Divertimento No. 10 in F major, “Lodron No. 1” (“Lodronische Nachtmusik”), K. 247
by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Mozart’s Divertimento No. 10 in F major (K. 247), composed in Salzburg in June 1776, is the first of his two “Lodron” Nachtmusiken—a refined kind of evening entertainment music written for the aristocratic Lodron household. Scored for strings with two horns, it distills serenade-style sociability into chamber-like clarity, and shows the 20-year-old Mozart turning “background” occasion music into something far more enduring.[1])[2]
Background and Context
In Salzburg in the mid-1770s, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) was employed as a court musician under Archbishop Colloredo, producing a steady stream of sacred music alongside instrumental works for civic and aristocratic occasions. The Lodron family—prominent Salzburg nobility—belonged to the circle of patrons and friends for whom such music could be commissioned or requested for celebrations, name-days, and evening gatherings.[2]
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K. 247 is bound to a particular social world. Countess Maria Antonia (Antonia) Lodron, née von Arco, was remembered as an avid musical amateur, and Mozart wrote several works connected with her household, including the famous Concerto for Three Pianos in F major, K. 242 (also nicknamed “Lodron”). In that context, the nickname “Lodronische Nachtmusik” is not a romantic afterthought so much as a genuine indicator of function: this was music intended to animate an evening—graceful, varied, and flexible in scale.[2]
That K. 247 remains relatively less famous than the great Vienna serenades or Eine kleine Nachtmusik should not obscure its distinction. The piece exemplifies Mozart’s Salzburg genius for turning “utility” genres—divertimento, cassation, serenade—into finely balanced works whose charm is inseparable from compositional craft.
Composition and Premiere
The Divertimento in F major, K. 247 (often called “Divertimento No. 10” and “Erste Lodronische Nachtmusik”) is dated to June 1776 and is dedicated to Countess Lodron.[1][3] Mozart Documents further ties K. 247 to the Countess’s name-day (13 June), noting the divertimento and its accompanying march (K. 248) in this context.[2]
A concrete performance datum strengthens this picture: the work is reported as having been performed on 18 June 1776 in Salzburg (in connection with festivities for the Countess). Henle’s work information likewise gives this date and place for the first performance.[3]
It is also telling that K. 247 was not rushed into print during Mozart’s lifetime: IMSLP lists first publication as 1799 (Augsburg), suggesting that the music’s early existence was shaped by private use and manuscript circulation before moving into the public marketplace.[1]
Instrumentation
K. 247 is a divertimento for strings with two horns—an archetypal Salzburg outdoor/occasion scoring, capable of sounding festive without requiring the full wind choir of a large serenade.[1]
- Brass: 2 horns
- Strings: 2 violins, viola, bass (typically realized as cello and double bass, depending on forces)
The horns do more than “decorate” the texture. In F major they naturally reinforce the music’s open-air brightness, punctuating cadences, energizing tuttis, and lending a ceremonious halo to dance movements—exactly the kind of color that helps a multi-movement divertimento carry across an evening’s shifting attention.
Form and Musical Character
IMSLP lists seven movements—already a clue that this is entertainment music in the older sense: a suite-like sequence of contrasted affects and social functions (fast opening, lyric slow movement(s), minuets, and a quick finale).[1]
- I. Allegro
- II. Andante grazioso
- III. Menuetto – Trio
- IV. Adagio
- V. Menuetto – Trio
- VI. Andante
- VII. Allegro assai[1]
A serenade spirit in chamber dimensions
What makes K. 247 distinctive within Mozart’s Salzburg divertimento output is its poise: it feels “serenade-like” in breadth (two minuets, three slow-leaning panels, a lively concluding sprint) yet is laid out in comparatively intimate forces. This balance allows Mozart to write with a chamber musician’s ear for conversational texture—violins trading motifs, inner parts giving harmonic bite—while the horns frame the ensemble with festive rhetoric.
The slow movements as the work’s inner center
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The sequence of Andante grazioso, Adagio, and later Andante gives the work an unusually generous lyrical middle. In a genre often treated as lightweight, Mozart invests time in cantabile writing and harmonic pacing: the musical “night music” idea here is less about mystery than about ease, warmth, and cultivated elegance—music made for listening as well as for social atmosphere.
Dance movements with character, not routine
The paired minuets (III and V) anchor the divertimento’s social identity, but Mozart’s writing typically resists mere formula: phrase rhythm is alert, cadences are playfully delayed or strengthened, and the trio sections (by tradition, a more intimate contrast) can sound like a change of lighting within the same room. In performance, these movements often reveal how closely Mozart links danceability to motivic logic.
A finale that earns its brilliance
The closing Allegro assai rounds off the work with the kind of quicksilver finish expected in a serenade or divertimento conclusion—music that sends the evening onward. The point is not symphonic drama, but propulsion, sparkle, and an affable sense of completion.
Reception and Legacy
K. 247 belongs to the lineage of Mozart’s Salzburg “occasion” pieces that have gradually been re-heard as more than functional background. Its posthumous publication in 1799 points to the work’s capacity to outlive the specific Lodron celebration for which it was conceived.[1]
Modern performers and listeners can also place it within a revealing local sequence: in 1776 Mozart produced, alongside church music, a remarkable cluster of instrumental works in Salzburg—serenades for grand public festivities and also smaller-scale divertimenti for private patrons. K. 247 shows him refining the serenade tradition at “human scale,” where every voice matters and the charm is inseparable from balance and detail.
Why does it deserve attention today? Because it captures Mozart at 20—already a master of theatrical timing and melodic grace—working inside a social genre and quietly elevating it. Heard attentively, the “First Lodron Night Music” is not a minor trifle but a portrait of Salzburg musical life rendered with consummate art: festive yet intimate, public in tone yet private in address, and continuously inventive in its turns of phrase.
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[1] IMSLP: Divertimento in F major, K. 247 — movements, date (June 1776), dedication, scoring, first publication (1799).
[2] Mozart Documents (Edge & Black, eds.): entry discussing Countess Antonia Lodron and Mozart’s “Lodron” works (name-day context; K. 247 with March K. 248).
[3] G. Henle Verlag work page: March K. 248 / Divertimento K. 247 (“First Lodron Night Music”) — notes name-day purpose and first performance date (18 June 1776, Salzburg).