Divertimento No. 17 in D Major, K. 334: Menuet

• Mozart composed this divertimento in 1779-80 while he was working for the court of Archbishop Colloredo in Salzburg.¹
  • The archbishop wasn’t thrilled; he had hired Mozart to compose sacred music for the cathedral, and he thought Mozart was neglecting his court duties when he spent time on instrumental music.
  • When the Archbishop later hired Michael Haydn to fill this position after Mozart, the hiring papers took a jab at Mozart’s extracurricular activities:

‘We accordingly appoint [J.M. Haydn] as our court and cathedral organist, in the same fashion as young Mozart was obligated, with the additional stipulation that he show more diligence … and compose more often for our cathedral and chamber music’.

Archbishop Colloredo to Michael Haydn in 1782²

• Mozart wrote this divertimento for the family of a middle-class merchant and manufacturer, Robinig von Rottenfeld.³

1.  Cliff Eisen, and Stanley Sadie, “Mozart, (Johann Chrysostom) Wolfgang Amadeus,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed November 19, 2019,  https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-6002278233. 
2. Ibid.
3.  Maynard Solomon, Mozart: A Life (New York: Harper Collins, 1995), 106.