738 



MOZART. 



Mozart. In person Mozart did not exceed the middle size ; 

 V ""~Y~ < "*' he was thin and pale, and his health was always de- 

 licate. The expression of his countenance, without 

 any thing striking, was exceedingly variable, and rather 

 that of an absent man. His habits were awkward, 

 and his hands had been accustomed so incessantly to 

 the piano, that they seemed incapable of application to 

 any thing requiring address. He was of a mild and 

 affectionate disposition ; his mind was not uncultivated, 

 and the number of his works is a sufficient proof of 

 his industry. His opinions of other composers were 

 liberal, and he entertained the highest respect for 

 Haydn in particular. " Believe me, Sir," said he to 

 any officious critic, who sought to demonstrate certain 

 errors of that great master, " believe me, Sir, were you 

 and I amalgamated together, we should not afford ma- 

 terials for one Haydn." He was not insensible of the 

 beauties of his own compositions ; and on the very day 

 of his decease, calling for the Requiem, he had some 

 parts of it performed by his bedside. As the stranger 

 who received this fine work could never be discovered, 

 notwithstanding all inquiries, it would have been lost 

 for ever, but for the preservation of the score by the 

 composer's family. 



The genius of Mozart in music was sublime. By 

 the number, variety, combination, and effect of his 

 works, he ranks in the highest class of modern mas- 

 ters. An air of delicacy and sentiment pervades the 

 whole. Full and harmonious, they are altogether 

 free of that meagreness and those capricious eccentri- 

 cities, which betray the sterility of invention too 

 common among musicians. The taste which they 

 exhibit, shews that vulgar images were incompatible 

 with his mind; it seems as if he knew that such a 

 deformity is alike pernicious to science and the arts. 

 A vulgar composer is struggling to carry mankind 

 back into the path which they have left far behind 

 them ; a polished composer, in outstripping his con- 

 temporaries, lays open a beautiful field, which he in. 

 vites them to enter. Mozart has been most success- 

 ful in gloomy passages, or those of rising grandeur, 

 from according better with the ordinary train of his 

 feelings. On almost all occasions he is more serious 

 than comic in endeavouring to pourtray the passions ; 

 and his love, it has been remarked, is rather senti- 

 mental than sportive. However simple the theme, 

 however intricate its variations, his return is always 

 natural, and the close appropriate. Perhaps the cele- 

 brity of Mozart's music partly arises from the skilful 

 management of his closes, for they invariably leave an 

 agreeable impression. No one has surpassed him in 

 the suitable occupation of the parts of his concerted 

 pieces, for, understanding the precise qualities of every 

 different instrument, nothing is appointed to any which 

 is inconsistent with its character. 



Notwithstanding the excellence of this composer's 

 works, he is charged with some important defects, 

 though it must be admitted that there are fewer infe- 

 riorities than in the same number produced by any 

 other. His vocal performers, it is alleged, are some- 

 times treated as if they constituted part of the orches- 

 tra. In passages and intervals of great difficulty they 

 have to contend against the overpowering effects of 

 the wind instruments, whence his operas have fre- 

 quently failed even with good companies. Neither 

 can it be denied that nearly all the subjects of all his 

 symphonies want that interest which characterises 

 those of Haydn, that they are noisy, thus participating 

 of the grand fracas of instruments, wherein the Ger- 

 2 



mans seem to place their chief delight ; and what is more Moiart. 

 singular, that none of them command the attention of V ""Y" </ 

 an audience. Undoubtedly his quintetts, quartetts, and 

 piano-forte compositions are very fine ; yet they are 

 less interesting to the hearer than to the performer. 

 Their recondite properties are perhaps too slowly un- 

 folded for a transient performance ; but, for the same 

 reason, their subsistence should be more permanent, 

 as that which becomes familiar soon loses its charms. 

 In the vocal department, however, Mozart has cer- 

 tainly excelled Haydn. Here he has profited by a 

 precept of that inimitable master, who himself, by a 

 strange inconsistence, appears to have transferred it 

 from the voices to the instruments. " Let the air be 

 good," said Haydn, " and the composition, whatever 

 it is, will assuredly please. It is the soul and essence 

 of music." 



In contrasting the merit of composers, their aera is 

 to be taken into account. Handel, though born only 

 30 years later than Corelli, aimed at effects which the 

 other never conceived, and quite disconcerted him by 

 his novelties. The youth of Haydn was cotemporary 

 with Handel's age. Mozart followed, and both have 

 executed what it is doubtful whether Handel ever con- 

 templated. Descending still later, the works of Beet- 

 hoven seem to exceed the views, but we shall not say 

 the qualities of all his predecessors. Neither is the 

 structure of the orchestra to be overlooked, for, inde- 

 pendent of the combinations of musical phraseology, 

 the subdivision and extension of the scale, it is there 

 that we must also seek much of the varieties of modern 

 music. Every theme being simple in itself, the 

 older composers retained that simplicity; their vocal 

 parts had few accompaniments, but the moderns 

 cultivate the highest embellishments of the voice, 

 while they sometimes forget its right of predominan- 

 cy amidst contending harmonies. The instruments 

 were few, and of very limited compass, and the essence 

 of the composition was restricted to the hands of the 

 leader. Now they are multiplied, the scale is enlarg- 

 ed beyond all the bounds of emphatic expression, and 

 the finest passages of the music are dispersed every 

 where ; thus producing greater variety, which requires 

 greater address. Corelli's pieces, excluding the organ 

 ad libitum, have no wind instruments : Handel in ge- 

 neral, uses them sparingly: but Haydn does not 

 scruple to give the hautbois or bassoon a solo : Moz- 

 art frequently calls on the pre-eminence of the flute ; 

 Cherubini displays the bass ; and as if all the powers 

 of melody were exhausted, Beethoven finds a wide 

 vacancy for kettle-drums. Perhaps the roundness and 

 fullness so peculiar to some of this author's works, re- 

 sults merely from the more copious use of graver in- 

 tonation. Composers also, not content with imitative, 

 have attempted descriptive music, as if from the faint 

 resemblance which may be produced of the roll of 

 distant thunder, it were equally possible to represent 

 the flashing of lightning, or the shock of an earth, 

 quake. But no descriptive, or imitative music, has 

 yet betrayed its original : on the contrary, the com- 

 poser is chiefly indebted to the pliant imagination of 

 his audience, coupled with pointed verbal explanations. 

 On the whole, we are inclined to rank Mozart next 

 to Haydn. 



Like most other great composers, Mozart probably 

 has written too much. Many men mistake fertility 

 for invention ; but the real brilliance of original geniui 

 is soon exhausted, and on this account it is, that, in the 

 vain pursuit of novelty, they wander into inconsistent 



