Violin Sonata in C (K. Anh.C 23.05)
ヴォルフガング・アマデウス・モーツァルト作
The Violin Sonata in C (K. Anh.C 23.05) is a spurious work—its composer is unknown—once attributed to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) and tentatively dated to 1784 [1]. Surviving only in later transmission and absent an autograph, it stands outside Mozart’s established violin-sonata canon [1].
Background and Context
The piece catalogued as K. Anh.C 23.05 is preserved as an extant, completed sonata for violin and keyboard (vl, clav), but it is judged “incorrectly assigned” to Mozart in the modern Köchel database [1]. A later printed source is documented: an 1804 Breitkopf & Härtel volume that presents “VI Sonatines” for keyboard with violin accompaniment under Mozart’s name—an attribution that scholarship no longer accepts for this sonata [1].
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If the suggested year 1784 were accurate, it would place the work alongside Mozart’s busiest Vienna seasons, when he was writing major piano concertos and chamber music for a discerning market. Yet nothing securely links this sonata to his Viennese circle, and its unknown place of origin reinforces the view that it belongs to an anonymous 18th-century repertory later swept into “Mozart” editions [1].
Musical Character
K. Anh.C 23.05 is laid out as a three-movement sonata—Adagio, Menuetto mit Trio, and Allegro—for keyboard with violin [1]. That sequence (slow movement, minuet with trio, then a quicker finale) aligns with a light, domestic “sonatina” profile rather than the more ambitious dramatic arcs Mozart often pursued in his mature violin sonatas. In keeping with many accompanied sonatas of the period, the keyboard likely carries the principal argument while the violin reinforces, doubles, and decorates the texture; heard in this light, the work offers a small-scale glimpse into the broader salon style that publishers and copyists sometimes attached to Mozart’s name.
[1] Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum, Köchel-Verzeichnis entry for KV Anh. C 23.05 (status, dating, instrumentation, movements, and 1804 print note).