Wolfgang Amadé Mozart - The Compleat Mozart (Neal Zaslaw)
Vocal music and related works
Canons
Background and overview
The canon is at once the simplest and strictest of all compositional procedures. It is the earliest technique to be grasped by children, in the singing of rounds; and yet it has furnished a point of departure for the most sophisticated counterpoint, from polyphonic masses of the mid-Renaissance masters to the late instrumental works of J. S. Bach.
Although by Mozart’s time the canon had waned in importance in concert and church music, it remained very much alive both in the popular singing of rounds and as a pedagogical subject in the teaching of composition. Mozart’s canons reflect both of these uses. On one hand there are large groups of pedagogical or study-canons dating both from the period of his Italian tutelage in the early 1770s and from the time he taught composition in Vienna in the mid-1780s, On the other hand there is a cornucopia of popular canons and rounds of all types; very few of these can be precisely dated, but they are usually presumed to have originated mainly as a byproduct of his convivial social life in Viennese musical circles of the 1780s. The fact that Mozart intended his canons for strictly personal use is suggested by his having recorded none of them in his catalogue of compositions, except for an apparently retrospective group of ten in 1788. Given the ephemeral nature of Mozart’s canons, it is fortunate that a large number of them have been preserved.
In discussing Mozart’s canons, one may distinguish between relatively complex canons and simpler rounds, the latter consisting of a series of voice entries always at the same pitch, and always at regular intervals of time. An “interval canon” is one in which each new voice begins at a given pitch-interval above or below the previous voice. Mozart often penned his canons in “abbreviated” notation, that is, in only one voice, with the entries for the other voices being indicated by signs or verbal directions. (This is, in fact, the origin of the term canon, meaning the “rule” or “directions” for singing a piece in abbreviated notaion.)
It deserves mention that Mozart also composed a fair number of canonic passages as sections of larger works. Like Joseph Haydn, Mozart occasionally turned his minuet trios into canons, especially in the Salzburg serenades. (Beethoven later followed this lead in his piano sonatas opuses 101 and 106.) There are occasional canons in vocal works as well, notably in the Act II finale of Così fan tutte, and the “Rex tremendae majestatis” and “Recordare” of the Requiem. Thus Mozart’s interest in canonic procedures is attested in many periods and avenues of his career.
W.C.
K2 89a I Canon in A major, 4 or 5 voices in 1 (K6 73i)
Origin: Rome? April 1770?
K. 89 Kyrie in G major (K6 73k)
Origin: Rome? May 1770?
K2 89a II 4 Riddle Canons (K6 73r):
“Incipe Menalios”, 3 voices in 1
“Cantate Domino”, 9 voices in 1
“Confitebor tibi Domini”, 2 voices in 1, + 3rd voice
“Thebana bella cantus”, 6 voices in 2
Origin: Bologna? July or August 1770?
K6 73x Canonic Studies (K3 Anh 109d)
Origin: Italy or Salzburg? Summer 1770 or later?
K. deest Canon in A Minor, 8 voices in 1
Origin: Italy or Salzburg? Summer 1770 or later?
These various canons and canon groups are preserved among manuscripts that contain a large number of studies, fragments, and sketches; they appear to date from about the time of Mozart’s first Italian tour, or perhaps slightly later in Salzburg. In the most recent Köchel catalogue (K6), most of these items are included among the entries 73h to 73x. It is possible that the manuscripts all belonged to a notebook or series of notebooks that Mozart carried with him on his journey.
The earliest can on appears to be K. 89a I, a textless round. Mozart notated the canon as a single line of fifteen measures, with indications for the entrance of each new voice at measures 4, 7, and 10. It may be reasonably assumed that a fifth voice should enter at measure 13, for otherwise certain triadic harmonies are left incomplete as the canon repeats itself. In recent times, the jovial tune has been underlaid with various lyrics, including “Hei, wenn die Gläser klingen ...” (Hey, when glasses clink) and “Hei, wenn Musik erklinget ...” (Hey, when music sounds).
The Kyrie, K. 89, is a much more substantial work; it is, in fact, a full-fledged composition suitable for practical liturgical use. It is generally believed that Mozart composed this work under the influence of the Florence court composer, the Marquis de Ligniville, who was known for his expertise in strict counterpoint. Mozart met and studied with Ligniville in April 1770, and copied parts of the latter’s canonic setting of the Stabat Mater in his notebooks. K. 89 consists of a series of three canons on the texts “Kyrie eleison”, “Christe eleison”, and “Kyrie eleison”. The three canons are tailored to lead into each other without a pause, and there is a cadential coda at the end. The ethereal work is notable for its skillful modulation through several tonal centers.
The four Riddle (or Puzzle) Canons, K. 89a II, are closely modeled on works of another Italian composer, Padre Giovanni Battista Martini, with whom Mozart studied in Bologna in March and October 1770. At the beginning and end of each chapter of Martini’s Storia della Musica (History of Music, 3 vols., 1757-81), the author placed beautifully engraved vignettes, each one containing a canon. (One of the vignettes is reprinted as the introductory illustration to the present essay.) They must have struck Mozart’s fancy, for not only did he write out solutions to several of the canons, he also composed four of his own using the same texts and similar canonic structures. The “riddles” consist of terse Latin epigrams that give a clue to the solution of each canon. For example, Mozart’s riddle for the first canon is, ”Sit trium series una” (Let there be one series of three [parts]).
The Canonic Studies, K6 73x, include several more solutions to Martini’s riddle canons, together with a few canons that may be original compositions. In K6 (p. 113) these are the studies no. 1 for twelve voices, no. 2 for twelve voices, the retrograde canon no. 6, and no. 7 for six voices; K3 (p. 832) mentions another canon for 4 voices, which is edited by G. Wolters in Mozart-Kanons im Urtext (Wölfenbüttel: Möseler, 1956). The occasion for these various studies is unknown.
With these last canons may be grouped an eight-voice round in A minor (K deest). It is preserved on a recently discovered leaf of studies, one of which is a solution of a Martini canon. It is published in the Mozart Jahrbuch of 1971-72, p. 431.
W.C.
K. 229 Canon in C minor, 3 voices in 1 (K6 382a)
K. 230 Canon in C minor, 2 voices in 1 (K6 382b)
K. 231 Canon in B flat major, 6 voices in 1, “Leck mich im Arsch” (K6 382c)
K. 233 Canon in B flat major, 3 voices in 1, “Leck mir den Arsch fein recht schön sauber” (K6 382d)
K. 234 Canon in G major, 3 voices in 1, “Bei der hitz im Sommer ess ich” (K6 382e)
K. 347 Canon in D major, 6 voices in 1 (K6 382f)
K. 348 Canon in G major, 12 voices in 4, “V’amo di core teneramente” (K6 382g)
Origin (of all the above): Vienna? c. 1782?
These seven canons are known mainly in posthumous editions: for the first five there is no trace of an autograph, and for the last the autograph is lost. The hypothetical date of c. 1782 was proposed for all of them by musicologist Alfred Einstein in K3, because the texts of K. 231, 233, and 234 would seem to owe their existence to the “bright social life” of Mozart’s early Viennese years. Ludwig Köchel (in K1) had previously dated them somewhat earlier, since their occasionally obscene lyrics find a counterpart in Mozart’s correspondence from his Salzburg years. However, the presence of similarly obscene lyrics in certain later Viennese canons, especially K. 559 through 561, might argue just as well for an origin in the middle or late 1780s. (In fact, K. 232, which has the same history of dissemination as K. 229-234, can be reasonably dated in 1787; see the note below).
K. 229 and 230 differ from the others in that they are not merely simple rounds, but extended essays in canonic counterpoint. They are, in fact, serenely beautiful little works, comparable in poignancy to the canonic Adagio for winds, K. 410. K. 229 is notable especially for its chromaticism, and K. 230 for the unusual entry of the answer on an offbeat. Breitkopf & Härtel published the works with underlaid poetic texts by L. H. C. Hölty (1748-76), the first as “Sie ist dahin, die Sängerin” (Gone is She, the Singer) from Auf den Tod einer Nachtigall (On the Death of a Nightingale), the second as “Selig alle sie, die im Herrn entschliefen” (Blessed [are] all who die in the Lord) from Elegie beim Grab meines Vaters (Elegy on My Father’s Grave).
K. 231, 233, and 234 were published with new words added: K. 231 as Lass froh uns sein (Let’s be joyous), K. 233 as Nichts labt mich mehr als Wein (Nothing pleases me more than wine), and K. 234 as Essen, trinken, das erhält den Leib (Eating, drinking support love). Tantalizingly, for each canon the edition cites only the first line of Mozart’s original texts; they were presumably written by Mozart and are somewhat off-color: “Kiss me on the ass”, “Kiss my ever so nice clean fine ass”, and “In the heat of summer I eat”. With or without Mozart’s texts, however, the music of these canons holds its own. K. 231 is an essay in progressive “series” counterpoint: the first answer is syncopated, the second is in half-note values, the third in quartered note values, and the fourth and fifth use mixed values, including eighths. K. 233 and 234 are examples of “fugue-canons”: each answer begins with a rest followed by a quasi-imitation of the previous voice, thus producing a stretto effect each time the cycle beings. K. 234, especially, is rich in further imitative devices among the voices.
K. 347 appeared in print similarly with an unauthentic text, Wo der perlende Wein im Glase blinkt (Where the effervescent wine sparkles in the glasses). The autograph is textless. The music has its own charm: Mozart sustains interest through the first five voice-entries by never resolving the harmonic progression. Only with the final entry does a full cadence occur.
K. 348 is a remarkable canon for three four-part choirs, each one entering as a unit. The work’s authenticity has been clouded by a letter of Mozart’s widow to the publisher Johann Anton André. In response to the latter’s doubts, Constanze claimed that “the V’amo looked like a fragment, but it is not, according to [Maximilian Stadler], who added to it just what he claims Mozart would have added – and he claims he could not possibly have added anything else – thereby making it a complete composition”. The music is perhaps not unworthy of Mozart, however. Though the harmonies are simple, the texture is enlivened by the deft use of hocketing (dovetailing sounds and silences through a staggered arrangement in two or more voices) and quasi-imitation from choir to choir. It is even possible to sing the canon with a fourth choral entry, at the second half of measure 4.
W.C.
K. 507 Canon in F major, 3 voices in 1
Origin: Vienna, between June 3 and August 1786
K. 508 Canon in F major, 3 voices in 1
Origin: Vienna, between June 3 and August 1786
K6 508A Canon in C major, 3 voices in 1
Origin: Vienna, after June 3, 1786
K3 508a and deest
2 Canons in F major, 3 voices in 1
14 Interval Canons in F major, 2 voices in 1
Origin: Vienna, between June 3 and August 1786
K. deest Canon in F major, 4 voices in 1
Origin: Vienna, August 1786 or earlier
K. 228 Canon in F major, 4 voices in 2 (K6 515b)
Origin: Vienna, August 1786 or earlier
It seems likely that Mozart penned these short canons primarily for purposes of study or pedagogy. There is no known practical occasion for any of them, although copies of most of them turn up in the notebooks kept by Thomas Attwood, who studied composition with Mozart from the autumn of 1785 until August 1786. This fixes the latest possible date of origin for all but two of the canons (K. 508A and 508a/2). Two facts suggest that all of these canons are interrelated in their origin: (1) all but one (K. 508A) are in F major, and (2) they all fall into groups of progressive interval canons, with the intervals following a more or less clear-cut arithmetical pattern.
K. 507, 508, and 508A appear together on a single manuscript page, where they follow a sketch for an early version of a movement of the piano quartet in E flat major, K. 493. Mozart dated the quartet June 3, 1786, the earliest possible date for the canons. K. 508A appears only as a sketch, but a viable final version can be reasonably ascertained. The three works are a series of apparently related three-voice interval canons, the first having answers both at the unison, the next having answers at the 2nd above and 6th below (= 3rd above), and the last having answers at the 3rd above and 9th (= 2nd) below. The first two of these canons were originally published with underlaid words by Gottfried Christoph Härtel, to which they are still often sung: “Heiterkeit und leichtes Blut” (Cheerfulness and high spirits) and “Auf das Wohl aller Freunde” (To the health of all our friends).
The eight canons of K. 508a appear, curiously, on a similar manuscript page that contains a sketch of the final version of the same movement of K. 493. The first two are three-voice interval canons: in 508a/1 the answering voices enter at 4th and 7th (= 4th above the 4th) above the first voice, in 508a/2 at the octave and the 11th (= 4th above the octave). The remaining are two-voice interval canons at the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th, each time with the answer entering lower than the first voice.
Attwood’s notebook (vol. 3, pp. 112-18) contains a copy of the six interval canons, K. 508a/3-8, together with a continuation of the series (K. deest). This includes six more canons at the same intervals as K. 508a/3-8, but with the answer entering higher than the first voice. To complete the scheme, there are also two canons at the unison, for a total of fourteen interval canons in all. (The Köchel catalogue does not assign numbers to the eight additional canons.)
Following the fourteen two-voice canons in Attwood’s notebook come copies of three three-voice canons, K. 507, K. 508, and K. 508a/1. Finally come two four-voice canons. The first of these (K. deest) is a simple round. The second, K. 228, is a double interval canon, the upper voice being answered at the 4th above (= 5th below) and the lower at the 5th below (= 4th above). Mozart was apparently fond of this last canon, for on April 24, 1787 he inserted it as a personal memento in the album of his friend Josef Franz von Jacquin, brother of Mozart’s close companion and student, Gottfried Von Jacquin. He inscribed the canon with a sentiment, curiously, in substandard English, “Don’t never forget your true and faithfull friend Wolfgang Amadè Mozart mp”. He wrote out the canon in abbreviated form but, again curiously, used an incorrect double clef for the upper voice. Perhaps to correct this error he recopied the canon in full score on a separate page of Jacquin’s book.
It should be added that an extant sketch for another four-voice interval canon in F major seems possibly to be related to this group of canons; the piece was later reworked into K6 562c (see below on p. 105).
W.C.
K. 232 Canon in G major, 4 voices in 1, Lieber Freistädtler, lieber Gaulimauli (K6 509a)
Origin: Vienna, after July 4 (and before October?), 1787
This comical canon pokes fun at one of Mozart’s students, Franz Jakob Freystädtler, whom he nicknamed “Gaulimauli” (horse-mouth), “Stachelschwein” (por-cupine), and “Herr Lilienfeld” (Mr. Lily-field). The text borrows words and phrases from Mozart’s farcical dramatic sketch, Der Salzburger Lump in Wien (The Salzburg Scoundrel in Vienna), penned at about the same time, in which the character of Freystädtler plays a role. The names Finto and Scultetti refer to other mutual acquaintances (the name Kitscha has not been identified); the canon has been dated on the basis of these personal references.
W.C.
K. 553 Canon in C major, 3 voices in 1, Alleluia
K. 554 Canon in F major, 4 voices in 1, Ave Maria
K. 555 Canon in A minor, 4 voices in 1, Lacrimoso son’io
K. 556 Canon in G major, 4 voices in 1, Grechtelt’s enk, wir gehn im Prater
K. 557 Canon in F minor, 4 voices in 1, Nascoso è il mio sol
K. 558 Canon in B flat major, 4 voices in 1, Gehn wir im Prater, gehn wir in d’Hetz
K. 559 Canon in F major, 3 voices in 1, Difficile lectu mihi Mars
K. 560 Canon in F major, 4 voices in 1, O du eselhafter Peierl! (K3 560a, K6 559a)
K. 561 Canon in A major, 4 voices in 1, Bona nox! bist a rechta Ox
K. 562 Canon in A major, 3 voices in 1, Caro bell’ idol mio
Origin (of all the above): Vienna? on or before September 2, 1788
Mozart entered this eclectic group of ten short rounds in his personal catalogue of compositions with the date of September 2, 1788. This fact is unusual for two reasons: (1) they are the only canons he entered into his catalogue, and (2) some extant sketches for K. 553 and 557 appear to date from at least as early as February 1787 (along with a sketch of K. 228 above). A possible explanation is that Mozart collected the canons together on that date for performance or dissemination. Indeed, several of the canons are preserved on slips of paper that appear to have been cut from a large autograph manuscript; moreover, the numbering of the canons on these slips of paper is congruent with their order in the catalogue. No occasion for such a collection has yet come to light.
K. 553 and 554 use simple sacred texts of two words each: “Alleluia, Amen”, and “Ave Maria”. The first uses a Gregorian cantus firmus, the incipit of the Alleluia for Holy Saturday, for its first line. The second is perhaps Mozart’s finest example of a “fugue-canon”, like K. 233 and 234.
K. 555, 557, and 562 use Italian texts taken from canons of the older Viennese court composer Antonio Caldara. The same three texts were also set as canons by Leopold Mozart and other composers; none other than Franz Schubert was later to make two more canonic settings of the text of K. 557. All of Mozart’s settings have a florid bel canto cast that is strikingly reminiscent of his operatic compositions. K. 555 is notable for its melismatic style, K. 557 for its use of chromatic and suspended harmonies, K. 562 for its thematic indebtedness – presumably intentional – to Caldara’s original setting.
K. 556 and 558 are textually related both in their use of pungent Viennese dialect and in their specific reference to the Prater, the large central park and fairground in Vienna. Though the lyrics (presumably by Mozart) of both canons are nonsense, they both appear to portray the same scene: an argumentative dialogue over whether or not to go on an outing to the park. Musically, both pieces make clever use of imitation and hocketing within each canonic cycle.
K. 559 and 560 both arose as jokes aimed at Johann Nepomuk Peyerl, a Bavarian tenor who entered Mozart’s circle around the end of 1785, and who was reportedly much teased about his dialect. The text of K. 559 is nonsense Latin, but the words “lectu mihi Mars” presumably became “leck du mich im Arsch” (kiss my ass) in Peyerl’s pronunciation; K. 560 continues this verbal motif in explicit German. Both texts are presumably by Mozart. As in several of the canons already mentioned, the music makes brilliant use of imitative and hocket-like devices. K. 560a, especially, possesses the clock-worklike vocal interplay of a well-wrought opera buffa ensemble. (It also exists in a slightly revised later version, K. 560b [K6 560], using the name “Martin” instead of “Peyerl”.)
K. 561 is a fitting conclusion to Mozart’s comic canons. The text, presumably by Mozart, says ”good night” with an insult in five languages, then ends with a memorable sentiment in Viennese dialect, “sleep tight, and stick your ass to your mouth”. Its terse but intricate musical setting is of a piece with the other comic canons; the final words are set to a cadential formula that is appropriately assertive.
W.C.
K3 562a Canon in B flat major, 4 voices in 1
Origin: Vienna? 1780s?
This tiny canon has no known text, but the presence of a group of unbeamed eighth-notes (consecutive, but with separate flags) in the fourth bar suggests that it had words at some stage. Though suitable to be sung at the unison, the lost autograph manuscript (extant only in a published photo-facsimile) assigns the entries to voices in three different octaves.
W.C.
K3 562c Canon in C major, 4 voices in 1 (K1 Anh 191)
Origin: Vienna? 1780s?
For this canon there exists an undatable sketch in F major. Like Mozart’s other F major “pedagogical” canons it is an interval canon: each voice enters a 2nd (or 9th) below the previous voice. In view of its four-voice texture, it is arguably the most complex of all the interval canons. The C major version is unique among Mozart’s canons in assigning each voice to a specific instrument: two violins, viola, and “basso”. The occasion of this arrangement is unknown.
W.C.