Canon in B♭ major for 4 voices, “Gehn wir im Prater, gehn wir in d’Hetz” (K. 558)
av Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Mozart’s Canon in B♭ major for four equal voices, “Gehn wir im Prater, gehn wir in d’Hetz” (K. 558), is a miniature of Viennese sociability, entered into his thematic catalogue on 2 September 1788. Written for convivial domestic music-making, it distills Mozart’s late fascination with the canon into a brisk, good-humored invitation to an afternoon outing.
Background and Context
In 1788—one of Mozart’s most paradoxical Vienna years, shadowed by financial strain yet astonishingly productive—he turned repeatedly to the canon: a genre perfectly suited to friends, parties, and the quick wit of a composer who could make strict counterpoint sound effortless. On 2 September 1788 Mozart entered a set of ten canons (K. 553–562) into his own thematic catalogue (Verzeichnüss), and K. 558 belongs to this very group.[1]
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The text, in Viennese dialect, points outward from the salon to the city itself: the Prater, Vienna’s great public park and pleasure ground, and the Hetz (a popular entertainment site). That local flavor matters. These are not courtly occasional pieces but snapshots of urban leisure—music for companions who understood the reference, shared the joke, and could join a part at sight.[2]
Text and Composition
K. 558 is a short secular canon in B♭ major for four equal voices ("4 in 1"—four voices from a single canonic line). Mozart dated it in Vienna on 2 September 1788 in his catalogue entry, a rare piece of precision for so small a work.[1] Surviving prints and editions typically present it as an a cappella vocal item, the kind of repertoire still used by choirs as a compact encore or warm-up that nevertheless demands rhythmic unanimity and clear diction.[3]
Its modest scale is part of its historical interest. These late canons show Mozart treating learned technique not as academic display but as social currency: a way to bind a room together in real time. The Prater reference anchors K. 558 especially firmly in everyday Vienna, complementing other dialect canons from the same cluster that likewise evoke the city’s popular life.[2]
Musical Character
As a unison canon, K. 558 depends on momentum rather than harmonic breadth: the listener hears the same tune repeatedly entering in overlap, the texture thickening by imitation while the ear still follows a single, memorable gesture. In performance, the charm lies in the contrast between strict procedure (every entry must align) and informal effect (the piece feels like spontaneous banter).
Within Mozart’s vocal miniatures, the canon was an ideal laboratory for compression: a complete musical argument in a handful of bars. K. 558 deserves attention precisely because it makes late-Mozart craft audible at “street level”—not in the grand public genres of 1788, but in the private sphere where friends sang, laughed, and briefly became an ensemble. Even as a “minor” work, it captures an essential Mozartian duality: discipline worn lightly, and technique turned into pleasure.[1]
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[1] Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum Salzburg, Köchel-Verzeichnis entry for K. 558 (date, place, scoring, catalogue context).
[2] *The Cambridge Mozart Encyclopedia* (overview of Mozart’s canons; notes that K. 553–562 were entered on 2 Sept 1788; discussion of Prater-related dialect canons including K. 558).
[3] IMSLP work page for *Canon for 4 Voices in B-flat major, K. 558* (basic work identification; access to score/editions).