Church sonata in C

Up until 1783, it was customary in the Roman Catholic liturgy of Salzburg Cathedral to include an instrumental piece after the Old Testament reading and before the Epistle reading, instead of a gradual sung by the choir. These so-called Epistle Sonatas were performed with orchestra in Salzburg during Mozart’s time, although many of them are scored for only two violins and basso continuo. The original sets of parts of Mozart’s epistle sonatas were lost in the 19^th century. However, performance material for such compositions from the first half of the 18^th century usually contains four or five parts for bass instruments (violoncello, viola, and bassoon) and frequently two organ parts. While the Salzburg church sonatas from the first half of the 18^th century are often multi-movement works, Mozart developed a single-movement type, almost always in Allegro and often with obbligato organ. Mozart’s church sonatas can only rarely be assigned to specific mass compositions.