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

otherhood, the St. Cecilia Bruderschaft, was initially founded at St. Michael’s in 1725 but
soon moved to St. Stephen’s Cathedral due to the brotherhood’s size and importance. 130
The association of the St. Cecilia Bruderschaft with St. Michael’s has generated some
confusion in the literature concerning the memorial service for Mozart. Brauneis, discussing
the location of the service, seems to suggest a connection between Mozart, a court musician
since 1787, and the St. Cecilia Bruderschaft, which was composed primarily but not
exclusively from court musicians. At first sight, this is an attractive idea: the Brotherhood’s
statutes do indeed prescribe a “gesungenes Seelen-Amt” for deceased members. 131 Christoph
Wolff, in his book on Mozart’s Requiem, even asserts that Mozart was actually a member of
the brotherhood by virtue of his status as a court musician. 132 Mozart and his father belonged
to the Kreuzbruderschaft in Salzburg, and both Wolfgang and Nannerl were inducted into
the Skapulierbruderschaft when they were still infants. 133
There are, however, two fundamental problems with the “St. Cecilia” theory. Firstly,
the brotherhood was based at the Cathedral, not St. Michael’s, for almost all of its existence,
and was consistently referred to in those terms. 134 In Mozart’s time, only the most elderly
musicians would have remembered the brotherhood’s connection with St. Michael’s.
Secondly, the brotherhood was shut down in 1783 along with the rest of Vienna’s
Brüderschaften, and in 1784, the Tonkünstlersocietat successfully petitioned the Emperor to
130 Rohling, “Bruderschaften”, 182.
131 Anon., Articulen und Puncten oder So Genannte Statuta der Musicalischen Congregation Welche...Allhier in
Wien Aufgerichtet Worden (Vienna: Ghelen, 1725), 4-8.
132 Wolff, Mozart's Requiem, 4.
133 Eisen, Neue Dokumente, 29; Peter Keller and Armin Kircher, eds., Zwischen Himmel und Erde: Mozarts
Geistliche Musik (Salzburg: Dommuseum, 2006), 132.
134 See, for example, Joseph Ogesser, Beschreibung der Metropolitankirche zu St. Stephan in Wien (Vienna:
Ghelen, 1779), 293. The documents dealing with the brotherhood’s closure refer to it as the “Music
Congregation der H. J. M. Caecilia bey St. Stephan zu Wienn” (see below). See also Rohling,
“Bruderschaften”, 180-82.
382