MOZART AND THE PRACTICE OF SACRED MUSIC, 1781-91 a ...

ONE
The Sound of Reform Catholicism in Mozart’s Vienna
…tengo una voce in me, che mi dice quello, che come
legislatore et protettore della religione mi conviene di
fare o di tralasciare; e questa voce, coll’ajuto della
grazia divina…non può mai indurre in errore.
Joseph II to Pope Pius VI, 15 August 1782
1
Wir haben jetzt zwei Päpste.
Archduchess Maria Christine 1
On Sunday, 4 August 1782, Wolfgang Amadè Mozart and Constanze Weber were married
in St. Stephen’s Cathedral, Vienna. 2 For Mozart, this service was the culmination of a
professional and personal journey begun more than twelve months before, with the
composer’s dismissal from the Salzburg court and determination to settle in the Imperial
capital. Having broken with the home life of his father and sister, Mozart had been faced
with the responsibility of establishing himself as a freelance musician in an unfamiliar city, a
task that he had managed so far with modest though growing success and increasing
recognition. While pursuing a demanding schedule of concerts, teaching and composition,
Mozart had found time to complete Die Entführung for Vienna, which had premiered three
weeks earlier to great applause. Meanwhile, he and Constanze had pursued a relationship
clouded by strong parental opposition and custodial intrigue. In the event, the nuptials were
hastily organized and required special dispensation; under these circumstances, it is not
1 Quoted in Zölestin Wolfsgruber, Christoph Anton Kardinal Migazzi, Fürsterzbischof Von Wien, 2nd ed.
(Ravensburg: H. Kitz, 1897), 679.
2 Portions of this chapter appeared in earlier form in my paper, “Lieder der neuen Religion: Mozart and Reform
Catholicism,” presented at the Forum on Music and Christian Scholarship, Princeton University, 18 February
2005.