Rondeau for Piano (lost), K. 284f
von Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Mozart’s Rondeau for keyboard (K. 284f) is a lost piano piece dated to late November 1777. No notated music survives, leaving the work known only through catalogue documentation and brief source notices.
What Is Known
The Rondeau for piano, K. 284f, is transmitted as a lost keyboard piece: the Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum’s Köchel-Verzeichnis entry labels it “für Clavier verschollen” (“lost for keyboard”) and gives the dating Mannheim, 28–29 November 1777.[1] Its instrumentation is simply clavier (keyboard), with no key specified.[1]
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The same entry marks the work’s authenticity as doubtful (Echtheit: zweifelhaft), a reminder that even the attribution is not fully secure in the surviving documentation.[1] The work is nevertheless consistently referenced in modern reference literature as a “Rondeau for keyboard (lost).”[2]
Musical Content
Because no score (or even a notated incipit) is currently available, nothing reliable can be said about the piece’s themes, key, texture, or formal plan beyond the generic label rondeau—a term that, in Mozart’s keyboard music, commonly implies a recurring refrain alternating with contrasting episodes.
What can be placed in context is Mozart’s moment: in late 1777 he was traveling and actively seeking employment, writing and performing keyboard music for patrons and pupils. A small-scale rondo from this period would plausibly have served as practical, salon-ready repertoire—music designed to charm quickly and to show a young virtuoso-composer at ease with clear phrase structure, elegant figuration, and periodic returns typical of rondo design.
[1] Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum, Köchel-Verzeichnis entry for K. 284f (status, dating, instrumentation, lost work notice).
[2] The Cambridge Mozart Encyclopedia index entry noting “284f Rondeau for keyboard (lost)”.