Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

This is a complete list of the works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, listed chronologically. For a selective list of his works, grouped by genre, see List of compositions by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

The Köchel-Verzeichnis is a complete, chronological catalogue of compositions by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (born 1756) which was originally created by Ludwig von Köchel. It is abbreviated K or KV. For example, Mozart's Requiem in D minor was, according to Köchel's counting, the 626th piece Mozart composed. Thus, the piece is designated K. 626. Köchel catalogue numbers not only attempt to establish chronology, but also give a helpful shorthand to refer to Mozart's works.

The pronunciation of Köchel in English is generally anglicised to "Kershel".

History

In the decades after Mozart's death there were several attempts to catalogue his compositions, but it was not until 1862 that Ludwig von Köchel succeeded. Köchel's 551-page catalogue was titled Chronologisch - thematisches Verzeichnis sämtlicher Tonwerke Wolfgang Amadé Mozarts (Chronological - Thematic Catalogue of the Complete Musical Works of Wolfgang Amadé Mozart). The catalogue included the opening bars of each piece, a so-called incipit.

Köchel attempted arranging the works in chronological order, but the compositions written before 1784 could only be estimated. Since Köchel's work, many more pieces have been found, re-attributed, and re-dated, requiring three catalogue revisions. These revisions, especially the third edition by Alfred Einstein (1937), and the sixth edition by Franz Giegling, Gerd Sievers, and Alexander Weinmann (1964), incorporated many corrections.

Even so, Köchel's numbers are a quick way to estimate when Mozart composed a particular work. For K_n > 100, one may divide it by 25, add 10, yielding an estimate of Mozart's age at time of composition; if one adds 1756 (his birth year), it estimates the year of composition. To maintain as much of the original K-numbering of the list, while re-ordering in the revised, chronological sequence, letters were added to the new numbers. The following list shows Köchel's original designation (K¹) and the sixth revision (K⁶).

Complete chronological list of existing Mozart compositions