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

praesidium, the Regina coeli K. 276, Ave verum corpus, a contrafactum of an aria from La
Clemenza di Tito as Laudibus celum, a contrafactum of the Mass K. 220 as a litany, a
spurious Salve regina in B flat, and a fragmentary set of vocal parts for the quintet “Di
scrivermi ogni giorno” from Cosi fan tutte. 201 Like the printed sources, most of these
manuscripts appear to date from the nineteenth century, and I shall focus here on those
works known or suspected to have been performed by Mozart and Stoll.
The Mass in B flat K. 275 survives in an incomplete set of parts consisting of single
copies of Violino Primo, Violone, Tenore, and Organo, together with two bassoon parts and
a director’s part of later provenance. 202 Recognising the possible connection with Mozart, the
editor of K. 275 for the NMA, Monika Holl, describes the parts as “möglicherweise Teil
eines Aufführungsmaterials, das von Mozart selbst in Baden bei Wien verwendet wurde.”
She even goes so far as to date the parts “um 1791.” 203 One would expect from this
description that the Baden parts, the NMA’s Quelle F, would be subject to a detailed
investigation to determine their provenance and textual significance. In fact, their readings
are noted “nur gelegentlich” in the critical report, and are not taken into account in the
edition itself. 204 This limited treatment of the Baden parts for K. 275 is typical of the NMA’s
undervaluation of secondary sources.
The four parts in the original layer are the work of two copyists. 205 The watermarks
in the parts for Violino I and Tenore consist of the letters VB under a canopy countered by a
man-in-the-moon, probably equivalent to Duda VB. Watermarks resembling this design are
found in a Süssmayr autograph dated 1800, in parts from the Burgtheater for the 1801
201 Ibid., 94-6. Willander incorrectly lists the parts for K. 259 (Baden 276) as “KV. 301.”
202 A-Wn, Fonds 4 Baden 283. The inventory on the wrapper shows that the set once included parts for two
clarinets and two horns, instruments that do not feature in the original instrumentation for K. 275.
203 NMA I:1/1/4 KB (Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1999), 10.
204 Ibid., 13.
205 One bifolium in the Violino Primo part is the work of a third copyist.
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