In person Mozart did not exceed the middle size ; he was thin and pale, and his health was always delicate. The expression of his countenance, without any thing striking, was exceedingly variable, and rather that of an absent man. His habits were awkward, and his hands had been accustomed so incessantly to the piano, that they seemed incapable of application to any thing requiring address. He was of a mild and affectionate disposition : his mind was not uncultivated, and the number of his works is a sufficient proof of his indus try. His opinions of other composers were liberal, and lie entertained the highest respect for Haydn in cular. " Believe me, sir," said he to an officious critic, who sought to demonstrate certain errors of that great master, "believe me, sir, were you and I amalgamated together, we should not afford materials for one Haydn." He was not insensible of the beauties of his own com positions; and on the very day of his decease, calling for the Requiem, he had some parts of it performed by his bedside. As the stranger who received this fine work could never be discovered, notwithstanding all in quiries, it would have been lost for ever, but for the preservation of the score by the composer's family.
The genius of Mozart in music was sublime. By the number, variety, combination and effect of his works, he ranks in the highest class of modern masters. An air of delicacy and sentiment pervades the whole. Full and harmonious, they arc altogether free of that mea greness, and those capricious eccentricities, which be tray the sterility of invention too common among cians. The taste which they exhibit shows that vulgar images were incompatible with his mind ; it seems as if he knew that such a deformity is alike pernicious to science and the arts. A vulgar composer is struggling to carry mankind back into the path which they have left far behind them ; a polished composer, in outstrip ping his contemporaries, lays open a beautiful field, which he invites them to enter. Mozart has been most successful in gloomy passages, or those of rising gran deur, from according better with the ordinary train of his feelings. On almost all occasions he is more seri ous than comic, in endeavouring to pourtray the pas sions ; and his love, it has been remarked, is rather sentimental than sportive. However simple the theme, however intricate its variations, his return is always natural, and the close appropriate. Perhaps the cele brity of Mozart's music partly arises from the skilful management of his closes ; for they invariably leave an agreeable impression. No one has surpassed him in the suitable occupation of the parts of his concerted pieces; for, understanding the precise qualities of every different instrument, nothing is appointed to any which is inconsistent with its character.
Notwithstanding the excellence of this composer's works, he is charged with some important defects, though it must be admitted that there are fewer infe riorities than in the same number produced by any other. His vocal performers, it is alleged, are some times treated as if they constituted part of the orches tra. In passages and intervals of great difficulty they have to contend against the overpowering effects of the wind instruments, whence his operas have frequently failed even with good companies. Neither can it be denied, that nearly all the subjects of all his symphonies want that interest which characterizes those of Haydn, that they are noisy, thus participating of the grand fra cas of instruments, wherein the Germans seem to place their chief delight; and what is more singular, that none of them command the attention of an audience. Undoubtedly his quintetts, quartetts, and piano-forte compositions are very fine ; yet they are less interesting to the hearer than to the performer. Their recondite properties are perhaps too slowly unfolded for a tran sient performance ; but, for the same reason, their sub sistence should be more permanent, as that which be comes familiar soon loses its charms. In the vocal department, hoivever, Mozart has certainly excelled Haydn. Here he has profited by a precept of that ini mitable master, who himself, by a strange inconsistence, appears to have transferred it from the voices to the in struments. " Let the air be good," said Haydn, " and
the composition, whatever it is, will assuredly please. It is the soul and essence of music." In contrasting the merit of composers, their xra is to be taken into account. Handel, though born only 30 years later than Corelli, aimed at effects which the other never conceived, and quite disconcerted Mtn by his novelties. The youth of Haydn was cotemporary with Handel's age, Mozart followed, and both have executed what it is doubtful whether Handel ever con templated. Descending still later, the works of Beet hoven seem to exceed the views, but we shall not say the qualities of all his predecessors. Neither is the structure of the orchestra to be overlooked, for, inde pendent of the combinations of musical phraseology, the subdivision and extension of the scale, it is there that we must also seek much of the varieties of modern music. Every theme being simple in itself, the older composers retained that simplicity ; their vocal parts had few accompaniments, but the moderns cultivate the highest embellishments of the voice, while they some times forget its right of predominancy amidst contend ing harmonies. The instruments were few, and of very limited compass, and the essence of the composition was restricted to the hands of the leader. Now they are multiplied, the scale is enlarged beyond all the bounds of emphatic expression, and the finest passages of the music are dispersed every where ; thus produc ing greater variety, which requires greater address. Corelli's pieces, excluding the organ ad libitum, have no wind instruments : Handel in general uses them sparingly : but Haydn does not scruple to give the haut bois or bassoon a solo : Mozart. frequently calls on the pre-eminence of the flute Cherubini displays the bass; and, as if all the powers of melody were exhausted, Beethoven finds a wide vacancy for kettle-drums. Per haps the roundness and fulness so peculiar to some of this author's works, results merely from the more co pious use of graver intonation. Composers also, not content with imitative, have attempted descriptive mu sic, as if, from the faint resemblance which may be pro duced of the roll of distant thunder, it were equally possible to represent the flashing of lightning, or the shock of an earthquake. But no descriptive or imita tive music has yet betrayed its original: on the con trary, the composer is chiefly indebted to the pliant imagination of his audience, coupled with pointed ver bal explanations. On the whole, we are inclined to rank Mozart next to Haydn.
Like most other great composers, Mozart probably has written too much. Many men mistake fertility for invention ; but the real brilliance of original genius is soon exhausted, and on this account it is that, in the vain pursuit of novelty, they wander into inconsistencies, which, although a temporary support, are ultimately fatal to their works. The total number of Mozart's compositions, we have understood, amounts to 115, among which are 12 dramatic operas, 17 symphonies, 6 original quintetts for violins, tenors and violincello, 10 quartetts. and I trio for the same instruments, toge ther with 2 duetts for violin and tenor. He wrote many pieces for the piano, and all other instruments; but several changes have been made in the arrangement of his music, both by himself and its editors. One of his piano-forte quamtts was a quintett, and one of his vio lin quintetts originally adapted for eight wind instru ments.
Mozart married Constantia Weber in 1781, by whom he left a son and a daughter. After his decease, his family met with ample protection and support from the inhabitants of Vienna, who were grateful for the plea sure they had derived from his works. His sister aban doned the musical profession on marrying a counsellor of the Prince, bishop of Salzburg. It is said, that his son, following in his footsteps, has composed between 15 and 20 operas, chiefly for the piano-forte, but without gaining equal celebrity. (c.)