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

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

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One obvious place to start is with the Emperor himself. Any attempt by Joseph to<br />

reduce the prestige of sacred music conflicted with an aspect of Mozart’s own profession, and<br />

Mozart repeatedly complained about the Emperor’s stinginess. 107 There are several<br />

documented meetings of the two, among the most interesting of which for our purposes is<br />

the famous duel between Mozart and Clementi. At this occasion, Joseph’s use of the term La<br />

santa chiesa Catholica to address Clementi, with his Roman origins, might be taken as an<br />

ironic comment on the Emperor’s current difficulties with the Holy See in carrying out his<br />

reform program. 108 For his part, Mozart does not mention any conversation with Joseph on<br />

the subject of church music, and may have felt disinclined to discuss such a controversial<br />

subject to avoid offending such an important prospective employer. Yet the potential conflict<br />

between Mozart’s support for Joseph’s social policies and distrust of the Emperor’s musical<br />

restrictions creates a most interesting dynamic for the religious works of the 1780s and 90s,<br />

and we shall be returning to this issue at several points in the following chapters.<br />

A number of other Mozart patrons held influential positions in the reform of the<br />

church under Joseph II. The long-serving Staatskanzler, Prince Kaunitz, heard Mozart play at<br />

Laxenburg in July 1782, and if Mozart is to be believed, became most annoyed at the<br />

Emperor’s failure to keep local talent. 109 As we have seen, Kaunitz was responsible for the<br />

extended justification of Joseph’s reforms produced in response to the criticisms of the Papal<br />

Nuncio. The deputy Staatskanzler, Graf Cobenzl, was also associated with Mozart, and<br />

invited the composer several times to his estate in the Vienna Woods during <strong>1781</strong>. 110 When<br />

the Pope began organising for his trip to Vienna, it was Cobenzl who informed Mozart of<br />

some of the gossip surrounding the visit:<br />

107 Ibid., iii.201, iii.238.<br />

108 Ibid., iii.193.<br />

109 MBA, iii.221. Mozart had earlier formed an acquaintance with Kaunitz’ private secretary; MBA, iii.135.<br />

110 See the commentary in MBA, vi.75.<br />

49

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