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

application is the only evidence we have for it. 106 It is possible that Mozart had begun
exploring the possibility of a Cathedral appointment somewhat earlier: around 1788, he had
begun copying out sacred music by Hofmann’s predecessor, Reutter, and, as I have
suggested, it is not impossible that these copies were based on exemplars from the
Cathedral’s music archive. Mozart was personally acquainted with many members of the St.
Stephen’s Kapelle through professional or family association, and any one may have provided
the composer with the necessary inside information. Fifteen of the musicians, for example,
were simultaneously employed at the court theatre, and thus played in some or all of Die
Entführung, Figaro, the Viennese Don Giovanni and Così under Mozart’s direction. Franz
Hofer, called “Roska=Pumpa” by Mozart, had been employed at St. Stephen’s as a violinist
since 1780, and accompanied the composer on his first trip to Prague in 1787 and to the
coronation in Frankfurt in 1790. 107 Late in Mozart’s time as adjunct Kapellmeister, the
composer seems to have been particularly close to Hofer, having lunch with him on several
occasions, and driving out with him to meet Carl in Perchtoldsdorf. 108 According to the
unreliable obituary of Benedikt Schack, Hofer took the tenor part in the famous death-bed
rehearsal of the Requiem. 109 As I have already speculated, the proclamation of Leopold II’s
Generale on 17 March, relaxing some of the restrictions of the Gottesdienstordnung, may have
provided the composer with further encouragement.
Otto Biba, “Beispiele für die Besetzungsverhältnisse Bei Aufführungen von Haydns Oratorien in Wien
Zwischen 1784 und 1808,” Haydn-Studien 4, no. 2 (1978): 100.
106 A long-standing illness may be implied by the Council’s response to Hofmann’s 1788 complaint about the
Kapellhaus: “...wenn aber gedachter Kapellmeister einmal stirbt, oder mit ihm sonst eine Veränderung
geschieht, so stünde alsdann dem Magistrat frey, von der Wohnung des künftigen Kapellmeisters...den
entbehrlichen Theil zum besten der Stephanskirche zu verwenden.” Prohászka, “Leopold Hoffmann,” IV/11.
Hofmann’s eventual cause of death was “Leberverhärtung.” Ibid., VII/1. A few months after his death, six
musicians at St. Stephen’s signed a document mentioning that because of his illness, Hofmann had not been
able to fulfil his duties entirely effectively; A-Wsa, HR A 17/5, 2/1793 (not in Prohászka.)
107 MBA, iv.11. The 1787 accountbook for St. Stephen’s displays no evidence that Hofer received a reduction
in pay for his absence.
108 MBA, iv.160-62.
109 Deutsch, Dokumente, 460.
287