Kyrie in C major (K. Anh.C 1.39)
ヴォルフガング・アマデウス・モーツァルト作
The Kyrie in C major (K. Anh.C 1.39) survives as a very short, self-contained setting of the Mass Ordinary, preserved in score on a single bifolium. Although long associated with Mozart in older catalogues, modern scholarship treats the attribution as incorrect and identifies the piece as spurious—most often connected with Johann Ernst Eberlin (1702–1762), a central figure in Salzburg church music.
Background and Context
K. Anh.C 1.39 is transmitted as an extant, “completed” Kyrie movement, but without secure documentation for date, place, or original liturgical occasion [1]. The Köchel Catalogue Online lists its authenticity as “incorrectly assigned” and does not name Mozart as composer—an important caution for any attempt to situate the work within Mozart’s career [1].
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In Salzburg practice, short Mass movements and stand-alone Kyrie settings were functional music: compact in scale, designed to fit the constraints of the service while still offering clear text projection and orderly tonal design. In that light, this little Kyrie is best heard not as a “missing link” in Mozart’s development, but as a small specimen from the same ecclesiastical milieu in which Mozart himself learned and worked.
Musical Character
The surviving source is described as a four-part Kyrie in score (Kyrie vierstimmig), notated on a single leaf (one bifolium, written on two pages) [1]. That description points to a straightforward choral texture (SATB) typical of practical church repertory—music intended to be sung reliably by available forces, likely with organ and/or instruments doubling the voices as local custom required (no independent orchestral scoring is specified in the catalogue entry) [1].
In C major, the setting’s tonal language would have aligned naturally with Salzburg’s preference for bright, ceremonially “public” church sonorities; the economy implied by its two-page length suggests a concise formal plan that keeps the plea of “Kyrie eleison” moving, rather than expanding into a concerted, multi-sectional design. For listeners familiar with Salzburg sacred style, its compact four-voice scoring is also consistent with the idiom cultivated by Johann Ernst Eberlin—an idiom Mozart absorbed early, even when the notes themselves are not Mozart’s.
[1] International Stiftung Mozarteum, Köchel Catalogue Online: work entry for KV Anh. C 1.39 (“Kyrie in C”) with authenticity status and source description.
[2] Wikipedia: Köchel catalogue table entry listing Anh.C 1.39 as “spurious (by Johann Ernst Eberlin)”.