Four Sonatas for Violin & Piano (K.6-9): Early Sonatas I

Mozart Four Sonatas for Violin & Piano K.6-9: Early Sonatas I

When Leopold Mozart arrived in Paris with his family on 18 November 1763, the only compositions of the seven year old Wolfgang which he could show were the few pieces for keyboard, most of which he had written down himself in the music book intended for bis daughter Nannerl.  Hardly two months later, however, he was in a position to write with justified pride, in a letter of 1 February 1764 to the wife of his friend Lorenz Hagenauer in Salzburg: “Four sonatas by Mr. Wolfgang Mozart are now being engraved.  Imagine the sensation that they will cause, with a title-page saying that they are the work of a seven year old child.“

In the composition of the four sonatas in question (K. 6–9), some of the previously written keyboard pieces from the so-called “Nannerl book” were used.  These keyboard pieces are preserved only in Leopold’s handwriting (it is still uncertain whether they were transcribed from autographs that are now lost or whether they were taken down from keyboard improvisation by Wolfgang), but in four cases are specifically ascribed by Leopold to his son, and dated.

- Urtext of the New Mozart Edition