Zweig MS 59

Autograph full score. Written in ink on systems of four or six staves. Headed by Mozart ‘Contredanses’ (f. 1r), with the nos. 1-5 at the head of the individual dances. No.1: f. 1r; no. 2: f. 1v; no. 3: f. 2r and v; no. 4: ff. 2v, 3r; no. 5: f. 3v. No. 4 is in ‘da capo’ form, with three alternative middle sections. Later annotations on f. 1r include the insertion of ‘V’ before Mozart’s title, ‘N. 17.18.19.20.21.’ in ink [in the hand of G.N. Nissen] to its left, and at top right the date ‘1786’ and an attestation of authenticity signed ‘[J.A.] André’. The number and date from Mozart’s own Verzeichnüss (Zweig MS 63, see below) has been noted in ink in the upper margin of f. 3v. [apparently also by André], with the no. 132 ‘des gedruckten Catalog’, referring to André’s revised 1828 edition of the Verzeichnüss (A. André (ed.), Thematisches Verzeichniss sämmtlicher Kompositionen von W.A Mozart ... (Offenbach: Johann André, 1805).

No. 1 incorporates the melody of Figaro’s ‘Non più andrai’ from Act I of Le nozze di Figaro. These dances are not entered in Mozart’s own Verzeichnüss, though K610, a differently scored version of no. 5 from this set, appears there under 1791. For this reason the dances K609 have previously also been dated to 1791. But Tyson dates them to 1787-8? on the basis of the paper used, and discusses in ‘Problems ...’ the link between them and K610, concluding that the latter is likely in fact to be a revised version of a much earlier work. Zweig purchased this manuscript from the last of the Hinterberger catalogues through which other items from his collection were being offered for sale.