Wolfgang Amadé Mozart - The Compleat Mozart (Neal Zaslaw)
Terms and Abbreviations
Köchel Numbers
See Appendix A for a description of the Köchel Catalogue and its system of assigning numbers.
Whenever possible, The Compleat Mozart cites a given composition of Mozart by the chronological number it received in the original edition of the Köchel Catalogue (K1). If the composition bears a different number in K6 (the most recent edition of the Köchel Catalogue), the number is given in parentheses following the title of the composition. For example,
K. 165 Exsultate, jubilate, in F major (K6 158a)
K. 492 Le nozze di Figaro
If the composition has ever borne a different number in any intermediate edition of the Köchel Catalogue, that number is also given in parentheses. For example,
K. 139 Missa solemnis in C minor, “Waisenhaus” (K3 114a, K6 47a)
If the composition did not appear in K1, or if it appeared only in the Appendix of the Köchel Catalogue (the Anhang, commonly abbreviated Anh) where numbers do not follow chronology, it is cited in The Compleat Mozart by the first chronological number it received in later editions. For example,
K3 45a Symphony in G major, “Lambach” (K1 Anh 221)
In the course of the text, however, the “Lambach” Symphony may be referred to simply as K. 45a, without the special prefix K3.
K1
L. von Köchel, Chronologisch-thematisches Verzeichnis der Werke W. A. Mozarts (Leipzig, 1862).
K2
L. von Köchel, Chronologisch-thematisches Verzeichnis der Werke W. A. Mozarts, 2nd edn. by P. von Waldersee (Leipzig, 1905).
K3
L. von Köchel, Chronologisch-thematisches Verzeichnis der Werke W. A. Mozarts, 3rd edn. by A. Einstein (Leipzig, 1937).
K3a
L. von Köchel, Chronologisch-thematisches Verzeichnis der Werke W. A. Mozarts, repr. of 3rd edn. with supplement by A. Einstein (Ann Arbor, 1947).
K6
L. von Köchel, Chronologisch-thematisches Verzeichnis sämtlicher Tonwerke Wolfgang Amadé Mozarts nebst Angabe der verlorengegangenen, angefangenen, von fremder Hand bearbeiteten, zweifelhaften und unterschobenen Kompositionen, 6th edn. by F. Giegling, A. Weinmann, and G. Sievers (Wiesbaden, 1964).
K. deest
This indicates a work by (or attributed to) Mozart that does not appear in any edition of the Köchel Catalogue. It is a form of the Latin verb deesse, which means “to be not present”.
* (asterisk)
In The Compleat Mozart, this symbol indicates that Mozart derived the work in question from an earlier composition, and that the derived work has no independent number in the Köchel Catalogue. For example, Mozart derived the Symphony in D major, numbered K. *135 in The Compleat Mozart, from the Overture to the opera Lucio Silla, K. 135. Similarly, Mozart derived both a Symphony in D major and a Sinfonia concertante in G major, both here numbered K. *320 from the “Post Horn” Serenade, K. 320.
basso
The Italian word for “bass”, it can mean a low man’s voice, an instrument that plays in the bass register (the cello, for instance), or the lowest sounding line of a musical composition. In the last sense, it is sometimes also a shortened version of the more or less synonymous basso continuo (literally “continuous bass” or, in English, thoroughbass). Mozart nearly always labeled the lowest sounding line of his scores either basso in Italian or Bass in German. These terms designated not a particular instrument or instruments, but the harmonic-structural bottom line of a musical composition. Which instruments realized that line depended to a great extent on the genre of the music in question. It could be just a cello (as in much chamber music); or just a double bass (as in many divertimentos and perhaps some orchestral music as well); or a cello plus a double bass (as in Eine kleine Nachtmusik, K. 525); or a cello, a double bass, and a bassoon (or several of each of these) with or without a keyboard instrument playing along and adding chords (as in much orchestral music and opera); or an organ alone or with a double bass (as in some church music), as well as various other configurations. It is sometimes possible to ascertain what Mozart had in mind for a particular work, but other times not. In The Compleat Mozart, therefore, basso has been left untranslated in the enumerations of instrumentation.
continuo (or basso continuo)
This indicates that the keyboard instrument in question (organ, harpsichord, or piano) functions as a component of the basso part: the performer plays the basso notes as written and improvises harmonies above them. Mozart uses keyboard continuo in his church compositions, his operatic recitatives, and a few of his songs and early chamber works. Its use is implied in certain other types of music, such as the tutti sections of piano concertos where no solo part is written out.
doubling
This indicates that a player of the instrument in question is expected to play a different instrument in part of the composition. For example, the Symphony No. 24 in B flat major, K. 182, calls for 2 oboes (doubling flutes), indicating that both oboists must play flutes in part of the work.
SATB
soprano, alto, tenor, and bass voices used chorally; similarly ATB (in the Miserere, K. 85), TTB (in the Masonic works, K. 429, 471, 483, 484), etc.
S/A/T/B
(used with the word soli) soprano, alto, tenor, and bass voices used soloistically within a choral work; similarly S/T (in the Dixit et Magnificat, K. 193), S/S/T/B (in the Mass, K. 427), etc.
strings
2 violins, viola, and basso – the standard orchestral string complement in Mozart’s time.