A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Schachtner, Johann Andreas
SCHACHTNER, Johann Andreas, from 1754 trumpeter to the Archbishop of Salzburg, and previously, according to a letter of Mozart's (Oct. 17, 1777) in the church-choir at Ingolstadt, where he was brought up in the Jesuit school. He died in 1795. He was a thorough musician (much greater knowledge was required to play the trumpet then than now) and had literary tastes besides. Being intimate with the Mozart family he watched with great interest the extraordinary early development of Wolfgang's genius, and 20 years later wrote, at the request of Mozart's sister, a letter[1] to which we owe a host of characteristic and touching details. His affection was fully returned, for 'Wolfgangerl' would ask him a dozen times a day if he was really fond of him, and when Schachtner would sometimes in fun say 'No,' the tears would start into his eyes 'so loving and so tender was his little heart.' When the two were carrying his toys from one room to the other Wolfgang would insist on their either singing or fiddling a march. To Schachtner too the father showed the blotted MS. of the first PF. concerto, and related the little fellow's answer to his objection that it was too difficult—'That is just why it is called a concerto; people must practise till they can play it,' upon which he set to work to try and play it himself. At this time he was 4, and two years later, after his return from Vienna, when some trios by a friend were being tried, he begged to be allowed to play the second violin, and cried at his father's refusal (he had had absolutely no instruction in the violin), till at Schachtner's intercession Leopold Mozart gave way, saying, 'You may play with Herr Schachtner; but you must do it softly so that nobody may hear you.' Schachtner soon found himself superfluous, and was not surprised to see tears of joy in the father's eyes. Among other traits, Schachtner relates as a proof of the extreme delicacy of the boy's ear his pointing out that Schachtner's violin was a half-a- quarter of a tone lower than his own, and on another occasion his fainting at the sound of the trumpet, of which up to ten, he had a positive dread. Schachtner wrote the libretto of an opera[2] which Mozart intended for Vienna, and had made great progress with, and translated the libretto of 'Idomeneo' into German, thus enabling Leopold Mozart to say (letter to Breitkopf, Aug. 10, 1781) that it was entirely the work of persons living in Salzburg, 'the poetry by Court-chaplain Varesco, the music by my son, and the German translation by Herr Schachtner.' (Jahn's 'Mozart, i. 564.)
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