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

Fischer’s copy of K. 321. 142 As an inventory shows, the Heilig Kreuz collection was still
substantially intact as of 1855, 143 but at some point part of the collection was moved to Stift
St. Stephan in Augsburg. Adolf Buff reported in 1891:
Die Musikalien des ehemaligen heil. Kreuzklosters befinden sich gegenwärtig zum Theile in dem
St. Stephanskloster unter der Obhut des Herrn Seminardirektors P. K. Berchthold O. S. B., und
der Rest soll demnächst ebenfalls dorthin verbracht werden. Ich sah unter anderm darunter eine
Messe in C dur und eine Litanei in Es dur, welche Compositionen Mozart damals dem Prälaten
schenkte. Die Litanei zeigt die Handschrift des P. Matthäus Fischer vom hl. Kreuzkloster, der
selbst noch in jene Zeit hinaufreichte. 144
Despite Buff’s mention of an upcoming transfer, the remaining part of the collection stayed
at Heilig Kreuz, where it was examined by Theodor Kroyer at the beginning of the twentieth
century and again by Ernst Fritz Schmid in 1942. Schmid soon produced an important if
rather rambling article on Mozart’s association with Heilig Kreuz which included the first
mention of the parts for K. 427, now reduced to just the organ and trombone parts. 145
Schmid also arranged for the parts to be transferred to the Stadtarchiv in Augsburg – a
fortunate initiative, since the church was severely damaged by Allied bombing in February
1944. The collection at St. Stephan, which included works by Fischer himself, was seen by
Schmid in 1942, 146 but that church was likewise destroyed in 1944. Some or all of the works
142 Fischer was still living when André’s investigations took place, but it is unknown what involvement the two
may have had. André’s print of K. 427, published in the year of Fischer’s death, states that Mozart “...eine
Abschrift davon einem Kloster in Baiern überlassen hat, woselbst ich solche vorgefunden und mit dem in
meinen Händen befindlichen Original Manuscript verglichen habe.” Holl (NMA I/1/1/v, xvi) thought it
probable that Fischer compiled the manuscript especially for André, but this is certainly incorrect: André would
never have been satisfied with the incomplete nature of Fischer’s score, and the formulation of André’s
statement rules out the possibility in any case. On the transmission of the two sources, see Plath, “Mozartiana,”
134.
143 D-As, Hl 78. The inventory, compiled by the then regens chori of Heilig Kreuz, Jakob Niggl, is
unfortunately non-thematic and lists the collection only in summary, but it makes mention of 15 Mozart
masses “und ein Sanctus und Agnus Dei.” See Walter Senn, “Die Mozart-Überlieferung im Stift Heilig Kreuz
zu Augsburg,” in Neues Augsburger Mozartbuch, Zeitschrift des Historischen Vereins für Schwaben (Augsburg: M.
Seitz, 1962), 333-34.
144 Adolf Buff, “Mozarts Augsburger Vorfahren,” Zeitschrift des historischen Vereins für Schwaben 18 (1891):
30n65.
145 Schmid, “Mozart und das Geistliche Augsburg,” 172.
146 Ibid., 194-95.
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