MOZART AND THE PRACTICE OF SACRED MUSIC, 1781-91 a ...

A number of commentators have speculated that the mass was begun in connection
with upcoming state occasions: the visit of Pope Pius VI to Vienna, for example, or the
1200 th anniversary of the Archdiocese of Salzburg. 105 As the papal visit took place in March
and April of 1782, Mozart would have had to begin work on K. 427 considerably earlier
than is generally assumed, and the composer’s apparent lack of interest in Pius’ arrival speaks
against this theory. The anniversary celebrations in Salzburg took place in September 1782,
which is again rather early. A year later, however, it was Salzburg that saw the partial
premiere of K. 427, and the question naturally arises whether the mass was intended for that
city from the beginning. Mozart’s sacred music continued to be performed in Salzburg after
his departure in 1780 – on 13 April 1783, for example, the Litany K. 125 was heard at the
Cathedral – and Leopold no doubt continued to promote his son’s works in this genre. 106
Whether or not Mozart maintained a specific Salzburg ensemble in mind when working on
the mass, the fact remains that the lavish scoring of K. 427 is not matched by Mozart’s
previous music for the Cathedral or St. Peter’s. 107 The orchestration is closest to that of the
Dominicus Mass, but K. 66 like Mozart’s other works for the Abbey appears to lack
trombone parts. Although the florid first soprano part is anticipated in many respects by the
Regina coeli K. 127, the unusual disposition of the vocal concerti as SSTB and the division of
105 Schmid, “Bildintentionen,” 2, Neal Zaslaw, “Mozart's Salzburg Sacred Music and His Mass in C Minor, K.
427,” in Mozartiana. The Festschrift for the Seventieth Birthday of Professor Ebisawa Bin, ed. Yoshiko Tokumaru
(Tokyo: Tokyo Shoseki, 2001), 578.
106 MBA, iii.265; Karl Pfannhauser, “Nannerl Mozarts Tagebuchblätter: eine Forschungsstudie zur
Gleichnamigen Publikation von Walter Hummel,” Mitteilungen der Internationalen Stiftung Mozarteum 8
(1959): 15. A set of parts for K. 275 in A-Sd, A 1153 probably dates from 1780s; the watermarks include three
moons over REAL | GFA, three moons over REAL | GF under canopy and A over HF over REAL | three stars
in large crest.
107 The sole example of double-choir writing in Mozart’s oeuvre prior to the C minor Mass is found in the
offertory Venite populi K. 260. Michael Haydn’s Vespers MH 321, written in July 1782 for the 1200-year
anniversary of the diocese matches the instrumental demands of K. 427 exactly (including the flute), but the
vocal forces are the usual SATB soli and ripieni. The Missa a due chori (Missa Hispanica) MH 422 is scored for
SATB soli and SATBSATB ripieni with an orchestra matching K. 427 in all except the flute, but it was not
written for Salzburg.
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