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

three narrow moons countered by the letters VF joined together. Neither design is found in
Mozart’s autographs, and the fleur-de-lys was not normally encountered in Italian papers of
the 1780s or early 1790s. 222 The presence of the single moon instead of three moons is also
strongly indicative of a date in the later 1790s or later. One of Pfannhauser’s other
candidates, K. 258, appears in a score and parts of similar vintage. The score is dated by
Pfannhauser “um 1790,” 223 but it is probably originated a few years later. The watermarks
are Duda AM-5, found in dated autographs by Süssmayr from 1796-99, and three small
moons countered by A over HF, not equivalent to those illustrated in Tyson and Duda. The
parts, with designs including an eagle over GFA and a man-in-the-moon countered by the
letters FAG may be even later.
The only real candidates for a date close to Mozart’s lifetime are the score and parts
for the Mass in C, K. 337. Both the score and some of the parts are written in the hand of
Edge’s Viennese Mozart-Copyist 3, who worked personally for Mozart in the early 1780s. 224
VMC-3 was one of Hofkapelle’s most important copyists: the hand appears as early as 1773
in the original parts for Gassmann’s gradual Viderunt omnes, 225 and appears as late as the
years around 1800 in parts for a Tantum ergo by Fux and Süssmayr’s Missa in D SmWV
106. 226 Pfannhauser, who independently recognised the importance of this copyist, claimed
that the handwriting was “ziemlich eindeutig” with that of Joseph Hoffmann (1745-1805),
director of the chorus at the Burgtheater and a bass in the Hofkapelle from 1788. 227 As
evidence Pfannhauser cited a document in Hoffmann’s hand from 1792, but did not
222 MVC, 1925.
223 Pfannhauser, “Mozarts 'Krönungsmesse',” 8.
224 MVC, 1110-166, especially 1161-64. VMC-3 was also the copyist of the K. 258 score, which is now bound
together with the score of K. 337.
225 A-Wn, HK 2561. The cover bears performance dates beginning with 1 January 1773.
226 A-Wn, HK 2887, 2347. On the Süssmayr parts, see the final chapter.
227 Pfannhauser, “Mozarts 'Krönungsmesse',” 6. On Hoffmann, see Edge, “Mozart's Viennese Orchestras,” 73-
6. See also MVC, 1830-32.
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