Mozart: A Life in Letters: A Life in Letters (66 page)

I must close now. – My wife thanks you both for your good wishes on her pregnancy and coming confinement, which will probably be in early October. – We both kiss your hands and embrace our dear sister with all our hearts and are ever your most obedient children

W. and C. Mozart

P. S.: We’ve not been able to do anything about the apron, whether in fine linen, crêpe or muslin as my wife doesn’t know whether you want one
untrimmed
. – These cost about a ducat but aren’t worn.
– Those with a trimming that’s at all attractive cost at least 7 florins in local currency. – And so we await your next letter, and her needs will then be attended to at once.
Addio
.

Could I ask you to send the
buckles
by the next mail coach – I’m dying to see them. –

Ma très chère sœur,–

Good grief! – It’s high time that I wrote if I want my letter to find you still a vestal virgin! – A few days more and – it’ll be gone!
¹
–

My wife and I wish you every joy and happiness in your change of state and are only sorry that we shan’t have the pleasure of attending your wedding; but we hope to embrace you as Frau von Sonnenburg and your husband next spring both in Salzburg and St Gilgen; – there’s no one we feel more sorry for than our dear father, who’s now to be left entirely on his own! – Of course, you’re not far away and he can often drive out to see you
²
– but he’s now tied to that damned Chapel House again! – If I were in my father’s place, I’d do as follows: – as someone who’s already served him for so long, I’d ask the archbishop to allow me to retire – and on receipt of my pension, I’d go and live quietly with my daughter in St Gilgen;

– if the archbishop turned down my request, I’d demand my dismissal and go and live with my son in Vienna; – and it’s this that I’d most like to ask you to do, namely, that you try to persuade him to do this; – I’ve said the same in my letter to him today. – And now I send you 1000 good wishes from Vienna to Salzburg and in particular hope that the two of you may live together as well as we do; – so please accept a small piece of advice from my poetical brainbox; listen:

In wedlock you’ll learn things, by God,

That once seemed really rather odd;

You’ll soon discover – yes, you too –

What Eve herself was forced to do

Before she could give birth to Cain.

But wedlock’s duties are so light

That you’ll perform them with delight

And easily ignore the pain.

But wedlock’s joys are also mixed.

So if your husband’s scowl is fixed

And if he acts in ways that you,

Dear sister, feel you don’t deserve

And if he proves bad-tempered too,

Remember he’s a man and say

‘Thy will be done, O Lord, by day,

But then by night my own I’ll do!’

Your honest brother

W. A. Mozart

Although Leopold Mozart’s letters to Wolfgang are lost, Leopold corresponded regularly with Nannerl between 1784 and early 1787. This rich correspondence includes numerous details of Mozart’s life in Vienna, including information from some otherwise lost letters from Wolfgang to his father.

I’ve not had a moment to myself till now as I was fully occupied arranging for the piano to be sent to Munich: and I’ll be heartily glad when I’ve sorted out the business with the maidservants. I hope to receive a reply from you tomorrow. In the meantime I’ll tell you
about the
seccatura
I’ve had. Lieutenant
Hofler’s
wife came to see me, hoping that I’d recommend their daughter as a parlourmaid – presumably part chambermaid, part parlourmaid. She can do everything! She’s learnt to
make mob caps
and
trim clothes
etc. etc. from Herberstein’s chambermaid, and Countess Lützow’s valet has taught her how to
dress hair
; – – all according to the latest fashion. If need be, she can also cook. She’d even be willing to lay aside her white cap, if it were found displeasing, and wear the black cap of a parlourmaid etc. etc. – I told her that I’d already written to tell you about 2 other parlourmaids and that it may now be too late as a decision would probably come with the next postman, but that I couldn’t pass on the information as the postman comes only once a week. She even had the idea of taking her daughter out to see you and presenting her to you, but I talked her out of that. She told me that her daughter had been with Countess
Sinzendorf
: but of course no one could survive for long there. She then worked as a chambermaid in
Fribourg
, where she ate with her employers, – but both she and the baroness were under the thumb of the parlourmaid, who ruled the roost and ran the whole household in Fribourg as she was the master of the house’s mistress – and it’s even said that a couple of parlourmaids or chambermaids had already been brought to bed before her. She also told me that she’d heard with some surprise that a certain soldier’s daughter was to come out to you as 3rd maid. She asks me not to burden my daughter with this cross because the wench is not used to working, is lazy, can only knit and would be useful only for running errands. – I fobbed Madame off as best I could by promising to tell you all this at the first opportunity. I then made enquiries about the soldier’s daughter and discovered that she’s called Franziska Hapfinger. I thought of going up to see Frau von Hermes
¹
on the Kapuzinerberg in order to find out more, but fortunately she herself came down to see me in her negligee at 8 in the evening, just as I was having supper: and I discovered that this wench is the daughter of that Mönchsberg Babette who was held in such ill repute;
and that was enough for me! – I also – and unnecessarily – went in secret to see the grenadier captain and demanded that he and his wife be honest with me and tell me the truth. They confirmed everything and said this woman was quite incapable of working. – She’d been in Austria – or perhaps in Vienna – for a very short time, but her mother had soon sent a hired coachman to look for her: but she asked me to keep this to myself and not admit that I’d made enquiries with them as these people were the devil himself, but they owed it to me to tell me the truth. My dear daughter has not, of course, got to know the girl’s mother and has not been taken in by her daughter’s eloquence and powerful appearance: if I’d seen the mother, none of this would have happened, for I know her. The
florin
that I gave her is therefore a form of alms, and we need to turn our thoughts to another maid. On the other hand, I’ve saved my son
²
4 florins in another context. His
brother, the head clerk
, told the postmaster that my son would pay the money for the 4 days on his arrival. I wanted to pay him, but he refused to accept it as he wanted to be paid 3 florins a day –
in other words, 12 florins in all
. But he had to make do with 2 florins a day: so I paid him
8 florins
. – My son can now console himself for the florin that the wench received, as he’s saved 3 florins and been spared a lot of bother.

10 Sept
. I’ve just received your letter and see that you’re already provided with a parlourmaid. – On the one hand, I’m glad as the
seccatura
I’ve had with these wenches is now over; and I’ll tell the soldier’s daughter that you’ve found someone else as this one is really no good, – but if we still need to look round for another one, I’ll need to know very soon: but I don’t think you’ll have any difficulty finding one.

But I’m surprised that the days are now getting almost too short for you to write a letter every week, the last of which was
undated
, or for you to read the newspapers. I’ve no objections to the way you arrange your day, except the 3 hours spent playing the piano from 2 till 5 and then only 1 hour for walking.

The weather here has been uninterruptedly fine and I’d have come and paid you a surprise visit if I hadn’t received instructions from the archbishop to prepare a list of the entire court music staff and their salaries etc. and now have to wait and see what happens next. Hearty congratulations to my son on being bled. It was high time that you visited Strobl: how could you keep postponing it in such fine weather?

– And St Wolfgang?
³
– – I’m almost prepared to wager that I’ll get to St Wolfgang before my daughter: – O you stay-at-homes, you’ll soon be nestling up against the stove! – I’m always out and about by 5 and never return before the Angelus, and on the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary I set off for Mülln at 2, from there I went to see the administrator, then to Maxglan and returned at 7 via the Neutor. Meanwhile we’ve had target practice on the 5th and there’ll be another one on the 12th, the day after tomorrow. We’ll be continuing till Michaelmas. – But I don’t know what will happen after that. For now, I’m being well looked after: but Veronica
⁴
is definitely going to Lofer, though she’ll remain to do the cooking until you leave, and only then will she return home as she’s in no hurry to do so. – I’m sending by post
the machine and all that goes with it
. Also
an apron
that Thresel, the town clerk’s daughter, brought. And the old
burnt bodice
. There’s still an old green one here.

Mme Zezi
⁵
has returned the jewels: everyone likes them – only the bride wanted something
jingly-jangly
to hang down more at the front instead of the drops. She’s now taken it to the fair at Bozen and hopes to find some
jingly-jangly
jewels there. The wedding should already have taken place, but she asked for it to be held in Salzburg in October or November or even postponed until the new year; she doesn’t seem to be impressed by her bridegroom’s
jingle-jangle
. Meanwhile I’ve taken custody of the trinkets, as Mme Zezi says she may have changed her mind by the time she returns. Keep well and be happy, I am ever my dear son’s and dear daughter’s honest father

Mozart

The Schiedenhofens are still in Triebenbach. The Hagenauers, Sallerl Joly, Monsieur d’Ippold,
⁶
the company of marksmen, Captain Hermes of the Grenadiers from the Kapuzinerberg etc etc. all send their best wishes, especially Herr Marchand in his last letter. Bologna
⁷
in particular would come out to see you if I could come with him, – but he’s afraid of travelling and in any case doesn’t really have time as he can travel to Munich with the empty coaches that will then be bringing back the merchants, and they’re coming at the end of next week.

On my way back here I lost the key to the little trunk that was in my room in St Gilgen – unless I left it behind in my room, perhaps on
the small wardrobe
.

I kiss the children and hope that Fräulein Nannerl will study hard, just like Wolfg.
⁸
Addio!

To mark his name day, my son
¹
gave a small concert, at which some of his
pupils
performed and, in addition, Baron Bagge
²
from Paris amused the company with a violin concerto:
There was so much laughter!
he writes, and goes on:
I’ve received my sister’s letter and hope that in the meantime she’ll have received mine too
. Presumably he means the letter to me. I expect you already know that we’ve 2 new stewards. We’d got only 4 left to carry the canopy during Hours, as the others had either gone to meet their maker or were invalids and cripples, so
the prince was forced to look for a couple of young lads to bear the heavy burden of the canopy.
³
Cajetan Antretter
has already been a trainee at the court council for some time and it was high time he was given something. And so he received
motu proprio
his certificate as steward, together with 15 florins and the salutary reminder to make himself worthy of further high favours by assiduously attending council meetings. Young Anton
Mehofer
, who married Joseph Capeller’s daughter and who’s long held some other post that I can’t remember, received a similar certificate, but I don’t know if he also got any extra; meanwhile they both had to pay 25 florins tax on their character references. – Thurner, the army paymaster, was buried some time ago.
Die Entführung aus dem Serail
was fairly well staged on the 17th. It received the greatest applause and 3 numbers were repeated: by 5 o’clock it was impossible to get into the lower part of the theatre, and it was completely full at the top by a quarter past. The Plaz children and their governess, Katherl, had to sit right at the front of the stalls. It’ll be performed again on Sunday the 21st: after that they’ll probably take it off for 5 weeks. The whole town is pleased with it. Even the archbishop was kind enough to say:
it’s really not bad
. I hear they took in 181 florins. The aria with obbligato instruments
⁴
was played by
Stadler
on the violin (which is easy),
Feiner
on the oboe,
Reiner
on the flute and
Fiala
on the cello, and it went very well. Herr Cassel had been asked to play the flute: he came to the first rehearsal but told Stadler the next day that he’d not be coming any more and that they should find someone else as rehearsing was too boring for him; everyone, even the nobility, took this very amiss. Conversely, Herr Fiala not only played but even refused to accept a fee, saying that he’d done it as a favour for Herr Schmidt
⁵
and more especially as a favour for Herr Mozart.
⁶