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

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eplacement for the usual clarinet parts associated with this work. 44 Johann Simon Mayr<br />

(1763-1845) scored for the basset horn in a Requiem dating from the early nineteenth<br />

century. 45 Franz Novotny (c. 1749-1806) in Pécs and Vincent Maschek (1755-1831) in<br />

Prague both called for it in their masses. 46 Mozart had started a D minor piece involving<br />

basset horns before: the quickly abandoned piano concerto movement Fr 1786k/K. Anh. 61.<br />

As with much of Mozart’s music, there is little concrete evidence of the external<br />

circumstances under which the Requiem was written. The anonymous obituary for Schack<br />

claimed that the “grössten Theil seines Requiem schrieb er [Mozart] auf der Laimgrube in<br />

dem Trattnerschen Garten.” However, as Deutsch pointed out, Trattner’s residence, printing<br />

works and substantial garden were located in Altlerchenfeld, not in the Laimgrube, so<br />

something is amiss here. 47 Mozart’s clavichord, now in the Mozarteum, bears a note in the<br />

hand of Constanze: “Auf diesem Clavier hatte mein seeliger Gatte Mozart componirt die<br />

Zauberflöte, La Clemenza di Tito, das Requiem und eine neue Freimaurer-Cantate in zeit<br />

von 5 Monate.” 48<br />

The surviving portions of Mozart’s disrupted autograph score are written on two<br />

paper-types. The first, Tyson 62-V, was used for the Introit, all but the last page of the<br />

Kyrie, and the Sequence from the opening of the Dies irae to the first page of the Recordare<br />

inclusive. 49 In total, Mozart purchased more than a quire of this paper sometime after his<br />

return to Vienna on 18 September, 50 and it is easily distinguishable from the other paper-<br />

44 H-Bb, 47,131.<br />

45 Autograph in I-BGc, 306.6.<br />

46 H-P, N 29; CZ-ND, I/97. An anonymous Missa in D in A-Wbb, 7, copied by the schoolteacher Johann<br />

Niklas Weber in “Didershausen” and dated 30 July 1786 has parts in the Et incarnatus and Benedictus for two<br />

“Clarinetti d’amore.” The use of unusually “low” instruments was not unprecedented: Bonno’s E-flat Requiem<br />

employs two cor anglais, and Eybler’s setting of 1803 was to use the same instrument.<br />

47 Deutsch, Dokumente, 459-60.<br />

48 MBA, vi.647. Upon receiving it, Constanze had written: “wie sehr froh ich darüber bin, bin ich nicht im<br />

stande zu beschreiben. Mozart hatte dies Clav. so lieb, und deßwegen habe ich es doppel lieb.” MBA, iv.505.<br />

49 Folios 1-8, 65-76 in the red foliation.<br />

50 MVC, 437.<br />

358

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