Page:A Dictionary of Music and Musicians vol 2.djvu/391

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
MOUTON.
MOZART.
379

melody, no ingenuity of contrivance, no learning of modulation. Yet the masses were highly valued in their day, reprinted by other publishers[1] and much admired, according to Glarean and Le [2]Roy, by Pope Leo X, Giov. di [3]Medici. As for motets, Mouton saw 21 printed in the best collection of his time, Petrucci's Motetti de la [4]Corona. Posthumous publications continued for nearly 40 years, and the list of known printed works includes 9 [5]masses, about 75 motets and psalms, and a few French chansons.

The British Museum has a single voice-part (superius) of Mouton's 22 [6]motets printed by Le Roy in 1555, and happily a complete MS. score of the same collection. This gives many interesting pieces, the 'Nesciens Mater' (8 à) with 4 of the parts derived canonically from the others, the 'Quis dabit oculis' composed in 1514 on the death of Anne of Bretagne, Queen of France, some Easter pieces, 'Alleluia,' and 'In illo tempore,' and one for Christmas, 'Noe, noe, psallite,' on which Arcadelt afterwards wrote a mass.

Burney has scored, besides the mass movements, 3 [7]motets, and in this style of composition finds Mouton more smooth and polished than his contemporaries. 'Life in a court' can scarcely account for it. Most great musicians of the time had the same surroundings. Glarean, more reasonably, attributes to zeal and industry the rare facility which separated Mouton from his fellows. The numerous examples drawn from his works for the 'Dodecachordon,' and the evident pride with which Glarean [8]recalls the meeting in Paris, are evidence of the high value set upon the French composer. Had Mouton left no compositions of his own, he would still be remembered as belonging to a remarkable line of great teachers, Ockenheim, Josquin, Mouton, Willaert, Zarlino.

MOVEMENT. A definite and complete item in a musical composition, sometimes forming part of a large work, and sometimes single and independent. So called because each portion as a rule maintains the same rate of 'movement.' On the other hand, a 'number' in an opera or oratorio will often contain several movements. This latter expression is sometimes used instead of it, as in Schumann's 'Faschingsschwank,' which is to all intents and purposes a sonata in five movements, though numbered as if it were a series of separate pieces.

MOZART, Leopold, father of the great composer, and son of Johann Georg, a bookbinder, of Augsburg, was born Nov. 14, 1719. Intelligent, sagacious, and persevering, he determined to push his way beyond the narrow circle of his parental home. From the first he was addicted to music; on leaving school he went for two years (1737–39) to the University of Salzburg, after which he devoted himself to the study of music as a profession, and having become an excellent violinist, was appointed Hofmusikus by Archbishop Leopold (Firmian) in 1743, afterwards Hofcompositor, and in 1762 vice-Capelhneister by Archbishop Sigismund (Schrattenbach). On Nov. 21, 1747, he married Anna Maria Pertlin, daughter of an official of St. Gilgen. They were described as the handsomest couple in Salzburg. Of seven children, only two survived—a daughter, Maria Anna, born July 30, 1751, and a son, the immortal Wolfgang. His travels with his children are detailed in the succeeding article. He discerned at once their immense gifts, and, with pious trust in Providence, devoted his whole energies to their education in music. He died at Salzburg May 28, 1787, bearing to the grave the honourable distinction of having trained one of the greatest musicians the world ever saw. He composed much—oratorios, dramatic music, including the operas 'Semiramis' and 'Die verstellte Gärtnerin'; but especially church and instrumental works, several of which were circulated either in print or MS. He engraved six of his own sonatas in 1740. His great work, however, was his 'Versuch einer gründlichen Violinschule' (Augsburg, 1756), which passed through many editions in various Languages, and was for long the only Method for the violin. From this work alone we should judge him to have been a man of culture far above the average, and of solid worth, as indeed he was. Marpurg, Schubart, Zelter, and others, have all mentioned the book in the highest terms. A steel engraving of him from the family portrait in the Mozarteum at Salzburg, is given in vol. 1 of Otto Jahn's 'Mozart' (2nd ed.). His daughter

Maria Anna, whom he early taught the [9]piano, and who shared her brother's successes as a pianist on their joint tours, married in 1784 Baron von Berchthold zu Sonnenberg, Hofrath of Salzburg, and Warden of St. Gilgen. On his death she returned to Salzburg, and occupied herself with teaching. She became blind in 1820, and died Oct. 29th, 1829.

MOZART, Wolfgang Amadeus[10], born at Salzburg, Jan. 27, 1756, even as a child of three showed his love for music in a remarkable manner. He listened eagerly to his sister Marianne's music-lessons, amused himself for hours with picking out thirds, and showed a good memory for the pieces he heard. Encouraged by these

  1. The 'Alma redemptoris' was reprinted, and a new one, 'dittos moy toutes vos pensées,' added in Antiquis' famous 'Liber quindecim Missarum' (Rom. 1516).
  2. See preface to work quoted in note 2 of previous page.
  3. 'A passionate lover of music … the sounds of which were daily heard floating through the palace, Leo himself humming the airs that were performed.' (Ranke's History of the Popes.)
  4. 8 in book i. (1514); 10 in book ii. (1519); 8 in book iii. (1519).
  5. Besides the six mentioned in note 6 of previous page and note 1 above, the 'Missa d'Allemagne,' 'Tua est potentla,' and 'Quem dicunt' were printed. Fétis mentions a MS. 'Missa sans cadence' at Cambrai. Zarlino speaks of a Mass 'Benedicam Dominum,' à 6 (Istitutioni Harm. pt. iv. p. 414).
  6. See note 2 on previous page.
  7. 'Quis dabit oculis,' 'Non nobis Domine,' composed in 1509 at the birth of Renée, daughter of Louis XII. Also 'Quam pulcra es,' which Burney likes so much that he gives the first movement in his History. This motet had in its own time been ascribed to Josquin.
  8. Speaking of it continually in the 'Dodecachordon.' See pp. 296, 320, 464. They conversed by means of an interpreter.
  9. Her lessons first brought out Wolfgang's extraordinary musical gifts.
  10. He was christened in full Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus: instead of Theophilus his father wrote Gottlieb—in Latin Amadeus. In his earlier letters Mozart added his confirmation-name Sigismundus. On his first works, and those engraved in Paris in 1764. he signs himself J. G. Wolfgang, afterwards Wolfgang Amade; in private life he was always Wolfgang.