Thomas Attwood (1765-1838)  

Gary Smith

            Attwood’s father, also named Thomas Attwood, was a member of the household staff to King George III of Britain, as well as a viola and trumpet player (as well as a coal merchant), and as such was a member in the Royal Band of Musicians.  Obviously, father and son made a strong, friendly impression on the King and his family, for Attwood junior was to benefit from royal patronage his entire life, from George III, then the Prince of Wales and thus ultimately George IV.

 At the age of nine, Thomas Attwood became a choirboy in the Chapel Royal.  When his voice finally broke and he had to leave, he became one of the Pages of Presence to the Prince of Wales.  HRH was so impressed with by Attwood’s musical ability at this stage that he arranged to send him abroad to study music and composition.  From 1783 to 1785 he lived in Naples, taking lessons and studying composition with Felipe Cinque and Gaetano Latilla.  

 Deciding at this point that he could learn no more there, and also determining to continue and complete his education with Mozart, Attwood traveled to Vienna via Stuttgart.  He arrived sometime in the summer of 1785, and began his first lessons with Mozart in August of that year.  They commenced with covering the fundamentals of theory.  This included writing down scales, realizing the figured base in example pieces, and working through counterpoint studies by J. J. Fux.  These studies progressed into composing minuets and short pieces for string quartet as well as taking lessons in instrumentology, with special regards to wind instruments.  Thus, Mozart ended up attempting to teach him how to master the modern techniques of the period.  As quoted by Michael Kelly in his book, Mozart was reputed to have said: “Attwood is a young man for whom I have a sincere affection and esteem; he conducts himself with great propriety, and I feel much pleasure in telling you, that he partakes more of my style than any other scholar I ever had; and I predict, that he will prove a sound musician.” (It might be noted here that Mozart had not yet encountered Hummel or Eybler, both of whom had greater musical careers [and talent] than Attwood.  Given that Kelly’s book was written some 40 years after this point in time, Mozart’s reported comments here should be regarded with some skepticism.) 

 Attwood’s exercise studies with Mozart have been preserved and published.  They are numbered as K.506a in the Koechel catalog of Mozart’s works.  In fact, since they are exercises concerning pupil and master, we have works by Attwood with corrections overwritten and added on, supplied by Mozart.  In Oldham’s words, they “…are valuable not only for the light they throw on the apprentice years of a notable English composer, but as evidence that Mozart, given an apt and congenial pupil, took his duties as a teacher with the utmost seriousness.” (Would that we had Hummel’s exercises, or, further in to the what-if column, Beethoven’s!) Most valuable of the lot might be a Minuet and Trio in C.  Attwood had initially provided a pleasing, slight work, but Mozart, in his corrections added a touch of understated brilliance by introducing counterpoint touches hear and there.  Both versions were published when these studies went to print.  Mozart as well touched up another minuet by Attwood in his place as teacher.  A final “collaboration” here as well looks to be in the final movement of Mozart’s A Musical Joke (K522), finished in June of 1787, or about four months after Attwood left for England.  Here, an uninspired fugue attempt by Attwood is displayed in worse shape by Mozart as the wretched fugue example in the 4^th movement.  Such joking with his friends and pupils was completely in character with him, and one wonders if a copy went off to London, or whether Wolfgang wrote out this section with Attwood looking over his shoulder, back in the winter months of 1786-87.

 Attwood left with English friends (Michael Kelly and Nancy Storace, for two) in February of 1787 to return to England.  Stopping off to visit Leopold Mozart in Salzburg, they were received with great kindness by both Mozart’s father and the Archbishop. While there, the English party, apparently with Mozart’s consent, broached a plan by Wolfgang to visit England in the near future, once Attwood and the Storaces had prepared the stage, so to speak.  (Surprisingly [but perhaps not], Leopold appears to have considered their visit a burden, complaining about the volume of luggage involved, and sourly commenting on Mozart’s projected plans to travel to England and leaving his children with Leopold to care for.  He wrote Mozart to dissuade him from such a plan, which appears to have succeeded, no doubt coupled with the fact that not much demand for Mozart’s services in London appears to have developed then.)  Nothing apparently came of the English party’s lobbying at this time.  However, in late1790, Mozart was to receive a famous note from one Robert May O’Reilly, an English impresario, who made him a lucrative offer to travel to England and compose for the theater there.  The note begins: “Through a person attached to H.R.H the Prince of Wales, I was to learn of your design to undertake a journey to England…” While the Storaces have often been put forth as the source of this “design”, given the much stronger and longer “attachment” of Attwood to the Prince of Wales as well, he most likely worked this offer to fruition.

 Back in England, Attwood became a chamber musician to the Prince of Wales, music teacher to the Duchess of York and later, to the Princess of Wales.  By 1796, he as well became organist of St. Paul’s Cathedral and composer to the Chapel Royal.  He occupied both positions until his death.  Starting in 1792, he began producing stage works, mostly (but not always) in the manner of pastiches, such as The Mariners (1793) which included music by Martini, Dittersdorf and Mozart.  He was one of founders of the Philharmonic Society, was one of the first to performed Mozart’s last symphonies in England, as well as Beethoven’s Fifth.  He died in 1838 and was buried with great honor under the organ of St. Paul’s Cathedral. 

 Attwood’s compositions appear to be strongly affected by his experience as the pupil of Mozart.  Not through direct imitation or by copying, but via the feeling for melodic shape and the beautifully tasteful organization of harmony.  These points serve to distinguish him from his English contemporaries.  The early instrumental trios (piano trios, mostly) like Mozart’s but NOT like most English “accompanied” sonatas of the time, have the string instruments working on equal terms with the piano.    His somewhat slender reputation at this point in time rests mostly on his smaller, intimate and exquisitely polished religious works.  They appear to follow a direct line from the Mozart of Ave verum corpus.  To Mozart then, they may owe their balance and serenity, melodic grace and the sweetness of their full four-part harmony.  

Sources:

Deutsch, Otto Erich   Mozart: A Documented Biography  Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA  1965

Kelly, Michael Reminiscences by Michael Kelly, Oxford University Press, London 1975

Sadie, Stanley (Ed.)  The New Groves Dictionary of Music and Musicians 2^nd Edition   Groves Dictionaries, New York  2000    

Liner notes to Mozart’s Schüler CD by Concilium musicum Wien  CHR 77136

Liner notes to Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, CD by Etc. L’Oiseau-Lyre 411 720-2

Liner Notes to Mozart Night Music, CD by Harmonia mundi HMU 907280

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