Canon in A major for 4 voices, “Bona nox! bist a rechta Ox” (K. 561)
ヴォルフガング・アマデウス・モーツァルト作
Mozart’s Bona nox! bist a rechta Ox (K. 561) is a four-voice a cappella canon in A major, entered in his thematic catalogue on 2 September 1788 in Vienna.[1] Beneath its compact, singable surface lies a pointed example of how Mozart could fuse social comedy, linguistic play, and strict contrapuntal craft into less than two minutes of music.
Background and Context
Mozart’s late Viennese years produced not only symphonies, concertos, and operatic projects, but also a body of small-scale vocal pieces written for convivial, private music-making. The canons belong firmly to this domestic sphere: music meant to be read, sung, laughed over, and repeated among friends, rather than presented as “concert repertoire.” The International Mozarteum Foundation’s Köchel catalogue entry for K. 561 explicitly situates Mozart’s canons in Viennese private circles, where they played an “important role,” and notes that Mozart likely wrote some of their texts himself.[1]
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
Bona nox! is “moderately documented” in the best sense: its authenticity is not in doubt (verified and extant), and its autograph sources survive.[1] Yet it remains outside the standard public narrative of Mozart’s 1788—an annus mirabilis that also includes the last three symphonies. Precisely because it is informal, K. 561 offers a valuable corrective: it shows Mozart, aged 32, still thinking like a contrapuntist and dramatist even when the “stage” is a tabletop gathering.
Text and Composition
Mozart dated K. 561 in Vienna on 2 September 1788.[1] The scoring is for four equal voices (V1–V4), unaccompanied.[1] As a canon “in 1,” all singers share essentially the same melody, entering one after another at fixed time intervals—an old learned technique repurposed here for fast social impact.
The text is the work’s calling card: a mock “good night” that ricochets through multiple languages—Latin (bona nox), Italian (bona notte), French (bonne nuit), English (“good night”), and German/Austrian dialect—before descending into deliberately crude punchlines.[2] While the precise authorship of the words cannot be proven beyond doubt, the prevailing view is that the lyrics were “probably by Mozart himself,” and the blend of multilingual wordplay and scatological humor has close parallels in the composer’s private correspondence and family speech.[2]
Musical Character
Musically, K. 561 is a model of how canon can serve wit. The strictness of the form—each voice compelled to imitate the same line—creates an audible “pile-up” effect: as the entries accumulate, the texture thickens and the joke intensifies, because the same text fragments collide in quick succession. The result is not only comedic but also inherently theatrical: a miniature ensemble scene, achieved without characters, staging, or accompaniment.
What makes Bona nox! distinctive within Mozart’s canon output is its deft balance between learned writing and vernacular delivery. The canonical procedure is conservative in origin, but Mozart treats it like a social engine: a tune that practically invites participation, while the progressively cheekier text rewards the listener who catches each linguistic turn. Boston Baroque aptly describes the piece as a “jumble of different languages,” and notes that its earthy sensibility will feel familiar to readers of Mozart’s letters.[3]
In sum, K. 561 deserves attention not despite its smallness, but because of it. It compresses into a brief round a telling portrait of Mozart’s Viennese life: a composer who could write monumental symphonic paragraphs—then, the same year, toss off a perfectly engineered canon whose craft is as real as its laughter is unabashed.
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
[1] International Mozarteum Foundation (Köchel Verzeichnis): work entry for KV 561 with dating (Vienna, 02.09.1788), key, scoring, authenticity status, and source/transmission notes.
[2] Wikipedia: overview of K. 561 including multilingual text content and common view that lyrics were probably by Mozart; contextual notes and text excerpts.
[3] Boston Baroque program note “Mozart’s Canons”: brief contextual discussion of the canons, including remarks on K. 561’s multilingual jumble and earthy humor.