MOZART.

New Zealand Times, Volume XLX, Issue 8165, 17 August 1887, Page 5

MOZART.

The life and work of the great composer Mozart was the theme of a lecture given by Mr Robert Parker at the Tinakori-road Churohroom last evening in aid of the choir scholarship fund. The attendance was not in accordance with the merits of the lecture, owing no doubt to the unpropitious state of the weather, and the lecturer stated that he had had serious thoughts of postponing it on that score, but would not break faith with those who had determined to be present. Mr Parker commenced his lecture by quoting from a celebrated musician contemporary with Mozart, who said that if in the dim ages of the future the human form was constituted as it then was, the undying works of Mozart would still be as fresh as they were at that time. It was nearly the hundreth anniversary of the great master’s death since those words were written, and Mozart’s works instead of fading had become fresher than ever. Mozart was the greatest absolute genius the world had ever known, for, although only 35 when he died, ha had in that time achieved what others had done in the fullness of years. Mozart was born in Salzberg in 1756. His father was a good musician, and an encellent performer on the violin, and both his father and mother had the reputaton of being the handsomest pair in Salzberg, At the early age of three years Mozart’s musical faculty began to show itself in curious ways. He listened eagerly to his sister’s pianoforte lessons, and amused himself for hours, at the same time picking out thirds on an old harpsichord belonging to the family. At four years of age he composed a little minuet which Mr Parker played as an illustration of the child composer’s genius, and which, he stated, the elder Mozart had written. At seven the youthful prodigy astonished his father as well as the musicians of Munich, whither his father had taken him, by taking part in a string quartet at sight. In 1763 the elder Mozart started for Paris, taking with him the boy and his sister, and in the following year he took them to London, young Mozart being then eight years old. In London he was warmly taken up at the Court of George the Third. From London the gifted child was taken to Amsterdam, where he gave a concert, every item of which was. his own composition. He was then eight years old. He next returned to Salzberg, where he studied under his father for a year. The lecturer went on to tell of the composer’s successes in Italy, where he went shortly after, and where ho was presented with the Order of the Golden Spur by the Pope and created a Cavalier. Au inoidental illustration, a duet for piano and violin in B-flat, in which the slow movement was the feature, was introduced, tha performers being Mr Parker and Mr MoD. Boyd. The various journeyings of the subject of the lecture were next touched upon —to Italy in 1771, where he composed a cantata at the request of the Empress, aud to Milan in 1772, his third visit. In all his travels the lecturer said he gained much honor, but very little money. His next journey was to Paris, where he went with his mother in quest of employment. Here his mother took ill and died, and Mr Parker quoted his letter (which illustrated his character as a nobleminded man) to his father. Several other letters were also quoted. At twenty years of age he returned to Salzberg, and it was then he composed his First Mass (Novello’a Edition). The “Agnus Dei” from this mass was sung by Miss Williams. It was followed by a trio for violin (Mr Conolly), viola (Mr Schwartz), and piano (Mr Parker). The lecturer went on to* say that those people who " don’t like classical music, you know”,would perhaps be very much astonished, if they heard some of Mozart’s sonatas without knowing what they were, at the gems of melody to be found in them. He spoke of some of these sonatas as being admirably suited to the age and ability of yonng learners, and as an illustration Miss Elfie Williams, a young performer, played a short portion of a sonata. The other illustrations were; —Song, “The Violet,” by Miss Gore; an extract from a string quartet in D performed by Messrs Conolly, -Kennedy, Schwartz, and Hamerton ; song, “ Voi che Sapete ” (“Figaro”), by. Miss Williams; duet, “The Manly Heart,” (“Magic Flute 1 '), by Miss Gore and Mr Parker, and a larghetto for the clarinet and strings, with which the lecture concluded. Mr Parker was listened to with the most earnest attention from the opening, when he spoke of the great composer’s birth, till the last scene of all, when he died peacefully in his native city in J uly, 1791, aged 35 years and 10 months, with the wish of his heart unfulfilled, which was to finish the sublime requiem mass which he bad started a short time previous. Frequently throughout his lecture, and at the close, Mr Parker was warmly applauded. The incidental items were done full justice to, but none of them demand special comment.