like that of Salzburg, we need to take into consideration the information related to an article from The Salzburg Institute of Music published at that time in a Berlin newspaper. The writer of the article was anonymous, but likely traceable to Leopold Mozart, given that his presentation is the longest and most detailed of all, not to mention that he corresponded regularly with the director of the newspaper. Approximately one hundred musicians belonging to the Archiepiscopal Musical Choir were listed, among which, about twenty bowed string instrumentalists, two keyboardists, about ten woodwind and brass instrumentalists, not to mention the instrumentalists added for special occasions and celebrations, such as approximately ten trumpeters and two percussionists.
About ten soloists composed of a full orchestra of sopranos, tenors and bass, about twenty contraltos, falsettos, tenors and bass men in the chorus and a children's choir composed of fifteen boys were added to the instrumentalists. The quantity did not always correspond with the quality of the music, if we want to give credit to Wolfgang Mozart as he wrote from Paris to his father on 9 July 1778: "One of the main reasons I can't stand Salzburg is due to the vulgar, miserable and sloppy orchestra of the Court...And this is possibly why our music is not appreciated and taken into consideration. If only things here were like in Mannheim! An orchestra with discipline!"
The English traveler Charles Burney, while not having been in Salzburg in person but informed by his own sources in 1772, reports that the Archbishop Colloredo was a capable amateur violinist and was using all his means to improve his orchestra, "he was noted, according to some, for his loud and crude playing, rather than for delicacy and perfection". The same source who had been at the Mozart home, updated Burney on the status of the two former child prodigies: "The young man, who amazed all of Europe during his childhood continues to be a great master of his instrument". Nannerl "at this point in time has reached all of her potential and does not show any further extraordinary gift". And lastly, an opinion on sixteen year-old Wolfgang's talent, which should be compared to the enthusiastic words of Leopold in order to understand that not everyone had the same impression: "If I were to evaluate the music that I heard, composed for orchestra by the young Mozart, I would consider him to be an example of precocious development, more astonishing than excellent".
If the numbers quoted seem exaggerated (and quite possibly they were, considering the level of poverty in which its subjects lived and in which their taxes were utilized by the Court for its expenses), here we have another example in Germany in 1772; Mannheim, a small capital with a population of approximately 25,000 in 1776, as was Salzburg, which was the seat of the Prince's Electoral Palatinate, as well as the most famous orchestra of its time. Charles Burney reports that there were nearly one-hundred musicians and twenty-three vocalists at the service of the Prince, among which many were Italian (Roncaglio, Persarini and Saporosi). The high regard in which the Prince held the musicians, not especially common in that epoch, was clarified by his specific generosity; on the list of the 100 musicians, not all of them were "actively engaged", some for old age, some for ill-health. So the Prince guaranteed all the musicians who were no longer able to work a good pension as long as they resided in Mannheim, but would be compensated (though with a half salary) in the case that they should relocate back to their birthplace or elsewhere. Moreover, the advantages of the courtiers of the Electoral Palatinate did not end there, as was the summer relocation to the residence at Schwetzingen, His Highness was accompanied by 1,500 people, paying all of their travel, food and accommodation expenses (while it is probably more accurate to say that the Mannheim citizens covered all costs).
Another example, even more expensive and indicative of the social perception that the lower classes had regarding "artistic expenses" of the monarchy: Ludwigsburg 1772, the new seat of the Court of the Duchy of Württemberg after its transfer from Stockholm. The Italian Niccolò Jommelli (1714-1774) serving the Duke from 1754 as a composer and Kapellmeister, directed the theatrical seasons of the Court which were considered the most extravagant and lavish. The expenses for the theatrical and musical productions, though, were so exorbitant, that they compounded upon the taxation level to the point that the citizens had to resort to the Imperial Diet (a convention formed by the Emperor and by the most influential Princedoms of the Empire) in protest of what they considered excessive squandering at the expense of the community.
The result of the protests were a reduction of 50% of the wages of the musicians and consequently an "exodus" of the best in the Court with the exception of the Charge (in 1770, even Jommelli's contract was annulled). Regardless, in 1772 the orchestra of the Duke of Württemberg which was under the direction of the Italian violinist Antonio Lolli (first violin soloist who in his previous years was so extraordinarily talented that he was able to increase his earnings from 700 florins to 2,000) could count on 18 violins, 6 violas, 3 violoncellos, 4 double basses, 4 oboes, 2 flutes, 3 horns and 2 bassoons for a total of 42 musicians, of which were added 2 organists. In addition to the musicians, we can also count the singers, almost all Italian, for the melodramma serio (2 sopranos, 2 contraltos, 2 castratos) and for the opera buffa (3 female voices and 5 male voices), 32 male and female dancers, not to mention instrument carriers, opera prompters and copyists for the preparation of the scores to be distributed among the musicians. Here we also find a list of 90 retired artists. Burney also tells us of a peculiar piece of information, that the Court of the Duke of Wūrttemberg had 15 castrated singers at his disposal, as he had two Bolognese surgeons that were "experts at the surgery that effected the timbre of the voice".
The musicians of the Salzburg Court
Knowing the musicians who gradually came later into the scene in the various roles at their service to the Salzburg Court may help us understand who the Mozart family was dealing with and possibly better comprehend why Leopold, after various initial career advancements, held his position definitively in the role of Vice-Kapellmeister. The names of these musicians can also be occasionally found in the Mozartian epistolary which is why there could be useful information about them in order to better understand situations and relations that influenced the Mozart's life. When Leopold Mozart was hired in 1743 as a violinist in the orchestra of the Prince's Archbishop of Salzburg, at the musical apex of the city sat Johann Ernst Eberlin with already 17 years of service as the Court's organist and then promoted to Kapellmeister in 1750 and Anton Cajetan Adlgasser, initially hired as a chorister, who was then was replaced by Eberlin in the role of Court organist. These two musicians, both originally from Bavaria were, therefore, directly superior and most certainly to him, besides aspiring to the post that they held being of higher importance and pay than his, lead to some profit in the connections of their compositions toward his advancement as a composer.
Johann Ernst Eberlin (Jettingen 1702 -- Salzburg 1762)
Eberlin's musical education was quite similar to that of Leopold Mozart, of which he was also friend, teacher and probably mentor in the musical Court. In fact, like Leopold, he also studied at the Lyceum of the Jesuits of Augsburg where he received his musical education, and later transferred to Salzburg to study law at the Benedictine University, and like Leopold, abandoned his studies after two years. Hired in 1727 as an organist (during the epoch of the Archbishop Firmian who governed nearly 20,000 inhabitants of the region of which practicing Protestants were forced to emigrate), in 1749, he obtained simultaneously the positions of Court Kapellmeister and Cathedral Kapellmeister, namely Chorus Conductor and was responsible for the musical development for all of the ceremonies at the Salzburg Cathedral. Eberlin was an esteemed composer, and even Leopold Mozart had a high opinion of his music which, though, given their outdated style in comparison to the musical evolution of that epoch, were soon forgotten. His keyboard musical pieces, 9 toccatas and fugues for the organ, were requested by Wolfgang in 1782, while he was residing in Vienna, discovering the fugues of Bach thanks to the evenings spent at the Baron van Swieten home. Wolfgang's intention was probably to use them to deepen his study of the fugue, or possibly as had already happened in the past, to claim them as his own (secretly requesting to have his father copy them in Salzburg) obtaining the goodwill of van Swieten who was a great appraiser of Bach's polyphonic music. In a letter to his sister Nannerl, dated 20 April, he
