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

Like several other pieces dating from 1791, including the Piano Concerto K. 595,
the Clarinet Concerto, and the Requiem, Ave, verum corpus has been subsumed into a
narrative of “last year works” of supposedly valedictory character. In the case of the motet,
this is only enhanced by the quaint tale of Mozart allegedly writing this “jewel” of the choral
repertoire for a village schoolmaster. The motet does possess a certain significance by simple
virtue of its completed state – a state that Mozart did not achieve for any other sacred work
begun in Vienna. But just as a single Köchel entry can represent a keyboard minuet or Le
Nozze di Figaro, such comparisons ignore the vast differences in scale between K. 618 and K.
427 or K. 626, not to mention the great variation in the circumstances of their composition.
The simplicity of the part writing may be a concession to the abilities of a choir unfamiliar to
Mozart, or may reflect a trend that some commentators have identified towards greater
compactness and directness in the composer’s choral writing. 245 Certainly, a number of
melodic and harmonic characteristics in the motet strike a distinctive note in Mozart’s sacred
music, although we have already noted that general style appears to be anticipated in the
Kyrie fragment K. 422a and the Gloria fragment K. 323a. The unusual turn to F major at
“cuius latus perforatum,” the frequent employment of seventh chords, the approach to the
final choral cadence via IV 6 , and the descending scale degrees with suspensions in the string
coda all contribute to an unusual mixture of conservative and progressive features, united by
a pervasive melancholy. The obvious contemporary parallel is “O Isis und Osiris,
Practice, and Questions of Authenticity,” in Mozart's Choral Music: Composition, Contexts, Performance
(Bloomington, IN: 11 February 2006). I have not yet had the opportunity to investigate the holdings of the
Piaristenkirche.
245 See, for example, Christoph Wolff, Mozart's Requiem: Historical and Analytical Studies, Documents, Score
(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994), 33-36.
337