2 Canons in F for 3 voices in 1; 14 Canons in F for 2 voices in 1 (K. Anh.H 11,19–26)
di Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
The set known as 2 Canons in F for 3 voices in 1; 14 Canons in F for 2 voices in 1 (K. Anh.H 11,19–26; also transmitted as K. 508a) is a small group of unaccompanied vocal canons associated with Vienna in 1786, when Mozart was 30. The sources connect it with didactic “interval canons” and with Mozart’s circle, though the precise authorship and occasion remain uncertain [1].
Background and Context
These canons belong to the convivial—and sometimes pedagogical—culture of canon-singing that flourished in Mozart’s Vienna. The set is generally dated to after 3 June 1786 and linked with Vienna, placing it in the same period as several other brief canons in F (some explicitly connected with Thomas Attwood, Mozart’s English pupil) [1]. In modern reference listings the group is transmitted under K. 508a and described as “2 canons in F for three voices in one” plus “14 canons in F for two voices in one,” a formulation that already hints at compilation: a handful of singable miniatures alongside a systematic run of interval exercises [2].
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Musical Character
On the page, K. 508a reads less like a single “work” than a dossier of tight, no-frills canonic techniques. The two three-voice items are canons “in 1” (at the unison), the simplest kind of strict imitation: one line is written and the following voices enter with the same melody at the same pitch, producing immediate three-part counterpoint with minimal material [1].
The longer sequence is a set of Intervallkanons—canons at specified intervals (second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh; above and below), effectively a compact catalogue of how a single subject behaves when answered not at the unison but at another scale-degree [1]. In F major this becomes a practical lesson in consonance and controlled dissonance: close intervals (seconds and sevenths) force sharper attention to accented clashes and their resolution, while fourths and fifths naturally stabilize the texture. Whatever Mozart’s exact share in the compilation, the musical content aligns with his Viennese habit of treating learned counterpoint as living, social music—something to be sung as readily as it is to be “solved.”
[1] Digital Mozart Edition (Mozarteum): Neue Mozart-Ausgabe, NMA III/10 “Canons” table of contents—entries for K. 508a including the “two canons” and “fourteen interval canons,” dated after 3 June 1786.
[2] IMSLP work page: “Canons for 2 or 3 Voices, K.508a” — basic cataloging, scoring, and overview of the compilation as transmitted under K. 508a.