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

including the organ and woodwind, consistently notated at the same pitch as the score. 159
Contemporary performance parts from St. Stephen’s Cathedral, St. Michael’s and other
Viennese churches also show the same convention. Since many members of the Hofkapelle
also played in the orchestra of the Burgtheater, which was at Kammerton, it is unlikely that a
significant pitch disparity existed between the two ensembles. 160 The possibility that Mozart
designed the C minor Mass for performance in Vienna cannot be excluded.
The second difficulty with the Heilig Kreuz parts is one of handwriting. As the
collection as a whole was once in the possession of the Mozart family, many of the parts not
surprisingly contain additions and corrections in the hand of Wolfgang and his father.
Walter Senn, who first conducted a thorough evaluation of the collection, thought that the
parts for K. 427 contained such corrections, but he was unable to determine whether they
originated with Leopold or his son. On this question, Senn wrote:
Von den vier in Hl. Kreuz erhalten gebliebenen Stimmen dieses aus vier Sätzten bestehenden
Fragments trägt die der Organo wenige Korrekturen, Vorzeichen und Ziffern des Generalbasses,
die von einer Mozartschen Hand herrühren – ob von Leopold oder von Wolfgang (die Zartheit
der Striche würde eher auf ihn deuten), läßt sich, da größere charakteristische Zeichen fehlen,
nicht mit Bestimmtheit feststellen. 161
In the appendix to the article, Senn noted only “Korrekturen von Leopold oder W. A.
Mozart” 162 in the parts for K. 427, in contrast to other sets from the collection where a
distinction between father and son could be established. Later commentators have accepted
Senn’s conclusions at face value and effectively discounted the possibility that Leopold, not
his son, was responsible for the corrections. 163 Holl in the NMA stated that Estlinger’s organ
159 Reutter’s Missa in D (Hofer 54) features an elaborate solo part for the oboe. The Hofkapelle’s performance
material for the work in A-Wn, HK 765 includes no fewer than three copies of the Oboa Concerta part: one
from the original set, one of early but undetermined date, and a third probably dating from around 1800 with
pasteovers and corrections in the hand of Salieri. All three are notated in D.
160 On Viennese pitch standards see Haynes, A History of Performing Pitch, 320-21.
161 Senn, “Die Mozart-Überlieferung im Stift Heilig Kreuz zu Augsburg,” 342.
162 Ibid., 368.
163 See, for example, Landon, “Mozart's Mass in C Minor,” 422, Croll, “Zwei Mozart-Messen,” 138.
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