I’ve decided to combine all the remaining pieces in the K. 1 number here, since they’re all very short and I’ve got a lot to go through altogether. The last one, here notated as K. 1F, the Minuet in C, is the original Köchel Catalog’s K. 1. Next week: we get K. 2!
Allegro in C, K. 1B
This one is cute! It starts with two opposing rising scales going back and forth like little fish (at least that’s the image I get), and then about a third of the way through the top starts skipping back down until finally, they come together in three finishing chords. Lots of fun, and deliciously short.
Allegro in F, K. 1C
This one is longer, with the repeats. It sounds more “beginner-friendly” as well, which makes sense since Mozart was 5 when he wrote it. It sounds like a little walk through the snow, maybe in Salzburg, where it was written. It’s nice how the beginning theme comes back at the end after a short bridge with its bass-note tension.
Minuet in F, K. 1D
I’m actually not a fan of this one really. A minuet, apparently, is supposed to be “stately in feeling,” which I suppose means boring (at least to young Wolfgang). It also has some weird dissonances that I found jarring, though it’s interesting to note that they were around before “modern” experimental music.1
Minuet in G, K. 1E
Well not all minuets are boring; this one is quite nice! It has these descendingnesses that loop again into rises and the triplets are well-placed (not like the first minuet, where they seemed to just be there as window-dressing). The version I listened to had more complicated variations after each main section as well, on the repeat. It feels like the ocean, somehow, to me.
Minuet in C, K. 1F
This piece was on the original Köchel catalog as number 1, so it’s where I’ll end my post.
This has a motif of falling sixteenth notes that’s nice the first three times you hear it, and I’m glad it only happened another five times after that. It’s a short piece, like all of these, and it shows a lot of improvement, at least to my ear, of the Minuet form by Mozart.2
I think the bass chords feel muddy in the first half, but when it becomes more of a counter-point to the melody it gets more interesting. And the callback to the first-half runs but a bit higher up is a nice finish to the piece.