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Chapter Two
Summary
On the following day I went on foot to Iglau, where I arrived after twelve o'clock noon at the cloister of the Minorists (I know this as “Minorites” in English), and soon twelve altists were assembled for the entrance examination. Brother Donat, perhaps the most excellent student of Segert, was Regenschori and organist at the cloister. After the table was cleared, preparations were made for the test, which took place in the presence of the Father Guardian, and all of the brothers of the order. The order in which the reporting took place was also the order for the production. The test aria, composed by the Regenschori, was full of coloratura, and various difficult intonations, which ascended to the two-line F, that is, over the usual bounds for the alto, for which reason it was difficult for most of the candidates to make it through the composition; and so it happened, that I, as the last was also admitted to the test, and after the Guardian's utterance “finis coronat opus”, received the position.
Brother Donat was a colossus in terms of height and weight. His eyes shone with joy at my performance of his aria, while the poor candidates, mostly accompanied by their fathers, left the refectory in an entirely dejected state.
Father Joachim, also Chaplain, led me along with a shoemaker, who was also Balkentreter at the cloister, into the residential quarters. He had scarcely left me when I broke into the bitterest tears: the master, as well as the mistress did everything in their power to calm me down; but my sadness was so great, that they had to go fetch Father Joachim, to whom I explained that I would rather die than live with a shoemaker; - he took me by the hand, and led me to a cloth maker, the sexton of the church, who lived in one of the cloister buildings. A little clean chamber, where I lived by myself until the arrival of the sopranist, calmed me down, for I soon felt at home in my surroundings. The sexton, with bended head, an already aged but very good-tempered man, whose wife was very spry, had three daughters, who might at any moment enter the service of Hymen.
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- Wenzel Johann Tomaschek (1774–1850)Autobiography, pp. 9 - 12Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2017