Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
Manuscript set of performing parts of the Requiem in D minor, K.626 [Vienna, early 19th century]
This substantial set of early 19th-century performing parts represent nearly 200 years of performance history of Mozart's Requiem in Vienna, as property of the musical society of the church of St Johann Nepomuk.

44 performing parts for: for violin I (4 parts); violin II (3); viola (2); double bass and violoncello (2); basso (2); organ (2); clarinet I; clarinet II; basset horn I; basset horn II; bassoon I; bassoon II; trombone I; trombone II; trombone III; timpani; soprano (4); alto (4); tenor (4); and bass (4), written by at least eight scribes. c.450 leaves, c.300 x c.230mm, Welhartiz and other papers, ruled with 10 staves per page, the basset horn parts inscribed by the copyist at the end ‘J. R’ and ‘R. Jak:’, scattered corrections in blue ink and revisions on pasted-in slips of paper, profuse performance markings annotated in blue and red crayon throughout. Contemporary thick card wrappers, ties.
[With:] Manuscript score of the Requiem [Vienna, 19^th century]. Written by a single copyist in brown ink on one 20-stave system per page. 34 leaves, 258 x 330mm, 20-stave wove paper.

Provenance:
(1) The performing parts must have been copied in Vienna in the first decades of the 19th century – the Welhartiz paper used in some of the parts was common in the city in the 1820s – apparently before January 1831, when a purchase was recorded in an inscription on the card wrappers (‘J B Ziegler[paraph] Regens Chori Gekauft im Jänner 31 [?] Partes 32’).

(2) Church of St Johann Nepomuk, Vienna; parts and score stamped 'Kirchenmusikverein St. Johann Nep. II., Praterstrasse Wien', some stamped ‘SJN’; manuscript label on upper wrapper of the parts inscribed 'Eigenthum der Pf[arre] St. Johann Nep[omuk]’; later inscription recording a performance on 21 December 1916 on the occasion of the death of Emperor Franz Joseph I.

(3) Sotheby’s, 1 December 2010, lot 56.

(4) Schøyen Collection, MS 5474.

Mozart left the Requiem unfinished on his death in 1791: the full score – completed by Süssmayr in 1792 – was first published in 1800 by Breitkopf with the parts appearing in 1812 from Chemische Druckerei, Vienna.