Cassation in C major (lost), K. 653
av Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Mozart’s Cassation in C (K. 653) is a lost juvenile work, tentatively dated to 1764, when the composer was eight years old. No music survives, and the work is known today only through its catalogue entry.
What Is Known
The Cassation in C (K. 653) is listed as a lost work, dated to 1764; its place of composition is unknown, and no manuscript or musical text is presently extant.[1] The Köchel Digital entry identifies it only generally as a piece “for instrumental ensemble,” without preserved scoring details.[1]
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Because Mozart was travelling widely with his family in 1764 (notably in Western Europe), the work’s original occasion—whether outdoor entertainment, a courtly evening, or domestic music-making—cannot be securely reconstructed.[2] In genre terms, “cassation” in Mozart’s early usage overlaps with serenade/divertimento practice: multi-movement, public-facing, and often written for flexible forces; however, K. 653’s precise scope and movement plan are unknown.[1]
Musical Content
No musical material survives for K. 653, so its themes, number of movements, and instrumentation cannot be described from the page itself.[1] (Some writers have suggested that an early C-major serenade transmitted in a later copy, KV 648, could conceivably relate to the lost K. 653, but this remains speculative and does not restore K. 653’s missing text.)[3]
[1] Köchel Digital (International Mozarteum Foundation): KV 653 “Cassation in C” (catalogue entry; status lost; dating; basic description).
[2] Encyclopaedia Britannica: Mozart biography (context for Mozart’s travels and activity in 1764).
[3] Köchel Digital (International Mozarteum Foundation): KV 648 “Serenade in C” (discussion noting a possible—uncertain—identity link to the lost KV 653).