then the singers!--men and women--they are unmentionable. They do
not sing; they shriek, they howl with all their might, through
throat, nose and gullet."

(Paris, July 9, 1778, to his father. Mozart was thinking of
writing a French opera.)

75. "Ah, if we too had clarinets! You can't conceive what a
wonderful effect a symphony with flutes, oboes and clarinets
makes. At the first audience with the Archbishop I shall have
much to tell him, and, probably, a few suggestions to make. Alas!
our music might be much better and more beautiful if only the
Archbishop were willing."

(Mannheim, December 3, 1778, to his father. Mozart was on his
return to Salzburg where he had received an appointment in the
Archiepiscopal chapel. It seems that wood-wind instruments were
still absent from the symphony orchestra in Salzburg.)

76. "Others know as well as you and I that tastes are continually
changing, and that the changes extend even into church music;
this should not be, but it accounts for the fact that true church
music is now found only in the attic and almost eaten up by the
worms."

(Vienna, April 12, 1783, to his father, who was active as Court
Chapelmaster in Salzburg, and who had been asked by his son in
the same letter, when it grew a little warmer, "to look in the
attic and send some of your (his) church music.")