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

eference to the Thomaskantor in Mozart’s surviving correspondence, the precise nature of
their relationship remains uncertain.
III. THE LATE MASS FRAGMENTS
In December 1787, Joseph II appointed Mozart as Kammerkompositor. The post carried the
responsibility, at least in theory, for the artistic direction of private musical gatherings
involving the Emperor himself. 152 In reality, Joseph’s absence from the capital for much of
1788 and his developing illness leads one to doubt whether Mozart fulfilled such duties on a
regular basis. The composer’s position at court has been subject to a good deal of
misunderstanding: the assumption, for example, that Mozart’s late dance music was written
as part of his duties cannot be sustained, for the court balls were the responsibility of the
Hoftheater administration and had nothing to do with the Kammermusik. Brauneis has
argued that Joseph appointed the composer to provide Archduke Franz with a musical
establishment, but his case is undermined by a lack of documentary evidence from the court
records that Joseph or Franz intended such a scheme. Brauneis’ statement that Joseph
intended to appoint Franz his direct successor is also false. 153
Less than three months after Joseph’s real successor, Leopold II, had arrived in
Vienna, Mozart wrote to Michael Puchberg, “Ich habe nun sehr große Hoffnung bey Hofe,
denn ich weis zuverlässig, daß der K[ayser] meine Bittschrift, nicht wie die andern,
begünstigt oder verdammt, herabgeschickt, sondern zurückbehalten hat. – Das ist ein gutes
152 On the context to Mozart’s appointment, see Link, “Mozart's Appointment,” 163-73, Walther Brauneis,
“Mozarts Anstellung am Kaiserlichen Hof in Wien. Fakten und Fragen,” in Mozart. Experiment Aufklärung, ed.
Herbert Lachmayer (Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz, 2006), 559-72.
153 Derek Beales, personal communication. Brauneis seems unaware of John Rice’s work on Franz as a patron of
music in Empress Marie Therese and Music at the Viennese Court, 1792-1807 (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2003), especially 18-21.
180