HE years of Mozart's development at Salzburg were fruitful not only of operatic compositions, but of others which arose from the circumstances of his residence there. First among these stands church music.
Church music had long been fostered at Salzburg, and was especially encouraged by Archbishop Sigismund; his severe and world-contemning piety caused him to keep the service of the church continually before the eyes both of singers and composers. The prospect of a moderate pension induced many clever artists to settle in Salzburg, in spite of the poor payment they received for their services. Sigismund's successor,
Hieronymus, extended his parsimony even to the members of the Kapelle, whom he estranged by his overbearing manners; on the whole, music rather declined than advanced under his rule,[ 3 ] although he cared more than Sigismund for the splendour of his court.[ 4 ]
CHAPTER XIII. CHURCH MUSIC.
FIFTEEN choristers were maintained at the cost of the Archbishop in the Kapellhaus, and educated by special instructors. They afterwards entered the choir as singers or passed into the service of the court; if they showed extraordinary talent, they were sent to finish their training in Italy, and then took their place as solo singers.[ 3 ] Archbishop Sigismund allowed the male sopranos to die out, and did not replace them with others; on the other hand he sent the daughter of the cathedral organist, Maria Magd. Lipp, to be educated as a singer in Italy, and on her return in 1762 he appointed her court singer; she soon afterwards married Michael Haydn, lately arrived at Salzburg. In 1778 Hieronymus again took a male soprano into his service, Ant. Ceccarelli,CHURCH MUSIC. a singer of moderate powers and bad moral character.
The orchestra belonging to the choir was an ample one for the time, and was strengthened by a trumpet band for the support of the voices in the church. There were further two bands of six trumpets and drums, which did not properly belong to the court, but to the chamberlain's office, and which ranked between the equerries and the lackeys.[ 4 ] But no one was taken into this service who could not also, at need, strengthen the stringed instruments.
In 1762, when Lolli was kapellmeister, and Leopold Mozart vice-kapellmeister, Joh.Michael Haydn[ 5 ] (1737-1806), the younger brother of Joseph, was appointed concertmeister and director of the orchestra, on the recommendation of a MICHAEL HAYDN. nephew of Archbishop Sigismund, at Grosswardein, where Haydn had been kapellmeister since 1757. The personal intercourse between the families of Haydn and Mozart was not over friendly. Haydn was fond of sitting over a glass of beer or wine, which was all the more reprehensible in the sight of the temperate and conscientious Mozart, since it caused frequent neglect of duty.
"Who do you think," he writes to Wolfgang (December 29,1777), "is appointed organist at the Holy Trinity? Herr Haydn! Every one laughs. He is an expensive organist; after every litany he drinks a quartern of wine, and he sends Lipp to the extra services, who drinks too." (June 29, 1778): "This afternoon Haydn played the organ for the litany and the Te Deum (at which the Archbishop was present), but so badly that we were all horrified.... Haydn will drink himself to death soon; or at least, being lazy enough already, he will become still lazier the older he gets."[ 6 ]