Yes, and Dittersdorf, Jesuit educated colleague of Mozart, should have known. He was awarded papally approved membership of the Order of the Golden Spur in 1770, as was Abbe Georg Vogler and Mozart himself. In that same year.
Dittersdorf was closely associated with Count Giacommo Durazzo, the Venetian nobleman who hired Andrea Luchesi to be Kapellmeister at Bonn, a position wanted by Mozart himself. Dittersdorf was also closely associated with Esterhazy (cousin of Durazzo) by marriage and patron of Josef Haydn. (Whose own story has hardly been told).
The European aristocracy and the fraternities of those times could literally invent a musical genius. And they did so. Often. In Mozart's case with the input of dozens of composers, publishers, music editors, fiction writers and a cast of hundreds. As for the musicians involved and their own music, both are largely ignored today.
J.B. Vanhal (1739-1813)
Symphony in G Minor
Minuetto/Finale
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fio9...eature=related

