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

central and northern Germany, although confessional considerations meant that Prague and
Dresden were the only two major cities on Mozart’s itinerary where such works were
appropriate.
With the appearance of the NMA watermark catalogue in 1992, much of the data
that lay behind Tyson’s discussions became publicly available. One piece of new information
was the revelation that the second bifolium of the Kyrie in C Fr 1790a was not on paper-
type Tyson 95 but actually Tyson 96-I, allegedly found elsewhere in the additional wind
parts for the symphony K. 550 and a sketchleaf with canonic material. 178 However, as Edge
has noted, something is amiss here, as Tyson’s description of the K. 550 leaf does not match
the illustration, and it is possible that the catalogue’s account of watermarks 95 and 96 is not
quite accurate. 179 Fortunately, the dating of Fr 1790a is not particularly affected by this
problem as all the works in question clearly originate in the late 1780s and early 1790s.
The critical commentary to the NMA’s facsimile volume of the fragments refines the
dates yet again. Now there is a new set of dates credited to Plath, apparently based on his
unpublished research into the chronology of Mozart’s handwriting in the 1780s.
Unfortunately, with the cancellation of the NMA’s projected Schriftchronologie volume
(X/33/3), the dates will have to be taken on faith for the moment. Most of them harmonise
with Tyson and with Plath’s earlier research, but an unexpected revision is the dating of the
Kyrie in C Fr 1790a to “frühestens 1790”. 180 If Plath is correct, then Fr 1790a and possibly
the Kyrie Fr 1787b may be the last Mozart wrote before beginning work on the Requiem.
The coincidence of date between Mozart’s appointment to the court, his resumption
of interest in church music and Salieri’s installment as Kapellmeister is striking, and it is
178 The partially-autograph Grundpartitur of Das Alexanderfest K. 591 (D-B), not taken into account in the
catalogue, is written on paper with a number of matching watermarks including Tyson 91, 96, 100 and 102.
179 MVC, 254n190, 597-98, 2066n74.
180 Konrad, NMA X/30/4, 269.
186