Part the Third: His Youth

Summary

It was with a design, of which the immediate object is unknown, that Leopold Mozart carried his son to Vienna, in the month of July, 1773. During their stay of somewhat more than two months, Wolfgang composed among other music, six quartets for violins, tenor and bass; —but the expedition itself seems to have been uninfluential on their future course of life, and merely to have afforded a temporary suspense to the monotony of existence at Salzburg, for which the elder Mozart had now acquired a great distaste; finding even in that isolated spot, where primitive manners and good morals might easily have been expected, plenty of room for the workings of envy and other evil passions. In reviewing the numerous instrumental compositions of Mozart's youth we are struck with the effort he made to master his ideas. The quartet and symphony productions of this period show many beautiful thoughts not yet turned to due account, but which he resumed and more fully developed in subsequent compositions. Thus his memory in after life became a perfect storehouse of melodies and subjects that had long been floating in his imagination, and which exquisite tact and judgment enabled him instantly to apply. We find this particularly in his operas and symphonies.