Credo in D major (fragment), K. 707
von Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Mozart’s Credo in D major (fragment), K. 707, is a surviving portion of a projected Mass Ordinary movement, written in Vienna in 1787. What remains is too incomplete to represent a full Mass, yet it offers a telling glimpse of Mozart’s late-Viennese approach to liturgical choral writing at age 31.
What Is Known
Only a fragmentary setting of the Mass Credo survives under the title Credo in D major, K. 707, and it is generally dated to Vienna, 1787.[1] The work is transmitted as incomplete liturgical material rather than a finished, performable movement; modern reference catalogues therefore treat it chiefly as a fragment, not as part of a completed Mass.[2]
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In biographical terms, the dating places it in the intensely theatrical Viennese period between Le nozze di Figaro (1786) and Don Giovanni (premiered in Prague in October 1787), when Mozart’s sacred output was largely occasional and intermittent.[3]
Musical Content
What survives suggests the opening of a credal proclamation in D major, conceived for choral forces in a late-18th-century Viennese idiom: direct, public-facing, and designed to carry a long text through clear cadences and strong tonal orientation.[1] Even in fragmentary form, the choice of D major—so often associated with brilliance and ceremonial tone in Mozart—fits the Credo’s rhetorical function as a statement of faith rather than an intimate supplication.[4]
[1] Wikipedia: List of compositions by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (entry includes K. 707 as a Credo fragment, with date/location summary).
[2] Caltech (T. A. Tan): Mozart sacred works list (includes K. 707 as a Credo fragment).
[3] Encyclopaedia Britannica: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart biography (context for Mozart’s Viennese years and 1787 output).
[4] Wikipedia: D major (key characteristics and common associations in classical-era usage).