BREVITY IS THE SOUL OF WIT

Count Hieronymus von Colloredo was not only the autocratic Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg. In this function, he was for nearly ten years also the stern employer of the freedom- and autonomy-loving Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The result was a human combination that, in time, was destined to fail. And it had all begun so promisingly....
In 1772, Colloredo had been prepared to pay Mozart the truly princely salary of 150 guilders, offering him a permanent position as court concertmaster. Soon after Mozart had taken up his position, the first frictions already became apparent, and it is safe to assume that both figures contributed to the situation. Father Leopold Mozart succeeded in having the archbishop’s already pronounced dismissal of his son in 1777 (“Following the Gospel, father and son [shall be free] [...], to seek their further fortunes”) rescinded. And in February 1779, he had even been able to obtain for Wolfgang an appointment as court organist. This function came with clear-cut demands for Mozart on the part of Colloredo: He expected “The same [...] faultlessly to execute his duties, both in the cathedral, and at court, and the chapel, with industrious diligence, and where possible, to serve the court and the church, with new compositions of his own creation.” In addition to the Vesperae K. 321 and K. 339, and the Mass, K. 337 (‘Coronation’), K. 317 is amongst these “new compositions.” The same applies to some of the seventeen church sonatas recorded on this double CD.
The different terms used for these works, e.g., ‘organ sonata,’ ‘epistle sonata,’ ‘sonata da chiesa,’ can easily lead to confusion. At this point, a brief explanation: The sonatas presented here are (sometimes extremely) short, one-movement instrumental pieces which were inserted into the mass, namely between the Epistle and the Gospel. They are explicitly intended for use in religious services, and therefore occupy a special place in Mozart’s oeuvre, even though today (as a result of the Second Vatican Council) they in a sense no longer have liturgical significance.
In the Salzburg of Arch­bishop Colloredo, the tradition was maintained of inserting a sonata d’epistola (or epistle sonata) following the Epistle, in place of singing the Gradual, whilst elsewhere it had already either been replaced, e.g., with a movement selected from a symphony, or simply dispensed with. A letter from Leopold Mozart and signed by Wolfgang, dated 7 June 1776, to the latter’s Bolognian mentor, Padre Martini, contains a description of the decrees of the Archbishop on the topic of church music, who appears to have had one thing above all else in mind: brevity – so that the total duration of the mass would not exceed three quarters of an hour. Thus, in view of the Archbishop’s instructions, to which even the free-thinking Mozart was bound, there was no room in these sonatas for formal innovations, which explains why Mozart sought compact, creative solutions in brevity.
Mozart’s epistle sonatas were composed between 1771 and 1780. There is no doubt that the works document an artistic development, even though the one-movement form remains intact. Whilst some of the early sonatas are still in a dance-like triple metre, later examples tend to be conceived in the more ordered and strict duple and quadruple metres. The changing instrumentation is further evidence of development: fourteen works are scored for only two violins, double bass, and organ as continuo instrument. In K. 263, two trumpets are deployed as support. In K. 278 a cello, two oboes and kettle drums are added to the rudimentary scoring. And in K. 329 a pair of horns joins in. The organ’s tasks in the sonatas also reflects a developmental process: At times it has merely a continuo function; then it attains a higher degree of independence and ultimately, in the final sonata, K. 336, is entrusted with solo tasks, even offering up a solo cadenza. The last four sonatas, K. 278, 328, 329 and 336, are all in the majestic key of C Major, allowing us to conclude that they were intended for extremely festive occasions (at least in the case of K. 278 and
K. 336, this is highly certain). Following the final break between Mozart and Colloredo, the time of the “curious relic” (Hochradner) of the church sonata reached its end at the Salzburg court as well; the Archbishop had the instrumental insertion replaced by a vocal gradual.
In addition to the seventeen church sonatas, Mozart composed three other works for organ, or to be more precise: mechanical organ, whilst as court organist, he did not produce a single work for the church organ. ‘Ein Andante für eine Walze in eine kleine Orgel’ (‘An Andante for small mechanical Organ’) in
F Major, K. 616, was composed on 4 May 1791, and in all probability for a droll purpose. The (self-appointed) Count Deym had opened in Vienna in March 1791 his ‘Laudon Mausoleum’ – a kind of cabinet of curiosities, housing, amongst other things, a wax figure of Field Marshall Laudon in a glass coffin. Mozart must truly have been in desperate straits to accept a commission to compose a musical accompaniment for such an event, for which, to be sure, he was remunerated, but which will also have brought him to the very end of his tether. To this day, however, no definitive proof of a direct connection to the ‘count’ as the ordering party has been found. The piece is notated on three staves in soprano clef (range: from f below middle c to the third f above middle c) and varies a playful theme in free style.

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