06.10.2013 Views

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

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

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

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.

orchestra a letter of thanks, attributing the success of his music in Prague to their efforts. 90<br />

On 6 December 1787, the Prager Oberpostamtszeitung reported, St. Nicholas celebrated its<br />

patronal festival with an unidentified mass by Mozart:<br />

Den 6ten, als am St. Niklasfeste wurde in der kleinseitner Niklaskirche eine von dem hier so<br />

beliebten Tonsetzer, Herrn Mozart, verfertigter musikalische Messe gegeben, und alles gestand,<br />

dass er auch in dieser besonderen Komposizionsart ganz Meister sey. <strong>91</strong><br />

Mozart had left Prague about three weeks before the service took place, but given the<br />

Strobach connection one naturally wonders if the composer had something to do with this<br />

performance. Despite many advances, the study of Bohemian sources of Mozart’s music is<br />

still in its early stages, and we do not know how widely the composer’s sacred music was<br />

distributed in Prague prior to 17<strong>91</strong>. 92 According to Tomislav Volek, “we have extant<br />

documents proving that Mozart had visited Strobach [at St. Nicholas] and his masses had<br />

been performed in the church long before his first visit to Prague.” 93 Unfortunately, Volek<br />

does not specify what these documents are. St. Vitus’ Cathedral did however have K. 259 by<br />

1796, 94 and Niemetschek wrote in 1798 that “alle, die wir hier in Prag gehört haben, tragen<br />

den Stempel seines Genies.” 95<br />

90 MBA, vi.340.<br />

<strong>91</strong> Quoted in Berkovec, Musicalia V Pražském Periodickém Tisku 18. Století: Výběr Aktuálních Zpráv O Hudbě,<br />

68. The edition in Deutsch, Dokumente, 270 is inaccurate, and Deutsch’s suggestion that the mass could have<br />

been K. 427 is most unlikely (see Eibl, Neue Dokumente, 55.)<br />

92 Many Czech archives preserve Mozart sources from the last two decades of the eighteenth century. From the<br />

hospital at Kuks, for example, are early sets of parts for K. 259 (CZ-Pnm, XLIX F 23), K. 317 (XLIX F 24),<br />

and K. 194 (XLIX F 22); see Michaela Freemanová-Kopecká, Collectio Fratrum Misericordiae Kukussiensis, 2<br />

vols., Catalogus Artis Musicae in Bohemia et Moravia Cultae (Prague: [Národní knihovna ČR], 1998), ii.369-71.<br />

On early Moravian sources, see Jiří Senhal, “Quellen zu Mozarts Kirchenwerken in Mähren,” in Mozart-<br />

Jahrbuch 1986 (Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1987), 29-31.<br />

93 Tomislav Volek and Ivan Bittner, The Mozartiana of Czech and Moravian Archives (Prague: Archives Dept. of<br />

the Czech Ministry of Interior, 19<strong>91</strong>), 9.<br />

94 CZ-Pak, 895.<br />

95 Franz Xaver Niemetschek, Lebensbeschreibung des K. K. Kapellmeisters Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, aus<br />

Originalquellen, Second ed. (Prague: Herrlischen Buchhandlung, 1808; reprint, Leipzig: VEB Deutscher Verlag<br />

für Musik, 1978), 117.<br />

157

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!