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

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appeared twice a week on Tuesdays and Fridays, and was obtainable from Franz Staudinger<br />

on Hoher Markt at a monthly subscription of 30 Kreuzer. One of the very few copies of the<br />

newspaper still extant today is held by the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek. 119 The report<br />

reads: “Herr Schikaneder hat für den verstorbenen die Exequien halten lassen, wobey das<br />

Requiem welches er in seiner letzten Krankheit komponirt hatte, exequirt wurde.” 120 The<br />

particular importance of this entry is that it reports, for the first time, that Mozart’s Requiem<br />

was the piece performed at the service, a detail that is not present in the previous report.<br />

Now it is Schikaneder alone, not both the theatre directors, who are responsible for the<br />

obsequies taking place, and there is no mention of the location.<br />

The fourth and final report appeared in the Salzburger Intelligenzblatt on 7 January<br />

1792, and was picked up by the Graz Zeitung für Damen und andere Frauenzimmer on 18<br />

January. It is taken from an anecdote that has received a good deal of attention, because it is<br />

the earliest public version of the circumstances surrounding the Requiem’s inception, with<br />

Mozart demanding 60 ducats to fulfil the anonymous commission. The report reads: “Es<br />

[das Requiem] wird auch wirklich, wenn es abgeschrieben ist, in der St. Michaels=Kirche zu<br />

seinem gedächtniß aufgeführt.” 121 Uniquely among the reports, it seems to be told from the<br />

perspective of someone writing before the service had taken place – this is an event that will<br />

take place, once the performance material for the Requiem has been copied out. Whether<br />

this is a literary conceit by the author or an accurate representation of the source material<br />

before him is uncertain.<br />

119 A-Wn, Handschriftensammlung, Ser. n. 58-60. For another copy, see Eibl, Addenda, 75. According to<br />

Schenk, Joseph Richter was a contributor to Der heimliche Botschafter; Erich Schenk, “Der Langaus,” Studia<br />

Musicologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 3 (1962): 302.<br />

120 Deutsch, Dokumente, 374.<br />

121 Deutsch, Dokumente, 526; Hintermaier, “Eine Frühe Requiem-Anekdote in Einer Salzburger Zeitung,” 436-<br />

37.<br />

379

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