154 M O Z 
have been only eigl i years of age when he compofed thefe 
Sonatas. The dedication is to the queen, and is dated at 
London, Jan. 8, 1765. He fubfcribes himfelf “ tres hum¬ 
ble, et tres obeilfant petit ferviteur.” Thefe leffons are 
compofed in a very original ftyle, and fome of them are 
in utterly.. 
In July 1765, this mufical family returned to the con¬ 
tinent, and then travelled through Flanders, where young 
Mozart often played the organ in the churches of the 
convents and in the cathedrals. They patted fome time 
in Holland, and then returned through France and Ger¬ 
many to Salzburg, after an ablence of three years. In 
1768 Mozart and his fitter performed at Vienna, where the 
emperor Jofeph caufed young Mozart to fet an opera 
buii'a, called La Finta femplice, which obtained the appro¬ 
bation of Haffe, the director of the imperial band, and of 
the poet Metaftafio. Mozart here prefented to his fon 
(in the prefence of Haffe, Metaftafio, the duke of Era- 
ganza, and prince Kaunitz) feveral Italian airs, which 
the child immediately fet to mufic, with all the accom¬ 
paniments. At the confecration of the Orphan-houfe 
church he was employed to fet the offertorium, together 
with a trumpet-concerto; and on this occafion, though 
only twelve years of age, he had the direftion of the 
whole mufic. In 1769 they returned to Salzburg; and, 
foon after, the father and l'on made a tour to Italy, where 
young Mozart acquired great honour by different com- 
pofitions which he executed, and particularly at Milan. 
At Bologna he found an enthufiaftic admirer in father 
Martini, a celebrated matter of counterpoint; at Florence 
he was no lels favourably received by marchefe Ligneville, 
a very great proficient in the fame branch; and there alfo 
he formed an acquaintance with Mr.Thomas Linley, who 
was then nearly of the fame age. When Mozart and his 
fon arrived at Rome, they went to the Seftini chapel to 
hear the celebrated Miferere, wdiich the pope’s muficians 
are prohibited, it is laid, from fuffering to be copied, un¬ 
der pain of levere punifhment. Young Mozart, however, 
when he returned to his lodging, fat down to write it 
out; and, the next time it was performed, he put the 
manufcript in his hat, in order that he might enlarge 
and correct it. When this circumftance was known at 
Rome, it made fo much noife, that he was requefted to 
fing it with an accompaniment on the harpfichord, at a 
concert at which Chriftopheri, who had fung it in church, 
was prefent, and who by his aftoniftiment rendered young 
Mozart’s triumph complete. After a fhort tour to Na¬ 
gles, he returned to Rome, where his holinefs expreffed 
a defire to fee him, and where he was inverted by the 
pontiff with the crofs and infignia as a knight of the 
golden fpur. At Bologna he was unanimoufly elefted a 
member of the Academia Filarmonica; and on his return 
to Milan, about the end of October 1770, he compofed, 
in his fourteenth year, the ferious opera of Mithridates, 
which was repreiented on the 26th of December, and fuc- 
ceffively repeated more than twenty times with the ut- 
moft applaufe. Being at Salzburg in 1771, he was re¬ 
quefted by count Firmian of Milan, in the name of the 
emprefs Maria Therefa, to compofe a grand theatrical fe- 
renata for the marriage of the archduke Ferdinand : and 
this talk he executed to the full fatisfadtion of his em¬ 
ployers. On the eleftion of a new archbifhop of Salzburg, 
in 1772, he compofed the ferenata II Sogno di Seipione; 
fpent the following winter with his father at Milan, where 
he wrote the ferious opera of Lucia Silla, for the carnival 
of 1773 ; and in the fpring of 1774- returned to Salzburg. 
Some tours which he undertook in this and the follow¬ 
ing year to Vienna and Munich with his father, gave him 
an opportunity of compofing fome excellent pieces, as, 
La Finta Giardiniera, an opera bulfa, two grand mattes 
for the electoral chapel at Munich, See. and in the year 
1775, when the archduke Maximilian was at Salzburg, 
he fet to mufic II lie Failure. He had now' attained 
(though only nineteen years of age) to the fummit of 
his art; liis fame was already diffufed throughout every 
A R T. 
country of Europe, and wherever he appeared his uncom¬ 
mon merit excited univerfal admiration; and his pro¬ 
grefs in talents and fame, contrary to all experience, 
continued to keep pace with the expectations of the pub¬ 
lic to the end of his life. 
On the death of his father, in 1778, he was called to 
Salzburg, and appointed principal concert-mafter to the 
prince archbiftiop, in his ftead; but he religned this office 
in 1780, and went to Vienna, where he fettled, and was ad¬ 
mired and patronized by the court and city; and in 1788 
he was appointed chapel-mafter to the emperor Jofeph. 
It was not till the year 1782, that he began to compofe 
at Vienna for the national theatre ; at firft chiefly inftru- 
mental mufic; but, on its being difeovered how well he 
could write for the voice, he was engaged by the nobility 
and gentry to compofe comic operas, lometimes to Ger¬ 
man words, and fometimes Italian. His firft opera at 
Vienna was Die Entjichrung aus dern Serai/, or the Rape 
of the Seraglio, in 1782, to German words. The fecond, 
Le Nozze di Figaro, in fouradls. The third, the Schauf- 
piel Direftor, or the Manager at the Playhoufe, in 17S6. 
Don Giovanni, in 1787. La Clcmenza di Tito, a ferious 
opera. Coji fan tutti, comic. Die Zauler Flute, the Ma¬ 
gic Flute. Idomeneo, a ferious opera, See. There is a 
chronological lift of his latter vocal compofitions till the 
year 1790, in Gerber’s Mufical Lexicon. 
It is lamentable (obferves one of his biographers) that 
premature genius too rarely enjoys a long career. The 
acceleration of nature in the mental powers feems to 
hurry the progrefs of the animal economy, and to anti¬ 
cipate the regular clofe of temporal exiftence. The health 
of Mozart began rapidly to decline. However he was not 
idle; for, in the few laft months of his life he compofed 
thofe three great works, the Magic Flute, the Clemency 
of Titus, and the Requiem. Some have called thefe his 
chef-d’ceuvres. Nothing ever had a greater run than the 
firft of thefe. It was performed at Vienna one hundred 
nights in lefs than twelve months, and on the hundredth 
night the theatre overflowed as much as on the firft. The 
fecond was compofed, at the defire of the Bohemian States, 
for the coronation of Leopold. It was begun in his car¬ 
riage in the road to Prague, and finiflred in eighteen days. 
The hiftc-ry of the laft is Angular. A ftranger called on 
him, and requefted he would compofe, as Ipeedy as pol- 
fible, a Requiem for a catholic prince, in order to footh 
his mind, and to prepare it for his approaching diftolu- 
tion. Mozart demanded two hundred ducats; and the 
ftranger, in order to promote difpatch, depofited four hun¬ 
dred. The compofer began the work, in the progrefs of 
which he felt his mind unufually railed and agitated. He 
employed not only the day, but much of the night, in 
the compofition of it, with which he feemed to be infa¬ 
tuated. He told his wife he was compofing it for himfelf; 
and fire prevailed upon him to give her the fcore, and en¬ 
deavour to cheer his fpirits. Upon his appearing more 
tranquil, fhe returned it, but he foon relapled into de- 
fpondency; and, having finifhed it on the day of his 
death, he again reminded her that he had previoufly in¬ 
formed her it would be compofed for himfelf. In the 
year 1791, and in the thirty-fixth year of his age, juft af¬ 
ter he had received the appointment of rnaeftro di capella 
in the church of St. Peter, he departed this life; leaving 
the world to admire the brilliancy of his powers, and to 
lament the fhortnefs of the period allotted to their difplay. 
Mozart was of finall ftature, meagre and pale, and in 
his countenance difplayed no marks of extraordinary ge¬ 
nius. He had a certain awkwardnefs in his manners', and 
his feet and hands feemed to be in a continual ftate of 
motion. He was fond of billiards, and had in his houfe 
a billiard-table, at which he was accuftomed to amule 
himfelf alone. Though poffeffed of great mufical talents, 
he was in other refpefts a mere child; and, by his want 
of economy and the abufe of money, he evidently fliowed 
that he was aeftitute of that prudence which is fo necef- 
fary to prevent men from being led into the raoft diia- 
greeabk 
