Adagio for Winds in F major (fragment), K. 440c
par Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Mozart’s Adagio for winds in F major (K. 440c) is a surviving torso of an intended wind serenade movement, transmitted only in incomplete form. Written in Vienna in the late 1780s, it belongs to the composer’s intimate circle of music for clarinet and basset horns—sonorities he explored with particular warmth and restraint.
What Is Known
The fragment known as Adagio in F (K. 440c) is an authentic, uncompleted piece for clarinet and three basset horns (a dark, mellow member of the clarinet family much favored in Viennese wind music). The International Mozarteum Foundation’s catalogue places its origin in Vienna, 1787–1789, and identifies the surviving source as an autograph score leaf ("Partitur: 1 Bl.")—a single written page preserving only the beginning of the movement.[1]
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In Mozart’s Vienna at age 31, such wind pieces typically functioned as discrete movements or as components of Harmoniemusik entertainment (often for evening or dining contexts). The fragment’s scoring, centered on clarinet/basset-horn blend rather than the full oboes–horns–bassoons complement, suggests a more specialized sonority than the standard outdoor serenade band.[1]
Musical Content
What survives appears to be the opening of a slow movement: an Adagio in F major laid out in short score for clarinet with three basset-horn parts. Even in fragmentary state, the instrumentation implies a texture in which the clarinet can sing above a soft, reedy cushion—an approach consistent with Mozart’s late-1780s Viennese fondness for veiled wind color and closely voiced inner parts.[1]
[1] International Mozarteum Foundation, Köchel Verzeichnis entry for K. 440c (dating, key, fragment status, instrumentation, source description).