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

to repeat her statement about the church. 58 The “clerical brutes” at St. Peter included the
Pfarrer, Dr. Anton Ruschitzka and the Patres Andreas Folth, Bernard Angstenberger, Johann
Baptist Eigner, Georg Adam Hazel and Joseph Petz. 59 Sophie’s account seems to suggest that
a priest eventually did come after much persuasion, but this is contradicted by a note added
by Nissen to his copy of this letter, presumably on the recollection of Constanze: “(aber
nicht kam)”. Elsewhere, Nissen wrote one statement that supports this idea – “Die
Geistlichen weigerten sich zu kommen, da der Kranke sie nicht selbst rufen ließ” and one
that may partially contradict it: “Ward er [Mozart] nicht versehen, so bekam er doch die
letzte Ölung.” 60
Maynard Solomon attempts to use Nissen’s annotations in support of an
“anticlerical” Mozart, whose “faith was so profound that it had no room for pomp,
hypocrisy, and especially for the mediation of clerics between individuals and their God.” 61
There is no indication, however, that Mozart refused clerical assistance, merely that the
request for it originated with Constanze. Furthermore, Solomon buries Nissen’s second
statement – that Mozart did receive anointing from a priest – in an endnote, and
mistranslates it as “If he hadn’t been neglected, he would have received the last rites.” 62
58 Walther Brauneis, “Exequien für Mozart: Archivfund Uber das Seelenamt Fur W.A. Mozart Am 10.
Dezember 1791 in der Wiener Michaelerkirche,” Singende Kirche 38, no. 1 (1991): 11. This correction is not
mentioned in the commentary to MBA.
59 Christine Schneider, Der Niedere Klerus im Josephinischen Wien: Zwischen Staatlicher Funktion und
Seelsorgerischer Aufgabe, vol. 33, Forschungen und Beiträge zur Wiener Stadtgeschichte (Vienna: F. Deuticke,
1999), 139-40. See also Anon., Verzeichniß der Domstifter und Pfarrer im Erzherzogthume Oesterreich 1791
(Vienna: Joseph Edlen von Kurzbeck, 1791).
60 Rudolf Lewicki, “Aus Nissens Kollektaneen,” Mozarteums Mitteilungen 2 (1919): 28.
61 Maynard Solomon, Mozart: A Life (London: Hutchinson, 1995), 497.
62 Ibid., 589n76. Solomon did not provide the original German, and was evidently unaware of the meaning of
versehen in this context. The actual meaning here is “He did not receive the last rites, but did receive
anointing.” The probable implication is that Mozart received the Krankensalbung or anointing of the sick,
which as the Sacrament of Extreme Unction also forms the first part of the “last rites” together with the
Penance and Viaticum. The Krankensalbung was for those who were dangerously ill, the complete rites for those
who were close to death.
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