Piano Piece in G (fragment, doubtful), K. 635 (G major)
di Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Mozart’s Piano Piece in G (fragment), K. 635, is a short, unfinished keyboard fragment transmitted in later copies and dated to Salzburg in 1767, when Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) was 11. Its chief interest lies not in secure repertory status, but in what this doubtful leaf suggests about the young composer’s everyday keyboard writing.
What Is Known
The International Mozarteum Foundation catalogs K. 635 as an extant, uncompleted keyboard work whose authenticity is doubtful, dated Salzburg, 1767, and scored simply for clavier (keyboard) [1]. The same entry lists the work’s surviving transmission in at least two later manuscript copies (an Abschrift dated 1787, and another dated 1853) rather than a firmly identified autograph [1]. The German-language work page adds a concrete detail about the fragment’s state: it was entered by Leopold Mozart into Maria Anna (“Nannerl”) Mozart’s notebook, and it breaks off at the end of a first section at a repeat sign [2].
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In 1767 the Mozarts were based in Salzburg again after the long touring years, and Wolfgang—still a child—was producing short keyboard pieces alongside other occasional works; for K. 635, however, the doubtful attribution means it is best treated as a tenuous witness to that juvenile milieu rather than a securely authenticated “early masterpiece” [1].
Musical Content
What survives appears to be only the opening portion of a compact binary-phrase design (a “first part” ending with a repeat), in G major, written for solo keyboard and abandoned before any completing continuation is transmitted [2]. Even in this minimal state, the notated repeat at the end of the first section implies a didactic, play-and-repeat keyboard format familiar from mid-18th-century notebooks—music intended to be grasped quickly at the instrument, and to train the ear for cadence and symmetry rather than to unfold a large form [2].
[1] International Mozarteum Foundation (Köchel Verzeichnis): KV 635 — catalog entry with status (doubtful), dating (Salzburg, 1767), instrumentation, and listed copy sources (1787, 1853).
[2] International Mozarteum Foundation (Köchel Verzeichnis, German page): notes on Leopold Mozart’s entry in Nannerl’s notebook and that the fragment breaks off at the end of the first section with a repeat sign.