The Letters, vol 1

The Letters, vol 1 (tr Lady
Wallace)

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Title: The Letters of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, V.1.
Author: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Translated by Lady Wallace
Release Date: March, 2004 [EBook #5307] [Yes, we are more than one
year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on June 27, 2002]

Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
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THE LETTERS OF WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART.
(1769-1791.) TRANSLATED, FROM THE COLLECTION OP
LUDWIG NOHL, BY LADY WALLACE. WITH A PORTRAIT AND
FACSIMILE IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. New York and
Philadelphia: 1866.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
PREFACE THE LETTERS OF W.A. MOZART, VOLUME I
FIRST PART: ITALY/VIENNA/MUNICH 1770-1776 SECOND
PART: MUNICH/AUGSBURG/MANNHEIM SEPT. 1777-MARCH
1778 THIRD PART: PARIS MARCH 1778-JANUARY 1779
FOURTH PART: MUNICH/IDOMENEO NOVEMBER
1780-JANUARY 1781
CONTENTS OF VOLUME I. [LETTERS LISTED BY DATE]

PREFACE

A full and authentic edition of Mozart's Letters ought to require no
special apology; for, though their essential substance has already been
made known by quotations from biographies by Nissen, Jahn, and
myself, taken from the originals, still in these three works the letters are
necessarily not only very imperfectly given, but in some parts so
fragmentary, that the peculiar charm of this correspondence--namely,
the familiar and confidential mood in which it was written at the

time--is entirely destroyed. It was only possible to restore, and to
enable others to enjoy this charm--a charm so novel, even to those
already conversant with Mozart's life, that the most familiar incidents
acquire fresh zest from it--by an ungarbled edition of these letters. This
is what I now offer, feeling convinced that it will be welcome not only
to the mass of Mozart's admirers, but also to professional musicians; for
in them alone is strikingly set forth how Mozart lived and labored,
enjoyed and suffered, and this with a degree of vivid and graphic reality
which no biography, however complete, could ever succeed in giving.
Who does not know the varied riches of Mozart's life? All that agitated
the minds of men in that day--nay, all that now moves, and ever will
move, the heart of man--vibrated with fresh pulsation, and under the
most manifold forms, in his sensitive soul, and mirrored itself in a
series of letters, which indeed rather resemble a journal than a
correspondence.
This artist, Nature had gifted in all respects with the most clear and
vigorous intellect that ever man possessed. Even in a language which
he had not so fully mastered as to acquire the facility of giving
expression to his ideas, he contrived to relate to others all that he saw
and heard, and felt and thought, with surprising clearness and the most
charming sprightliness, combined with talent and good feeling. Above
all, in his letters to his father when travelling, we meet with the most
minute delineations of countries and people, of the progress of the fine
arts, especially in the theatres and in music; we also see the impulses of
his own heart and a hundred other things which, in fascination, and
universal as well as artistic interest, have scarcely a parallel in our
literature. The style may fail to a certain degree in polish, that is, in
definite purpose in expressing what he wished to say in an attractive or
congenial form,--an art, however, which Mozart so thoroughly
understood in his music. His mode of writing, especially in the later
letters from Vienna, is often very slovenly, evidencing how averse the
Maestro was to the task. Still these letters are manifestly the
unconstrained, natural, and simple outpourings of his heart, delightfully
recalling to our minds all the sweetness and pathos, the spirit and grace,
which have a thousand times enchanted us in the music of Mozart. The