Mozart, WA :: Andante in F major, K. 616

Andante in F major, K. 616

Mozart, WA

International Music Company presents Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Andante in F major, K. 616 for three flutes and alto flute (or B-flat clarinet) including the score and parts edited by Karl Kraber.

Notes from the editor: 'From October 1790 to May 1791 Mozart composed three works for Count Joseph Deym of Vienna, who had a collection of mechanical organs - pipe organs that were powered by a clockword mechanism, much like a music box. (Count Deym also commissioned Haydn, Beethoven, and C.P.E. Bach to compose for his instruments.) The first two of these, Adagio and Allegro, K. 594 and 'Fantasia in F minor', K. 608, appear with Mozart's original works for piano four hands and have both been transcribed for woodwind quintet by Wolfgang Sebastian Mayer and Mordechai Rechtman, and for woodwind quartet by Milan Munclinger (IMC 2761 and 2859).

The third, 'Andante in F major', K. 616, which is featured in this edition, was written for a much smaller organ - the lowest note G below middle C, except for two F's a step lower. Given its higher tessitura, its pastoral quality, and that it was composed for an organ - a wind instrument itself - this generally four-voice work is well-suited for an ensemble of flutes, or flutes and clarinet. Since the mechanical organ is, like the brontosaurus, extinct, any performance will be a transcription.

This work was previously transcribed by Frans Vester for woodwind quintet and by Walter Goehr for a quartet of flute, oboe, viola, and cello - but both of these versions are missing thirty-three measures found in the new Mozart Complete Works.'

- Karl Kraber, 2005