Allegro for Piano and Violin (fragment) in A major, K. 480a
de Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Mozart’s Allegro for piano and violin (fragment) in A major (K. 480a) survives only as an incomplete opening movement, probably drafted in Vienna in 1782, when the composer was 26. It belongs to a cluster of unfinished keyboard-and-violin pieces from late summer 1782, a moment when Mozart—newly established in Vienna—was rapidly refining his chamber style.
What Is Known
Only the beginning of an Allegro movement for piano and violin survives, catalogued as K. 480a (also given as KV6 385E) and generally understood as the start of a projected violin sonata.[1][2] The dating is usually placed in Vienna, probably August or September 1782, alongside several other unfinished works for the same forces (including K. 402/385e and the Fantasia K. 396/385f).[1] No complete multi-movement sonata corresponding to K. 480a is known to survive.
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Musical Content
What remains suggests a sonata-style first movement: a bright A-major, Allegro opening designed for the conversational partnership Mozart increasingly sought in his Viennese violin sonatas—keyboard writing that carries much of the argument, with the violin adding melodic profile and brilliance rather than merely doubling.[1] Heard in context, the fragment aligns with Mozart’s 1782 preoccupations in Vienna, where he was balancing public virtuosity at the keyboard with more intimate chamber rhetoric.[3]
[1] Neue Mozart-Ausgabe (NMA) VIII/23/2: Sonatas and Variations for Keyboard & Violin — English foreword noting the unfinished 1782 group and listing KV Appendix 48/480a = KV6 385E.
[2] Wikipedia: Köchel catalogue — entry line for K. 480a (Allegro for Piano and Violin, fragment), dated 1782, Vienna.
[3] Oxford Academic (chapter PDF): '1782. Early Vienna Concertos' from A Companion to Mozart’s Piano Concertos — contextual discussion of Mozart’s Viennese work and style in 1782.