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

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

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I. <strong>SACRED</strong> <strong>MUSIC</strong> REFORM UNDER MARIA <strong>THE</strong>RESIA<br />

The initiation of church music reform in the eighteenth-century is generally credited to the<br />

famous encyclical of Pope Benedict XIV, Annus qui, proclaimed on 19 February 1749. 9<br />

Benedict, who stood godfather to Joseph II, was concerned for the physical and spiritual<br />

condition of churches during the celebrations associated with the upcoming Jubilee year, and<br />

issued a set of recommendations covering liturgical practice, the singing of plainchant, the<br />

use of instruments, and issues of musical style. The bull is a relatively tolerant document,<br />

recognizing the disagreement caused by the presence of the organ and other instruments in<br />

church, but ultimately approving their use, subject to limitations. The strongest<br />

condemnation is reserved for music of a “theatrical” nature, which for Benedict seems to<br />

encompass works in which the text is not readily audible, performances by singers that are<br />

too dramatic in character, and compositions that incline the listener more towards<br />

enjoyment than devotion. After acknowledging the contemporary use of “figurative or<br />

harmonic chant accompanied by the playing of instruments” in both the church and the<br />

theatre, the Pope set forth a permitted instrumentarium to ensure that sacred music was not<br />

contaminated by its secular relative:<br />

Hominum prudentum, & illustrium Magistrorum artis musicae consilium exposcere Nobis curae<br />

fuit; consentaneum autem cum eorum sententiis est, ut Fraternitas Tua, Si in tuis Ecclesiis<br />

instrumentorum usus introductus est, cum organo musico nullum aliud instrumentum permittat,<br />

nisi barbiton tetracordon maius, tetracordon minus, monaulon pneumaticum, fidiculas, lyras<br />

tetracordes: haec enim instrumenta inserviunt ad corroborandas, sustinendasque cantantium<br />

voces. Vetabit autem tympana, cornua ventatoria, tubas, tibias decumanas, fistulas, fistulas parvas,<br />

psalteria symphoniaca, cheles, aliaque id genus, quae musicam theatralem efficiunt. Praeter haec<br />

autem, de usu instrumentorum, quae in Ecclesiasticis musicis permitti possunt, nihil monebimus,<br />

nisi ut illa adhibeantur solummodo ad vim quamdam verborum cantui quodammodo<br />

adjiciendam, ut magis magisque audientium mentibus eorum sensus infigatur, commoveanturque<br />

9 A complete translation is given in Robert F. Hayburn, Papal Legislation on Sacred Music, 95 A.D. To 1977<br />

A.D (Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical Press, 1979), 92-108. Some aspects of Hayburn’s translation are unreliable,<br />

including the rendering of tuba as “tuba.”<br />

5

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