Mozart’s Arrangement of Handel’s *Messiah* (K. Anh.A 57)
ヴォルフガング・アマデウス・モーツァルト作
Mozart’s arrangement of Handel’s Messiah (K. Anh.A 57; better known as Der Messias, K. 572) was prepared in Vienna in 1789, when he was 33. Made for performances in Baron Gottfried van Swieten’s cultivated circle, it reveals Mozart acting less as “composer of new music” than as an alert classicist: clarifying textures, updating sonorities, and shaping Handel for late‑18th‑century ears.
Background and Context
In 1789 Vienna, Mozart was active in Baron Gottfried van Swieten’s private academies—concerts that promoted earlier repertoire (especially Handel and Bach) in updated, Viennese dress. Within this milieu Mozart prepared a German-language performing version of Handel’s Messiah (HWV 56), generally dated to 1789 and associated with van Swieten’s German text. In modern cataloguing this project is usually identified as Der Messias, K. 572, while the Köchel appendix also preserves the entry K. Anh.A 57 for the Messiah arrangement tradition around Mozart’s name.[1][2]
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What Survives
Surviving materials transmitted as Mozart’s arrangement present a substantially “Classical” re-scoring of Handel’s oratorio: wind and brass color is expanded, with clarinets appearing alongside oboes and bassoons, and with additional brass and timpani used to reinforce climaxes.[1] The New Mozart Edition’s documentation points to a working process in which a copyist prepared a basic score and Mozart entered (at least some of) the inner parts and wind writing; van Swieten’s hand is also implicated in textual and continuo-related details.[3]
The result is not merely an orchestration “overlay.” The arrangement is commonly described as an abridgement, with selected numbers adapted for the intended Viennese performances, and with localized recomposition where Mozart’s added parts and transitions reshape Handel’s textures for contemporary forces and expectations.[1]
Scholarly Context
The 1789 Viennese Messiah arrangement is closely linked to van Swieten’s Handel revival and to Mozart’s other Handel adaptations from the same social-artistic network. Yet the surviving sources also suggest a collaborative chain (copyists, van Swieten’s textual interventions, later cuts), so the precise extent of Mozart’s responsibility may vary from number to number within the transmitted score.[3] Heard against Mozart’s own late Viennese sacred and dramatic writing, the arrangement still feels characteristic: a taste for lucid orchestral balance, warm wind color, and a practical instinct for making older contrapuntal music project clearly in a new acoustic and social setting.
楽譜
Mozart’s Arrangement of Handel’s *Messiah* (K. Anh.A 57)の楽譜をVirtual Sheet Music®からダウンロード・印刷
[1] IMSLP work page for Mozart’s Handel arrangement: *Der Messias*, K. 572 (scores, instrumentation listings, editorial notes).
[2] Wikipedia overview of *Der Messias* (Mozart’s 1789 German-language version; association with van Swieten).
[3] Digital Mozart Edition (Mozarteum) PDF: New Mozart Edition, *Handel: The Messiah* (K. 572) — introduction and source/work-process discussion including copyist “raw score,” Mozart’s entries, and van Swieten’s hand.