On Jul 3, 2011, at 6:11 AM, Roman Turovsky wrote: > Howard, > That's BS, because you should know that a goodly portion of the Mass nicely > predates the events in question, having been composed previously as an > oratorio "Davidde Penitente".
You have it backwards: the oratorio Davidde Penitente,K. 469, is a contrafactum of parts of the C minor Mass. Mozart put the oratorio together to meet a commission from the Wiener Tonkünstler-Societät in 1785, two years after he performed what he'd finished of the Mass. > And I distinctly recall a famous musicologist referring to the choice of > c-minor as a "slap in the face of excclesiastical taste". I have no doubt that a musicologist would say something like that, and absolutely no doubt that it was unsupported by any evidence that any ecclesiastic in the 1780's said anything about having his face slapped. > RT > > ----- Original Message ----- From: "howard posner" <[email protected]> > TOn Jul 2, 2011, at 7:01 PM, Roman Turovsky wrote: >> >> >>> In fact a public expression of feelings through the choice of c-minor for >>> his Great Mass did cost Mozart his job in Salzburg. >> >> What cost Mozart his job in Salzburg was that he didn't want it. He >> insisted that he be released, and it took months to finally settle the >> issue, with the Archbishop's steward, Count Arco, urging him to stay before >> famously kicking him out of the room in exasperation in May 1781. >> >> The C minor Mass dates from two years later (such parts of it as managed to >> finish were performed during a visit to Salzburg in 1783), and I'm not aware >> that anyone remarked on the choice of key at the time. -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
