Fugue in E major (K. Anh.C 27.10) — a doubtful “Mozart” fragment, likely linked to A. A. Klengel
par Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
The Fugue in E major (K. Anh.C 27.10) survives as a short keyboard fugue fragment transmitted in 19th-century copies, but it is now generally treated as a spurious or doubtful attribution to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The Salzburg Köchel-Verzeichnis records it as “incorrectly assigned,” and explicitly connects the surviving material with additions by August Alexander Klengel (1783–1852) [1].
What Is Known
The work is catalogued in the Anhang as K. Anh.C 27.10, in E major, for keyboard (clav), with unknown date and place [1]. The principal transmission noted by the Mozarteum catalogue is an 1841 copy (Vienna) whose heading describes the fugue as “begun by W. A. Mozart and completed by Klengel,” and states that it was copied “from the original” by Aloys Fuchs on 12 September 1841 [1]. In modern reference practice it therefore belongs to the spurious/doubtful Mozart repertory rather than the secure core catalogue.
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Musical Content
As transmitted today (e.g., in the Neue Mozart-Ausgabe volume of keyboard single pieces and in the widely circulated scans derived from it), K. Anh.C 27.10 reads as a compact, textbook-styled fugue for solo keyboard in E major [2]. Its character is more consistent with later, academically oriented contrapuntal keyboard writing than with Mozart’s authenticated keyboard fugues, and for that reason the piece is commonly discussed as doubtful—often with Klengel proposed as the more plausible name behind (at least) the “completion” transmitted in the 19th-century copies [1].
[1] Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum, Köchel-Verzeichnis entry KV Anh. C 27.10 (status, instrumentation, 1841 copy description; mentions additions/completion by August Alexander Klengel).
[2] IMSLP work page for Fugue in E major, K. Anh. C 27.10 (links to score scans; notes NMA IX/27/2 keyboard single pieces volume).