Larghetto for Strings in C major (K. 525a) — Draft to *Eine kleine Nachtmusik*
ヴォルフガング・アマデウス・モーツァルト作
Mozart’s Larghetto for strings in C major (K. 525a) is an unfinished draft from Vienna in 1787, apparently conceived as an alternative slow movement for Eine kleine Nachtmusik, K. 525. Breaking off after only a few measures, it offers a rare glimpse of Mozart’s compositional workshop at age 31.
What Is Known
The Larghetto in C (K. 525a) survives as an uncompleted autograph draft from Vienna, dated to 1787 in the Mozarteum’s Köchel-Verzeichnis entry.[1] The same source describes it explicitly as material “originally planned as the slow movement” of Eine kleine Nachtmusik, K. 525, a connection supported by practical scribal evidence (matching instrumentation, paper type, and handwriting).[1]
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
Only a short span is notated: the draft breaks off after 16 bars, after which Mozart evidently abandoned the idea and substituted the familiar Romance that stands as the serenade’s second movement.[1] The surviving scoring is for string ensemble in five parts—two violins, viola, and bass line (violoncello with basso).[1]
Musical Content
What remains on the page is best heard as a slow-movement opening: a Larghetto in C major for strings, poised and vocal in tone, with the harmony and texture laid out clearly enough to suggest a full movement design that was never carried further. Its brevity—ending before any real contrast or formal articulation can emerge—keeps the fragment in the realm of gesture rather than completed architecture, yet the calm, evenly paced writing aligns naturally with the serenade world in which Mozart was working in 1787.[1]
[1] Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum Salzburg, Köchel-Verzeichnis entry for KV 525a (dating, status, instrumentation, and note that it breaks off after 16 bars and was planned as the slow movement of K. 525).