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

surprising that the ceremony was an emotional one for all concerned, as Mozart reported to
his father three days later:
bey der Copulation war kein Mensch als die Mutter und die Jüngste schwester. – H: v: thorwart
als vormund und beystand von beyden; – H: v: Zetto |: Landrath :| beystand der Braut; und der
gilowsky als mein beystand. – als wir zusam verbunden wurden fieng so wohl meine frau als ich
an zu weinen; – davon wurden alle, sogar der Priester, gerührt. – und alle weinten, da sie zeuge
unserer gerührten herzen waren. 3
As procedure dictated, the venue for the service had been determined by the residence of the
bride: for Constanze, living five minutes’ walk away on Petersplatz, the Cathedral was her
parish church.
The wedding of Mozart and Constanze took its place in the cycle of more than one
hundred services conducted at St. Stephen’s every day, which ranged from the smallest
private devotion to the most elaborate festivity. 4 Most of these rites formed part of the daily
recitation of the Missal and Office, but there were also a significant if variable number of
pastoral services: on the day of Mozart’s marriage, there were two funerals, five other
weddings and seven baptisms in the Cathedral, including one for Josepha, daughter of the
composer Ignaz Umlauf. 5 Although it is unclear whether music was provided for Mozart’s
marriage – if it was, the composer did not mention it – there were daily opportunities at St.
Stephen’s to hear both organ- and instrumentally-accompanied items. Charles Burney, who
visited Vienna in 1772, could report that
…there is scarce a church or convent in Vienna, which has not every morning its mass in music:
that is, a great portion of the church service of the day, set in parts, and performed with voices,
accompanied by at least three or four violins, a tenor and base [sic], besides the organ; and as the
churches here are daily crowded, this music, though not of the most exquisite kind, must, in
some degree, form the ear of the inhabitants. 6
3 MBA, iii.219.
4 For an overview of religious services in Vienna’s major churches at this time, see RGZJ, 55.
5 These services are documented in Vienna, Pfarrarchiv St. Stephen, Prot. Mort. 34, f. 102, Copulations=Buch
74, f. 269-270 and Prot. Bapt. 98, f. 20. I am grateful to Michael Lorenz for his assistance in locating this
documentation.
6 Charles Burney, The Present State of Music in Germany, The Netherlands, and United Provinces (London: T.
Becket et al., 1773), i.222.
2