Leopold Mozart

Sinfonia Pastorella

A pastorella (the Latin pastores means shepherds) had evolved during the eighteenth century as a work to be incorporated into midnight Mass that dramatised the role of the sheperds in the Nativity story, recounting their wonder at receiving the news of the holy birth in their fields from the angel and their arrival at the stable with gifts for the baby Jesus. It was a popular genre for 150 years in the eastern parts of the Austro-Hungarian empire. The horn-call motifs of the village herdsman, used to round up his cattle in the mornings, were frequently part of the composition: so indeed was the instrument itself, in order to enhance the realism of the scene.