{INTRODUCTION.}

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is, between 1780 and 1783, Mozart's entire correspondence is preserved, and any error upon essential points is, as you will readily grant, impossible. All the statements of Rochlitz as to time, place, persons, and events are completely false. You will remember my consternation at this unwelcome discovery; no poetical license could account for it; unpleasant as it is, I consider it my duty to expose the affair, partly that it may teach caution, and partly that tedious and vexatious discussion may be avoided, should the narrative in question ever be printed.

These anecdotes from the A.M.Z., together with the information of Schlichtegroll and Niemetschek have formed the chief material for the more or less complete accounts of Mozart which afterwards appeared; what was added consisted partly of anecdotes, generally badly authenticated and often ill-turned, such as gain currency among artists, and partly of phrases, or turns of speech which, as Zelter says, every one makes for himself. I must not spare you the enumeration of some of the works of this class.

Cramer's "Anecdotes sur Mozart" (Paris, 1801), is a mere translation of the anecdotes; some of them, together with a general account, are also given by J. B. A. Suard,

"Anecdotes sur Mozart," in his "Mélanges de Littérature", (Paris, 1804), Vol. II., p. 337, as well as by Guattani, in the "Memorie Enciclopediche Romane" (Rome, 1806) Vol. I., pp. 107, 134. A work of more pretension is "Mozarts Geist. Seine kurze Biographie und äthetische Darstellung seiner Werke. Ein Bildungsbuch für junge Tonkünstler" (Erfurt, 1803). Zelter asked Goethe to tell him who was the author of this "short biography half dedicated to Goethe," which was "neither short nor aesthetic, nor a good likeness of the man," and was not a little surprised to learn that Goethe knew nothing either of the work or its author ("Correspondence," Vol. I., pp. 56, 67,65). It was, however, by J. E. F. Arnold, of Erfurt, whose subsequent publication, "Mozart und Haydn. Versuch einer Parallele" (Erfurt, 1810), was scarcely calculated to draw a more favourable expression of opinion from Zelter.

Of no greater intrinsic value are Hormayr's statements:

{LIFE OF MOZART.}

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in the "Austrian Plutarch" (VII., 2, 15; Vienna, 1807), or Lichtenthal's "Cenni biografici intorno al celebre Maestro Wolfgango Amadeo Mozart" (Milan, 1816). I have not been able to procure the "Elogio' storico di Mozart del Conte Schizzi" (Cremona, 1817). The articles in Gerber's "Tonkünstlerlexicon" are carefully compiled, but not complete; and "Mozarts Biographie," by J. A. Schlosser (Prague, 1828; third edition, 1844), is a compilation altogether wanting in judgment.

An unsuspected wealth of fresh resources was brought to light by the "Biographie W. A. Mozarts," by G. N. v. Nissen. Leipzig, 1828 (with an appendix). In order to estimate this book justly, and to make a right use of it, it is necessary to ascertain how and whence it proceeded, a task of considerably more difficulty than merely mocking and railing at it.

Nissen, who came to Vienna, after Mozart's death, as a Danish diplomatist, became acquainted with his widow, and interested himself in her unprotected condition. He had a great turn for business matters, and was fond of arranging papers, writing letters, and even copying, without understanding what it was that he was occupied about. He therefore willingly undertook to put Mozart's effects in order, to assist the widow in all her business arrangements, and to carry on her correspondence. A long series of letters which he wrote in her name show him to have been a well-meaning, sensible man, somewhat over-circumstantial in his style of writing. After his marriage with Mozart's widow he felt it his duty to labour with the same conscientious care for his memory as he had formerly done for his property, and he employed the leisure of his remaining years, which were spent at Salzburg, in carrying out this design.

We ought to own ourselves deeply indebted to him, for without his care the most important documents and traditions would have been hopelessly lost. Mozart's sister was then living at Salzburg; her recollections, and those of his wife, afforded an abundance of characteristic traits, and the carefully preserved papers and family correspondence, were a rich mine of authentic documents.