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

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In 1767, Vienna suffered an outbreak of smallpox, which claimed the life of Maria Theresia’s<br />

daughter Josepha and seriously threatened the health of the Empress herself. Her eventual<br />

recovery provided her son, Joseph, with his first opportunity to dictate the course of<br />

Viennese church music. In mid-June, the Archbishop of Vienna, Cardinal Christoph<br />

Migazzi (1714-1803), submitted a petition to the Emperor, signed by more than 50 of the<br />

city’s leading clergy, requesting permission to include trumpets and timpani in the various<br />

services celebrating Maria Theresia’s convalescence; see Figure 1.2. The head of the Austro-<br />

Bohemian Chancellery, Count Chotek (1707-1771) followed, with an advisory letter to the<br />

Emperor citing public demand for the change. Joseph determined that the instruments<br />

would be permitted at the celebration, and, further, that they could be used in other sacred<br />

contexts, subject to official permission; see Figure 1.3. 34<br />

Two services for the Empress followed on 14 June: one in St. Stephen’s Cathedral,<br />

featuring “various choirs, trumpets and timpani,” and another in the Hofkapelle, at which<br />

trumpet and drum fanfares were also heard. Our source for this information is Maria<br />

Theresia’s Obersthofmeister and Oberstkämmerer Count Khevenhüller (1706-76), who<br />

remarked on the presence of these instruments in his diary:<br />

Dise bruyante Musique wurde vor einigen Jahren auf Veranlassung des seeligen Cardinals<br />

Trautsohn edictaliter verbotten; allein bei gegenwärtiger so erfreulichen Epoque wurde von denen<br />

Stellen eingerathen und von dem Hof approbiret, daß bei denen Te Deum und dergleichen<br />

feierlichen Begängnussen, sonsten aber nicht, sich die Trompetten und Paucken wieder dörffen<br />

hören lassen; welche Verordnung bei dem Volck, so auf derlei Demonstrationen immer zu sehen<br />

pfleget, ein ungemaines Vergnügen erwecket hat. 35<br />

On 16 June, a more detailed proclamation came into effect:<br />

Ihre k.k. Majestät hätten allergnädigst zu bewilligen geruhet, daß die Trompeten und Pauken bei<br />

den für die von dem…erhaltene Genesung abzuhaltenden Lob= und Dankgesangen (De Deum)<br />

[sic] überhaupt gebrauchet, für das Künftige aber solche bey allen Processionen erlaubet werden,<br />

auch Die Regierung einverständig mit dem Ordinariate in den ausserordentlichen<br />

34 AVA, A-Cultus 11 Gen. 40/1767.<br />

35 Khevenhüller-Metsch, Aus Der Zeit Maria Theresias, vi.246.<br />

15

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