in Letters: A Life in Letters (34 page)

Mzt

[
Postscript from Nannerl Mozart
]

Happy New Year to Mama and my dearest brother! Happiness and good health! I hope that Mama will soon return to us in good health and I hope that all is well with you, dear brother, wherever you are and that you’re in good health. And I hope that for my own part I shall have the pleasure of seeing you again soon, but not in Salzburg. I send my best wishes to Mama as her obedient daughter and to my brother as his honest sister and friend. Katherl Gilowsky wishes you both a Happy New Year. We had our target-practice yesterday, Bullinger provided the prize, which the paymaster won. Mama will be providing the prize on New Year’s Day. As cashier for us both, I’m still happy with our kitty. By the time that Mama gets back our losses won’t be too bad. Forgive me for not writing more often or at greater length, but as you can see, Papa rarely leaves me even a small amount of space.

In Mannheim, Mozart became acquainted with the Weber family (see list). When, on 23 January 1778, Mozart travelled to Kirchheimbolanden, a day’s travel from Mannheim, to play at the court of Princess Caroline
of Nassau-Weilburg, he was accompanied by Fridolin Weber and one of his daughters, eighteen-year-old Aloysia. Mozart’s mother remained in Mannheim.

Dearest Madam, darling Mummy,

Spread the word round: butter’s yummy.

Lift your hearts and praise the Lord

For giving us our just reward!

Still, our travels aren’t so funny

‘Cos we’ve got so little money.

But we’re well: no sound of mucus

Or of head colds to rebuke us

For our lifestyle; though catarrh

Affects some other folk, so far

We both have managed to avoid it.

Gas builds up and others void it

Both before and after meals when they

Let rip with farts whose noise, I’d say,

Would wake the dead. But yesterday

The queen of farts was here to stay,

With farts as sweet as honey but

A voice as hoarse as any chestnut.

We’ve been away for seven nights

And in that time shat many shites.

Herr Wendling will be cross, his 4

Quartets
¹
are not yet in full score.

But once I’m back across the Rhine

I’ll knuckle down, step into line

And write his works, for I don’t fancy

Being called an idle nancy.

As for the concerto, this must wait till we

Reach Paris, where I’ll toss it off as ea-

Sily as shitting. And yet, if I’m to tell

The truth, I’d rather roam the world than dwell

Upon the past with men I so condemn

That it now makes me sick to think of them.

And yet I have no choice, we’ve got to stick

Together, even though I’d rather lick

Herr Weber’s arse than Herr Ramm’s head. I’d say

A slice of it beats Wendling’s any day.

Our shitting won’t offend the Lord a bit,

Still less if we tuck in and eat our shit.

We’re honest folk. Who tries to part us dies!

Between the 4 of us we’ve got 8 eyes,

Not counting those on which we sit. This verse

Must stop. I hope I shan’t make matters worse

By saying that on Monday next I trust

I’ll have the honour to embrace you. Just

Let me tell you, though, that by the time

I see you, I’ll have shat my breeches. I’m

Worms, the 1778th January             Your loving child

in the year 31.                         Both scurvy and wild

Trazom

Monsieur

mon très cher Père
,

I couldn’t possibly have waited till Saturday, as usual, as it’s already too long since I last had the pleasure of writing to you. The first thing I have to tell you is how my good friends and I got on in Kirchheimbolanden. It was a holiday trip, no more. We left here at 8 o’clock on Friday morning after I’d had breakfast with Herr
Weber; we had an elegant four-seater covered coach: we arrived in Kirchheimbolanden at 4 o’clock and immediately had to send a note of our names to the castle. Early the next morning the concert master Herr Rothfischer
¹
came to see us, he’d already been described to me in Mannheim as a thoroughly decent man, and so he turned out to be. In the evening we went to court – this was Saturday; Mlle Weber sang
3 arias
. I shall say nothing about her singing, except that it was excellent! – I told you all about her merits in my recent letter; but I can’t end this letter without telling you more about her, now that I’ve got to know her properly and as a result can appreciate all her strengths. We had to dine afterwards at the officers’ table. The next day we had to walk quite a long way to church, as the Catholic church is some distance off. This was Sunday. For lunch we were again placed on the officers’ table. There was no concert that evening as it was Sunday. As a result they have
only 300
concerts a year. We could have dined at court in the evening, but we didn’t want to, preferring to keep our own company at home. All of us would have been heartily glad to have done without the meals at court, as we never enjoyed ourselves as much as we did on our own, but we thought we should save some money – as it is, we’ve already had to pay enough.

The next day, Monday, there was another concert, with another on Tuesday and another on Wednesday; in all, Mlle Weber sang 13 times and played the keyboard twice as her playing’s not at all bad. What amazes me most of all is that she can read music so well. Just imagine, she played my difficult sonatas
²
at sight,
slowly
but without any wrong notes. By my honour, I’d rather hear my sonatas played by her than by Vogler. In all, I played 12 times, and once by request on the organ in the Lutheran church, I also presented 4 symphonies
³
to the princess, for which I received only seven louis d’or in silver, while my poor dear Mlle Weber received five. I really hadn’t expected this. I wasn’t hoping for much, but I thought that we’d each receive
eight.
Basta
! At least we’ve lost nothing by it; I’ve still made a profit of 42 florins and had the inexpressible pleasure of becoming acquainted with some thoroughly honest, good Catholic, Christian people. I’m only sorry that I didn’t get to know them ages ago. But now for something important, on which I’d be grateful for an immediate reply.

Mama and I have discussed the matter and agree that we don’t like the life that the Wendlings lead.

Wendling is a thoroughly decent and very kind man, but unfortunately he has no religion, and the same is true of his whole household. It’s enough to say that his daughter was once someone’s mistress. Ramm is a decent soul but a freethinker. I know myself, I know that I have enough religious convictions never to do anything that I wouldn’t be able to do openly before the whole world; but the very thought of spending time – even if only on a journey – with people whose way of thinking is so very different from my own – and from that of all honest people – horrifies me. Of course, they can do what they want. But I don’t have the heart to travel with them, I’d be miserable all the time and wouldn’t know what to say. In a word, I’ve no real faith in them. Friends who’ve no religious convictions don’t last.

I’ve already given them advance warning of this. I said that 3 letters had arrived during my absence and that I could say only that it was unlikely that I’d be going to Paris with them. Perhaps I’ll go there later. But perhaps I’ll go somewhere else. They shouldn’t rely on me. My thinking is this:

I’ll remain here and complete the music for Dejean at my convenience. I’ll get my 200 florins. I can stay here as long as I want. Neither board nor lodging is costing me anything. During this time Herr Weber will do what he can to obtain engagements for me. We’ll then travel together. When I travel with him, it’s just as if I were travelling with you. The reason why I like him so much is that, apart from his physical appearance, he’s just like you and has your character and way of thinking. If, as you know, my mother weren’t too
lazy
to write, she’d say the same. I must admit that I was happy to travel with them. We were cheerful and had lots of fun. I heard someone speaking as you do. I didn’t have to worry about anything. If anything
was torn, I found that it had been mended; in a word, I was waited on like a prince.

I’m so fond of this put-upon family that I want nothing more than to make them happy; and perhaps I can do so. My advice is that they should go to Italy. And so I wanted to ask you to write to our good friend Lugiati,
⁴
the sooner the better, and enquire how much – and the maximum – they pay a
prima donna
in Verona. – The more the better, one can always come down – – perhaps one could also get the Ascensa
⁵
in Venice. As for her singing, I’ll stake my life that she’ll be a credit to me. She’s already benefited from her short time with me and how much more will she benefit between now and then? – Nor am I worried about her acting. If anything comes of this, then we – Monsieur Weber, his 2 daughters
⁶
and I – shall have the honour of spending 2 weeks with my dear Papa and dear sister on our way there. My sister will find a friend and companion in Mlle Weber, as she is known for her good breeding, just as my sister is in Salzburg, her father’s like mine and the whole family is like the Mozarts. Of course, there are people who envy her, as there are with us, but when it comes to the point, we simply have to speak the truth. Honesty is the best policy. I can say that there’s nothing I look forward to more than coming to Salzburg with them, merely so that you can hear her. She sings superbly the arias I wrote for de Amicis – both the bravura aria and
Parto, m’affretto
and
Dalla sponda tenebrosa
.
⁷
Please do your utmost to ensure that we get to Italy. You know my greatest desire is to write operas.

I’d happily write an opera for Verona for 50 zecchini if only for her to make a name for herself; for if I don’t write it, I’m afraid that she’ll be sacrificed. Between now and then we’ll travel together and I’ll make so much money that it won’t hurt me. I think we’ll go to Switzerland, perhaps also to Holland. Just write soon. If we stay
anywhere for long, the other daughter, who’s the oldest, will come in handy as she can also cook, so we can run our own household. By the way, you mustn’t be too surprised that I’ve only 42 florins left out of 77. This was the result of sheer delight at finding myself once again in the company of honest like-minded people. I paid half, I couldn’t do otherwise, but I shan’t do so on our other journeys, I’ve already said that I’ll pay only for
myself
. We stayed for 5 days in Worms. Weber has a brother-in-law here, namely, the dean of the monastery.
⁸
NB: He’s afraid of Herr Weber’s deadly pen. We had great fun there. We had lunch and supper at the dean’s house every day. I must say that this brief journey provided me with regular exercise on the keyboard. The dean is an honest, upstanding and sensible man. It’s now time to stop, if I were to write down everything that occurs to me, I’d have no paper left. Please reply soon; don’t forget my wish to write operas. I’m envious of everyone who writes one. I could literally weep with frustration whenever I hear or see an aria. But Italian, not German, serious, not
buffa
. You shouldn’t have sent me Heufeld’s letter,
⁹
it caused me more annoyance than pleasure. The fool thinks I’ll write a comic opera – that I’ll just toss it off on the off chance and entirely at my own risk. I don’t think he’d have disgraced his title if he referred to me as ‘your esteemed son’ rather than ‘your son’. But he’s just a Viennese buffoon; or does he think that people remain 12 years old for ever? I’ve now told you everything that’s been weighing on my mind. My mother is entirely satisfied with my way of thinking. I can’t possibly travel with people or with a man who leads a life that a child would be ashamed at; and the thought of helping a poor family without harming myself in the
process fills my whole soul with a warm glow of satisfaction; I kiss your hands 1000 times and remain unto death your most obedient son

Wolfgang Amadé Mozart.

Best wishes to all our good friends, especially to my best friend Herr Bullinger.

[
Maria Anna Mozart’s postscript
]

My dear husband, you’ll have seen from this letter that when Wolfgang makes new acquaintances, he immediately wants to sacrifice his life and possessions to such people, it’s true that she sings incomparably well but one should never overlook one’s own interests, I never liked him mixing with Wendling and Ramm, but I didn’t dare to raise any objections and no one ever believed me anyway as soon as he got to know the Webers, he immediately changed his mind, in a word he prefers other people’s company to mine, if I raise objections about things I don’t like, he doesn’t like it, so you’ll have to decide for yourself what needs to be done, I really don’t think it’s advisable that he should go to Paris with Wendling, I’d rather accompany him there myself at some later date, it wouldn’t cost much by mail coach, perhaps you’ll receive a reply from Herr von Grimm, but in the meantime we’re not losing anything by staying here I’m writing this in the greatest secrecy while he’s eating and must hurry before he catches me.
Addio
I remain your faithful wife Marianna Mozart