viduality as any personage that has been brought upon the lyric stage. In December, 1781, Mozart was called by the emperor to a trial of skill as a pianist, with Clementi, who then made his first visit to Vienna, and strange to say, though his powers of manipulation were extraordinary, revealed none of those higher qualities for which his playing is now famous; the triumph of the Saltzburger was, therefore, decisive. Mozart had found out Mad. Weber—the mother of his faithless Aloysia—who now kept a lodging-house, and associated her other three daughters with herself in its management; he became her tenant, and though he had ample opportunity to observe the disorder of the household, he found himself the subject of many kind attentions from all the family, and especially from the second daughter Constanze. The accounts he sent his father of his new relationship with this family, moved the worst apprehensions of the good old man; jealous as he was at any disrespect of his son, he had quailed under the rupture with the archbishop, which had suspended all present means of Wolfgang aiding him to liquidate the heavy liabilities before alluded to; and he foresaw, in his son's connection with the Webers, what would prevent his ever deriving advantage from Wolfgang's future earnings, confident as he still was, that the day of good fortune would arrive to him. Obedient to his father's counsel, Mozart left his lodging at Mad. Weber's, but he left his heart behind him, and he consequently married Constanze on the 4th of August, 1782. Aloysia had become the second wife of Lange the actor, and had gained a high position as a vocalist, and she now had all the advantage of Mozart's union with her family, in his writing pieces for the display of her peculiarities; those detached arias, for example, which demand the free use of the exceptionally high notes of the extreme of the soprano register, were composed for her.
Prince Esterhazy spent a few months of every winter in Vienna, whither Haydn accompanied him, whose acquaintance Mozart made on one of these occasions. They became the warmest friends, addressed each other as "thou"—which, under the excessive formality of manners then prevalent, was a privilege of affection permitted only to the nearest connections—Mozart commonly spoke of his great predecessor and successor by the title of Papa, and each acknowledged the deepest artistic obligations to the example of the other. The well-known dedication of the six violin quartets, printed in 1785, is a token to the world of the veneration with which our hero regarded his illustrious compeer. Of a most vivacious temper, Mozart relieved his intervals of labour by the gayest enjoyment; he was passionately fond of dancing, and delighted still more in the personification of characters at the masquerades then greatly in vogue; he was peculiarly successful in his assumption of Harlequin; and his lively wit made the part he bore in these entertainments, as amusing to others as it was diverting to himself. He was free of hand as he was light of heart, and never met an acquaintance who was under pressure for money, but that he gave him all he had, often regardless of his father's strong claims upon his purse, nay, regardless of the requirements of his own household. Eager as he was in his pursuit of pleasure, still Mozart never fluctuated in his duties to his art, repeatedly assuring his father in his letters, that he suffered nothing to prevent his writing for a certain number of hours every day. The world has all the advantage of this assiduity; comparatively very little of it accrued to poor Mozart, who, more often than not, gave away his compositions to the persons for whom he wrote them, and thus derived no profit from their publication. It is strangely contradictory to this carelessness of the fate and the proceeds of his works, that from February 9, 1784, till November 15, 1791, he kept a register of every piece he wrote, inscribing therein the initial bars of each, with the date of its composition. That his love of gaiety was an exception from the general tenor of his mind, is proved by his process of composition, which he was more than once led to avow; this was, to perfect a piece, even to its minutest details, in his mind, before he committed a note to paper; and the almost total absence of erasures and corrections in his manuscripts, obviously corroborates his own account of his practice in writing. He was devoutly religious, but, as was the case with Haydn, his piety had a most cheerful influence upon him. We may wonder that his very voluminous ecclesiastical compositions, produced under this tone of mind, should for the most part be marked by a lightness of style which degrades them far below the rest of his works; and we wonder the more at this, when we remember that in some few instances his sacred music rises to the highest pitch of sublimity. It appears, however, that what was then commonly written for the service of the Roman church, was either of the most frivolous or of the most pedantic character, and Mozart's contributions to the questionable store, should be judged by this criterion rather than by the standard of his other productions. As an example of his piety, may be cited the vow he made when he was first about to become a father, that he would write a mass if his wife had a happy issue from her sufferings, which vow he kept when his first son was born, in 1783, and he presented the composition to St. Peter's church, in his native town. Equal to his religious conviction, was his enthusiastic zeal for freemasonry; he became a mason shortly after his settlement in Vienna, and he ceased not in the earnestness of his persuasion of his father to join the order, until he prevailed upon the beloved nurturer of his genius to procure admission to the St. Joseph's lodge, of which himself was a member, during the worthy Leopold's last visit to Vienna in 1785-86, for which occasion Mozart composed "Üeb' immer Treu," a standard masonic song in all the lodges on the continent. Mozart paid a visit to Saltzburg, with his wife, from July till October, 1783. Free now from the vexations of his engagement to the archbishop, he wrought at his art no less assiduously, and with far more self-satisfaction, than when he held office in this town. Besides composing the mass already named, he drew up the programme of a comic opera, "L'Oca del Cairo," the greater portion of the music of which he wrote after his return to Vienna; but the work, never completed, was not printed until 1860.
Passing over productions of minor extent, where none can be considered as of minor importance, we come to the oratorio of "Davidde penitente." Mozart was requested to write a work for performance at the annual concert in 1785, for the benefit of the widows of musicians in Vienna; but at so short a notice that even he, prodigiously rapid as was his power of creation, had not time to accomplish what was proposed. He planned, therefore, a shorter work than was at first intended; incorporated in this two pieces, adapted to other words, from his votive mass of 1783; wrote the remaining movements; and thus completed the composition in time for the charitable occasion for which it had been asked. "Der Schauspiel Director," an operetta for the display of the diverse singing of Mesdames Lange and Cavalieri, who divided the favours of the Viennese public, was composed by Mozart for performance in the palace at Schönbrun, in February, 1786, and its merit consists in the happy manner in which the specialities of the rivals are contrasted. "Le Nozze di Figaro" was the next dramatic work that engaged him. Beaumarchais' comedy, then popular on every stage in Europe, was proposed as a subject by Mozart; the emperor had prohibited the representation of a German translation of the original piece, on account of its immoral tendency; satisfied, however, with the Italian version, and pleased with the music, he authorized the performance of the opera, and it was given May 1, 1786. Notwithstanding the imperial mandate, the cabals of the Italian composers—who were united in a clique against Mozart, and who leagued with them their compatriots, the singers of the theatre—raised difficulties, almost insuperable, to the production of this masterwork; and when their machinations were so far overcome that the opera was brought before the public, their malice still worked to its prejudice, in the designedly inefficient performance that was rendered of the music. It was, nevertheless, received with immense applause, but still, the power of the opposition to Mozart behind the curtain was so strong, that the opera was performed but nine times during the first year, and it was not revived in Vienna until July, 1789. The characters of Susanna and Basilio were originally sustained by our compatriots, Anna Selina Storace and Michael Kelly, who were distinctly not in the cabals against the composer and his work. Mozart formed a warm friendship with them, as well as with Stephen Storace, then in Vienna with his sister; and upon their persuasion, formed a design of coming to London, which, however, he did not fulfil. This design was prompted by the annoyances associated with the production of "Figaro." Mozart was dissatisfied with his position in Vienna as a pianist and teacher, and knowing his own claims to a different and a higher estimation than that in which he stood, he desired to locate himself where these claims would be recognized. The reproduction of "Figaro" at Prague, and its enthusiastic reception there throughout the entire winter,
