Two Piano Pieces (No. 2 fragment) in B♭ major, K. 629
av Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Mozart’s Two Piano Pieces (K. 629), written in 1765 when he was nine, survive on a single autograph sheet: a short complete piece in B♭ major followed immediately by an unfinished second item, preserved only as a fragment. The place and occasion are unknown, but the notation suggests practical, lesson-like keyboard writing rather than a public “work” in the later sense.[1]
Mozart's Life at the Time
In 1765, the nine-year-old Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) was still in the orbit of the family’s great childhood tours, with Leopold Mozart closely supervising his children’s musical training and repertoire. The surviving source for K. 629 is an autograph dated only by year, so the precise city and circumstance remain uncertain.[1]
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Musical Character
These are two short solo keyboard pieces written consecutively on the same sheet, with the second breaking off mid-stream—one reason modern catalogues describe the set as “of undetermined affiliation” rather than, say, the opening of a sonata.[2] The first piece, in B♭ major, is compact and straightforward in its keyboard layout, aiming at clear right-hand melody over a simple accompanimental underpinning—music that fits neatly into Mozart’s early, functional idiom for domestic playing and pedagogy.[2] The second item survives only as a fragment (notated directly after the first), leaving its intended cadence, proportions, and even genre label open; nonetheless, its very presence on the autograph page shows Mozart already treating small keyboard ideas as units worth fixing on paper.[1]
[1] Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum (Köchel-Verzeichnis): KV 629 work entry, dating, status, and autograph source note.
[2] IMSLP: 2 Piano Pieces, K.629 — general information and scan of the Neue Mozart-Ausgabe (Plath ed.), including note that the pieces were written consecutively and likely independent.