VATICAN CORNER
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is widely recognized as one of the greatest composers in the history of Western music. He along with Haydn and Beethoven make up the first Viennese School of classical music. Amadeus’ talent for music was remarkable and at the age of three he was playing chords on the harpsichord. By age four he could play short pieces of music, and by five he was composing. He had a phenomenal memory for musical pitch. Leopold described his son as “the miracle which God let be born in Salzburg (Austria)”, and he felt it was his duty to God to draw the world’s attention to this miracle, and if a profit could be made while doing so, all the better. At the age of 7, Amadeus, his father, mother and sister Maria Anna went touring to all the major musical centers of Western Europe. Amadeus and sister Maria Anna played and improvised, sometimes at royal court, sometimes in public and sometimes in church. By age 13 Amadeus had become very fluent in musical styles and he composed his first Italian opera. He went on tour again with just his father this time and in the spring of 1770 they made their way to Rome and to St. Peter’s Basilica. Thanks to Amadeus’ fine clothes and Leopold’s clever strategies, the two were allowed through the Vatican gates. It was Holy Week and Pope Clement XIV was busy serving meals to the poor gathered in the Vatican. The two Austrian musicians managed to find their way into the presence of the Pope and then accompanied the court into the Sistine Chapel where Mass was celebrated. It was a custom during Holy Week to sing the exceptionally beautiful piece of music known as the “Miserere” written a century earlier by Giorgio Allegri. The work was performed by two choirs of nine voices, and is a setting of Psalm 51, and was exclusive to the Sistine Chapel, with the music being handed down from choirmaster to choirmaster without it being published. The Vatican wanted to preserve the music’s reputation for mystery and inaccessibility so it made writing the music down or performing it elsewhere an offense punishable by excommunication. As the story goes, Amadeus heard the “Miserere” during the Wednesday service, then later that day wrote down the entirely twelve minutes of choral voices from memory. He returned on the Friday service to hear the music a second time and to make minor corrections. Then sometime during the Mozart’s travels a British historian Dr. Charles Burney obtained Amadeus’ musical script of “Miserere” and published it in London. Mozart, a baptized Catholic, and his father were summoned to Rome, but instead of excommunicating the boy, the Pope showered him with praise for his feat of musical genius and the ban was lifted. Amadeus had an audience with Pope Clement several times and received medals and titles from him and he and his father like good pilgrims, acquired relics, including a piece of the Holy Cross. Also while in Rome, Amadeus learned how to play bocce ball.
Sources: Zenit.org, zenmoments.org, mozartways.com, theclassicalgirl.com, Encyclopedia Britannica