Canon in A minor for 4 voices in 1, “Lacrimoso son’io” (K. 555)
av Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Mozart’s Canon in A minor for 4 voices in 1, “Lacrimoso son’io” (K. 555), is a compact a cappella miniature entered in his thematic catalogue on 2 September 1788 in Vienna.[1] Often overshadowed by the great works of his late Viennese years, it deserves attention for the way a few bars of counterpoint can conjure a surprisingly intense, almost theatrical lament.[2]
Background and Context
Mozart wrote a steady stream of small-scale vocal pieces for domestic music-making in Vienna, and his late canons form a particularly revealing subset: music designed less for the concert hall than for a circle of friends who could read, sing, and relish contrapuntal wit. Lacrimoso son’io (Italian: “I am tearful / weeping”) belongs to this convivial world, yet its affect is notably serious when set beside Mozart’s more overtly comic canons from roughly the same period.
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In Mozart’s own thematic catalogue, K. 555 is dated 2 September 1788—one of several canons he entered around that time.[3] Its circumstances of first performance are not securely documented, which is typical for these occasional pieces; nonetheless, the work’s profile fits late-1780s Viennese Hausmusik (private music-making) and the taste for concise learned writing presented as social entertainment.
Text and Composition
The genre label “4 voices in 1” means that all four singers perform the same melody, entering successively to create four-part polyphony. In other words, the canon’s “composition” lies in the strictness of its imitation: the tune must be singable as a single line and still harmonize convincingly against itself when layered.
The text is brief—essentially the repeated phrase “Lacrimoso son’io”—and its simplicity is a feature, not a limitation. In a canon, too much verbal variety can blur the points of entry; here the repetitive words allow listeners to focus on how the voices interlock. Sources describe the piece as Italian-language and for unaccompanied voices.[2]
Musical Character
Although only a miniature, K. 555 is distinctive among Mozart’s canons for the seriousness of its surface: A minor, Adagio, and a plaintive melodic contour that seems to “sigh” as it moves. (IMSLP lists the canon with the tempo indication Adagio and gives the work as a four-voice a cappella canon in A minor.[2]) The expressive result can feel almost operatic—compressed into the span of a single fugal idea.
What makes Lacrimoso son’io worth revisiting is precisely this concentration. Mozart turns a social genre—often treated as a musical game—into a tiny study in affect. The entrances accumulate tension without any instrumental color to help; instead, the drama is generated by timing, dissonance-and-resolution, and the listener’s awareness that the same line is being “re-heard” from different vantage points. In the broader context of 1788, when Mozart was also composing on a far larger scale, this canon shows the same late style in microcosm: economy of means, clarity of design, and a gift for giving strong emotional identity to the smallest forms.[1]
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[1] Mozarteum (Köchel Verzeichnis) work entry for KV 555, including title, scoring, and catalogue context.
[2] IMSLP work page for K. 555 with basic work metadata (key, scoring, language) and score access.
[3] Wikipedia overview page for the Köchel catalogue, including the K. 555 entry with the date 2 September 1788 and place (Vienna).