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

attempt at “alla Romana” style that never went beyond the Hofkapelle and allowed
instruments in any case. One must also speculate on the role of the reform-inclined
Archbishop Trautson, who instigated the first official enactment of the ban outside the
Hofkapelle, and to whom Count Khevenhüller attributed the edict without any mention of
Maria Theresia’s own Hofreskript and Generale on the subject. The fact that Cardinal
Migazzi went to such lengths in convincing Joseph to allow trumpets and timpani in the
1767 celebrations suggests that the ban still maintained its force in some quarters, but the
precise extent of its influence remains unknown, as does Maria Theresia’s ultimate intention
for “dise bruyante Musique.”
In his apparent overruling of his mother’s wishes, at least in their codified form,
Joseph was playing his own role in the peculiar administrative regime in effect throughout
the 1760s and 1770s, which acted as a constant check on the Emperor’s wider ambitions.
Yet even as sole ruler, from late 1780, Joseph seems never to have ordered a full retraction of
the trumpet and timpani ban, or the removal of its disregarded requirement for Imperial
supervision. He may have concluded that more fundamental structural changes were
required for the successful implementation of his reform agenda in religious music, in order
that Imperial edicts be observed consistently.
II. THE NEW GOTTESDIENSTORDNUNG
Upon his accession to sole rule, the Emperor immediately instigated a series of edicts
designed to weaken the distinction between ecclesiastical and imperial authority and further
advance the cause of Staatskirchentum, the developing idea of a “national church” primarily
subject to the will of the secular ruler. Embarking on this project in early 1781, the Emperor
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