Minuet for Keyboard in C major (K. Anh.A 25)
de Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
The Minuet for Keyboard in C major (K. Anh.A 25) is a short dance movement long circulated under Mozart’s name, traditionally dated to around 1770. Modern cataloguing, however, identifies it as a work by Johann Michael Haydn (MH 136, No. 1), not by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791).
Background and Context
The piece entered the Mozart tradition through later transmission and was for many years associated with Mozart’s juvenile keyboard miniatures; older cataloguing even linked it with the set known as 2 Minuets, K. 61g (where the C-major minuet appears as “No. 2”).[2] In the current Köchel catalogue (K9), it is listed as K. Anh.A 25 and assigned—on the basis of source evaluation—to Michael Haydn, with a dating given as 1770 and keyboard (“clav”) instrumentation.[1]
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
Placed against Mozart’s well-documented output around 1770 (his Italian journeys and a rapid expansion in scale and assurance across genres), this tidy, self-contained minuet reads more convincingly as a practical, interchangeable clavier dance than as a document of a specific moment in Mozart’s stylistic development.[1]
Musical Character
Notated simply for solo keyboard, the minuet is in C major and follows the expected Menuetto design: a balanced minuet strain followed by a contrasting trio, each intended for repeat in performance.[2] As presented in modern editions, it is concise (the minuet proper and trio together fit on a single page) and favors clear two- and three-voice textures, with straightforward harmonic motion and periodic phrasing suitable to the courtly dance step.[2]
For listeners and players, K. Anh.A 25 is best approached less as a “minor Mozart curiosity” than as a small example of the shared Salzburg-era keyboard-dance idiom—one whose authorship has, in recent scholarship, shifted decisively from Mozart to Michael Haydn.[1]
[1] Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum (Köchel Verzeichnis): KV Anh. A 25 — Michael Haydn, Menuett in C, MH 136, Nr. 1 (dating, key, instrumentation, cross-references to KV 61g,02; NMA references)
[2] IMSLP work page: 2 Minuets, K.61g (catalog context and score access; lists the C-major minuet with trio as No. 2, dated 1770)