After the tragedy in Paris, I returned to Salzburg and resumed my role as Konzertmeister. The position paid a useful 450 Gulden[i] a year, a respectable sum – particularly considering that my employer, Archbishop Colloredo, was already growing increasingly irritated by my frequent absences.
Despite this, I respected Colloredo. As a violinist himself, he understood music and genuinely wished to improve the standards of musicianship in Salzburg. We disagreed often, but not, I think, about the importance of the work.
Father welcomed me home with a mixture of relief and reproach. I was exhausted and found myself unable to compose anything beyond what was strictly required. My days were filled with writing church music: masses, motets, and works designed to serve their purpose efficiently and reverently. When words failed me, I found comfort at the organ in the cathedral, letting sound speak where thought could not.
Gradually, music returned.
If Paris had broken something in me, then Salzburg – I have to admit reluctantly – began to mend it. The city did not demand explanation. It simply expected work, and in that expectation, I found a kind of stability.
That spring, I devoted my remaining energy to composing a new Mass in C major, later known as the Coronation Mass[ii]. It was not written in grief, but in light – a prayer shaped by someone who had known loss and still believed in renewal. For me, it became the sound of healing and perhaps even forgiveness. When the choir first sang the Gloria[iii], I was so moved that I nearly wept. In that moment, I understood that music was never solely about invention, reputation, or reward. It was about meaning, humility, and gratitude.
[i] It’s difficult to compare income at the time with today. 1 Gulden was equivalent to about 60 Dollars, but it’s better to say that a master carpenter earned about as much as Mozart earned for the position of a concert master.
[ii] The Coronation Mass (Mass No. 15 in C major, K. 317; sometimes Mass No. 16), is one of the most popular of Mozart’s 17 extant settings of the Ordinary of the Mass. The mass appears to have acquired the nickname Krönungsmesse at the Imperial court in Vienna in the early nineteenth century, after becoming the preferred music for royal and imperial coronations as well as services of thanksgiving.
[iii] The Gloria in the Coronation Mass was a joyful and fast-paced movement. It begins with the traditional, energetic text “Gloria in excelsis Deo” and features a blend of chorus and soloists.