Georg Reutter d. J., Kyrie in D
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The autograph manuscript of the Kyrie in D, KV Anh. A 26 stems from Mozart’s final Vienna years, when he turned increasingly to church music again. The manuscript comprises the first 22 bars of a composition by Georg Reutter the Younger in Mozart’s handwriting. Maximilian Stadler, who helped Constanze Mozart to organize the estate of her deceased husband, considered it a fragment of an original Mozart composition. He added 13 bars to “complete” the work, as he had done with a number of other autograph Mozart fragments. In the 19th century, the autograph collector Aloys Fuchs recognized that two scribes had worked on it, but believed the addition to be by Mozart’s pupil Franz Xaver Süßmayr. The first edition of the Köchel Catalog (1862) mistakenly counted the work among the original compositions by Mozart and regarded it as an early piece due to its archaic style. It was not until the 1980s that the composition was discovered to be by Georg Reutter, who was Kapellmeister at St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna until 1772.
The celebration of the Mass is at the heart of Roman Catholic liturgy. Musical settings of the Ordinarium Missae consist of the Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus (with Osanna), Benedictus (with Osanna), and Agnus Dei. In Salzburg, a differentiated system existed to determine what kind of settings were required for which celebrations. Some of Mozart's earliest Masses were composed for special occasions such as priestly or church consecrations. After his appointment as concertmaster, Mozart regularly composed music for Salzburg Cathedral and was the most productive composer of church music there during the 1770s. The use of trumpets and timpani indicates that most of his settings were intended for feast days on which the Prince-Archbishop himself celebrated the Mass. Typically, Masses in southern Germany and Austria do not include viola parts. After moving to Vienna, Mozart never held another ecclesiastical office; nevertheless, he began composing several Masses there, though he completed none of them. In April 1791, Mozart's request to substitute for the ailing Kapellmeister of St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna, Leopold Hofmann, was approved, but he did not live long enough to actually succeed him. The Requiem, as a Mass for the dead, uses a special form of the Missale Romanum. In Salzburg and Vienna, Requiem settings were composed only for special occasions.
Autograph, 1774
[Aloys Fuchs:] Kyrie/ a 4 Voci da Capella/ comp. da/ W. Amadeo Mozart./ Partitura autographa.
Partitur: 2 Bl. (3 beschr. S.)
Abschrift
Partitur
Abschrift
[Titelblatt:] Kÿrie / in D-dur / für / 4 Singstimmen, Violine, Orgel und Bass. / von W: A. Mozart.
Partitur (3 Bl. mit 6 bestr. S.)