Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Mass in C minor, K. 427/417a (Schmitt)

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) began composition of his Great Mass in C minor, K. 427/417a in 1782 as a promise to himself to write a major work for his native Salzburg. This period was shortly after he had moved to Vienna in 1781, and Mozart wrote in a letter that he made the promise before having married Constanze, a decision which his father Leopold disapproved, though he only really began the work after the marriage, completing all that he did in 1783. The work remained uncompleted from the sense of a liturgical mass, missing some of the Credo movements, all of the Agnus Dei, and parts of the Sanctus and the Benedictus, and Mozart called it a "half a mass" in a letter to his father. Despite this, all that was completed was performed at a liturgical mass on October 23, 1783, at St. Peter's Church in Salzburg during Mozart and Constanze's three-month sojourn there to introduce Constanze to the family. It is believed that Mozart borrowed from other works to make it complete for a liturgical performance, and it is thought likely that Constanze sang the high first soprano solo part. The work remained in this state until German musicologist Alois Schmitt's work to complete the mass was published in 1902. The Schmitt edition became the standard edition throughout the 20th century. Instrumentation: 2.2.2.2: 2.2.4(1st sub Tpt in C).0: Timp: Org: Str (4-4-3-3-3 in set): Solo SSTB: Mx Chor.