Six Trios for Two Violins and Cello (lost), K. 645
par Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Mozart’s Six trios for two violins and violoncello (K. 645) are listed as a set from 1768, when he was twelve, but the music itself is lost. With no surviving score to test style or workmanship, the attribution is best treated as doubtful even though the entry persists in modern catalogue summaries.
What Is Known
K. 645 is described in the International Mozarteum Foundation’s Köchel-Verzeichnis as Six Trios for 2 violins and violoncello—a “completed work” whose transmission is lost; it is dated broadly to 1768 (with the place unspecified). [1] In other words, the title and scoring are all that securely survive in modern reference form.
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Because no music is extant, questions of authenticity cannot be checked against Mozart’s known juvenilia from the same period; accordingly, the set is most responsibly approached as a lost work of doubtful authenticity (perhaps a misattribution in early lists, or a conflation with other small-scale string pieces). The broader scholarly picture is familiar from other “spurious or doubtful” Mozart attributions: works can circulate under Mozart’s name in catalogues and copies, yet later scrutiny may leave authorship unresolved. [2]
Musical Content
No manuscript or early printed source for K. 645 is known to survive, and no incipits (opening bars) are available in the standard online catalog entry; as a result, nothing concrete can be said about movement layout, key scheme, or thematic character beyond the stated scoring for two violins and cello. [1]
[1] International Mozarteum Foundation (Köchel-Verzeichnis): KV 645 — Six Trios for 2 violins and violoncello (status, dating, transmission).
[2] Wikipedia: overview of Mozart works of spurious or doubtful authenticity (context for doubtful attributions).