Life of Mozart, Vol. 1 (of 3)

I HAVE been asked to say a few words by way of welcome to the translation of Jahn's Life of Mozart, and I do so with pleasure. The book has been long familiar to me, and I regard its appearance in an English dress as an event in our musical history. It will be a great boon to students and lovers of music, and it shows how much the study of music has advanced among us when so large and serious a work is sufficiently appreciated to repay the heavy expense attendant on its translation and publication. The book itself is what the Germans call an "epoch-making work." The old biographies of musicians, such as Forkel's Life of Bach (1802) and Dies's of Haydn (1810), are pleasant gossipy accounts of the outward life of the composers; but they concern themselves mainly with the exterior both of the man and his productions, and there is a sort of tacit understanding throughout that if the reader is a professional musician he will know all about the music, if he is an amateur it is altogether out of his reach. Characteristic traits and anecdotes there are in plenty, but as to how the music was made or came into being, what connection existed between it and the circumstances or surroundings of the composer, what relation it had to that of his predecessors or contemporaries, how far the art was advanced by the labours of this particular composer or player—all that is outside the province of the book. Schindler's Life of Beethoven (MÜnster, 1840—a much smaller book than it afterwards became) was hardly more PREFACE. than this, and in addition is so deformed by want of method and by faults of style as to be very uninviting to the reader. A step in the right direction was taken in Moscheles' English translation (or rather adaptation) of Schindler (1841). Moscheles' residence in London had shown him that there was even then a public outside the professional musician to whom such works would be interesting, and he accordingly took pains, by inserting musical examples and other means, to make his edition attractive to this class. But the inherent defects of the original work prevented more than a moderate success.

The first real attempt at a biography of a composer that should interest all classes was the work of an Englishman. Edward Holmes was not only a musician, but a cultivated man with a good literary style, and his Life of Mozart, including his Correspondence (1845), was very nearly all that such a book should be. It was derived from original sources, it was full and yet condensed, it blended admirably the portrait of the man with the portrait of the musician, it contained for that time a considerable amount of musical illustrations, and lists of the works; and in addition to this it was written in a style attractive to the amateur, and even to the ordinary reader. It was largely read, and has long since been out of print.* More than this, it extorted praise from a German writer, and that a German should praise any English work on a musical subject is indeed an event. The terms of warm commendation in which Jahn mentions it in his introduction are in striking contrast to

* A new edition, with notes by Ebenezer Prout, B.A., was
published in 1878 by Novello, Ewer & Co.

PREFACE.

those which he employs over some other German works. He calls it an "interesting and readable biography," "a trustworthy and, as far as was then possible, exhaustive account... the most trustworthy and serviceable that could be produced by skilful use of the materials generally accessible" (pp. ix., x.). In fact, it has been said with truth that whole pages may be found in which the two works are so closely alike that the one might be thought to be a translation of the other, the probability being that both Holmes and Jahn were borrowing from the same sources.

Jahn himself enjoyed even higher advantages for his task than Holmes had done. He was not only a thorough practical musician, a careful and sympathetic critic, and a learned musical bibliographer, but he was a skilled littÉrateur; an adept in philology and archaeology and in the history of art and literature; the author of many original works on these subjects, and of innumerable editions of the classics, ancient and modern; and imbued with the true spirit of patient investigation and accurate research. His position, and the esteem in which he was held throughout Germany, gave him command of all the materials necessary for his work, even of the most private kind. How he entered on his task, with what true modesty and determination he pursued it, from its first suggestion, during the funeral of Mendelssohn in 1847, down to its completion in 1855,* may be seen from his own interesting and characteristic introduction (pp. i.-xxiv), as well as the pains which he took to revise his work for the second edition,** twelve years later,

* W. A. Mozart, von Otto Jahn (Leipzig, 1856-59). 4 vols.,
8vo.

** Zwcite durchaos umgearbeitete Auflage (Leipzig, 1867). 2
vols., royal 8vo.

PREFACE.

and utilise the additional information acquired in the interval (pp. xxv.-xxviii.).

The book which is the result of this combination of toil, intelligence, ability, knowledge, and affectionate devotion, could only have been successful by the addition to these qualities of a remarkable amount of literary tact and skill. The plan of the work is one which few English authors could by any possibility adopt. It is immense; at first sight its plan is bewildering. The book is not a Life of Mozart so much as an Encyclopaedia of musical art and biography. It opens with a minute account of Mozart's father, and of his method and his works, amounting to sixteen pages. Not only have we the narrative of the life of Mozart himself from his cradle to his grave in the smallest particulars, with a detailed examination of each work-in the case of the operas, both text and music, amounting in single operas to forty, fifty, and even ninety pages—but we have the history of the rise and progress of each branch of music that Mozart touched—and he touched them all—up to the date of his life. Witness the long notices of the Opera, the Oratorio, and Church music, and the chapter on Instrumental music in Vol. I.; the account of the French Opera, and of Lully, Rameau, Gluck, and Piccinni, in Vol. II. We have also full accounts of the social and musical condition of the various cities visited by Mozart, such as Paris, Mannheim, Salzburg, Munich, and Vienna; and biographical notices, longer or shorter, of every person with whom Mozart came into contact, or whom his biographer has occasion to mention.

Such a work may well be called an Encyclopaedia; and to have steered through this ocean of material as Jahn has PREFACE. done, never losing the thread of the narrative, and maintaining the interest in the hero throughout, implies no ordinary tact and skill; for the book is remarkably readable, and there are few pages which are not enlivened by some anecdote or lifelike touch. Nor is it less remarkable for accuracy than for the other qualities already mentioned. The writer has used it constantly for many years, and has never yet discovered a mistake of any moment. Perhaps it would have been better if the secondary treatises of which we have spoken had been relegated to Appendixes; but this is directly opposed to the German method, and we must accept the work as we have it. There are indeed already nineteen Appendixes to the original work, as follows i. Family documents. 2. Marianne Mozart. 3. Testimonials, eulogistic poems, articles, &c. 4. Dedications. 5. Mozart's letters on his journeys. 6. Text of his church music. 7. Arrangements and adaptations of ditto. 8. His cousins. 9. Mozart as a comic poet. 10. Mozart and Vogler. 11. A letter of Leopold Mozart's. 12. Mozart's letters on the death of his mother. 13. The choruses for "King Thamos." 14. The text of "Idomeneo." 15. Alterations in that opera. 16. Mozart's letters to his wife. 17. The Requiem. 18. Mozart's residences in Vienna. 19. Portraits. Of these it has been considered necessary to retain only Nos. 2, 7, and 19, which form Appendixes 1, 2, and 3 of the present edition. Another has been added: namely, a classified list of the whole of his works, according to the complete edition now in course of publication, with the references to the invaluable Catalogue of KÖchel. With these exceptions the English translation is exactly in accordance with the German original.

PREFACE.

A word of special praise is due to Miss Townsend, the translator, who has performed her laborious task with great accuracy and intelligence, and has established an additional claim on the gratitude of the student by her exhaustive Index, in which the original work is very deficient.

The new branch of musical literature, founded by Holmes and Jahn, already shows some considerable monuments. Passing by the voluminous and accurate thematic catalogues of Mozart by the Ritter von KÖchel (1862), of Weber by Jahns (1871), and of Beethoven and Schubert by Nottebohm (1868 and 1874), works which properly belong to a separate department of the subject—we already possess the Life of Handel by Chrysander (vol. i., 1858; II., 1860; III., 1867), that of Beethoven by A. W. Thayer (vol. i., 1866; II., 1872; III., 1879), that of Haydn by C. F. Pohl (vol. i., 1875; II., 1882)—all three still in progress—and that of Bach by Spitta (vol. i., 1873; II., 1880). But these laborious and conscientious works, while they rival and even surpass Jahn in their wide range and the manner in which they embalm every minute particular relating to the subject, are far behind him in lucidity, and in the ease with which he handles his vast materials. In these respects, as might be expected from his literary position, Otto Jahn stands hitherto quite alone.

GEORGE GROVE.

February 23, 1882.

Clyx.com

Translated From The German By Pauline D. Townsend. With A Preface By George Grove, Esq., D.C.L.

In Three Volumes. Vol. I. London: 1882.

VOLUME I.

Translated From The German By Pauline D. Townsend.
With A Preface By George Grove, Esq., D.C.L.

In Three Volumes. Vol. I.
London:
1882.