"Zur Eröffnung der Loge" Song for tenor, male voice choir and organ
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Songs
"Zur Eröffnung der Loge" Song for tenor, male voice choir and organ
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The Masonic songs Zerfliesset heut, geliebte Brüder, KV 483 and Ihr unsre neuen Leiter, KV 484, are written on one bifolio of music paper and share the same history. In December 1785, Emperor Joseph II had issued the so-called Masonic Decree to control the activities of Masonic lodges, which were increasingly viewed with suspicion due to their perceived threat of subversive tendencies. As a result, the eight existing Viennese lodges were reduced to three centralized lodges. The lodge “Zur Wohltätigkeit” (Benificence), to which Mozart had belonged since December 14, 1784, was merged with two others to form the lodge “Zur neugekrönten Hoffnung” (New Crowned Hope). The two songs for cantor, male choir, and organ were, as a recently discovered printed text reveals, first sung at the ceremonial opening of the venerable lodge "Zur neugekrönten Hoffnung" on January 14, 1786. An undated letter of excuse (BD 921) suggests that Mozart had fallen ill and could not attend the ceremony.
Mozart’s surviving songs mainly date from his Vienna years and were written for private use within his circle friends. According to records of his sister, Maria Anna, Mozart composed only few songs during his Salzburg years. The typical song is a short setting of a strophic poem with keyboard accompaniment, using the same music for every stanza of the text. Mozart also wrote several through-composed songs, which were then usually called German arias rather than songs. The most famous of these is Das Veilchen, KV 476, based on a text by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. The songs used at meetings of the Freemasons (see work group 31) stand between the solo song and the part-song because the last lines of the text are sung or repeated by a male chorus.
Autograph, 1785
Partitur: 1 Bl. (1 beschr. S.)
Abschrift, 1861
Solo für Sopran mit Chor/ und Orgelbegleitung/ zur Eröffnung der []/ „Zerfliesset heut, geliebte Brüder“/ von Br. Mozart/ Nach Prof. O. Jahn's Partitur 1861 Köchel
Partitur
Abschrift
Abschrift
[Kopftitel?: ] Zur Eröffnung der [] Br. Mozart
Partitur: 2 S.