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

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While the identifications of the first mass Traeg advertised as K. 337 and the last as<br />

K. 427 are reasonably secure, most of the others are not so certain. The “Missa Nr. 2” could<br />

be any of K. 257, K. 262 or K. 317, while the “etwas kleinere” work may be K. 220, K. 258<br />

or K. 259, based on Traeg’s pricing. 250 The process of identification would be considerably<br />

advanced, of course, if an actual Traeg copy of one or more of these masses turned up.<br />

Unfortunately, no-one has yet found such a manuscript. 251 As we shall see in the next<br />

chapter, Mozart and Anton Stoll did perform a number of the composer’s masses at Baden in<br />

1789-<strong>91</strong>, but it remains to be seen whether these activities had anything to do with Traeg’s<br />

contemporaneous advertisement in 17<strong>91</strong>. A much stronger case can be made for Constanze<br />

providing Traeg with her late husband’s masses, for the two were certainly in contact by<br />

1798. 252 The Mass in C minor was, as far as we know, entirely unknown in its original form,<br />

so if the identification of K. 427 as the “die letzte Missa” is correct, it is difficult to see how<br />

Traeg obtained it except via Constanze. A surviving Traeg copy of K. 427 would be of the<br />

greatest interest, not least for the remote possibility that it might transmit the lost vocal parts<br />

for the Sanctus.<br />

The uncertainty of identification associated with Traeg’s tantalising but problematic<br />

advertisements means great caution is in order when associating particular offerings with the<br />

putative performance of Mozart’s masses at the coronations. Both the score and parts of the<br />

Hofkapelle’s copy of K. 337 are marked “Nr. 1”, the parts for K. 317 are marked “Nr. 2” and<br />

the score and parts for K. 258 are marked “Nr. 3”. Conceivably, these numbers could<br />

correspond to the “Missa” advertised on 9 May, the “Missa Nr. 2” offered on 30 June and<br />

250 Ibid., 832-33, 845.<br />

251 K 6 , 336 speculates that a score copy of K. 317 in A-Wgm, I 11527 originates “vielleicht a. d. Werkstatt von<br />

Traeg.” The catalogue goes on to conjecture that the score copy of K. 337 in I-Fc, FP Ch 5<strong>91</strong> might be “von J.<br />

Traeg?” (358) Unfortunately, neither of these manuscripts has anything to do with Traeg.<br />

252 MVC, 759-62.<br />

221

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