06.10.2013 Views

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

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

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

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.

months. 170 For our purposes, the principal interest of this letter is the first of the three<br />

requests Mozart made to Stoll; see Figure 4.15.<br />

Liebster Stoll!<br />

|: seyens kein Schroll! :|<br />

I mo möchte ich wissen ob gestern Stadtler bey ihnen war, und die Messe<br />

von mir, begehret hat? – Ja? – so hoffe ich sie heute noch zu erhalten; wo nicht, so bitte ich Sie<br />

die güte zu haben mir sie gleich zu schicken NB mit allen Stimmen. Ich werde sie bald wieder<br />

zurückstellen. – 171<br />

The work Mozart quotes is, of course, the Krönungsmesse, K. 317. On the basis of Stoll’s<br />

possession of performing material for K. 317 in May 17<strong>91</strong>, it has become a commonplace in<br />

the literature to identify K. 317 as the “Amt” performed in Baden on 12 June 1790, 172 but<br />

there is no particular reason to favour it above the other Mozart masses known to have been<br />

performed in Baden. Indeed, Stoll’s possession of a set of parts for K. 317 does not<br />

necessarily imply that a performance of the Krönungsmesse took place at the Stadtpfarrkirche.<br />

The fact that the composer felt it necessary to provide an incipit for the piece he desired may<br />

suggest that Stoll already had multiple masses by Mozart in his possession by this time. 173<br />

The precise meaning behind Mozart’s “NB mit allen Stimmen” is unclear: is he requesting<br />

parts in addition to a score (perhaps the autograph score), or making clear that all parts are<br />

170 MBA, vi.411.<br />

171 MBA, iv.132 and vi.409. The autograph of the letter was unavailable to the editors of MBA, but was sold by<br />

J. A. Stargardt in February 1975 (Kat. 605; MBA vii.601). Its present location is unknown. Consistent with the<br />

NMA’s policy of listing the incipits in the Verzeichnüss as legitimate sources for the works they document, this<br />

letter should have been included in Monika Holl’s critical report for K. 317 (NMA KB I:1/1/iv).<br />

172 See, for example, MBA, vi.396, 410.<br />

173 Even if previous letters between Mozart and Stoll have been lost, it is likely that they had not corresponded<br />

recently, since the composer took the trouble of specifying his address, Stadt 970 in Rauhensteingasse, at the<br />

end of the letter. This, of course, does not necessarily imply that Stoll and Mozart had not met in person during<br />

the interim.<br />

310

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!