Divertimento in D major (fragment), K. 246b
沃尔夫冈·阿马德乌斯·莫扎特
Mozart’s Divertimento in D major (fragment), K. 246b, is a surviving scrap of an incomplete outdoor-style work for strings and two horns. Usually dated to the early–mid 1770s, it preserves only 41 bars—just enough to suggest Mozart, in his late teens, already thinking theatrically about color and cadence.
What Is Known
Only a single movement fragment survives: 41 bars of a Divertimento in D major, K. 246b (also catalogued as K. 320B). The scoring, as transmitted in the critical tradition, is for 2 horns in D with strings (two violins, viola, and bass), a very typical serenade/divertimento palette designed to project outdoors and to flatter amateur or semi-professional forces.[1][2]
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The date is not firmly documented; modern reference listings commonly place it in the early 1770s rather than securely in 1776, and no reliable place of composition is attached to the fragment.[1][3]
Musical Content
What survives reads like part of a bright, functional opening in D major, with the horns reinforcing the harmonic pillars and helping articulate cadences while the strings carry the quicker, more continuously active surface. Even in so short a span, the writing suggests Mozart’s instinct for clear phrase rhythm and for balancing ceremonial sonority (horn calls and sustained harmonic weight) against nimble string figuration—traits that will be refined in his fully preserved Salzburg-era serenades and divertimenti for mixed forces.[1]
[1] IMSLP: Divertimento in D major, K.246b/320B — basic data (key, scoring, fragment length) and NMA scan reference
[2] Köchel Verzeichnis (Mozarteum): KV 246b — scoring and work identification
[3] Digitale Mozart-Edition (Mozarteum): NMA VII/18 editorial foreword (English PDF) mentioning the D-major divertimento fragment KV 246b / K.320B