The Vienna Melody (3 page)

At first with curses, then with resignation, and finally with amusement, Franz studied the “eligibility” documents and learned the history of the house which no longer met his needs.

 

I, the undersigned, Christopher Alt, respectfully petition the esteemed Housing Tribunal for its consent to the construction of a house on Seilerstätte; the same to stand on the presently unimproved property of Count Harrach, between numbers 8 and 12. The ground plan is herewith submitted; also estimates for the construction in the amount of 9,290 silver florins and 24 coppers. Further enclosure, consisting of extract from the accounts of the Vienna Citizens Savings Institution, showing that I am in possession of a fortune amounting to the sum of 74,366 florins and 19 coppers, and am in consequence well able and prepared to undertake the costs of construction and other consequent expenses as well as personal and real estate taxes without having recourse to any borrowing of funds.

I was born on April 29, 1758, in Vienna, of Roman Catholic faith, the second son of Johann Peter Alt, who, as court organist for thirty-four years of his law-abiding life, played the organ in the chapel of Her Majesty our most illustrious Empress Maria Theresa to her gracious satisfaction. I live in the happiest wedlock with Margaret Ann Ludovica née Landl, of Mürzsteg, Styria, daughter of the chief forester in charge of administration of the Imperial Hunting Preserves, and niece of the priest at the Maria Zell shrine. After passing through the grammar school I finished the course at the Trade School on Hoher Markt. As my sainted father destined me to succeed him in his business and desired me to receive the most excellent training, he sent me, at the age of sixteen, to Pleyel, the world-famous piano manufacturer in Paris, in whose factory I worked for three years as an apprentice. In said circumstances I amassed a store of specialized knowledge which stood me in good stead and which I further enlarged when I worked in a similar capacity in London and St Petersburg. On my father's demise I returned to Vienna, as I had often longed to do while abroad, and with my inheritance I founded, in 1780, the firm of Christopher Alt, Piano Maker, at 194 Wiedner Hauptstrasse.

Through the grace of Divine Providence and my own industry I was enabled to keep pace with international competition and to win for my products a reputation repeatedly attested to in flattering terms by such outstanding virtuosos as Messrs. Lambert, Gustave Schneider, Sr.; the organist to the archbishop at St. Stephen's, and Mr. Haydn, chapel organist to Prince Palffy. I trust the praiseworthy Building Commission will not impute to me too great a lack of modesty if I quote from a letter of the composer and piano virtuoso, Wolfgang A. Mozart: “Each time I have the feeling that it is not ivory and wood under my fingers when I strike the keys, but something quite different. When I touch your instrument it is as though these solid materials evanesced into some floating intangible, revealing that secret quality we so deeply yearn for in tones and in human hearts.” Shortly before her demise, Her Majesty the Empress graciously consented that I dedicate to her an Alt grand piano, on which her artistically inclined son and successor, Emperor Joseph II, had deigned to play with his own hands.

The reason for my entering my petition to build is, in my humble estimate, urgent. It arises from the circumstance that with the increase of my family the limited housing facilities of the Wiedner Hauptstrasse are no longer sufficient to meet the demands both of manufacturing activity and private domesticity. It is a permanent family home that I seek to prepare, in the hope that the favor of our Lord will continue to bless the efforts of me and my descendants and insure more firmly the patriarchal bonds uniting these latter.

In the ardent hope of a speedy and favorable action on this my request, I beg to remain, honorable gentlemen of the Building Commission,

Your most humble servant,

CHRISOPHER ALT,
piano-maker

 

This entry bore the official note: “Applicant wealthy and reputable. Permit granted. Vienna, July 23, 1790.”

Under date of September 2, 1791, an unsigned communication read:

 

W
ORTHY
G
ENTLEMEN OF THE
T
RIBUNAL:

Any decent citizen's sense of order and propriety must be grossly offended if, thanks to an erroneous interpretation of the liberal attitude of our most magnanimous and philanthropic monarch, Joseph II, such things are tolerated as the housewarming celebration of yesterday, September 1, 1791, in the newly constructed building at Number 10 Seilerstätte. Your honors may be aware of the fact that this building is directly opposite Number 5 on Annagasse, where the Futura Lodge of the Masons is housed. But you may not be cognizant of the fact that this celebration and the house itself is nothing more than a clever mask to conceal the inauguration of a new Masonic branch. Of the guests gathered on the second, or living room, floor two-thirds were members of the Futura Lodge. Moreover, the grand master of the Grand Lodge of Vienna and other deputy grand masters, that wanton band who bow neither to Emperor nor Pope, also appeared there.

The pretext used was a piano recital by a lodge member, Brother Mozart, who gave the first public rendering of an opera composed by him. It is entitled
The Magic Flute
,
 
and it is to be produced in a very few days at the Theater an der Wien. As far as the writer of these lines, who was present in person, could judge of the contents of the libretto, to which we were treated by the librettist himself, one Schikaneder, it consisted of nothing more nor less than a panegyric of freemasonry disguised in fairy tale form, and although the extremely unmelodious music is most unlikely to achieve any success, nevertheless the unpalatable evidence of a fresh extension of freemasonry proselytizing must be noted.

Whether the proprietor of the newly built house, one Christopher Alt, is himself a freemason is as yet to be determined. It was, in any event, a sorry spectacle to perceive the delight, which could not possibly have been genuine, with which he listened to the vain efforts of Lodge Brother Mozart, who in a physical way too was a picture of penury and disarray. Carelessly clothed, his face of a deep yellow pallor, his forehead beaded with sweat, his movements repulsively unsteady, croaking rather than singing the dissonant notes of the arias in his opus—particularly the high part of a so-called Queen of the Night, written for his disreputable sister-in-law, the singer Josefa Weber—he made the impression of a man intoxicated. He and his wildly applauding clique of fellow Masons succeeded in so disturbing the nocturnal peace of the neighborhood that it is to be presumed you have been duly notified about it from other quarters as well. In any case, it can surely not be the purpose of the esteemed Tribunal to allow a newly built house from the very first day of its existence to become a multiple source of public disturbance and its owner to dance to a tune piped over the way at 5 Annagasse.

[
signed
] A FRIEND OF THE ORDER

 

An official comment read: “Referred to the police authorities for investigation.” Accompanying this was a note by the chief of police:

 

According to a report by the city authorities, the above complaint is unfounded on both counts. Court Composer Mozart on said evening did not cause a disturbance, either through drunken behaviour or in any other way. Moreover, according to the common testimony of his wife Constance and his family doctor, Dr. Schimmler, he has suffered for some time from atrophy of the kidneys, a chronic illness which in recent weeks has become acute and which on the evening of September 1 caused the symptoms noted by the complainant. Herr Mozart's condition has since become so aggravated that his end must be expected hourly. As concerns the other guests, among them were numbered high-ranking members of the clergy, headed by His Grace the Suffragan Bishop, two major-generals, and one major. There was no indication of Freemason activity, and the implication that the owner of the house, Christopher Alt, was acting as agent for the Freemasons, or is himself a Freemason, is not confirmed by any of the evidence produced.

 

With a final note by the Tribunal—“filed”—the document ended.

In the next thirteen years there were no additions to the file that seemed worthy of interest to Franz. There was only one, dated December 4, 1804, which struck him. In it the “overjoyed parents” announced the birth of a healthy daughter, christened Sophie. In this manner he discovered her age, which she so carefully concealed: she was eighty-four.

Then followed two death notices:

 

The deeply bereaved undersigned [ran the first document] duly announce to the Honorable Tribunal the death of Christopher Alt, respectively our beloved husband, father, father-in-law, and grandfather, founder and proprietor of the firm C. Alt, owner of the house at Number 10 Seilerstätte. On May 1, 1839, in his eighty-first year, after a God-fearing, laborious life, having partaken of the last sacraments of the Church, he fell peacefully asleep in the Lord.

[
signed
] MARGARET ALT,
née
L
ANDL,
wife and sole legatee

KARL LUDWIG ALT

EMIL ALT

HUGO ALT,
sons

SOPHIE ALT,
daughter

BETTY ALT,
née
K
UBELKA

JULIE ALT,
née
B
ERGHEIMSTEIN,
daughters-in-law

OTTO EBERHARD, ANNA, GRETL, PAULINE,
grandchildren

 

On May 9, 1843, according to the second death notice, a beloved son and respectively brother, brother-in-law, and uncle, Hugo Alt, had died, having borne his sufferings with gentleness and patience. As Franz remembered, his sufferings came from an illness not mentioned in society.

Next Franz took up a sheet containing the notice of his own birth:

 

We hereby announce to the Honorable Tribunal the birth, on August 9, 1852, of a healthy son, christened Franz Sebastian.

Respectfully submitted,

EMIL ALT
,
proprietor of the firm of C. Alt, Piano-maker

JULIE ALT
,
his wife
.

 

The words “overjoyed parents,” Franz noted, did not occur in this announcement.

On the other hand, Franz read the next document with growing pleasure:

 

It is with a sense of deepest shame and parental indignation [it began, and after a lengthy introduction went on to report] … On Sunday last, April 25, 1854, I, in company with my spouse, my fifteen-year-old son Otto Eberhard, my thirteen-year-old daughter Gretl, and my five-year-old daughter Pauline, was among those citizens of Vienna whose lot it was to be possessed of the inestimable privilege of witnessing the marriage of the Imperial couple in the Augustine Church. The officials of the Diocesan Administration, who issued to me the entrance permits, informed me that the ceremony would commence at half-past four in the afternoon. By three o'clock we were already in our places so that the children might be so situated as to have a nearby view of this memorable rite. The places we obtained were in the benches along the central aisle. As a result, however, of the fact that it was half-past six before the ceremony began to take its due course, the children became hungry, which may to a certain degree be pardonable as they had not partaken of food since their noonday meal. And I naturally preserved all due decorum by not permitting a so awe-inspiring edifice as a cathedral to be profaned by the bringing into it and the consumption there of food. My spouse and I were of one mind: namely, to direct the children's attention to the impending august event and to impress its importance on them in suitable terms. At first we were rewarded in accomplishing this desired end, and had the delay not been quite so protracted all would have passed off satisfactorily and this unhappy, distressful incident have been averted. But the longer we waited the more difficult it became to keep the children patient. On the other hand, and this is perhaps not entirely inexcusable, neither my wife nor I were willing to give up the places secured at the cost of such effort or indeed to sacrifice that on which we had so ardently set our hearts. Alas, had we but done it! For as the procession of the most exalted bridal couple made its entry we deemed it permissible to turn our attention from the children and with all our hearts address ourselves to the magnificent spectacle that must enthral every eye. Yet in the instant when His Eminence the Prince-Archbishop began to enumerate the names and titles of His Majesty the Emperor, Francis Joseph I, the disaster occurred. I shall make no attempt to mitigate what in its very nature was inexcusable; I shall do no more than suggest that possibly the children, in their ignorance and in their above-described state, may have thought that the enumeration would continue indefinitely in that fashion. His Eminence had already pronounced the titles “Emperor of Austria, Apostolic King of Hungary, King of Bohemia, King of Dalmatia, King of Croatia, King of Slavonia, King of Jerusalem, Duke of Lorraine, Duke of Modena, Duke of Parma, Piacenza, and Guastalla, Margrave of Moravia, Count of Hapsburg and Kyburg,” and was on the point of continuing his enumeration, when a cry of “I want something to eat!” was heard through the devoutly intent congregation in the cathedral.

It came, I must admit with deepest shame, from the mouth of my five-year-old daughter Pauline.

There were, to be sure, a number of indulgent persons who took the incident humorously, and I am almost inclined to believe that His Eminence was one of them. He paused an instant in amazement, then continued with a smile on his lips. A glance too from the most illustrious bride kneeling before the altar inferred forgiveness. But in the eyes of our most gracious Sovereign and Emperor there was a clear expression of displeasure over such a culpable disturbance at such a supremely solemn moment.

It goes without saying that we withdrew without delay and with as little confusion as possible. At the same time that I do my duty in reporting this all-too-regrettable occurrence to your exalted Tribunal, dare I express the hope that their majesties may be apprized of the fact of how distressed and disgraced we all feel, including the chief culprit, our minor child, and that we hereby implore the pardon of their most gracious persons.