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

The score of Gluck’s De Profundis that the composer gave to Salieri for deposit in the
“Sammlung für Cammermusik” does not seem to survive, but a set of surviving parts from
the Hofkapelle may have been used at the 1788 premiere; see Figure 5.2. 16 The watermarks in
these parts are consistent with a date in the late 1780s, 17 and one of the alto parts, illustrated
here, bears an annotation by Salieri in the top right hand corner: questo si fara in luogo del
Domine Jesu – in other words, this piece should be performed in place of the Domine Jesu.
Such replacement of the usual offertory text with an alternative movement seems to have
been a common practice, at least in Salzburg. 18 The parts consist of six copies each of
Soprano and Alto, five copies of Tenore and Basso, five copies of Viola, one copy of
Violoncello, three copies of Basso, and single parts for Oboe, Fagotto, Corno and each of the
three trombones. 19 If these parts are representative of a performance at Gluck’s memorial in
1788, they imply that a chorus of larger than usual size was available, although the presence
of a variety of paper-types may suggest that the parts were copied over a more extended
timeframe. Although it is tempting to speculate that the disposition was influenced by the
famously inflated forces of the Tonkünstersocietät concerts, there is no evidence from the
surviving instrumental parts that an unusually large orchestra was employed. The fact that
16 A-Wn, Mus. Hs. 17325. At least two contemporary score copies of this work survive. The first, A-Wgm, I
7976/Q 20725, has a title page reading “Offertorium. / De profundis clamavi / Par M: Le Chev: Gluck.” The
watermark is Tyson 91, found in dated Mozart autographs from 1788-91. The second score, A-Wn, Mus. Hs.
17019, has watermarks Tyson 56/76 and a design similar but not equivalent to Duda PS-1. Annotations on the
first page read “al Barone du Beine” and “Nr 360.” On du Beyne, a music collector and acquaintance of
Mozart, see Herbert Vogg, “Franz Tuma (1704-1774) als Instrumentalkomponist Nebst Beiträgen zur Wiener
Musikgeschichte des 18. Jahrhunderts” (PhD diss., Universität Wien, 1951), 49-56. According to the ÖNB’s
provenance catalogue (A-Wn, INV. 3/Tabulae 2, olim Mus. Hs. 2485) the score was obtained from “Nachl.
Spitta,” with a pencilled note above it: “Wiener Musikverein.”
17 Watermarks in the parts include Tyson 86 and 91, Duda A/GF/C-1 at an earlier stage of deformation, three
moons | GFA, three moons | W and three moons over REAL | CS over C (single line), the last similar but not
equivalent to Tyson 100.
18 See Beatrice Ebel, “Die Salzburger Requiemtradition im 18. Jahrhundert: Untersuchungen zu den
Voraussetzungen von Mozarts Requiem” (PhD diss., Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, 1997), Anh.
32-34.
19 There are no violin parts, as Gluck did not score for those instruments. The organ part, if it ever existed, is
now missing. Three of the viola parts are on a greenish-tinged paper that likely implies a later provenance.
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