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

the composer. 238 In contrast, the score of K. 337 is a model of concision, presenting us only
with the information: “Missa a 4. voci del Sig: Amadeo Wolfgango Mozart”; see Figure 3.22.
The formulation of Mozart’s name in Italian and the reversal of “Wolfgango Amadeo”
suggests a relatively early origin for the score, but there is little specific to learn about the
provenance of this copy from the title page. The parts, as Pfannhauser pointed out, no longer
have their original title page, but have a replacement written in 1820 by the Hofkapelle’s later
archivist, Joseph Frühwald. As a result, any performance dates on the original title that
would have informed us about the parts’ early use have now disappeared. 239
The score contains a number of additions, corrections and cuts by later hands, and
by the nineteenth century it was clearly used as a conducting score in the modern sense of
the term. By the far most significant entries were made by none other than Salieri. 240 In the
Et incarnatus, Salieri wrote in a new viola part on the empty trumpet line, evidently
concluding that the bassoons by themselves were not audible over the choir and required
reinforcement; see Figure 3.23. The mystery here is that K. 337, like most of Mozart’s
masses, does not include a viola part – it is scored for the so-called “church trio” texture of
first and second violins with continuo only. It does however seem to have been quite
common at the Hofkapelle for an additional viola part to have been composed that mostly
doubles the continuo at the unison or octave as necessary. 241 Such viola parts survive for a
number of Mozart masses in the Hofkapelle collection, including the Krönungsmesse.
Although we know that the set for K. 337 likewise featured a viola part, it is unfortunately
238 See, for example, the Hofkapelle’s score of Umlauf’s Missa in D, written for the coronation of Franz II as
King of Hungary; A-Wn, HK 2312.
239 Pfannhauser, “Mozarts 'Krönungsmesse',” 6. The parts for K. 337 include a separate score and parts for the
Agnus Dei with the obbligato parts rewritten for strings and the solo part recast for four voices. A later note in
pencil on one of the Basso parts reads “Abbe Stadler arrangirt.”
240 Ibid.: 6-7.
241 Salieri’s instruction col basso at the end of his added part is another example of this practice.
214