Diego Minoia - The Mozarts, Who They Were (Volume 1)

As the centuries passed, the city lived through many disputes for power, but transformed into something that gave it a medieval appearance. Dark and gray were the castle and the dominating hilltops and the underlying city areas revealed distressed and dark streets.

The architectural and cultural turning point of the city came about with the Prince-Bishop Wolf-Dietrich von Raitenau (1559-1617)who was the nephew of Giovanni Angelo de' Medici, Pope Pius IV. It was Raitenau, using harsh measures in Counter-Reformation and who had cultural ties to Italy due to his formation as a youth in Rome, who planned the Baroque transformation in Italian style in Salzburg which continued to be carried out by his successors. The ambition of turning Salzburg into a "little Rome" can be seen in St. Cajetan Church - San Gaetano's Church - commissioned by the Italian architect, Gaspare Zugalli, which evokes St. Peter's Basilica to be followed by the creation of the Holy Stairs that evoked Rome's Scala Sancta at St. John in Laterano. Von Raitenau renovated the Residenz, the city's palace, where he could live in comfort rather than the cold rooms of the castle and administer the construction of the new Duomoby the architect, Vincenzo Scamozzifrom Vicenza (the same architect who designed the Teatro di Sabbioneta - Theater in the style of the ancients , the first theater built in masonry in the Modern Age). He had most of the city's residential area demolished and rebuilt, inspired by Italian form and style, with large squares and pastel-colored houses which, without denying local tradition, evoked a southern appearance and character.

The cultural tie with Italy was also demonstrated by the fact that in 1614, in Salzburg, the first opera outside the Italian borders was performed: Orpheus , very likely Monteverdi's, who had created it in 1607 for the Mantuan Court of the Gonzagas and had published the musical score in 1609.

The personality of von Raitenau though, even with his undeniable merits, wasn't lacking in his opposing sides with his passion for art: from his predisposition for combat (he had a long dispute for control over the rock salt mines on the territory, which was the true source of its wealth) to an indulgence toward frivolous tendencies which were irrelevant to an ecclesiastic environment (he kept a mistress, Salome Alt, who repaid him with fifteen children for whom he built the Mirabell Palacewith its splendid gardens).

Various other princes succeeded von Raitenau, bishops who completed the transformation of the little jewel of a city that it is today and that we can still admire, up till Sigismund III Christoph von Schrattenbach (1698-1771). Of noble lineage and of a cultured Roman education, he was a lover of the arts and had the services of Leopold Mozart and Johann Michael Haydn (brother of the more well-known Franz Joseph Haydn) who was the Kapellmeister in Salzburg and had a musical impact on the early compositional works of Wolfgang Mozart.

Schrattenbach was succeeded by Hieronymus Joseph Franz de Paula Colloredo von Wallseey und Mels (1732-1812)who reigned the princedom from 1772 to 1803 when the dominion was secularized and entrusted first to Ferdinand of Habsburg and then directly administered by Vienna, capital of the Habsburg Empire. Colloredo was an authoritarian, though a paternalistic follower of the Age of Enlightenment, and was a cultured patron of the arts, as well as an amateur violinist. The diffusion of certain Enlightenment ideals of the European princes was proven by the fact that Colloredo kept portraits of Rousseau and Voltaire in his studio. He had very clear ideas and well-delineated tastes, even if not avant-gardist for that epoch regarding the music that he preferred in civil and religious situations of the princedom. At a certain point, in order to reduce the expenses, he eliminated the theatrical activity that inspired Wolfgang as a composer. Colloredo's relative musical competence may explain his low appreciation of Leopold Mozart as a musician, possibly irritated by the insistent pressure of Leopold who aspired to a promotion from Vice-Kapellmeister to a higher position. This never came to be, in any case, despite his stories of triumphant success that Leopold had certainly spread around the city in memory of the Grand European Tour of a few years previous. The young Amadeus, unruly and quarrelsome by nature, combined with a rebelliousness difficult to contain (who in the meantime had been hired as a musician at the Archiepiscopal Court, and then as an organist) did not make himself welcome and "earned" a dismissal, with the additionally famous kick in the seat of his pants by Count Karl Joseph Felix Arco, Chamberlain to the Archbishop. We will talk more about these episodes and many more anecdotes as we move through our Mozartian account through the rich epistolary available to us.

So during Mozart's era, what was life like on a social level in Salzburg? The little princely town, like all the other capitals of the many independent states and confederates of the Empire, had at its center the Prince and his Court which formed a crown, like the rings of water that form when a stone is thrown in the middle of a pond; social circles that represented cultural and economic levels that went from the most superior as the ripples moved away from the center. The first and most central circle was made up of the highest local aristocracy, honored with titles and positions regarding the management of the princedom (spiritual, with the Canons of the Duomo, as well as temporal, which included positions in the various offices) and the public and private activities of the Archbishop (Grand Chamberlain, Council members, Ministers, etc.). In the outer circle which operated on precise directions of the decisional "magic circle", a multitude of functionaries who managed their own small power over subordinates and therefore, had a certain social prestige linked to their role: the functionaries of the palace, the military hierarchy, the musicians with senior positions ( Kapellmeisters , concert masters, composers for the Court).

Even farther away from the powerful, but important to the Palace's economy (at least in part) were the middle and lower classes (artisans, merchants and various professionals) who created business and offered services to those who had money. And then there was the common class who worked as servants, hard laborers and those who lived hand to mouth; these people didn't have any rights or prospects for the future and considered themselves lucky if they were able to manage to survive. Often, in fact, they were directed to the princely offices to plea for any task, willing to go upon request for any job or to beg for unemployment aid or support or for tax exempt status (something that Leopold Mozart did at one time regarding imported wine) or requesting permission to marry. Almost every aspect of the life of the common citizens was ruled and dominated by the will - and at times, the whims - of the powerful. While it was true that many of the requests for assistance were granted (twenty percent of the population of Salzburg received something), it was usually less than what was requested. This permitted the Prince to maintain a certain social equilibrium, allowing the population to believe that the commoners had no rights and that the princedom was being generous.

Interesting facts on Salzburg

Here are a few interesting facts related to daily life in Salzburg, some of which were recounted in Nannerl's diary, which help us better understand that faraway epoch and the quotidian of the Mozart family.

Flagellated in the Town Hall : when girls were "discovered" morally misbehaving regarding their sexual conduct, they were publicly whipped in the Town Hall and sent to a "correctional home". On 11 August 1775, this happened to seven maids.