Canon in F for 4 voices in 1, “O du eselhafter Martin” (K. 560)
ヴォルフガング・アマデウス・モーツァルト作
Mozart’s Canon in F major, “O du eselhafter Martin” (K. 560), is a short four-voice canon (Kanon) written in Vienna in 1788—one of the composer’s late, private “social” pieces whose wit is inseparable from its craft.[1] Scored for four voices in unison (4 in 1), it compresses pointed characterization and a deliberately coarse joke into the tightest of contrapuntal frames, showing how Mozart could make learned technique sound like spontaneous banter.[2]
Background and Context
Mozart composed “O du eselhafter Martin” in Vienna on 2 September 1788, when he was 32.[3] The date places it in the same late period that produced the great trilogy of symphonies (K. 543, K. 550, K. 551) and other substantial works—yet the canon belongs to a different sphere: the intimate, often boisterous world of music-making among friends.
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These secular canons were not written for public concert life but for convivial gatherings in which trained musicians and amateurs alike could take part. In that setting, a canon is ideal: it is compact, memorable after a hearing or two, and amusing precisely because strict imitation can heighten the impact of a throwaway line. “O du eselhafter Martin” deserves attention because it is not “minor” in technique—only in scale. The joke lands quickly, but the compositional premise is the old, serious discipline of counterpoint.
Text and Composition
The title (“Oh, you asinine Martin”) signals a comic insult aimed at a particular “Martin,” with the added parenthetical “(Jakob)” in Köchel’s online entry indicating that the name could vary in transmission and use.[1] Such name-swapping is characteristic of occasional pieces: the musical core stays the same while the text is adjusted to the company at hand.
Mozart’s canon is preserved in sources connected with the Neue Mozart-Ausgabe (New Mozart Edition), which places it among the composer’s canons (Series III/10).[1] Modern readers often meet it through printed or online scores, where its earthy humor is evident, and where the musical economy is equally striking: a single melodic strand generates the whole texture.[2]
Musical Character
“O du eselhafter Martin” is a canon a 4 in unison (4 in 1): four singers perform the same tune, entering one after another at fixed time intervals, so that the overlap creates harmony without separate written parts.[2] The key of F major—traditionally associated with warmth and plain-spoken clarity—supports the piece’s directness, while the canon technique provides the real punchline: each new entry piles on the same verbal jab, turning a private tease into a kind of musical dogpile.
What makes this canon distinctive within Mozart’s output is the friction between “high” method and “low” text. Canon writing is among the most rule-bound arts of composition; here, Mozart uses that discipline to intensify timing, repetition, and emphasis, much as a comedian uses rhythm and callbacks. Heard alongside his other late canons, K. 560 shows Mozart treating counterpoint not as academic display but as social theatre—music designed to be sung, laughed at, and immediately shared, even in a year otherwise remembered for works of grand public ambition.[3]
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[1] Mozarteum Köchel-Verzeichnis entry for “O du eselhafter Martin (Jakob)” (K. 560), including NMA series reference.
[2] IMSLP score page: “Canon for 4 Voices in F major, K.560 (O du eselhafter Martin)” (public-domain materials and basic work data).
[3] Wikipedia overview of Köchel catalogue entries (useful for the dated entry for K. 560: 2 September 1788; Vienna; age 32).