Four-part Fugue (lost), K. 41f
von Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Mozart’s Four-part Fugue (K. 41f) is a lost and doubtful work, listed as composed in Salzburg in 1767, when he was 11. No score is known to survive, and the piece is chiefly documented through early cataloguing rather than musical sources.
What Is Known
K. 41f is transmitted as a “fugue in four voices” (à 4 voci) from Mozart’s Salzburg childhood (1767). It is generally treated as a lost work: no autograph, copy, or identifiable performing material is known, and the title survives principally through documentary listings rather than a recoverable musical text.[1] Modern reference compilations also register it under Mozart’s early works as Fugue à 4 voix, but without secure details of key, scoring, or occasion.[2]
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Because the music itself is missing, authenticity cannot be tested stylistically, and the work is best approached as doubtful (i.e., a title attached to Mozart in early documentation, but not supported by surviving musical evidence). In this respect it sits near the broader fringe of works that have circulated under Mozart’s name with uncertain attribution.[3]
Musical Content
No musical text survives, so the fugue’s subject, key, and instrumentation cannot be described. At most, the designation “four-part” implies a texture in four independent lines—an idiom Mozart could already handle in exercises and small-scale pieces at age 11—yet K. 41f’s sound-world (keyboard, ensemble, or vocal) remains unknown.[1]
[1] Digital Mozart Edition (Mozarteum): English transcription PDF of Leopold Mozart’s catalogue of his son’s early works; includes the entry “A Fugue … à 4 voci” with BD note identifying it as KV 41f (lost).
[2] Musique Orgue Québec: Mozart general catalogue listing entry “41f … 1767 … Fugue à 4 voix.”
[3] Wikipedia: overview list of Mozart symphonies of spurious or doubtful authenticity (context for how doubtful attributions are handled in Mozart reception and cataloguing).