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

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things, there is a pencil note, “Schönbichler / Knoll / Griesler / 1 ter Altist [added: und ....] beÿ<br />

St: Michael. / 1787.” One wonders about the possible connection between this work and a<br />

report of the St. Blasius day celebrations at the Michaelerkirche on 3 February 1787:<br />

Durch eine k. k. Verordnung ist der feierliche Gottesdienst an Werktagen verbothen; allein in<br />

dieser Kirche wurde am Blasiustage vormittag das Choralamt auf eine ausserordentliche Weise<br />

mit Assistenz der Leviten und nachmittag eine sogenannte figurirte Vesper gehalten!!! 142<br />

Another of Spangler’s works from the Josephinian period is the Christmas gradual Dies<br />

sanctificatus illuxit nobis, surviving in an autograph dated 1789. 143 This piece includes many<br />

of the “pastoral” elements associated with Christmas music, including pedal points, frequent<br />

passages in thirds or unison, and a lilting time signature. Finally, the Gesellschaft der<br />

Musikfreunde possesses a copyist’s score of a motet by Spangler, Salve numinis amator,<br />

probably copied in the late 1780s or early 1790s. While this manuscript can tell us little<br />

about when the motet was actually written, it does provide useful evidence of the<br />

dissemination of Spangler’s music. 144 Schönfeld provided an account of Spangler in 1796<br />

testifying to his compositional and vocal abilities:<br />

Spangler, Regenschori bei den Michaelern, hat einen überaus angenehmen Styl und Satz in seiner<br />

Kirchenmusik, und weis den Gesang auf das beste zu führen. Als Sänger ist sein Tenor süß,<br />

molligt und biegsam, so, daß er durch seine sanften Töne und herrlichen Modulazionen die<br />

angenehmsten Empfindungen erweckt. 145<br />

Although a detailed list of the St. Michael’s musicians was recorded in the 1783 census, 146 we<br />

do not have evidence at present of the ensemble’s makeup in 17<strong>91</strong>. We do, however, have a<br />

142 KB, ii.221. See also WW, ix.259, 371-72, 435, WK, 1786:354.<br />

143 A-Wgm, I 8252. A set of parts for this work, dated “c1790” by RISM, are in A-Wlic, 202. See also Otto<br />

Biba’s comments in Karl Albrecht-Weinberger, ed., Sankt Michael: Stadtpfarrkirche und Künstlerpfarre von Wien<br />

1288-1988 (Vienna: Eigenverlag, 1988), 305.<br />

144 A-Wgm, III 1459/Q 20857. One watermark is Tyson 102, the other is three moons over REAL | PS (double<br />

line) under a canopy. Further autographs by Spangler include two motets in honour of St. Aloysius: Adeste,<br />

cantate, dated 1779 (D-B, Mus. Ms. Mus. Ms. Autogr. G. Spangler 1) and Expectate rosas, dated 1780 (A-Wn,<br />

Mus. Hs. 16484, with at least one bifolio missing after the first gathering.)<br />

145 Schönfeld, Jahrbuch der Tonkunst, 58.<br />

146 Biba1783, 27-32; Schütz, Musikpflege, 43.<br />

387

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