1798.] Life of Moxart, 
Salzburg, where he became maitre de 
concert. Not having yet feen Italy; in the 
December of the fame year, he fet out for 
that feat of the fine arts. ‘TThofe talents 
which had already excited the admiration 
of Germany, France, and England, now 
awakened in that land of mufical taite, 
the moft lively enthufiafm. ; 
In 1771 he had no fooner given per- 
fonal proofs of his genius, than la ferit- 
tura tor the followihg carnival was con- 
ferred upon him. He vifited Bologna, 
then as famous for harmonic excellence as 
Naples, where the celebrated theorift, 
Martini, was amazed to fee a German 
“boy work and execute the theme of a 
fugue which he prefented to him, in the 
extraordinary ftyle in which Mozart ac- 
quitted himielf. He next went to Flo- 
rence: Florence even enhanced the-eulo- 
giums which Bologna had lavifhed upon 
him.) 
During the holy week he arrived at 
Rome, and affifted at the Miferere in the 
Sixtine chapel, which performance is 
juftly confidered as the ze plus ultra of vo- 
cal mufic. This circumftance claims par- 
ticular notice, as inducing a proot of 
another faculty of his mind, only to be 
equalled by thofe wonderful powers which 
he had already demonttrated. He was 
prohibited from taking a copy of this mz- 
ferere, and therefore piqued himfelf on 
retaining it inhis memory. Having heard 
it with attention, he went home, made 
eut a manufcript from recollection; re- 
turned the next day to the chape!, heard 
the piece a fecond time, corrected the 
rough draught, and produced a tran{cript 
which furprized all Rome. This mijerere 
formed a /corer numerous in its parts, and 
extremely difficult of execution. His mind 
had embraced and retained the whole! 
He foon after received from the Pope 
‘the order of the gilt-{pur; and at Bologna 
was complimented, by an unanimous 
decifion, with the title of Member and 
Maficr of the Plil-hermoni: Academy. As 
a proof, pro forma, ot his qualifications 
for this academical honour, a fugue, for 
four voices, in the church ftyle, was re- 
quired of him, and he was fhut up alone 
in his chamber. He completed it in 
half an hour; and received his diploma. 
This evinced that he poffefled an imagina- 
tion conttantly at his command, and that 
his mind was ftored with all the riches of 
his. beloved {cience. 
The opera which he compofed for Mi- 
lan, was celled Mithridates: this piece 
procured him /a fcrittura for the grand 
opera of the carnival of 1773, which was 
by Mr. Bufby. 447 
his Lucio Sulla. Atlength, after a tour 
of fifteen months, he returned to Saltz- 
burg. 
In 1777 Mozart vifited Paris: but the 
mufic of that capital, which fo little ac- 
corded with his tafte, together with the 
difguft he conceived from the bafe intri- 
gues of the late French court, foon deter- 
mined him to quit that capital, and return, 
to his demeftic comforts, In 1781, at the 
requeft of the Eleétor of Bavaria, ha 
compofed the Opera of Idomeneo for the 
carnival of that year. The general merit 
of this opera is fo great, that it might 
ferve alone for the bafis of a diftinguifhed 
reputation. At his twenty-fifth year he 
was invited to Vienna, where he continued 
fpreading, as from a centre, the tafte of 
his compofitions through all Germany, 
and the luftre of his name over the whole 
of Europe. 
Of all the virtuofi of the piano-forte, 
who then crowded Vienna, Mozart was 
much the moft fkilful. His finger was 
extraordinarily rapid and tatteful, and the 
execution of his left hand exceeded every 
thing that had before been heard. His 
touch was réplete with delicacy and ex- 
preflion3 and the profound fiudy he had 
beftowed on his art, gave his performance 
a ityle the moft brilliant and finifhed. 
His compoiitions had a rapid circulation : 
and in every new piece the connoifleurs 
were ftruck with the originality of its caft, 
the novelty of the paflages, and the energy 
of the effeét. | 
Jofeph the fecond, folicitous for the 
perfection of the German opera, engaged, 
Mozart to compofe yao He accord- 
ingly produced L’exlévement du Serail ; 
pertormed for the firft time in 1782. Ic 
excited the jealoufy of the Italian com- 
pany, who therefore ventured to cabal 
again#t it. The emperor, addreffing him- 
felf to the compofer, faid, ‘¢ It is too fyg 
for our ears, myadear Mozart, and moft 
charmingly crowéd with notes.” “ Pre- 
cifely what it ought to be,’ feplied the 
{pirited mufician, whe juftly fufpected 
that this remark had been iuggefted to 
Jofeph by the envious Italians. “ Though 
T cannot defcribe, as an auricular evi- 
dence,”” fays the faithful author of the 
biography, ‘the applaufes and the ad- 
miration which this opera produced at Vi- 
enna, yet I have witnefled the enthufiafm 
it excited at Prague among all the con- 
noiffeurs, as well as among thofe whofe 
ears were lefs caltivated. ft was faid 
that all which had been heard before was 
not mufic: it drew the moft overflowing 
audiences: every body was anaaz.d at its 
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