Divertimento No. 12 in E♭ major, K. 252 (240a)
沃尔夫冈·阿马德乌斯·莫扎特
Mozart’s Divertimento No. 12 in E♭ major (K. 252/240a) is a Salzburg wind sextet from 1776—music designed for convivial use, yet written with the kind of wit and craft that makes “background” listening impossible. Scored for pairs of oboes, horns, and bassoons, it shows the 20-year-old composer testing how much color, contrast, and formal surprise he can coax from a small Harmonie-like band.
Background and Context
In 1776 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) was firmly back in Salzburg, employed by the court of Prince-Archbishop Hieronymus Colloredo and negotiating the practical demands of a working musician: church pieces, occasional instrumental works, and music for the court’s social life. Wind ensembles were a central part of that world. They could play outdoors, in large rooms where strings might dissipate, and at meals or festivities where continuous music was desired.
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K. 252 belongs to a closely related Salzburg group of five wind divertimenti (K. 213, 240, 252/240a, 253, and 270), long associated with “table music” (Tafelmusik) for the court. The surviving sources suggest these pieces were conceived as a set: the title “divertimento” appears on the autographs in Leopold Mozart’s hand, and he even numbered the works as a sequence—evidence of both a domestic editorial impulse and a wish to see them circulated more widely.[3]
The category “divertimento” can mislead modern listeners into expecting something merely light. Yet even within functional music, Mozart often aims for more than pleasant noise: he explores form, character, and instrumental personality. In these sextets, the challenge is intensified by the limitations—and the expressive opportunities—of Classical oboes, natural horns, and bassoons. The reward is a distinctive sonority: reedy brightness, burnished horn resonance, and bassoon agility that can serve as both bass-line and comedian.
Composition and Premiere
The work is transmitted as Divertimento in E flat (K. 252), with an autograph source from 1776 recorded in the Mozarteum’s Köchel-Verzeichnis entry.[1] The precise date is not fixed on the manuscript; scholarly discussion typically places it within 1776 in Salzburg, between the companion sextets K. 240 and K. 253.[3]
No specific premiere is securely documented. That is unsurprising: music of this sort often entered use without a single “first performance,” functioning instead as repertoire for court musicians to deploy as needed. The earliest printed edition is later (the Köchel-Verzeichnis notes an 1800 first print), which also hints at the work’s original life as practical Salzburg music rather than a commodity aimed at the broader publishing market.[1]
Instrumentation
Mozart writes for a wind sextet of paired instruments—an archetypal late-18th-century outdoor and ceremonial band:
- Winds: 2 oboes, 2 bassoons
- Brass: 2 natural horns
This scoring matters. With no strings to supply a continuous cushion, the harmony must be “self-sustaining,” and Mozart responds by distributing responsibility: bassoons do more than underpin; they can sing, chatter, and propel. Horns, limited to the notes of the natural harmonic series, nonetheless provide both harmonic pillars and moments of surprising prominence. Oboes, with their penetrating tone, carry much of the melodic argument while also blending into chordal textures.
Form and Musical Character
K. 252 is laid out in four movements, and its interest lies in how Mozart varies pace and genre while keeping the ensemble in constant conversational motion.[3]
- I. Andante (6/8)
- II. Menuetto (with Trio)
- III. Polonaise
- IV. Presto assai
I. Andante (E♭ major, 6/8)
Rather than opening with the expected bright Allegro, Mozart begins with a “lazy” (unhurried) Andante in 6/8.[3] The tempo choice instantly reframes the genre: this is not a mere curtain-raiser but a character piece, almost pastoral in swing. The wind writing encourages listeners to hear tone-color as structure—how a phrase changes when transferred from oboes to bassoons, or when horns enter to deepen the harmonic light.
This movement is also a reminder that wind divertimenti can be expressive without becoming heavy. Mozart uses the gentle compound meter to keep lines buoyant, while the ensemble’s reedy blend gives E♭ major a particularly warm, autumnal hue.
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II. Menuetto and Trio
Dance movements are the “social core” of many divertimenti, but Mozart rarely treats them as generic. Here the Menuetto can sound almost theatrical: instrument pairs tease one another through rhythm and register, and the horn writing is notably foregrounded compared to many contemporaneous wind pieces.[3]
The Trio shifts into A♭ major, a move that subtly softens the palette (A♭ is the subdominant region of E♭ major, and it often reads as a relaxed “side room” in Classical tonality). The result is a small but telling instance of Mozart’s dramaturgy: the divertimento becomes a sequence of scenes rather than a chain of functional numbers.
III. Polonaise
A Polonaise is an unusual choice in Mozart’s output, and that rarity itself is part of the movement’s charm.[3] The rhythm carries a dignified swagger—courtly, a little self-aware—and it allows Mozart to write in a more accented, processional gait than the surrounding movements.
The movement also demonstrates Mozart’s knack for extracting variety from modest means. With only six players, “contrast” must be engineered through articulation, register, and the quick exchange of roles. The ear begins to follow not just melody but deployment: who is leading now, who is commenting, who is providing the comic or consoling bassoon line.
IV. Presto assai
The finale turns exuberant: a Presto assai that (as noted in commentary on the set) draws on an Austrian tune, “Die Katze lässt das Mausen nicht” (“The cat won’t leave off the mousing”).[3][4] Whether or not a listener recognizes the melody, the effect is clear: popular energy brought into cultivated company.
In a wind sextet, speed is not merely virtuoso display; it is also a test of ensemble rhetoric. Mozart writes so that propulsion feels collective—oboes biting into figures, bassoons agile enough to sound like quicksilver rather than ballast, and horns punctuating the harmony with athletic confidence.
Reception and Legacy
K. 252 has never enjoyed the universal fame of the later Viennese wind serenades (above all the “Gran Partita,” K. 361/370a), yet it deserves attention precisely because it shows Mozart building the craft that makes those later works possible. The sextets demonstrate how he thinks about wind instruments as a self-sufficient choir—capable of sustained form, not just fanfare and filler.
Modern scholarship and editorial work have also pushed back against the old notion that these pieces are “only” Tafelmusik. The Neue Mozart-Ausgabe (as summarized in broader reference discussions) observes that the group has been underestimated in both literature and performance—an underestimation tied to the assumption that functional music must be shallow.[3] In practice, K. 252 rewards close listening: it is compact, varied in genre, and unusually characterful in its opening choice and its dance types.
For today’s performers, the piece sits at a sweet spot. It is approachable in scale, yet it offers constant interpretive questions: how to balance oboes against horns, how to articulate dance rhythm without heaviness, how to color repeated phrases so that “entertainment” becomes artistry. For listeners, it is a persuasive reminder that Mozart’s Salzburg years were not a mere prelude to Vienna—they were a laboratory in which he learned to make any ensemble, however small, sound like a living stage.
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[1] Mozarteum Köchel-Verzeichnis entry for K. 252 (sources, scoring, dating context, early print information).
[2] IMSLP work page for Divertimento in E-flat major, K. 252/240a (basic catalog data and scoring tags).
[3] Wikipedia: “Divertimenti for six winds (Mozart)” — overview of the Salzburg set, Leopold’s numbering, movement list and descriptive notes for K. 252/240a; references NMA and other scholarship.
[4] Brilliant Classics PDF liner notes (Mozart Complete Edition) mentioning the finale’s Austrian tune “Die Katze lässt das Mausen nicht” in connection with the wind divertimenti set.