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

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II. <strong>THE</strong> COMMISSIONING <strong>OF</strong> <strong>THE</strong> REQUIEM<br />

Given his limited public exposure as a composer for the church, Mozart was not the<br />

obvious choice for Count Wallsegg’s Requiem commission. 36 With the performances in<br />

Baden and his appointment at St. Stephen’s, Mozart had taken tentative steps towards<br />

achieving a greater prominence in this area, and it possible that Wallsegg had encountered<br />

the composer’s sacred works at some stage. Michael Puchberg has also been suggested as an<br />

intermediary, as he and his wife Anna rented an apartment at Hoher Markt 522, a house<br />

owned by Wallsegg until the end of 17<strong>91</strong>. Constanze and Carl stayed with the Puchbergs<br />

during Mozart’s tour of northern Germany in 1789, and two of the composer’s letters to<br />

Constanze contain his only known references to Wallsegg’s name. 37 Interestingly enough,<br />

Wallsegg’s library contained several Mozart prints dating from after 1793, showing that the<br />

Count continued to take an interest in the composer’s music even after the delivery of the<br />

Requiem. 38<br />

Occasional suggestions that Mozart began work on the Requiem at his own initiative<br />

before the commission arrived are probably to be rejected. 39 At any rate, the paper-types on<br />

which Mozart wrote the surviving autograph material are not known to have been employed<br />

35 “Musikalien-Catalog” (A-Wda, s.s.), 110. The entry bears an “NB” sign indicating the work was no longer in<br />

use, but it is crossed out.<br />

36 For the historical background to the commission, see Andrea Worlitz-Wellspacher, “Der Bote des<br />

Requiembestellers,” Wiener Geschichtsblätter 45 (1990): 197-219.<br />

37 Mozart’s letters of 16 April and 23 May 1789 are addressed to Constanze, “auf dem hohen Markt im<br />

Walseckischen Hause bei Hrn v Puchberg.” MBA iv.82, 88. See also Walther Brauneis, “'Dies Irae, Dies Illa' -<br />

'Tag des Zornes, Tag der Klage': Auftrag, Entstehung und Vollendung von Mozarts 'Requiem'.” Jahrbuch des<br />

Vereins für Geschichte der Stadt Wien 47-8 (19<strong>91</strong>-92): 39.<br />

38 See Walther Brauneis, “Franz Graf Wallsegg: Mozarts Auftraggeber für das Requiem. Neue<br />

Forschungsergebnisse zur Musikpflege Auf Schloß Stuppach,” in Musik Mitteleuropas in der 2. Hälfte des 18.<br />

Jahrhunderts, Historia Musicae Europae Centralis (Bratislava: Institut für Musikwissenschaft der Slowakischen<br />

Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1993), 211-21.<br />

39 Stadler claimed that Mozart had written sketches for the Introit and Kyrie prior to the commission; see<br />

Wolff, Mozart's Requiem, 78-80. Mozart had certainly explored a similar idea to the Kyrie in the string quartet<br />

fragment Fr 1785c/K. Anh. 76 (417c), a piece also cast as a double fugue in D minor with a diminishedseventh<br />

leap in the bass.<br />

356

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