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

apparently lost his status as “Hoftheatralcopist” after the theatrical year 1796-7, 51 so if
Valentin’s description of the lost wrapper was accurate, we have a terminus ante quem of
1797. As the single known instance of a sacred work copied by Sukowaty’s shop, the
provenance of these parts is something of a mystery. Nevertheless, the presence of
Sukowaty’s “imprint” implies the parts were for commercial distribution, and suggests that
the copyist may have carried a wider range of material than previously understood.
Upon his appointment as Kapellmeister in February 1788, Salieri seems initially to
have continued the performance pattern established by his predecessor Bonno, albeit with
some personal touches of his own. Most significantly, at some early point he undertook a
critical survey of the music archive and wrote marginal comments in his personal copy of the
Hofkapelle’s catalogue. 52 These comments, in pencil and partially erased, are often difficult to
make out, but they make clear that Salieri had a generally low opinion of Bonno’s music.
Against a number of Bonno’s masses Salieri wrote “cattiva,” and against Missa XXII he wrote
that most of the Gloria and all of the Credo were “assai mediocre.” Against Missa XXV he
wrote that the Gloria was “mediocre” and it would be necessary to “correggere.” Salieri was
as good as his word: a manuscript from the collection of Aloys Fuchs once thought to be a
Bonno autograph is in fact Salieri’s revision of the Kyrie from this mass. 53 Salieri also wrote
replacement violin parts for the Dona nobis, which are found at the back of the Hofkapelle’s
score of the work. 54
51 MVC, 1315-18.
52 A-Wgm, 22551/33. Despite its importance, this catalogue has remained very little-known, primarily because
it was in the personal possession of Pfannhauser until his death in 1984. Of its provenance Pfannhauser would
say only that it was discovered in 1950 “in einer Provinzstadt”; Karl Pfannhauser, “Mozart Hat Kopiert!,” Acta
mozartiana 1 (1954): 25, Karl Pfannhauser, “Mozarts Kirchenmusikalische Studien im Spiegel seiner Zeit und
Nachwelt,” Kirchenmusikalisches Jahrbuch 43 (1959): 14n62.
53 Schienerl, “Giuseppe Bonno”, 18-20. The manuscript, D-B, Mus. ms. Autogr. Bono 1, also contains a
revised passage for another mass by Bonno.
54 A-Wn, Mus. Hs. 15884. The replacement parts contain the instruction, “Tutte le altre parti restano come
sono nello spartito.” The score contains numerous other comments and corrections by Salieri. The watermark
in the principal part of the manuscript is Tyson 86 and, in Salieri’s additions, Tyson 95 and possibly 100.
145