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

Even from this limited survey, it is clear that the music of Bonno and his
predecessors Reutter and Gassmann dominated performances by the Hofkapelle. 27 As
Armstrong notes, the fact that no performances of a litany can be documented between 12
July 1783 and 15 October 1791 suggests that the Gottesdienstordnung’s ban on musical
litanies was enforced in the chapel. 28 Likewise, there is no indication that vesper psalms by
Bonno or anyone else were performed, following the Ordnung’s lack of provision for
instrumental music at vespers. With the apparently complete loss of Bonno’s autographs, it
cannot be determined for certain when the composer’s very numerous sacred works for the
Hofkapelle were written. 29 Most of the parts are written on non-Italian paper that is not easily
datable. Nevertheless, the high proportion of sources with first performance dates in the
1780s leaves open the possibility that Bonno remained compositionally active during his last
years. 30 Whatever his “kompositorische Schwäche,” 31 Bonno was certainly not idle in
providing music for the Hofkapelle.
Music by Kapellmeister earlier than Reutter seems to have been rare, and it is likely
that the popularity of the Fux Tantum ergo was exceptional rather than typical. Even more
exceptional is the use of Palestrina’s Missa emendemus in melius (1594) during Holy Week;
see Figure 3.1. “Old music” did, however, retain a small place in the thinking of Bonno’s
successor. Figure 3.2 shows a previously unknown copy in the hand of Salieri of the famous
27 The Hofkapelle archive preserves many works by Leopold Hofmann (HK 464-83), and further investigation
may well reveal that some of these were performed in the 1780s. According to Maxmilian Stadler, “Joseph
schätze in der Kirchenmusik vorzüglich Reuters, Gaßmanns, Hofmanns Werke, die aber alle keine Singsoli
haben durften.” Karl Wagner, ed., Abbé Maximilian Stadler: seine 'Materialien zur Geschichte der Musik unter
den Österreichischen Regenten': Ein Beitrag zum Musikal. Historismus im Vormärzlichen Wien, vol. 7,
Publikationen des Instituts für Musikwissenschaft der Universität Salzburg (Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1974), 92.
28 Armstrong, “Litaniae Lauretanae”, 11-12, 230-32.
29 A Kyrie by “Bono” in D-MÜs, SANT Hs 698/1, catalogued in RISM as an autograph of Bonno, is probably
not the Kapellmeister. A Missa brevis in E minor and a motet Domine quando veneris, dated 16 October 1730, in
GB-Cfm, MU.MS.57, have yet to be investigated. On the alleged “Berlin autograph,” see below.
30 See also Schienerl, “Giuseppe Bonno”, 15-17.
31 Otto Biba, “Italienische Musiker zur Zeit Mozarts in Wien,” Atti della Accademia Roveretana degli Agiati 7/4
(1994): 12.
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