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

detailed account of payments and a partial list of names from July 1787, prepared as the
musicians applied to the Niederösterreichische Regierung for a pay rise. 147 At this time, the
ensemble consisted of the regens chori, organist, organ-blower, two each of trebles, altos,
tenors and basses, two trombonists, four violinists and one violonist. By Viennese standards,
this was a group of medium size, although the annual music expenditure in 1786-7 of 1917fl
55xr was only one quarter of the outlay at St. Stephen’s. In a proposed budget of July or
August 1787, Johann Michael Spangler listed his son Johann Georg as first tenor, Ignaz
Spangler as second tenor, the Hofkapelle’s music librarian Jacob Wraveci as first bass and
Anton Schaarschmid as second bass. 148 From the “graffiti” in the parts we have studied
above, we may posit “Schönbichler”, “Knoll” and “Griesler” as potential altos. The organist
was Franz Xaver Flamm (1739-1811), who was married to Spangler’s daughter Maria
Margaretha. After Margaretha’s death in 1788, Flamm married Barbara von Stögern, and
Mozart encountered them both at a performance of Die Zauberflöte in October 1791: “ich
gieng also in eine andere Loge, worinn sich flamm mit seiner frau befand; da hatte ich alles
Vergnügen, und da blieb ich auch bis zu Ende.” 149 By this stage, however, Flamm was no
longer the organist at St. Michael’s, having been replaced by Joseph Preindl from at least
November 1787. 150 The contrabass virtuoso and copyist Friedrich Pischelberger, for whom
Mozart wrote the obbligato in Per questa bella mano K. 612 was a member of the St.
Michael’s orchestra in 1783 and was conceivably still there in 1791. 151
147 Vienna, St. Michael, Kollegarchiv (hereafter MiKA), XVI.191.1.
148 Schaarschmid worked at this time as a prompter at the Burgtheater, and was thus conceivably involved in the
production of Le Nozze di Figaro. He was later a member of the Hofkapelle; Link, The National Court Theatre,
405ff, Constanze Wimmer, “Die Hofmusikkapelle in Wien unter der Leitung von Antonio Salieri (1788-
1824),” Studien zur Musikwissenschaft 47 (1999): 188. Spangler’s proposal mentions “4 Singerknaben.”
149 MBA, iv.160.
150 Schütz, Musikpflege, 152.
151 See Stephen Fisher, “Haydn's Overtures and Their Adaptations as Concert Orchestral Works” (PhD diss.,
University of Pennsylvania, 1985), 459-64.
388