Kyrie in Eâ major (fragment; completed by M. Stadler), K. 322
di Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Mozartâs Kyrie in Eâ major (K. 322) is a surviving torso of a Mass movement from his Mannheim period (1778â79), left incomplete in draft form and later supplied with a completion by Abbé Maximilian Stadler. Even in fragmentary state, it shows Mozartâaged 22âthinking on an expansive, orchestral scale in sacred style.
What Is Known
The Kyrie in Eâ major, K. 322 (also catalogued as K. 296a), survives as an incomplete single movementâbest understood as the opening of an otherwise lost or unrealized Mass project from Mozartâs Mannheim stay (1778). The surviving sources preserve enough of Mozartâs musical draft that Abbé Maximilian Stadler (1748â1833), a later friend and colleague, could supply a performable completion after Mozartâs death.[1]
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Modern catalog and edition records consistently treat the work as a fragment, while also transmitting a practical scoring suitable for late-18th-century festive church music: SATB choir with oboes, bassoons, horns and trumpets in Eâ, timpani, strings, and organ/continuo.[2]
Musical Content
What survives is a compact, ceremonial Kyrie design in Eâ major, where choral writing is supported by a bright âchurch-orchestralâ paletteâtrumpets and timpani lending public, processional weight, while winds reinforce the harmony and color the choral textures.[2] The manuscriptâs very existence in Mannheim is suggestive: in 1778 Mozart was absorbing the cityâs famed orchestral sound, and even in sacred idiom he appears drawn to broader sonority and clear-cut, symphonic gestureâambitions that Stadlerâs completion attempts to carry through to a coherent close.[1]
[1] Carus-Verlag work page: Kyrie in E flat major, KV 322 â fragment completed by Maximilian Stadler; scoring and brief editorial description.
[2] IMSLP work page: Kyrie in E-flat major, K.322/296a â basic catalog data and instrumentation; public-domain score scan information.