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“The miracle which God let be born in Salzburg”
Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart was born in Salzburg, Austria, on
January 27, 1756. Just a few years later his father, Leopold Mozart, an accomplished
musician and composer himself, recognized the genius within his son and set aside his
own career in order to devote his life to nurturing his (and daughter Nannerl’s)
extraordinary musical gifts. He also provided Wolfgang’s general education and saw to
his religious upbringing. Before long and with good reason, Leopold referred to his son
as the “miracle which God let be born in Salzburg.”
Mozart’s amazing abilities as a child prodigy soon were well-documented: playing the
piano at age 3, composing at 5, performing before the Viennese royalty at 6, touring the
major cities of Europe at 7, befriended and tutored by J.C. Bach in London at 8, and the
list goes on. In the meantime Leopold arranged for concert tours across Europe and
sought out every opportunity to establish a permanent position for his son. Despite the
universal admiration for the wunderkind even well into his teens, there were no offers of
permanent employment.
So, at the age of 17, Mozart returned to Salzburg where, in service to Prince-Archbishop
Colloredo, he played in the orchestra and composed more than a dozen shorter masses.
But in sharp contrast to a life of public adulation he was little appreciated by his
employer. In 1781, while accompanying the Archbishop on a visit to Vienna, Mozart
balked at the Archbishop’s refusal to let him accept an invitation to play for the Emperor.
His resignation was so offensive to the Archbishop, Mozart was literally kicked out by
the seat of his pants! Learning of this, Leopold insisted his son return home and
apologize.
But with his resolve strengthened by his dismissal, Mozart was now free to remain in
Vienna to seek his fortune as a performer, teacher and composer. Faced with making
decisions for the first time on his own, the 26-year old took up lodging with Frau Weber
and her family. Leopold was not pleased, and mistrusted the Webers whom Mozart had
met five years earlier when they lived in Mannheim. He had even fallen in love with
their daughter Aloysia although she later rejected him in favor of an actor/painter.
At this time Vienna was the musical capital of the world, attracting musicians from all
around Europe. To be sure, Mozart was well accepted there. His exceptional talents soon
led to a friendship with Baron Gottfried van Swieten, director of the Imperial Court
Library. An avid patron of many of Vienna’s musicians, van Swieten also maintained an
interest in old music. With access to his patron’s personal library, Mozart became
acquainted with the oratorios of Handel and the instrumental works of J.S. Bach. He
soon was attracted to Bach’s fugues, and this encounter with Baroque counterpoint had an
influence on his own writing, as evidenced in portions of the work we hear today.
While Mozart’s extraordinary gifts as a composer and performer are well known, his
religious convictions as a Roman Catholic also played a significant and continuing role in
his life. In a letter to his father he wrote: “God is ever before my eyes. I realize His
omnipotence and I fear His anger, but I also recognize His love, His compassion and His
tenderness toward His creatures. He will never forsake His own.”
During 1781 he took an interest in the Weber’s third daughter, Constanze, a 20-year old
singer. And before long Frau Weber began to pressure Mozart to marry Constanze.
Leopold, as to be expected, was against the marriage, wanting his son to establish his
career before taking on more responsibility. Despite his father’s objections Mozart and
Constanze were married on August 4, 1782. A few weeks later he informed his father in
a letter: “For a considerable time before we were married we had always attended mass
and gone to confession and taken communion together; and I found that I never prayed so
fervently or confessed and took communion so devoutly as by her side; and she felt the
same. In short, we are made for each other; and God who orders all things and
consequently has ordained this also, will not forsake us.”
The Mass in C minor was begun in Vienna that summer and Mozart intended to perform
it when the couple would visit his father. His pledge to journey to Salzburg is found in a
letter to his father on January 4, 1783: “I made the promise in my heart of hearts, and I
hope to be able to keep it…. The score of half a mass, which is still lying here waiting to
be finished, is the best proof that I really made the promise.”
The visit to Salzburg did not occur until the summer of 1783, at which time the mass was
still unfinished. It was performed not in the Archbishop’s cathedral, but in the smaller
Peterskirche on August 25, with Constanze as one of the soprano soloists. Whether
Mozart borrowed from his earlier masses or used music by other composers, there are no
accounts of how the missing sections were provided to complete the liturgical
requirements. Missing from the score are the final portions of the Credo and the
complete Agnus Dei. While the Mass includes beautiful arias for the two sopranos, the
tenor soloist appears only in a trio and quartet, and the bass is heard only in the quartet.
To think of what Mozart what may have had in store for them!
The question remains: Why didn’t Mozart, who was known for the speed by which he
composed, never come back to this great Mass to complete it? The answer is simply that
Mozart made his living from composing symphonies, concertos, operas and smaller
works. There was no market for his sacred music in Vienna.
In 1901 Alois Schmitt attempted to complete the mass by adding various movements
from Mozart’s earlier sacred works. The result was a very uneven work. Mozart scholar
H.C. Robbins Landon has remarked, “there is hardly anything in Mozart’s earlier, and
often conventional or even superficial, church music which compare in emotional scope
and musical maturity to the present work.”
Today’s performance of the Mass in C minor is as Mozart left it, unfinished but still of
immense proportions. “The work,” wrote Alfred Einstein, “is Mozart’s entirely personal
coming to terms with God and with his art, with what he conceived to be ‘true church
music.’ It has rightly been said that this torso is the only work that stands between the B
minor Mass of Bach and the D Major Mass [Missa Solemnis] of Beethoven.”
Mozart, writes annotator Nick Jones, “conceived the Mass as an expression of piety and
thanksgiving for his impending marriage to Constanze Weber.” By celebrating this union
with a great sacred work, he strove to appease his father who had opposed it. Even
though uncompleted, the Mass in C minor is a profound masterpiece, and we are the
richer for this magnificent gift created by the “miracle” from Salzburg.
A. Dennis Sparger © 2016