Mozart: A Life in Letters: A Life in Letters (49 page)

Your sister and I kiss you a million times with all our hearts, she was unable to write as I’ve written too much. So until next time. In
God’s name, look after your health, otherwise we’ll both perish. I’m your true friend and honest father

Mzt

A note on the war! As
Prince Heinrich
failed to advance at
Komotau
in Bohemia, he retreated to
Pirnau
near
Dresden
and attacked from above near
Rumburg
,
Tollenstein
,
Zwickau
and
Leipa
. Laudon
¹³
had to cover the entire Saxon frontier from
Eger
as far as the
Lausitz
. He was in the middle at
Leitmeritz
, then hurriedly withdrew to
Turnau
, so that Prince Heinrich had to retreat to
Niemes
and was unable to advance on
Turnau
via
Arnau
and join the king, the emperor then faced the king at Nachod, while Laudon faced Heinrich, with his battle line facing Niemes, so that the emperor and Laudon formed a single line and were able to help one another.
Heinrich
couldn’t hold his ground but retreated to
Leitmeritz
, the
king
abandoned
Nachod
, where he’d been encamped since 5 July, and withdrew into the mountains beyond
Trautenau
in order to force the armies of the emperor and Laudon to split up as well. We’re now waiting to see how they’ll continue to cut off the road from each other.
Addio.

My Dear Son,

I hope that all my letters have arrived safely. I wrote to you on
3 Aug
.–
13 Aug
. and
27 Aug
. and finally enclosed a brief note for you with my letter to Herr Grimm. – Conversely, I’ve not received so much as a single word from you since
31 July
, making my already anxious heart even more agitated. Time was too short to explain everything clearly in my last brief letter, but if you read carefully all my previous letters, you’ll have seen that I’ve been trying to bring you closer to your goal in keeping with your own instructions and
attempting to set all our minds at rest in this way.
You don’t like Paris
.

– If it were impossible to find some means of getting you away from there, you’d have to endure the situation, of course,
laboriously troubling yourself with pupils
–
running round
till you find some –
running round
when you’ve got them, and then,
tired
and
annoyed
by this disagreeable work,
sitting down
at home
to compose
, placing your health at risk, having to worry every day not only about
the money for your necessary upkeep
but also for
unforeseen eventualities
, money that you need to buy
linen, clothes
and a
hundred necessities
that one never thinks about until one needs them and which you’ve never been used to having to
think about in advance
: and
doesn’t one need a contingency fund in order to be able to look after oneself in case of illness
, without having to depend like a beggar on the alms of kind-hearted friends? Or, even if God in His mercy grants you good health, do you intend to live from hand to mouth, day in, day out, in Paris? In a place that you don’t like? I suspect that nothing could be further from your thoughts. But if you want to set off and leave Paris, – who would give you the money for the journey? Me, perhaps? – Who’ll then pay off your current debts? Do you want to risk ignoring what you’re assured of here and neglect what you could enjoy in peace and quiet here, well looked after, while
pursuing your interests at close quarters
in order to run around in Paris, which you hate, slaving away and consumed by care day and night? –
Bach
¹
promised to write to you from England and maybe find something for you. But it would be the same old story there, with the additional danger that people are arrested there for debts of 3 or 4 guineas. There can be absolutely no thought of this. I can still help you now – I want to help you and, indeed, must. But if things go on like this, you’ll destroy me with your vain hopes, which have led you away from the path of virtue, and you’ll turn me and your sister into beggars,
I’d no longer be in a position to help you
, and at the very moment that you were entertaining the most ambitious thoughts, you’d sink unnoticed into utter poverty and only realize this when neither
I
nor
you yourself
can help you any longer. As your father, who loves you with all his heart, I’ve had to
reflect on the fact that if you remain in Paris this winter or if you’re obliged to remain there, this would only be out of necessity if no other expedient is found. You must await the outcome of your business with the elector. In Paris you’re too remote to pursue the matter. Here people kept approaching me without my giving them an answer. Finally Lolli died. Things then became more serious. People led me to hope that my situation might improve, and I thought that the time had come when I could bring you closer to your goal. As the elector’s whole court is expected in Munich on 15 September, you may be able, while travelling through the city, to speak to
your friends
,
Count Seeau
and
perhaps the elector himself
– you can say that your father in Salzburg wants to see you back home as the prince has offered you a salary of 7 or 800 florins as his concertmaster (you should knowingly add 2 or 300 florins) and that you’ve accepted this out of filial respect for your father,
although he’d like to have seen you in the elector’s service
, but,
mark me well
, don’t say anything more than this! You can then
express the wish to write an opera for Munich
. – This latter goal can and must be pursued from here, and it’s bound to work
as there’s a shortage of composers able to write German operas
.
Schweitzer
and
Holzbauer
won’t produce something every year, and even if
Michl
were to write one, he’ll soon be played out. If people sought to prevent it by expressing doubts or by other such tricks, you have professors among your friends, and they will vouch for you: and this court also occasionally mounts performances during the year.

– In short, you’d not be far away: our income would be as I described it; – the life that you lead here wouldn’t prevent you from studying and making plans;
you wouldn’t have to play the violin at court but could conduct from the keyboard
, just as I’ve now been entrusted with
the whole orchestra, all the prince’s scores and inspection of the Chapel House
. Although our debts are considerable, they’re all owed to local people, who are very decent and who aren’t pressing for payment, and, as you’ll have seen from my last letter, our joint income will soon be enough to allow us to pay off
a few hundred florins or so
every year and yet still
be able to amuse ourselves
; and you’ll always be able to remind Munich of your existence. And there’s something else that you mustn’t forget.
You must take with you the names and addresses of
the best music dealers, who may buy something from you and have it engraved
, so that you can then correspond with them. This applies especially to the dealer who bought your keyboard sonatas.
²
In this way it’ll be just as though you were still in Paris, one can negotiate with them, then send the work to a businessman or friend who’ll deliver it to the music publisher in return for a cash payment, and in this way you can earn 15 or 20 louis d’or a year from Paris and in part make yourself better known and in part retain your existing reputation. – Ask Baron Grimm if I’m right. Here you’ll certainly find plenty to entertain you, if you’re not obliged to count every penny, then all will be well. During the carnival we can now attend all the balls in the town hall. The actors from Munich are coming at the end of Sept. and will be remaining here all winter until Lent, giving plays and operettas: we’ve got target practice every Sunday, and if we want to have company, it depends on us alone, it changes everything when you’ve got a better salary.

As for Mlle Weber, you mustn’t think that I’ve anything against this acquaintanceship. All young people have to make fools of themselves. You can continue to write to each other, I’ll not ask you about it, still less will I demand to read any of it. Moreover, I’ll give you some advice, you know enough people here, you can address your Weber letters to someone else and keep them to yourself if you don’t feel safe from my curiosity.

But it seems to me that, without the help of others, you’ll not be of much use to Herr Weber, nor will he be of much use to himself. Do you know why I wrote that I didn’t think Herr Weber had much of a head on his shoulders? It certainly gives one pause for thought.

– As for the question asked by the court:
who’ll follow it to Munich
etc? he replied in writing:
However much I desire to do so, my circumstances are in such disarray that I am not in a position to follow my gracious lord to Munich
. Now, it may be that I’m jumping to conclusions, as I don’t know how far this man is in debt, but in his place, having
4 days in which to act, I’d have gone to my creditors and said:
It’s now a question of whether I can follow the court to Munich or not, if I can follow the court, I am confident that through my daughter I’ll be able to improve my own fortune, too, I’ll be at the court, where one can hope to earn some extra income and as a result am more justified in hoping that I’ll be able to satisfy my creditors: but if the burden of my debts means that I have to remain in Mannheim, my daughter will be out of sight of the court, Mannheim will become a desert, and I’ll have fewer opportunities for earning any extra income, so that on my death you’ll find a room full of children, rather than any money: if I move to Munich, I’ll still be serving the same master, and you’ll be able to find me just as easily as if I were in Mannheim
. – I really can’t judge the matter properly as this would need a detailed knowledge of all the circumstances, but I’ll advise you and help you as best I can. You won’t be able to help them in Paris. Here you’ll soon hear people talk about Mlle Weber; I’ve praised her far too often, I’ll think of all the different ways of ensuring that she’s heard here. – I must now say something about the Duc de Guines’s debt. I hope that you’ll have demanded payment or that you’ll be doing so? – You won’t leave something like this behind? – –
Baron Grimm will advise you
. Has the concerto
³
not been paid for either? – It’s quite appalling. I had a similar experience in Vienna,
⁴
on that occasion I wrote to Princess Ulfeld’s maid, saying
that we’d received no token of the princess’s gratitude and were forced to assume that, although she had no doubt made the necessary arrangements, the person who had received her orders had forgotten to carry them out and I was sure that the princess would be very upset if I left Vienna without reporting back to her and using the occasion to praise the house of Ulfeld’s innate generosity
. The princess sent me 20 ducats and thanked me for having written, while apologizing for the oversight. Ask Baron Grimm whether – if the prince won’t admit you – the present affair may be dealt with in the same way. I must repeat – and I swear it to you as your father and friend – that you won’t have
to play the violin at court but that, like the late Herr Adlgasser, you’ll only have to accompany singers. And you’ll have to play the cathedral organ only on the principal feast days, all the other duties will be taken by Paris.
⁵
The last thing I want is to tie you down here, but if you and your friends want to try your luck at the court in Munich, it would be far easier to do so from here, as you can send 2 letters and receive 2 replies all within the space of a week and can discover and take advantage of every favourable opportunity. I’d far rather you commended yourself to the imperial ambassador, Baron Lehrbach, who’ll now be in Munich, and told him that you’re only wanting to write an opera in order to be able to show what you can do. How, in heaven’s name, is the elector supposed to make up his mind to take you on as his court composer as he’s not heard any of your works?

–

The matter must be sorted out from here, it’ll now be easier to obtain a commission to write an opera as the Italians can no longer interfere; the matter will then proceed of its own accord. And finally I solemnly swear to you that, as you yourself know, I bound myself to Salzburg only because of your dearly departed mother, in order to ensure that she would at least have a pension. This is all over now, I don’t need it any longer, from now on let’s not allow ourselves to be annoyed, otherwise we’ll leave. In your last letter you wrote:
my heart leaps at the thought of the happy day when I shall have the pleasure of seeing you and embracing you with all my heart
. That day is now coming, my dear son, I hope that God will let me live to see it, you’ll scarcely recognize your poor father, on the 2 occasions when I was summoned to see the archbishop, he was so shocked at my appearance that he told everyone about it. I was ill when you left me, it’s now just a year ago, and what haven’t I had to endure during that time?

–

I’ve an iron constitution, otherwise I’d already be dead, but if you don’t lift this heavy burden from my heart with your presence, it will crush me, all the restoratives in the world are powerless to heal a sick mind. No one can save me from death except you – and no one will help you more loyally than your father, who blesses, loves and kisses
you and who desires with all his heart to embrace you and will do everything humanly possible to ensure your happiness