Movement for a Clarinet Quintet in A (K. 581a)
ヴォルフガング・アマデウス・モーツァルト作
Mozart’s Movement for a Clarinet Quintet in A (K. 581a; K.Anh. 88) is a surviving fragment from Vienna (1789), closely associated with the celebrated Clarinet Quintet in A, K. 581 written for Anton Stadler. Though incomplete and often relegated to appendices, it offers a rare glimpse into Mozart’s workshop as he explored the expressive and technical possibilities of Stadler’s clarinet—especially the instrument’s newly extended low range.
Background and Context
In 1789, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) was deepening a partnership that helped define the clarinet’s “classical” voice: his friendship with the Viennese virtuoso Anton Stadler (1753–1812). The finished Clarinet Quintet in A, K. 581—dated to late September 1789 in Vienna in the Köchel catalogue—stands as Mozart’s only complete surviving clarinet quintet and a landmark of chamber music poise rather than concerto-like display [1]) [2].
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K. 581a belongs to the same creative orbit. It is typically described as a quintet movement (often identified as a rondo-like finale idea) for clarinet and string quartet in A major, surviving only in fragmentary form and long overshadowed by the completed quintet [3]) [1]). Yet this very incompleteness is part of its interest: few Mozart chamber works let us hear so directly the “in-between” stage of invention—before formal balance, repetition schemes, and the final distribution of voices are fully fixed.
Composition and Dedication
The movement is catalogued as K. 581a in modern Köchel numbering (also K.Anh. 88), and scholarship places its sketching in Vienna in September 1789, i.e., the same month as the completed Clarinet Quintet, K. 581 [4]. Like K. 581, it is tied to Stadler, whose playing and instrument—often understood as a basset clarinet in A (a clarinet with an extended low compass)—prompted Mozart to write lines that dip below the normal clarinet range [1]) [4].
The state of the source is crucial: K. 581a is not transmitted as a finished, performable movement in Mozart’s hand but as a fragment. Modern editions and recordings therefore present it as an appendix-like companion to K. 581—valuable evidence, but not a “fifth movement” with secure performing status [3]) [5].
Form and Musical Character
K. 581a is scored for the same basic ensemble as K. 581—clarinet with string quartet—and inhabits the same radiant key area (A major), a tonal world Mozart repeatedly used for music of warmth and lyrical ease. In the literature it is commonly discussed as a candidate for, or related to, a finale concept for the clarinet quintet: a rondo (recurring refrain alternating with contrasting episodes) would have been a natural complement to K. 581’s large-scale first movement, rapt slow movement, and minuet [3]) [1]).
What makes the fragment distinctive is not “novelty” of genre—Mozart’s chamber writing already prized conversational equality—but the way it tests clarinet idioms that are at once vocal and instrumental. Even in fragmentary form, one can sense Mozart weighing:
- a refrain-like thematic profile that could bear repeated returns without monotony (the hallmark task of a rondo);
- string-only versus full-ensemble contrasts, a dialogue strategy central to K. 581’s mature texture, where the clarinet often enters as primus inter pares rather than as a soloist set above accompaniment [1]);
- register drama, including the expressive pull of the instrument’s low notes—an area associated with Stadler’s extended-range clarinet [4].
This is precisely why K. 581a deserves attention within Mozart’s chamber output at age 33: it documents not merely “discarded material,” but a living process of refinement. The polished naturalness of K. 581 can make its craftsmanship seem effortless; K. 581a reminds us that such equilibrium was achieved through experiment, revision, and (sometimes) abandonment.
Reception and Legacy
Because it survives as a fragment, K. 581a has never enjoyed the secure performance tradition of K. 581. In modern practice it circulates chiefly through scholarly editions and specialist recordings as an adjunct—often paired with other Stadler-related fragments—to illuminate Mozart’s late-1780s exploration of clarinet chamber music [3]) [4].
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Its legacy is therefore less that of a repertory “piece” than a documentary one: a small but telling witness to the moment when the clarinet was emerging as a fully-fledged chamber protagonist. For listeners who know K. 581 intimately, K. 581a can be heard as Mozart’s rough sketchbook beside the finished portrait—brief, incomplete, and all the more revealing for that.
[1] Wikipedia – Clarinet Quintet (Mozart): notes K. 581’s context and mentions the A-major fragment (Anhang 88 / K. 581a) as possibly intended for the finale.
[2] Köchel catalogue (web mirror) – entry for K. 581 giving date (29 September 1789), place (Vienna), and basic identification.
[3] IMSLP – Clarinet Quintet in A major, K.Anh.88 / K. 581a: cataloguing, description as fragment/appendix, and editorial notes.
[4] Albert R. Rice, “The Basset Clarinet of Anton Stadler” (College Music Symposium) – discusses Stadler’s instrument and dates K. 581a (Anh. 88) as sketched in Vienna during September 1789.
[5] Digital Mozart Edition / Neue Mozart-Ausgabe foreword (Quintets with Wind Instruments) – notes the inclusion/presentation of the Rondo K. Appendix 88 (581a) in the NMA volume context.