Musical significance

Mozart’s Sonata in A major (K. 331) was published in Vienna by Artaria in early 1784 together with two other keyboard sonatas (C major, K. 330, and F major, K. 332), and the consensus of scholars is that the three works were written not much earlier, in 1783. Since Mozart was certainly involved in the preparations of Artaria’s first edition, if the printed version at certain points diverges from the newly found autograph, this could in part reflect the composer’s intentions – the rich dynamic markings in the first phrase of the Menuetto (which are as good as absent from the manuscript) were likely supplied by Mozart subsequently.

In other instances, nonetheless, the autograph may call attention to plain mistakes, which crept into the first edition due to a lapse of attention on the part of the printer. On page 2 of the newly discovered manuscript, for example, at the end of the third staff and the end of the first measure in the fifth staff (these are measures 5–6 in the right hand of the opening movement’s fifth variation) the rhythm of the last three notes are two 64ths and a 32nd – in the Artaria edition, however, a beam was erroneously dropped, as if one had to play two 32nds and a 16th. Given that this way the measure would be too long, later editors of the sonata ‘corrected’ the three-note group to three equal 32nds, and today the passage is played like this by every pianist – even though the little ‘snap’ originally written by Mozart himself is much more interesting.

But the most intriguing differences occur on the last page of the newly discovered manuscript, in the Menuetto. At the end of the third measure, for instance, all modern editions suggest c#’’’, even though in Mozart’s manuscript (the right hand of which is notated in soprano clef!) there clearly is an a’’ here, which is more convincing also with regard to the melodic logic. This mistake derives from the textual corruption of the first edition, in which measure 3 had the (correct) a’’, but the recapitulation of the same passage in measure 33 ended with c#’’’ – it was this discrepancy that later editors sought to remedy by changing the a’’ in measure 3 to c#’’’ as well, in accordance with measure 33. (Since Mozart did not write out the recapitulation of the theme separately, but rather entered the remark Da Capo: 7 Täckt, the incorrectness of the c#’’’ is beyond doubt.)

Finally, it is worth mentioning that Mozart’s autograph confirms the reading of measures 24–26 in the first edition, which has consistently been overruled by modern editors of the sonata. As one can see on the last page of the Budapest manuscript, at the beginning of the fifth staff (measure 23 of the Menuetto) the right hand indeed has the natural signs, but the following three measures are notated in A major – furthermore, in measure 26 a # sign was added retrospectively before the first note of the right hand, as if Mozart had wanted to alert the performer that s/he should again turn toward A minor (by playing c’’) only in the next measure.

Besides these major differences, however, careful comparison with the first edition uncovers a number of smaller differences (e.g. with respect to slurring), studying which can help every performer work out his/her own variant.