Andante in B♭ major for Piano (K. 9b)
von Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Mozart’s Andante in B♭ major (K. 9b) is a short, fragmentary keyboard piece associated with Salzburg in 1763–64, when he was about seven or eight years old. Preserved in connection with the family teaching notebook known as the Nannerl Notenbuch, it offers a small but revealing glimpse of Mozart’s earliest keyboard idiom.[1][2]
Mozart’s Life at the Time
In 1763, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) was seven years old and still based primarily in Salzburg under the close guidance of his father, Leopold Mozart.[2] The Andante in B♭ major (K. 9b) is tied to the pedagogical world of the Mozart household—music copied into (or transmitted through) the Nannerl Notenbuch, which Leopold compiled for instruction at the keyboard.[1][2]
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Musical Character
What survives of K. 9b is one incomplete movement in B♭ major, marked Andante.[1] The fragment suggests a gentle, teaching-piece style: a clear right-hand melody supported by a simple left-hand accompaniment pattern, aiming more at poise and evenness of touch than display.[3] In this sense, it fits naturally among the child Mozart’s earliest keyboard attempts—miniatures in which balanced phrasing and straightforward harmony are foregrounded, and in which musical “character” is achieved through clarity rather than complexity.[2]
[1] IMSLP work page: Andante in B-flat major, K.9b/5b — basic catalog data (key, incompleteness, dating range) and related-notebook context.
[2] Wikipedia (English): Nannerl Notenbuch — overview of Leopold Mozart’s teaching notebook and its purpose within the Mozart household.
[3] Wikipedia (Spanish): Andante en si bemol mayor, KV 5b — concise description of the surviving fragment and its basic musical profile (tempo, fragmentary state).