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

Prof. Christoph Wolff, advisor David Ian Black
Mozart and the Practice of Sacred Music, 1781-91
Abstract
Traditional accounts of Mozart’s oeuvre have regarded the final decade of the composer’s life
as a fallow period for the composition of sacred music, broken only by the production of two
divergent large-scale works and a small motet. While a number of articles have challenged
this picture through the redating of various fragments and copies, there has yet to be a
comprehensive study that integrates these discussions with recent developments in the
assessment of non-autograph sources. The present thesis attempts to provide a detailed
re-evaluation of the place of sacred music in Mozart’s thinking during his residence in
Vienna.
A common explanation for Mozart’s apparent silence is the introduction in 1783 of
a city-wide Gottesdienstordnung by the Emperor Joseph II, reducing the number of services at
which instrumentally-accompanied sacred music could be performed. The severity of the
restrictions has been exaggerated, and there is evidence to suggest that the provisions of the
Gottesdienstordnung were ignored at prominent churches in Vienna, including St. Stephen’s
Cathedral. In its scale and technical demands, the contemporary Mass in C minor, K. 427 is
a telling indication of where Mozart’s aesthetic sensibilities lay.
Mozart’s associations with the Hofkapelle and St. Stephen’s Cathedral are the most
important examples of the composer’s interest in sacred music in Vienna. A number of
previously inaccessible sources from both institutions provide new evidence on the origins of
the “Coronation” Mass K. 317 and the context of Mozart’s petition to become adjunct
Kapellmeister at the Cathedral in 1791.