Canon in G for 3 Voices, “Bei der Hitz im Sommer eß ich” (K. Anh.A 40)
ヴォルフガング・アマデウス・モーツァルト作
“Bei der Hitz im Sommer eß ich” (Canon in G major for three voices, K. Anh.A 40) is a short convivial round dating from 1782 in Vienna. Long circulated under Mozart’s name, it is now generally regarded as a work by Wenzel Trnka (1739–1791), with Mozart’s connection—if any—uncertain.
Background and Context
The three-voice canon “Bei der Hitz im Sommer eß ich” is associated with Vienna in 1782, when Mozart (aged 26) had recently settled in the city and was active in the informal music-making of salons, taverns, and private gatherings alongside his professional work for the stage and concert hall.[1] In older cataloguing it often appeared among Mozart’s German canons (sometimes under the numbering K. 234 or K. 382e), but modern scholarship has shifted the attribution away from Mozart: the New Mozart Edition’s critical material identifies Wenzel Trnka as the composer.[2]
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The text—humorously domestic and bodily in effect—begins “Bei der Hitz im Sommer eß ich …” (“In the heat of summer I eat …”), in keeping with the light, sociable function of many canons: music meant to be read at sight, sung among friends, and enjoyed for its wordplay as much as for its counterpoint.[3]
Musical Character
As notated in sources that transmit it as a vocal round, the piece is a compact Kanon for three equal voices in G major: a single melodic line designed to be imitated at a fixed time interval, so that simple material yields a brief but satisfying three-part texture.[3] The tone is straightforward and deliberately unpretentious—closer to a table-song than to the more elaborately characterized canons that Mozart wrote for specific friends in later years. Its musical interest lies less in harmonic surprise than in the convivial clarity of its imitation, which allows the joke of the text to land cleanly while the voices interlock in easy counterpoint.
[1] Köchel Verzeichnis (Mozarteum): work entry for “Bei der Hitz im Sommer eß ich” (K. Anh.A 40).
[2] Neue Mozart-Ausgabe (Digital Mozart Edition): Kritischer Bericht for Series III/10 (Canons), identifying Wenzel Trnka as composer for this canon.
[3] Wikipedia: overview of the canon (G major, three voices), its text incipit, and the modern attribution to Wenzel Trnka.