Canon in F for 3 voices in 1, “Auf das Wohl aller Freunde” (K. Anh.H 11,16)
von Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Auf das Wohl aller Freunde (K. Anh.H 11,16) is a short secular canon in F major, associated with Mozart’s Vienna circle and generally dated to 1786, when the composer was 30. Scored for three voices “in one” (a single notated line intended for three singers in canon), it belongs to the convivial miniature genre Mozart cultivated alongside his larger stage and instrumental works.
Background and Context
The canon Auf das Wohl aller Freunde (“To the health of all friends”) is usually placed in Vienna in 1786, a period when Mozart was active both publicly (as a composer-pianist) and privately among friends and colleagues for whom such canons could serve as quick, sociable music-making [1] [2]. In modern cataloguing it appears in the Anhang as a doubtful or ancillary item; accordingly, it is safest to treat it as a piece transmitted under Mozart’s name rather than one documented as securely as the best-attested canons [2].
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Musical Character
Notated as 3 voices in 1, the work is written on a single melodic line meant to be taken up successively by three singers, producing three-part counterpoint from one tune—a practical format for informal performance. The scoring is three unaccompanied voices (a cappella), and the piece is extremely brief (a single movement on one page in common editions) [3]. Its plain-text toast suggests a drinking-song conviviality; musically, one expects the clear phrasing and diatonic ease that make such canons readily singable at sight, while still allowing the overlapping entries to create a compact web of imitative harmony.
[1] MozartPortal composition entry listing catalog data for K. Anh.H 11,16 (key, place, date/after 3 June 1786).
[2] Mozarteum (KV) work page for “Canon for three voices (‘Auf das Wohl aller Freunde’)” with source/transmission notes.
[3] IMSLP page: “Canon for 3 Voices in F major, K.508” (general info: a cappella, 3 voices, 1786, one movement).