Contrapuntal Study in F major (K. Anh.H 24,04)
di Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
The Contrapuntal Study (K. Anh.H 24,04) is a tiny keyboard counterpoint exercise, transmitted as a fragment and traditionally linked to Mozart’s Vienna in 1791 (age 35). Its authorship is uncertain, yet it offers a telling glimpse into the kind of strict, craft-focused writing that surrounded Mozart’s late theatrical work.
Background and Context
In 1791, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) was living and working in Vienna while completing a remarkable sequence of late projects, including Die Zauberflöte (K. 620). The Contrapuntal Study K. Anh.H 24,04 appears in the Neue Mozart-Ausgabe’s sketches as a “counterpoint study of a cantus firmus” connected with the Act II finale’s armoured-men scene (the Priest’s March)—and it survives only as a brief, practical fragment rather than a finished “piece” meant for publication.[1]
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Musical Character
On the page, K. Anh.H 24,04 reads like a workshop exercise: a plain cantus firmus (a given, sustained melody) is set against a more active contrapuntal line, prioritizing correct intervallic writing and steady voice-leading over pianistic display. The writing is compact and goal-directed, suggesting the composer was testing how a simple foundational line could bear imitative or species-like treatment—skills that, in 1791, naturally sit close to Mozart’s theatrical and ceremonial counterpoint in Die Zauberflöte’s final scenes.[1]
[1] Digital Mozart Edition (Neue Mozart-Ausgabe): Table of Contents, NMA X/30/3 “Sketches” — entry for “Counterpoint study of a cantus firmus (fragment) K. Anh. H 24/04” within sketches for *Die Zauberflöte*.