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

Lent, the number of parishes in Vienna proper would increase from four to nine, with
similar expansion outside the city walls. All high masses were banned, with the exception of
those on Sundays and holy days, and low mass limited to a length of half an hour. Those
monasteries and convents that had survived the closures could no longer hold sermons, high
mass or post-midday devotional services, and Vienna’s 121 Brüderschaften were merged into
a single body whose funds were to be directed to the poor. 69 All processions, except for
Corpus Christi and those in Holy Week, were banned.
Not surprisingly, Cardinal Migazzi objected strenuously to these restrictions, but he
achieved far less success in changing current Imperial policy than he had with the petition of
1767. After a fruitless meeting with Joseph on 16 December, and an unsuccessful conference
with the Lower Austrian Landesregierung, Migazzi produced another petition to the Emperor
on 21 January 1783, requesting the relaxation of several regulations. 70 Among these requests
was an appeal for the continuation of instrumentally-accompanied psalms at Vespers, which
were evidently slated for removal:
Eure Majestät geruhen allergnädigst zu erlauben, daß ich unterthänigst bitte, daß die Vesper,
welche an größeren Festtagen von dem Erzbischofe gehalten wird, mit der bisherigen
Feierlichkeit noch ferners abgehalten werden dürfe…
In response to this letter, Joseph wrote a number of annotations directly onto Migazzi’s
manuscript; see Figure 1.4. Facing the above passage, the Emperor wrote:
Wenn die Täge werden benennet werden und es die vorgeschriebene Andachten nicht behindert,
so kann auch der Erzbischof die von ihm abzuhaltende Vespern mit aller Instrumental-Musik
nach Gutbefinden, besonders wenn er dazu die Unkösten für die Musik aus eigenem bestreitet,
halten. 71
69 On Viennese Brüderschaften and their musical life, see Geraldine M. Rohling, Exequial and Votive Practices of
the Viennese Brüderschaften: A Study of Music and Liturgical Piety (PhD diss., Catholic University of America,
1996); the figure of 121 is from Chadwick, The Popes and European Revolution, 417.
70 The Landesregierung had declared that “Der musikalische Pomp kostet viel und nutze der Andacht nicht nur
allein nichts, er schadet sogar”; AVA, 37 Gen A 1783 115/1/1783; RGZJ, 134.
71 A-Wda, Liturgie 2, Gottesdienstordnung 1783. Reinhard Pauly somewhat obscures the meaning of this
passage by omitting the first phrase in his translation, thus making it appear that Joseph’s permission was
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