cult pieces of Bach, Handel, and other masters: he played them immediately, at first sight, and with the greatest possible correctness. He played, one day, before the King of England, a piece full of melody, from the bass only*. At another time, Christian Bach, the Queen's musicmaster, took little Mozart between his knees, and played a few bars. Mozart * What Mozart here did, by the aid of his natural genius only, performers in general are directed to do by means of figures placed over the notes, which indicate the harmony to be played by the right hand. This method of expressing by figures the various combinations of sound, is denominated thorough bass. To do this with accuracy is become a desideratum in music, for, as the early harmonists had no idea of many of the combinations which are found in the works of modern authors, their scheme of figuring is found totally inadequate to the present state of musical science. In consequence of this deficiency, the nomenclature of the art has been loaded with the barbarous terms of chords by supposition, retardation, suspension; diminished, superfluous, anomalous, spurious, &c.; and the science of thorough bass is become a labyrinth of inextricable perplexity. To get rid of this confusion, we must simplify the art, by establishing the principle, that all combinations of the musical scale are admissible into the harmonic code. It then continued, and they thus played alternately a whole sonata, with such precision, that those who did not see them thought it was executed by the same person. During his residence in England, that is, when he was eight years old, Wolfgang composed six sonatas which were engraved at London, and dedicated to the Queen. will then be an easy operation to refer the different mixtures to one of the following classes : The Common Chord, The Chord of the 7th, The Extreme flat 7th, The 13th, including the sharp 7th, 9th, and 11th, By the Ultimate Chord, we mean that in which all the tones, and semi-tones, of the scale are comprehended. It is formed by alternately placing a minor third upon a major, and may be resolved into pure harmony, by the intervention of the chord of the 7th. G. In the month of July, 1765, the Mozart family returned to Calais, from whence they continued their journey through Flanders, where the young artist often played the organs of the monasteries and cathedral churches. At the Hague, the two children had an illness which endangered their lives, and from which they were four months in recovering. Wolfgang composed six sonatas for the piano-forte during his convalescence, which he dedicated to the Princess of Nassau-Weilbour. In the beginning of the year 1766, they passed a month at Amsterdam, from whence they repaired to the Hague, to be present at the installation of the Prince of Orange. Mozart composed for this solemnity a quodlibet for all the instruments, and also different airs and variations for the Princess. After having performed several times before the Stadholder, they returned to Paris, where they staid two months, and then returned to Germany, by Lyons and Switzerland. At Munich, the Elector gave Mozart a musical theme, and required him to deve lope it, and write it down immediately, which he did in the prince's presence, without recurring either to the harpsichord or the violin. After writing it, he played it; which excited the greatest astonishment in the elector and his whole court. After an absence of more than three years, they returned to Salzburg, towards the end of November, 1766, where they remained till the autumn of the following year, and this tranquillity seemed further to augment the talent of Wolfgang. In 1768, the children performed at Vienna, in presence of the emperor Joseph II., who commissioned Mozart to compose the music of an opera buffa-the Finta Semplice. It was approved of by Hasse, the maître de chapelle, and by Metastasio, but was never brought on the stage. On many occasions, at the houses of the professors Bono, and Hasse, of Metastasio, of the Duke of Braganza, of Prince Kaunitz, the father desired any Italian air that was at hand to be given to his son, who wrote the parts for all the instruments in presence. of the company. At the dedication of the church of The Orphans, he composed the music of the mass, the motet, and a trumpet duet, and directed this solemn music, in the presence of the imperial court, though he was at that time only twelve years old. He returned to pass the year 1769 at Salzburg. In the month of December, his father took him into Italy, just after he had been appointed director of the archbishop of Salzburg's concert. We may imagine the reception given in that country to this cele brated child, who had excited such admiration in the other parts of Europe. The house of Count Firmian, the governor-general, was the theatre of his glory at Milan. After having received the poem of the opera to be performed during the carnival of 1771, and of which he undertook to write the music, Wolfgang quitted that city in the month of March, 1770. At Bologna, he found an enthu siastic admirer in the celebrated Father Martini, the same person of whom Jomelli came to take lessons. Father Martini, and the Bologna amateurs, were trans |