Mozart's Serenade in B Flat, K.370a (K.361): a critical look at its historicity

Abstract

Though there has long been debate concerning the dating and the inception of the Serenade for Thirteen Instruments in B Flat Major, K. 370a (K. 361), the greatest inquiry has arisen in this century with the public discovery and examination of the autograph score. Coincidental with traditional Mozart scholarship has been that which finds parallels in the wind band movement of this country encompassing the past twenty-five to thirty years. With the growing importance of the wind ensemble and its capacity to perform literature of various instrumentations, many contemporary scholars from the U.S. as well as Europe have responsibly probed questions directly related to early wind music, particularly the period of the late eighteenth century. Notable among these are Frederick Fennell, David Whitwell, Daniel Leeson and Neal Zaslaw of the United States, and Marius Flothuis, Erik Smith, and Roger Hellyer of Europe. Through their efforts much new information has come to light which both changes the perspective by which certain works have come to be viewed, and the very nature of performance practice itself. Indeed, the current deepening involvement with the wind ensemble approach in our colleges, universities, and even selected high schools, demands that solid historical inquiry be made concerning all early wind literature. Only in this way will wind players, conductors, and eventually the listening public become conscious of the aesthetic value of this music in our society. The Serenade in B Flat, despite the ambiguity surrounding its inception and the accuracy of the various manuscript and printed editions, is a vital staple in the repertoire of the wind band as well as that of the orchestra. In that it comes from the pen of Mozart's maturity and constitutes such an extensive display of imaginative writing within its seven movement span, the unreserved attention it receives in performance is easily matched by its musicological significance. This paper attempts to examine in general terms the period of harmoniemusik, Mozart's contributions to this genre, as well as the critical aspects of K. 370a in some detail. Included in the Appendices is a chronological list of owners of the autograph score, a survey list of Mozart's strictly wind works, a formal analysis of K. 370a, and a complete harmonic analysis of the Neue Mozart Ausgabe (NMA) score. Frequent use of the following abbreviations should be noted: AMA = Gesammtausgabe Mozart's Werke (1878 -1905); NMA = Neue Mozart Ausgabe (1955 and on); K1, K3, K6, K7 = respective Köchel catalogue editions. The use of Köchel numbers is in accordance with the latest major revision of the catalogue, namely, the sixth edition; older Köchel numbers appear in brackets. A comparison of Köchel equivalents between K1, K3 and K6 is given in Appendix A.