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

liturgical calendar enjoyed the support of Benedict XIV, who had already produced scholarly
writings on the matter and who subsequently issued a bull in support of the Empress’
proclamation. 15
Reforms such as these were part of Maria Theresia’s attempts to reduce the outward
splendour of church services, while encouraging a more devout and personal religiosity. Both
Maria Theresia and her consort Francis disliked state ceremonial to varying degrees, and
Francis, who had been initiated as a Freemason, even completed a miniature depicting
himself as a Franciscan monk. 16 The approach of the Empress to liturgical matters was
influenced, no doubt, by the enormous expense of the visual and aural resources employed in
church, and the need to curtail them in the face of more pressing social and military
expenses. 17 Yet she was also reacting to developing ideas about the nature of religious
worship, especially as articulated in the writings of the librarian and early Enlightenment
figure Ludovico Antonio Muratori (1672-1750). Muratori, who had dedicated two of his
works to the Empress’ father, Charles VI, advocated the toning down of elaborate ceremony,
the encouragement of “useful” work on the part of religious orders, and the development of a
tolerant, enlightened religious life based on virtue and love of one’s neighbour. His writings,
including Della carita Christiana (1723), Della regolata divozione de’christiani (1747) and
Della pubblica felicita oggetto de buoni principi (1749) made it clear that the State had an
15 Ibid., 59. The Halbfeiertage required attendance at church for the observance of the feast, but did not involve
the shop closures and other restrictions practiced on the Vollfeiertage. On the orders of Maria Theresia, St.
Joseph’s Day was saved from oblivion, hardly surprisingly.
16 The picture is reproduced in Beales, Joseph II, facing 172.
17 By the end of Francis Stephan’s rule, the number of court-attended church services per year had declined
from 86 to 78 (Ibid., 36). The reorganisation of the Viennese Hofkapelle in the early 1750s led to a major
reduction in the available budget for music at court; see the transcription of Hofkapellmeister Reutter’s 1751
contract in Ferdinand Stollbrock, “Leben Und Wirken Des K. K. Hofkapellmeisters Und Hofkompositors
Johann Georg Reuter Jun.,” Vierteljahrschrift für Musikwissenschaft 8 (1892): 180-2. For an excellent account of
Hapsburg ceremonial in the eighteenth century, see Elisabeth Kovács, “Kirchliches Zeremoniell Am Wiener
Hof Des 18. Jahrhunderts in Wandel Von Metalität Und Gesellschaft,” Mitteilungen des österreichischen
Staatsarchivs 32 (1979): 109-42. See also Beales, Joseph II, 157-8.
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