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

of Wir werfen uns darnieder; see Example 3.1. 110 No autograph survives, and the single extant
copy, probably from the shop of Johann Traeg, is in the hand of Edge’s Viennese Mozart-
Copyist 1. 111 The text, a paraphrase of the Kyrie by Ignaz Franz (1719-1790), 112 is the
opening hymn in the 1783 Viennese Normalgesang.
Issues of authorship surrounding Mozart and Jacquin are rather murky, 113 and one
would naturally like to know the circumstances under which Mozart possessed a copy of the
piece. If Jacquin had given Amynt and Wir werfen to Mozart for comments, perhaps the
surviving sources transmit versions of the songs as revised by the latter. Musically, Wir werfen
is rather modest: the inelegant approach to the E major chord in b. 10-11 and the static
melody in b. 13 could have been handled better. The active part for Violino II does however
maintain a sense of pace and independent orchestral interest, and the imitation in b. 4-6
adds variety to the otherwise homophonic texture. There is no indication that the piece was
ever performed, liturgically or otherwise.
In May 1788, the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen sent three of its members on a study
tour of France and Germany. One of the participants was Joachim Daniel Preisler (1755-
1809), who published an account of his travels the following year. Preisler’s recollection of a
visit to Mozart on 24 August 1788, with Constanze cutting quills for the copyist, a pupil
composing and Mozart’s son Carl singing recitatives is justly well-known for its rare glimpse
110 See Stefan Kunze, “Die Arie KV 621 a von W. A. Mozart und Emilian Gottfried von Jacquin,” in Mozart-
Jahrbuch 1967 (Salzburg: 1968), 211n23. In the source, the verses are written out in full.
111 A-Wgm, I 20012/Q 20798. On this copyist, see MVC, Chapter 6, especially 744-48 for evidence that
VMC-1 is Traeg himself. The Jacquin piece, called “Meßgesang” in its source, is listed in Traeg’s 1799
catalogue; Alexander Weinmann, ed., Johann Traeg: die Musikalienverzeichnisse von 1799 und 1804, 2 vols.,
Beiträge zur Geschichte des Alt-Wiener Musikverlages. Reihe 2, Folge 17 (Vienna: Universal Edition, 1973), 226.
The manuscript was first mentioned in Hedwig Kraus, “W. A. Mozart und die Familie Jacquin,” Zeitschrift für
Musikwissenschaft 15 (1932-33): 162. The watermark is three moons | CS over C (double line), not found in
Tyson or Duda.
112 Michael Härting, “Das Kirchenlied unter dem Einfluß der Kirchlichen Aufklärung,” in Geschichte der
Katholischen Kirchenmusik, ed. Karl Gustav Fellerer (Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1976), ii.174. The source for Jacquin’s
piece includes only three verses, omitting the fourth given in the Normalgesang.
113 See, for example, MVC, 655-63, 699-708.
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