This edition expressly does not present itself as an “Urtext” edition – a term questionable even by definition. Instead, it offers an edition of Mozart’s “Horn Quintet” K. 407 based on a previously overlooked source: a manuscript copy from Seitenstetten Abbey (shelfmark V 260), notable for its highly logical articulation, phrasing and dynamic markings.
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Origins and dedicatee
The date of composition can only be narrowed down to the years 1781–1783. Mozart wrote the quintet for the horn player Joseph Leitgeb (1732–1811), who came from a Viennese family of musicians – according to his baptismal record of 6 October 1732, he was the “son of the violinist Leopold Leitgeb”. Leitgeb held posts in Vienna and Salzburg, toured for a time as a soloist, and moved back to Vienna in 1777. Mozart remained on exceptionally friendly terms with Leitgeb and his family until his own death in 1791. Leitgeb repeatedly asked for horn compositions, and this quintet is one of them.
However, the original manuscript has not survived, and there is no evidence of when the work was composed: the quintet K. 407 is missing from Mozart’s own thematic catalogue, which he kept from 1784.
The sources known so far
After Mozart’s death, his widow Constanze negotiated with several publishers about the publication of his works. Around 1800, the publisher André finally acquired almost all of the manuscripts. The quintet K. 407, however, had already appeared in 1796 as a first edition from the Leipzig publisher Schmiedt & Rau, under the title “QUINTETTO / pour / COR VIOLIN DEUX ALTO ET BASSE / compose par / W. A. MOZART / Leipsic chez Schmiedt & Rau”.
When André asked Constanze Mozart about works with horn, she suspected that Leitgeb owned some original compositions. On 31 May 1800 she informed the publisher that she had been mistaken, writing (in German) that Leitgeb had nothing but a copy of a “Quintetto in Dis a corno solo, violino, viola prima, viola secunda, violoncello”, of which André probably held the original.
Yet among the Mozart manuscripts André had acquired, no reference to an original of this work was ever found. In 1802 André published his own edition, which contains two major cuts in the first and third movements as well as numerous differences from the equally unreliable first edition by Schmiedt & Rau. In 1799 the Viennese publisher Artaria had already issued an edition, on which Constanze Mozart also reported to André in 1800; in it, the horn is replaced by a second cello.
All of these facts were taken into account in the Neue Mozart-Ausgabe (New Mozart Edition) of 1958. Using the same source material, the publisher Henle attempted an “Urtext edition” in 2009.
The Seitenstetten manuscript copy
Inexplicably, these editions overlook one source, which is presented here. The music collection of Seitenstetten Abbey in Austria holds, alongside other manuscript copies of horn compositions, a copy titled “Quintetto / a / Corno Solo in Dis / Violino / Viola Primo / Viola Secondo / Violoncello / Del Sigre. Mozart” (shelfmark V 260).
The title is almost identical to the one Constanze Mozart gave to André for the piece in Leitgeb’s possession. The designation “Corno in Dis” (Dis = E-flat) points to a very early date for the copy, since “in Dis” was generally no longer used after 1800.
On 20 January 1849, a certain “Fr. Walter” added a cello part to the copy, which he arranged from the horn part. On the title page he added – recognisable by the entirely different handwriting – a few notes: “(zu Köchels Katalog No. 407); … oder in Ermangelung Violoncello Solo; op. 108” (“to Köchel’s catalogue no. 407; … or, lacking a cello, solo; op. 108”).
The copy must be regarded as very close in time to Mozart’s date of composition. Compared with the André edition and the first edition by Schmiedt & Rau, it stands out for its highly logical articulation, phrasing and dynamic markings.
