Mozart Partita Project
The Mozart Partita Project is a very exciting and ambitious project: the first-ever publication of four works attributed to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. This music, written for harmonie (2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, with optional double bass), has been unpublished for over 200 years, and represents the collaboration of several experts in assembling the very first fully edited and annotated performance edition.

The partitas are of questionable, or “spurious,” origin, since the authorship cannot be authenticated, but many compelling arguments exist pointing to the possibility of their having been composed by Mozart. They are listed in the Köchel catalogue in Anhang C (i.e. Appendix C), along with other unconfirmed works. Three are full-length partitas and one is a single movement divertimento. The scores for each are fully annotated and provide extensive introductory notes, performance instructions, and reference material.

Partita in E flat Major K. Anh. C 17.03
Partita in E flat Major K. Anh. C 17.04 & unnumbered Rondo
Partita in F Major K. Anh. C 17.05
Adagio/Allegro in E flat Major K. Anh. C 17.07

Editor’s Introduction
In the spring of 1996, I approached Daniel N. Leeson about sources for the “Anhang” octets listed in Appendix C of the Köchel catalogue, a rarely performed group of four wind octets attributed to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Dan is the co-editor (with Neil Zazslaw) of the wind music of Mozart for the Bärenreiter Neue Mozart-Ausgabe Edition of Mozart’s complete works. He is the worldÕs leading authority on the wind music of Mozart.

During his travels in the late 1960s and early 1970s he had come across manuscripts in the Klementinum University Library in Prague. Some of these were manuscripts from the Johann Traeg copy house—Johann Traeg was perhaps Mozart’s favourite copyist. (In his introduction to this Northdale Music Press performance edition, Dan explains in detail the professional relationship between Traeg, Mozart, and Mozart’s wife, Konstanze, and provides a scholarly argument as to the possibility of these works being authentic Mozart.)

In the early 70s there were no photocopy machines in Prague, so Dan hired (at great expense!) a photographer to take pictures of each page of the scores to these Anhang octets and numerous other works. The photographs of these Anhang octets now reside in the library of the University of Toronto Faculty of Music.

When I approached him about the octets, Dan provided me with the photographs he’d had taken in Prague of K. Anh. C 17.04, 17.05 and 17.07, and a set of copied parts for these works. A copy of the score for K. Anh. 17.03 was obtained from Jim Cochrane of St. Louis. I then asked Northdale Music Press if they would be interested in publishing these works. The fruits of our efforts—the first detailed performance edition of these works—are in your hands now. I am deeply indebted to Dan Leeson for his assistance and guidance during this project.

I would also like to thank the members of The Symphony Winds, a group of wind players and colleagues of mine from the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, for their participation in this project. Their input and assistance has been invaluable.

Great care has been taken to preserve all of the original markings (or alternatively, footnote in detail changes of these originals) found in the photographs. There were hundreds of ambiguous and conflicting dynamic and articulation markings in this material. Wherever changes to the markings were made for this performance edition, they have been footnoted with a reference to the original source material.
—David Bourque, Toronto, July 1997

David Bourque has been the Bass Clarinetist with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra since 1983. He is also very active in the sound and film recording industry in Toronto. Mr. Bourque has played in many harmoniemusik ensembles over the years, among them the Toronto Chamber Winds, The Festival Winds and most recently The Symphony Winds. He has had a number of works written for him by Toronto composer Gary Kulesha, including a chamber concerto for bass clarinet and wind octet, commissioned by the Toronto Chamber Winds. David Bourque is Canada’s leading bassethorn player and is in demand as a chamber music musician.