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

Year Essential Gnadenbild (fl.xr) Copyist payments to Nurscher
1781 7398.8 2805.12 57.35 18.58 15.2
1782 7438.22 2754.12 14.25 27.3 26.4 37.48
1783 7147.14 2618.12 20.4
1784 8518.27 “Nichts” 12.42
1785 8024 - 22.7
1786 7953.25 - 18.21
1787 8011.35 - 41.47
1792 7968.7 - 46.44 17.41
Table 4.3. Expenditure on music and music copying at St. Stephen’s, 1781-92.
The tables make clear the extent to which music could still be a family business, with four
Hofers and as many Hofmanns (in addition to Leopold Hofmann). The name Hofmann
appears with bewildering frequency in the musical life of eighteenth-century Vienna, and
disentangling the genealogical relationships is a task I have not attempted here. 81
At first sight, Leopold Hofmann’s income of more than 2000fl appears particularly
lucrative by the standards of eighteenth-century musicians’ salaries. Encouraged by this
figure, and perhaps also by reports of Hofmann’s vineyard and fine clothing, Landon
amongst others have argued that Mozart’s financial problems would truly have evaporated,
had he become Kapellmeister. 82 The salary is in fact not as generous as it might seem, as fully
1800fl of that amount was intended specifically for the upkeep of the Cathedral’s choirboys,
who lived with Hofmann and his wife Maria Anna in the Kapellhaus; see Figure 4.10. 83 The
81 To give one further example: a “lediger Musiker” called Joseph Hofmann died in Vienna on 6 July 1788,
followed a year later by another “lediger Musiker” called Joseph Hofmann (Gugitz, “Auszüge,” 345). For an
account of some Hofmann musicians, see Herbert Vogg, “Franz Tuma (1704-1774) als Instrumentalkomponist
Nebst Beiträgen zur Wiener Musikgeschichte des 18. Jahrhunderts” (PhD diss., Universität Wien, 1951), 94-
103.
82 Landon, 1791, 48.
83 The payments to Hofmann are recorded separately in the account books as a “jahrliche Besoldung” and “das
Kostgeld für die Sängerknaben.”
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