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

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the 1780s do however set texts of a religious but non-liturgical nature, including Davide<br />

penitente and the two canons Alleluia K. 553 and Ave maria K. 554. Two pieces quote pre-<br />

existing liturgical material: the Mauerischer Trauermusik employs a melody of disputed origin<br />

that appears in Michael Haydn’s C minor Requiem, 87 while K. 553 quotes the Alleluia chant<br />

following the epistle on Holy Saturday. Figure 3.7 shows this chant as it appears in<br />

Trattner’s 1758 reprint of the Missale Romanum, together with the beginning of K. 553. 88<br />

The form is consistent with Mozart’s canon in beginning with the leap of a fourth, unlike<br />

the 1908 Roman version of the chant cited by the NMA, which begins with a third. 89<br />

Figure 3.7. Alleluia chant for Holy Saturday and the beginning of Mozart’s Alleluia K. 553.<br />

The earliest indications of Mozart’s re-engagement with liturgical church music are<br />

associated not with Vienna, but with Prague. Johann Joseph Strobach (1731-94) was<br />

director of the orchestra at the National Theatre in Prague and simultaneously regens chori at<br />

St. Nicholas in Malá Strana. He was thus closely involved with the productions of Figaro and<br />

Don Giovanni in that city. According to Niemetschek, Mozart wrote Strobach and the<br />

87 See, for example, Mark Evan Bonds, “Gregorian Chant in the Works of Mozart,” in Mozart-Jahrhuch<br />

1980/83 (Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1983), 308-09, Helmut Hell, “Mozarts Maurerische Trauermusik KV 477,” in<br />

Ars Iocundissima: Festschrift für Kurt Dorfmüller zum 60. Geburtstag, ed. Horst Leuchtmann and Robert<br />

Münster (Tutzing: Schneider, 1984), 127-39. See also Heinz Schuler, “Mozarts Maurerische Trauermusik KV<br />

477/479a: Eine Dokumentation,” Mitteilungen der Internationalen Stiftung Mozarteum 40 (1992): 46-70.<br />

88 Missale Romanum Ex Decreto Sacrosancti Concilii Tridentini Restitutum...in Quo Missæ Novissimæ Sanctorum<br />

Accurate Sunt Dispositæ, (Vienna: Johann Thomas Trattner, 1758), 180.<br />

89 Dunning, NMA III/10, xii. See also Otto Biba, “Das Gregorianische Oster-Alleluja in der Klassichen<br />

Kirchenmusik,” Singende Kirche 17 (1970): 100-02.<br />

156

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