Church Sonata in C Major, K. 329 (317a)
Program Notes by Martin Pearlman
This miniature single-movement work for solo organ with orchestra is one of seventeen sonatas that Mozart composed for use in church services in Salzburg. While most of the sonatas only call for a small string ensemble with organ continuo, this is one of just a few that call for larger forces. In addition to the organ, which is given some obbligato passages in this sonata, the score calls for oboes, horns, trumpets, timpani, and strings (without violas).
Although the score is undated, it is thought that Mozart wrote this sonata about the same time as his Coronation Mass, which is dated March 1779, and that it is meant to be performed in the same service as that mass. It is in the same key as the mass and has the same orchestration, the largest of any church sonata. When Alfred Einstein revised Koechel's numbering of Mozart's works, he altered the number of this sonata from K. 329 to K. 317a to reflect its connection with the mass, which is K. 317.
The normal place in the church service for such a sonata would have been between the Gloria and the Credo, as the celebrant moves from one side of the choir, where he has read the epistle, to the other side, where he reads the gospel. It would be appropriate, therefore, to insert this brief sonata between the Gloria and the Credo in a performance of Mozart's Coronation Mass.
Boston Baroque Performances
Church Sonata in C Major, K. 329 (317a)
March 6, 1992
NEC’s Jordan Hall, Boston, MA
Martin Pearlman, conductor
Soloist:
Peter Sykes, organ
March 23, 1990
NEC’s Jordan Hall, Boston, MA
Martin Pearlman, conductor
Soloist:
Peter Sykes, organ