Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XII.djvu/32

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24: MOZART on the requiem daily enfeebled him. His wife became anxious, called a physician, and took away the score. He then imagined that some one had given him poison. In November he was so much better as to write a cantata for the masonic lodge to which he belonged, " Praise of Friendship;" but at this time a rheumatic inflammatory fever was epidemic in Vienna, and in Mozart's enfeebled condition it seized upon him. Inflammation of the lungs led to dropsy of the chest, and after two weeks confinement to his bed he died. On the last day of his life he busied himself with the re- quiem, which he fancied he was composing for his own obsequies, but left it unfinished. The widow could not return the money which had been received for it, and she determined to have it completed from her husband's rough nptes. Siissmaier, Mozart's pupil, had often conversed with him about the plan of the work, and as his hand had a remarkable similarity to that of his master, he undertook the task. He copied all that Mozart had written, and added the rest, consisting of the close of the Lacri- mosa, the Sanctus, the Benedictm, and the Agnus Dei, save that to the words Cum sanctis he repeated the fugue of the Kyrie. When the messenger came for the requiem, this score was given him ; and its authenticity as a manu- script from Mozart's hand was never suspected by Walsegg until it began to be discussed by the press. While Mozart lay sick, the Hun- garian nobility secured to him an annual pen- sion of 1,000 florins, and a musical association in Amsterdam a still higher annuity, for which he was to furnish certain compositions an- nually. Mozart left more than 800 works for the pianoforte in all forms, variations on a simple theme, works for two pianofortes, and up through all gradations to the concerto, with full orchestra ; for orchestral instruments of every kind, from solos to the grand symphony ; there are even compositions for Franklin's har- monica, and a piece for a musical clock. Equally universal is he in vocal music, from songs and airs for every kind of voice, to the opera and church music in all its forms as employed in the Roman Catholic service. But it is not so much the quantity as the excellence of his music which excites the astonishment of the musician. This was owing not more to the greatness of his genius than to his profound studies, which from infancy to the close of his life never ceased. During the rehearsals of Don Giovanni at Prague, in a conversation with the chapelmas- ter Kucharz, he remarked, in reply to praises of the new work : " People err if they think my art has cost me no trouble ; I assure you, my dear friend, no one has taken such pains with the study of composition as I. There is hardly a celebrated master in music whom I have not carefully, and in many cases several times, studied through." Several generations of musicians have been educated upon the works of Mozart. His ideas have become common stock; and effects which, if now introduced MOZIER into a composition, would sound hackneyed, were in his works the joint production of lofty genius and profound contrapuntal knowledge, niided and restrained by exquisite taste. As an instrumental composer perhaps one only has surpassed him, Beethoven ; but Beethoven had perfected his genius by studying Mozart. Haydn tiad developed the quartet form and invented the grand symphony. Mozart gave them a new spirit, and one sees his influence in all Haydn's later works. That great master said to Mo- zart's father in 1785 : " I tell you before God and as a man of honor, that I look upon your son as the greatest composer of whom I ever heard; he has taste, and possesses the most thorough knowledge of composition." The symphony in with the fugue is alone suffi- cient proof of the correctness of Haydn's opin- ion; it is the greatest work of the kind ever written before Beethoven. But it was as an operatic composer that Mozart reached a height upon which, like Handel in oratorio, and Bach in his own contrapuntal sphere, and Beetho- ven in orchestral music, he stands superior to all his predecessors. Two musical institutions bear his name, the Mozarteum at Salzburg, and the Mozartstiftung in Frankfort, and a monu- ment was erected to him in the former city in 1852. Among German works relating to Mo- zart are those by Niemetschek (1798), Roch- litz (1801), Arnold (1803), Nissen (1828), and Otto Jahn (4 vols., 1856-'9 ; new ed., 2 vols., 1869), the last of which is considered the best. The best French works on Mozart are by Fetis and Scudo. Several of the German works have been translated into French, and a publication in French by the Russian Ulibisheff (Moscow, 1841) has been translated into German (new ed. by Prof. Santler, 3 vols., 1873). In Eng- lish, E. Holmes published a "Life of Mozart" (2 vols., London, 1865). Mozart's letters, edited by Nohl (1865; new ed., 1870), have been translated into English by Lady Wallace (2 vols., London, 1865). The earliest notice of Mozart in any language is by Daines Barrington in the "Philosophical Transactions" (1770). In 1874 the house in which Mozart composed the "Ma- gic Flute" was removed to the Mirabellgarten in Salzburg, to be a repository of portraits and autographs of his eminent contemporaries and of musicians and poets of the present day. KARL, the last surviving son of Mozart, at- tended the centennial celebration of his father's birth at Salzburg in 1856, and died in Milan, Oct. 31, 1858, leaving a large fortune. MOZIER, Joseph, an American sculptor, born in Burlington, Vt., Aug. 22, 1812, died in Switzerland in October, 1870. He removed to New York in 1831, and was engaged in mercantile pursuits till 1845, when he retired ^from business, and shortly after visited Eu-

  • rope. Having devoted several years to the

study of sculpture in Florence, he went to Rome, where he long resided. His principal works are a statue of Pocahontas, the "Wept of the Wish-ton- Wish," contributed to the in-