Piano Sonata in G major (lost), K. 33d — doubtful work
沃尔夫冈·阿马德乌斯·莫扎特
Mozart’s Piano Sonata in G major (K. 33d) is a lost and likely doubtful work, traditionally placed in Salzburg in 1766, when the composer was ten. No autograph or early copy is known to survive; the sonata’s former existence is inferred chiefly from early thematic-catalogue traces connected with the Breitkopf & Härtel network.
Mozart's Life at the Time
In 1766, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) was back in Salzburg, still in the wake of the family’s long Western European tour and already producing a steady stream of short sacred and keyboard pieces for domestic use and instruction. Within that setting, a “sonata” in G major would have suited both the household keyboard culture and Leopold Mozart’s systematic training of his children.
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Musical Character
Because the work is lost, no secure description of its musical content can be given today: its movements, formal layout, and even its attribution to Mozart remain uncertain. The sonata is, however, associated with an incipit tradition preserved by Breitkopf & Härtel’s manuscript-catalogue milieu, where Nannerl Mozart supplied opening themes for several early, now-missing keyboard sonatas around 1800 [1] [2].
If K. 33d was indeed a genuine Salzburg work from 1766, it likely belonged to the same youthful phase as other simple, bright major-key keyboard pieces of the period—music built from clear phrase symmetry, uncomplicated modulation, and a treble-led texture that a talented child-composer (and performer) could readily project on the instruments available in Salzburg. Yet, in the absence of any surviving notation beyond such catalogue traces, the piece must be treated as lost and of doubtful authenticity.
[1] Mozart.gr — summary of lost works; notes Nannerl’s 1800 communication of incipits for K. 33d–f to Breitkopf & Härtel.
[2] Digital Mozart Edition (Mozarteum) — New Mozart Edition preface to keyboard sonatas; discusses Breitkopf manuscript catalogue and the incipit tradition for lost early sonatas including K. Anh. 199/33d.