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

Little is known, unfortunately, about the pitch of the St. Peter’s organ. The
instrument, originally completed by Daniel Haill in 1620 and renovated twice by Egedacher
in the early eighteenth century, was set “in die Chorhöhe” in 1631 and “auf Cornet” in
1793, but there is no information on what these terms actually meant in practice. 155 The
pitch of Egedacher’s main instrument at the Cathedral is thought, on not especially strong
grounds, to have been a 1 ≈ 454. 156 If K. 427 was performed at Cammerton, contrary to
Salzburg practice, it is worth considering whether Mozart designed the mass for that pitch
standard from the outset – a proposition that has negative implications for the popular idea
that the C minor Mass was written for St. Peter’s. Although further research is required,
some evidence suggests that the Hofkapelle in Vienna was performing at Cammerton. 157 An
anecdote about Albrechtsberger, which can be interpreted in a number of ways, relates that
some time between 1767 and 1772 the composer was invited by Reutter to play “zu einer
Messe in G, die aber Albrechtsberger durchgehends um einen halben Ton höher in Gis
wegen tieferer Stimmung der Orgel spielen mußte, ohne den geringsten Fehlgriff...” 158
Performance material from the Hofkapelle, on the other hand, has all the instruments,
155 Mendel, “Pitch in Western Music,” 34n21. See also Gerhard Walterskirchen, “Orgeln und Orgelbauer in
Salzburg Vom Mittelalter bis zur Gegenwart. Beiträge zu 700 Jahren Orgelbau in der Stadt Salzburg” (PhD
diss., Universität Salzburg, 1982), 267-69, Gerhard Walterskirchen, “Die Große Orgel der Stiftskirche St. Peter
zur Zeit Mozarts und Haydns,” in Das Benediktinerstift St. Peter in Salzburg zur Zeit Mozarts, ed. Petrus Eder
and Gerhard Walterskirchen (Salzburg: Verlag St. Peter, 1991), 127-28.
156 Mendel, “Pitch in Western Music,” 79.
157 Haynes claims that the C minor Mass was “originally given in Vienna in c-minor, presumably in a venue
where the organ was a semitone lower [sic], thus at Wienerton = A+0 [i. e. a 1 =c. 438]. By performing it in
Salzburg in b [sic], the voices sang at the same absolute pitch level as Vienna.”; Haynes, A History of Performing
Pitch, 322-23. While I am unaware of any evidence that K. 427 was heard in Vienna prior to its performance in
Salzburg, the possibility that the mass was written with Viennese performance conditions in mind deserves
consideration.
158 Karl Wagner, ed., Abbé Maximilian Stadler: seine 'Materialien zur Geschichte der Musik unter den
Österreichischen Regenten': Ein Beitrag zum Musikal. Historismus im Vormärzlichen Wien, vol. 7, Publikationen
des Instituts für Musikwissenschaft der Universität Salzburg (Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1974), 103. Reutter himself
wrote three masses in G with extant sources in Vienna: Hofer 21, 39 and 70.
115