A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Jacquin, von

by George Grove

JACQUIN, VON. A Viennese family with which Mozart was on the most intimate and affectionate terms. The father, Johann Franz Freiherr von Jacquin, was a celebrated botanist, whose house in the botanical garden was the great resort of the most intellectual and artistic society of Vienna; the son Gottfried, an accomplished amateur with a fine bass voice, was a very intimate friend of Mozart's, and the recipient of some of his cleverest letters; and the daughter Franziska was one of his best pupils (Letter, Jan. 14, 1787). For Gottfried he wrote the air 'Mentre ti lascio' (Köchel 513), and for the family more than one charming little Canzonet for 2 sopranos and a bass, such as 'Ecco quel fiero' or 'Due pupille amabili' (K. 436, 439). An air of Gottfried's, 'Io ti lascio' is to this day often sung in concert rooms as Mozart's. He took part in the funny scene which gave rise to Mozart's comic 'Bandl Terzett' 'Liebes Mandl, wo ists Bandl.' The lines which Gottfried wrote in Mozart's Album—'True genius is impossible without heart; for no amount of intellect alone or of imagination, no, nor of both together, can make genius. Love, love, love is the soul of genius'—characterise him as faithfully as those of his father, written in the same book, do the old man of tact and science:—

'Tibi, qui possis
Blandus auritas fidibus canoris
Ducere quercus,
In amicitiæ tesseram.'

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