10037 – Ave Verum corpus K618

W.A. Mozart (1756-1791)

Arranged by Roger Harvey

Difficulty: Easy

Price: £20

Programme notes:

Mozart wrote this touching, simple piece in June of his miraculous last year, 1791. It was composed for the feast of Corpus Christi, a particularly important ceremony in the Austrian Church calendar, in which the entire community took part to celebrate the unity of Mother Church and Mother Earth.

The ceremony had been restricted by Emperor Joseph II as part of his religious reforms and this was the first reappearance of it since its reinstatement by Leopold II. Mozart’s’ deliberately unadorned, devotional style is in keeping with Joseph’s intentions and is also in accord with Mozart’s desire at the time to present church music as directly appealing.

Ave Verum Corpus was written for a friend Anton Stoll and first performed at the parish church of Baden.

Performance notes:

Aim for a pure cantabile style throughout with no excesses of expression or articulation. Simple music such as this requires excellent phrasing, careful tuning and good balance between the voices.