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

which is dated 1790 in its present state, as we have seen. It is unclear whether the placement
in opposite galleries reflects the usual disposition of the Hofkapelle: if it does, then it is
curious that so little of the Imperial repertoire takes advantage of antiphonal forces. Another
strange feature is the presence of two timpani players: none of the original performance
material I have encountered preserves more than one timpani part. As the only engraving
that depicts the entire ensemble in the late eighteenth-century, however, Löschenkohl’s work
is the best indication we have of how the Hofkapelle looked during Mozart’s time.
When Leopold arrived from Tuscany in 1790 to begin the long series of coronation
celebrations, the empire had not seen a coronation for a number of decades. When Joseph II
was crowned in Frankfurt in April 1764, the Hofkapelle performed a Te Deum by Caldara –
the same work that had been heard at the Emperor’s baptism in March 1741. 212 The re-use
of such music was out of the question by 1790, and Salieri was faced with the decision of
whether to perform more recent music in the Hofkapelle’s library, or to acquire new works.
In 1963, Karl Pfannhauser presented convincing evidence that several Mozart masses were in
the repertory of the Hofkapelle by the 1790s and early 1800s. Based on a study of early
performance materials, Pfannhauser suggested that the Krönungsmesse K. 317 acquired its
name because it and other Mozart masses were heard at the Bohemian coronations of
Leopold II in 1791 or Franz II in 1792. 213 In the past four decades, Pfannhauser’s plausible
suggestion has solidified through a chain of citations and recitations into solid fact. It is now
commonplace to read without qualification that K. 317 was performed in Prague on 6
September 1791 for the coronation of Leopold II as King of Bohemia. Biographically
212 The parts are in A-Wn, Mus. Hs. 16105.
213 Karl Pfannhauser, “Mozarts 'Krönungsmesse',” Mitteilungen der Internationalen Stiftung Mozarteum 11, no.
3-4 (1963): 3-11. In the years following the publication of the article, Pfannhauser wrote a number of program
notes for performances of the Hofmusikkapelle in which he provided new information about K. 317. Copies of
the notes from 1964-70 were provided by Otto Biba, to whom I am grateful. Further notes are available in
A-Wgm, 19847/61, A-Wst, A 164436 and A-Wst, A 179951.
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