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

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The dispatch for 5 May 1783 is an enormous document of some 80 pages, in which<br />

Garampi included an account of the Culto pubblico nelle chiese:<br />

Non potevasi scegliere giornata meno a proposito per introdurre la nuova forma di Culto, nè<br />

eravi contrattempo, in cui più si azzardasse di mettere a cimento la docilità del Popolo, quanto la<br />

Pasqua. Sentissi pertanto un malcontento e disapprovazione universale nelle Chiese, e fuori;<br />

giacchè perdè in detto giorno la Messa per non poter attendere l'ora prescritta, chi rammaricavasi<br />

di vedersi sottrarre le solite devozioni, e chi trovavasi imbarazzato coi nuovi Canti, che doveano<br />

introdursi.<br />

I Musici, Cantori, e Suonatori, che sono qui in grandissimo numero, afflitti nel dover perdere la<br />

frequenza dell'esercizio della loro professione; i poveri Preti rimasti nell'ultima indigenza,<br />

mancanti, non solo delle consuete Limosine di Messe, ma anche di Altare, e Chiesa, per poterla<br />

celebrare almeno per divozione. Pareva in certo modo a ciascuno, che il Governo cercasse tutte le<br />

vie per introdurre una nuova [deleted: divozione] Religione; e non mancarono imprudenti, i quali<br />

borbottassero, che dopo di aver perduta libertà e danari, si venisse ora a voler toglier loro anche la<br />

Religione, e dio. Perfino certi venditori delle nuove Canzoni, che stavano alla Porta delle Chiese,<br />

annunciandole al Popolo, che passava, innavvertentemente le chiamavano Canzoni della nuova<br />

Religione. 81<br />

Evidently, the new service order was poorly received in a wide range of professions related to<br />

Viennese religious life, and Garampi’s vivid account of the difficulties faced by the new<br />

scheme may have been read in Rome with some satisfaction. Rather less satisfied,<br />

undoubtedly, were Vienna’s church musicians, who now faced substantial financial<br />

difficulties after the Gottesdienstordnung made many of their services redundant.<br />

How much interest did Mozart take in all these proceedings? Due to his former<br />

directorial and compositional responsibilities at Salzburg Cathedral, Mozart was well<br />

acquainted with the demands of running a sacred musical institution. The extent to which<br />

he took an interest in the plight of his professional colleagues during the upheavals of <strong>1781</strong>-3<br />

is an open question, since there is only one ambiguous reference to the Emperor’s specifically<br />

musical reforms in any of the composer’s surviving writings. If Mozart did attend church on<br />

a regular basis, however, it is reasonable to assume that he encountered concerted sacred<br />

81 ASV, Arch. Nunz. Vienna 182, f. 160. I am once again indebted to Bruce Brown for his assistance in the<br />

transcription of this document. The book that the vendors were selling was presumably the new Normalgesang.<br />

See also dell’Orto, La Nunziatura, 473-81.<br />

37

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