Solos for viola da gamba (lost), K. 641
ヴォルフガング・アマデウス・モーツァルト作
Solos for viola da gamba (K. 641) is a lost juvenile work, tentatively dated between 1766 and October 1768, when Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) was about ten to twelve years old [1]. No music survives, and the title is effectively all that remains, leaving the work’s musical substance—and even its precise scoring—unknown.
Mozart's Life at the Time
In 1766 Mozart was ten, returning with his family from the extended “Grand Tour” of Western Europe that had taken him to major musical centers and public performances across Europe [2]. The Köchel-Verzeichnis entry places Solos for viola da gamba (K. 641) broadly within 1766–October 1768, a period when the Mozarts were again based largely in Salzburg, with further travel and intensive study still shaping the child composer’s rapid development [1].
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Musical Character
Because K. 641 is transmitted as lost, there is no surviving score from which to describe key, form, texture, or technical demands [1]. The title implies one or more solo pieces involving the viola da gamba, but it does not securely establish whether these were unaccompanied pieces or “solo” works with continuo/keyboard support; as a result, K. 641 remains best approached as a doubtful item in the juvenile catalogue, notable chiefly for what it suggests about the range of instruments and genres associated with Mozart’s early years rather than for any recoverable musical profile.
[1] International Mozarteum Foundation, Köchel-Verzeichnis entry for KV 641 (status: lost; dating range; catalog details).
[2] Encyclopaedia Britannica: biographical overview of Mozart (context for 1766 and the family’s travels/return).