After, I confess, a somewhat longer pause than anticipated, we return with the first of a series of posts on recently-digitized items from the collection. As always, these and many other scores are available in our collection of Digital Scores and Libretti.

To begin, I’ve selected a set of compositions by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: published editions, as well as copyist’s manuscripts, likely made from first or early editions. They’re assembled in a volume of music that may have been prepared for Count Anton Georg Apponyi, a member of the Gesellschaft der Associierten, the Viennese musical society founded in 1786 by Baron Gottfried van Swieten. It includes:

[Sonatas, piano, K. 533/494, F major]. Sonate pour le clavecin ou piano-forte, oeuvre 44 composé par W.A. Mozart. Vienne: Artaria, [1798].

RISM A/I, M/MM 6849

Artaria’s reissue of K. 533 and K. 494, from Hoffmeister’s first edition of 1788.

XIV. différentes pieces pour le piano forte par W.A. Mozart. A Paris: Chez Pleyel, [1805?].

RISM A/I, M/MM 7458

Volume 5 of Pleyel’s Collection complette des œuvres de piano par W.A. Mozart, containing 14 pieces for piano.

[Rondos, piano, K. 511, A minor]. No. 2o Rondeau pour le forte piano, ou clavicembalo composé par Mr. W.A. Mozart; J. Gyenis [copyist?]. Manuscript, ca. 1795-1800.

Manuscript music notated in ink on 8-stave paper with a watermark of 3 crescent moons and the letters “FA.” Originally composed in 1787; this manuscript probably derives from the 1st or a very early edition: the notation in measure 161 in the left hand corresponds to the autograph. Includes early (possibly contemporary) manuscript fingering to the bass line of measures 122-124. Some notation to measure 40 is lacking, and added in pencil in an early hand.

The last 2 pages of music are in a different hand, with the initials “MA.” This unidentified piece – arpeggiated passages over a chordal progression – consists of a simple tune, possibly for violin with piano accompaniment, with a correction and one measure crossed out, indicating that it may have been composed as a teaching piece.

[Sonatas, violin, piano, K. 454, B♭ major]. Sonata pour le clavecin ou piano forte avec un violon, no 21 par Mr. W.A. Mozart. Manuscript, ca. 1795-1800.

A manuscript of the keyboard part only, notated in ink on 8-stave paper with a watermark of 3 crescent moons and the letters “BAC.” K. 454 was composed in 1784 and published by Christoph Torricella in July; this copy was probably made from the first or an early edition.

On the verso of a the final leaf is a 1 page song notated in both ink and pencil, in a different hand.

[Trios, piano, strings, K. 496, G major]. Trio in G per il cembalo ò fortepiano, violino e violoncello del sig: W:A: Mozart. Manuscript, ca. 1795-1800.

A manuscript of the keyboard part of the Piano Trio in G major, K. 496, notated in ink on 8-stave paper with a watermark incorporating a canopy over the letter “A” countered by “GF” over “C.” At the bottom of the title page, in different ink, is written “Graf Anton Nr. 21 [crossed out, with “19” substituted] Sonate uman.”

This trio was composed in 1786 and published in Vienna by Hoffmeister in the same year; this copy was likely made from the 1st or an early edition.

[Quartets, piano, strings, K. 478, G minor]. Quartetto per il clavicembalo o forte piano accompagnement violino, viola, e violoncello del sig: W:A: Mozart. Manuscript, ca. 1795-1800.

A manuscript of the keyboard part of the String Quartet in G minor, K. 478, notated in ink on 8-stave paper with a watermark of 3 crescent moons over “Real,” a canopy, and the letters “GL,” similar to the watermark on paper Mozart used in 1791 for sketches of Die Zauberflöte. The quartet, composed in 1785, was published by Hoffmeister in December of that year; this copy was probably prepared from the 1st or an early edition.

“Graf Anton Apponyi” is written in light pencil at the right hand corner of the title page; at the bottom of the title page, in ink, is “Graf Anton” is scratched out, and “angefangen den 2. December N17 (corrected from 19) Anton” written below. In the score, early penciled annotations include fingering, accidentals, and dynamics.

The Loeb Music Library holds multiple copies of the other two pieces in this volume, and had already digitized these copies:

[Sonatas, violin, piano. Selections]. Six sonates pour le clavecin, ou pianoforte avec l’accompagnoment [sic] d’un violon, oeuvre II par Wolf. Amadee Mozart. Vienne: Artaria, [1781].

First edition, 1st issue, RISM A/I, M 6492

Mozart’s first works to be printed in Vienna, after his arrival in the city in March of 1781.

This copy is part of the Biblioteca Mozartiana Eric Offenbach (BMEO); digitized along with the score are a photocopy of a letter from Alexander Weinmann to Eric Offenbacher regarding the edition and Weinmann’s speculations about a possible earlier publication by Torricella, and a typewritten note containing information on this work.

[Symphonies, K. 543, E♭ major; arr.]. Wolfg. Ama. Mozarts grosse Sinfonie ins Claviergesetzt und dem verdienstvollen Tonküstler und Verehrer dieses unvergesslichen Meisters … von Johann Wenzel. Prag: Zu haben beÿm Verfasser; Leipzig: In der Breitkopfischen Buchhandlung, [ca. 1794].

First edition, RISM A/I, M 5540

– Kerry Masteller