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

mean “after [a service at] St. Stephen’s.” Following this interpretation, one may propose that
Mozart attended an early-morning mass for the Sunday after Ascension, and observed a
crowd of people “gefoppt werden” afterwards. The commentary in MBA suggests that
Mozart’s reference was to spectators watching the unsuccessful attempts of Jean-Pierre
Blanchard to launch his hot-air balloon. 127 Next, Mozart returned home, at which time Anna
von Schwingenschuh and an unidentified “Lisette” called on the composer and heard about
this event. Whatever it was, it was interesting enough for Mozart to send his servant Lorl (or
Leonore) to the Cathedral to fetch his friend Gottfried von Jacquin and the unidentified
“Schäfer,” who perhaps were attending a later service. They complied, and one of them – the
antecedent of “er” is unclear – mentioned to Mozart that he had seen Leopold Hofmann go
to the choirloft. Finally, the knowledge that Hofmann was at the Cathedral prompted
Mozart to send another message to an unspecified recipient. A few days before, Mozart had
written to the director of music at the parish church in Baden, Anton Stoll, requesting that
Stoll return the score and parts of Mozart’s Mass in C, K. 317. Given the timing, it is
possible that Mozart was planning to perform the Krönungsmesse at the Cathedral that
Sunday. 128 A month later, Mozart wrote again to Stoll, asking for the parts to the Mass in B
flat K. 275 and for Michael Haydn’s gradual Alleluia: In die resurrectionis with the
frustratingly laconic explanation, “…weil ich gebeten worden bin in einer kirche eine Messe
zu dirigiren…”. 129 We know that Mozart possessed performance material, now lost, for the
Mass in C K. 337 and several other works which could have been used at the Cathedral, 130
127 MBA, vi.410, presumably by analogy with Mozart’s use of the verb foppen when referring to Blanchard the
following month: “eben izt wird Blanchard entweder Steigen – oder die Wiener zum 3: t male fopen!”; Ibid.,
iv.148. This explanation is however rejected by Joseph Eibl in MBA, viii.94.
128 This possibility was first suggested in Karl Pfannhauser, ‘Mozarts Krönungsmesse’, Mitteilungen der
Internationalen Stiftung Mozarteum 11/3-4 (1963): 3-11, at 4. See also Monika Holl, NMA KB I:1/1/iv, ix.
129 MBA, iv.152-53.
130 MVC, 1091.
295