Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
Early copyist manuscript of Die Entführung aus dem Serail, K.384, n.p. [Austria], n.d. [?late 18th century or early 19th century]
An early copy of the full score of Die Entführung aus dem Serail, made before the first edition was published by Simrock at Bonn in 1813 and containing the earlier extended version of bars 79-93 from Belmonte’s Act 3 aria ‘Ich baue ganz’.

Full score of the complete opera notated in brown ink by at least four copyists. c.442 pages, 260 x 360mm, hand-ruled with 10-16 staves per page, title and libretto in German, instrumentation and tempo markings Italian. Early 19th-century quarter calf binding, marbled boards.

Provenance:
(1) Otto Haas, London, cat. 45, no 53; acquired October 2010.

(2) Schøyen Collection, MS 5443.

Mozart made a number of revisions to Die Entführung aus dem Serail in the process of copying out a performing score from the autograph in advance of the premiere at Vienna’s Burgtheater on 16 July 1782. Significant revisions were made to Belmonte’s Act 3 aria ‘Ich baue ganz auf deine Stärke’ in the autograph score: Mozart revised certain passages on three new pages glued into the score, reducing bars 79-93 from the earlier version. In these substantive revisions, Mozart promoted wind effects to a greater extent than originally planned.

The first edition of the opera in piano-vocal score had appeared in 1785, published by Schott; the first edition of the full score was published by Simrock at Bonn c.1813. The present manuscript presumably derives from a source copied before Mozart's changes were made in rehearsal; it must pre-date the 1813 Simrock edition, which enshrined the reduced version of the aria in print.