Listen to a translation of the dedication page of these sonatas written by Mozart at age eight, read by actor Christopher Inman.
This British edition of six sonatas contains a dedication to Queen Charlotte, with a date corresponding to the Queen’s birthday. It was published “for the author and sold at his lodgings at Thrift Street Soho.” First released in March 1765, it remained available for several years after the Mozart family left England that July. The music had been composed by November 1764, when Mozart was eight years old. Like the Jean-Baptiste Delafosse’s print of the Mozart family, this publication was marketed as a souvenir for those who came to see the siblings perform in their London apartment. Visitors were encouraged either to bring something for the young Wolfgang to play at sight or to challenge him to compose something new on the spot.
WA Mozart (1756–1791)
Six Sonates pour le Clavecin qui peuvent se jouer avec l'accompagnement de Violon ou Flaute Traversiere: Op. 3 / K. 10 - 15
London: R. Bremner, March 1765
Christopher J. Salmon Collection, New York, L2026.97.34
Full of pride and joy at daring to offer homage to You, I finished these sonatas in order to lay them at the feet of Your Majesty; I was, I confess, intoxicated with vanity and ravished with myself when I perceived the Genius of Music at my side.
“Thou art very proud,” he said to me, “of knowing how to write at an age when others are still learning to spell.” “I, proud of my Work?” I answered him. “No, I have other causes for vanity. See in me the favorite of the Queen of these Fortunate Isles. Thou deemest that, if she had been born far from the supreme rank that distinguishes her, her talents would have brought her glory: see, upon the throne as she is, she honors and protects them. Let her permit thee to make her an offering—thou art avid of glory, thou wouldst that all the world should know it; more philosophical, I entrust my pride to my harpsichord, which becomes a little more eloquent thereby, that is all…
I am, with the most profound respect,
Madam,
Your Majesty’s very humble and very obedient little servant,
J. G. W. Mozart
London, 18 January 1765.
Sonata in B-flat major, K. 10, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Alina Ibragimova, violin; Cédric Tiberghien, piano. Mozart: Violin Sonatas. ℗ 2016 Hyperion Records Limited.