06.10.2013 Views

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

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

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

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.

Whatever the background, Mozart eventually sat down towards the end of April<br />

17<strong>91</strong> to draft a letter of application to the Vienna City Council, or Magistrat. Even by the<br />

standards of eighteenth-century supplicatory documents, the letter is a rather awkward<br />

construction; this is no doubt due to Mozart’s difficulty in stressing his own suitability for<br />

the position while avoiding the appearance of delighting in the illness of a professional<br />

colleague. The application survives in an autograph fair copy (see Figure 4.11), but Mozart<br />

apparently commissioned an unidentified professional copyist to produce a presentation<br />

version for submission to the Council. 110 In this later version, ignored by MBA, not even the<br />

signature is in Mozart’s hand. For the following transcription, the autograph has served as<br />

the principal text, with the variations in the presentation copy listed in the footnotes.<br />

Stadt Magistrat! 111<br />

unterthäniges Bitten<br />

Wolfgang Amadè Mozarts k: k: Hofkompositors<br />

Um dem hiesigen Hr: kapell=<br />

Meister an der St: Stephans<br />

Domkirche adjungirt zu werden.<br />

Hochlöblich<br />

Hochweiser Wienerischer Stadt Magistrat<br />

Gnädige Herrn!<br />

110 According to a later account by Joseph Hüttenbrenner, Mozart employed a Staatsbuchhaltungsbeamter called<br />

“Blach” as his copyist; see MVC, 29 n58. This “Blach” has never been identified.<br />

111 Stadt Magistrat! ] An / den Hochlöb. Wienerischen / Stadt=Magistrat<br />

288

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!