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

marriage, Leopold Hofmann was the bride’s witness. 90 Mozart’s first known reference to the
Cathedral occurs in a letter to Leopold of 12 September 1781, written a few months after his
arrival in Vienna. The letter reports the destruction of the Magdalenakapelle, a small chapel
adjacent to St. Stephen’s:
...es hat diese ganze Nacht durch in der Stephanskirche in der Magdalena kapelle gebrant – um 5
uhr Morgens hat der Rauch den ThurmWächter aufgeweckt – bis halb 6 uhr ist keine Seele zum
löschen gekommen; und um 6 uhr wo es am Heftigsten gebrandt hat, hat man erst Wasser und
die spritzen gebracht. – der ganze Altar mit allem Zugehör, und die stühle, und alles was in der
kapelle ist, ist verbronnen. – Man hat die leute zum löschen und helfen geprügelt, und weil fast
niemand hat helfen wollen, so hat man leute in Portirten kleidern und gestickten Westen helfen
sehen. 91
Unlike the fires of 1945, this fire did not spread to the Cathedral itself. The
Magdalenakapelle lay in ruins throughout Mozart’s time in Vienna and was not demolished
until after his death. 92
Mozart’s marriage to Constanze Weber at St. Stephen’s on 4 August 1782 was the
culmination of weeks of manoeuvring by the couple, Constanze’s mother and the bride’s
guardian, Johann Thorwart. 93 Due to their rushed wedding plans, Mozart and Constanze
undertook a piece of deception in order to avoid the obligation of publishing the banns three
times. On 2 August, the same day that they took communion together at St. Cajetan, the
prospective couple appeared before the Episcopal consistory at St. Stephen’s, and applied to
have the publication requirement removed. The note of the proceedings reads: “Mozart
Wolfgang Kapellmeister und Weberin Konstanzia bitten um Nachsicht der drey
Verkündungen wegen Abreise des Bräutigams.” 94 Mozart, as far as we know, had no
90 Ibid., 79. Angermüller incorrectly gives the location of the document as “Wiener Rathaus”; it is actually in A-
Wsa.
91 MBA, iii.156-57.
92 Brunner, Kantorei, 21.
93 Thorwart’s application of 29 July 1782 to the Obrist. Hofmarschallischegericht for Mozart to marry Constanze
is transcribed in MBA, viii.52.
94 In A-Wda; quoted in Werner Ogris, Mozart im Familien- und Erbrecht seiner Zeit (Vienna: Böhlau Verlag,
1999), 63. This entry is missing from Deutsch, Dokumente and its supplements.
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