Canon in C major for 4 voices in 1 (K. 562c)
de Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Mozart’s Canon in C major for 4 voices in 1 (K. 562c; K. Anh. 191) is a compact a cappella contrapuntal miniature from his Vienna years, catalogued for four equal voices singing the same line in strict imitation. Probably dating from September 1788, it belongs to the convivial, often private world of Mozart’s canons—works that distill learned craft into music meant to be sung quickly, sharply, and with a smile.
Background and Context
Mozart’s canons occupy a special corner of his output: brief, social pieces in which the “academic” discipline of counterpoint becomes an object of play, wit, or friendly competition. The Canon in C major for 4 voices in 1 (K. 562c) is one of these miniatures—short enough to function as a musical calling card, yet stringent enough to show how effortlessly Mozart could make rule-bound writing sound natural.
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Although older catalog traditions sometimes attach earlier years to this canon, the K\u00f6chel catalogue (as reflected in standard reference listings) places K. 562c in Vienna and in September 1788 [2]. That date is telling. In the late summer and autumn of 1788 Mozart was capable of moving between vastly different scales of invention—from the grand public rhetoric of the late symphonies to the intimate, informal world of canons intended for friends and domestic music-making. K. 562c shows the same mind at work, only compressed to miniature.
The canon is also “reliably attested” in modern work cataloguing as K. Anh. 191 / K. 562c [1], a reminder that many such pieces circulated in manuscript, were copied for practical use, and only later stabilized in printed editions and thematic catalogues.
Text and Composition
K. 562c is commonly transmitted as a textless canon (or with no universally fixed text), emphasizing its function as a contrapuntal study and ensemble game rather than a literary song. Its designation “4 voices in 1” means that all four singers derive their parts from a single written melody: each new voice enters in imitation, and the resulting counterpoint is produced by overlap.
In practical terms, the scoring is straightforward:
- Voices: 4 unaccompanied voices (a cappella), often performed by mixed choir or four equal voices [1]
Such canons were ideal for Viennese sociability: they require no instruments, little rehearsal time, and invite multiple repetitions (especially if sung as a round), while still allowing performers to enjoy the small frisson of navigating dissonances created by staggered entries.
Musical Character
What makes K. 562c distinctive is not melodic breadth but economy—a deliberate, almost epigrammatic concentration of means. In a well-made canon the listener hears two things at once: a tune that must remain singable, and a harmonic/resultant texture that must remain coherent as voices stack up. Mozart’s gift is to keep both planes fluent.
In C major—a key often associated in Mozart’s language with clarity and public “openness”—the contrapuntal game reads as transparent rather than knotted. The canon’s charm lies in how quickly a plain line turns into a small piece of four-part counterpoint, as if Mozart were demonstrating (without pedantry) that learned technique can be a form of conversation.
K. 562c deserves attention because it represents Mozart’s Viennese canons at their most concentrated: a genre where the composer’s seriousness of craft and informality of purpose meet. Heard today—whether as a choral encore, a classroom illustration of imitative writing, or a brief novelty in concert—it offers a miniature portrait of Mozart the contrapuntist: exact, fast, and invariably musical.
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[1] IMSLP work page: Canon for 4 Voices in C major, K.Anh.191/562c (basic work data; a cappella voicing; catalog identifiers).
[2] Köchel catalogue (Wikipedia) entry listing 562c: Canon in C for 4 voices in 1; Vienna; September 1788 (useful for widely consulted catalogue-date context).