Some time ago it was stated in the MMD that Mozart had composed
numerous musical pieces using a musical dice game.  I had the honour
of doubting this, but was not sure. So I wrote that I would investigate
a little.

I ended up in buying a CD-ROM, published by Schott Multimedia (a major
German publisher of sheet music and related products).  The title is
"Musikalische Wurfelspiele von Mozart, Haydn und anderen grossen
Komponisten" (Musical Dice Games by Mozart, Haydn and other great
composers), The author, Cristoph Reuter, does list up all known musical
dice games, 21 in total.

Amongst them is a Mozart dice game, published in 1793 by J.J. Hummel.
This publisher was based in Berlin, but had a subsidiary in Amsterdam.
So his publishings were stating: J.J. Hummel, Berlin, Amsterdam.

This game has been re-edited several times, also by another publisher
from Germany.  This was Simmrock from Bonn, who also had a subsidiary
in Amsterdam.  Indeed: Simrock, Bonn, Amsterdam.

There of course are reasons why Amsterdam, in those days, seemed to be
quite important for music publishers, but that's another subject.

In Kochels Verzeichnis, which we all know as the most profound source
for the music of  Mozart, we do find KV 516 f with the title
"Musikalisches Wurfelspiel". The handwritten original is a sheet of
music, containing not only this piece, but also the begin of KV 516 e.

So it can be taken for granted that Mozart has played with a musical
dice game, and at least once did write down the result. The autograph
is dated  16 May 1787.

However, that's all there is.

Nowadays musicologists doubt if Mozart did produce any more music
using dices.

I do believe that Mozart did play the game, just for the fun of it.
However, he was a genius, and did not need the help of dices to compose
music. In fact, the limitations of such a dice game will have annoyed
him very quickly. If not, we might have found more musical pieces. And
he could write down an original piece even faster, avoiding the
time spent with throwing  the dices, checking the corresponding number,
and copying the related bars. We must remember that we know that Mozart
did write down a score, but that he did this from "memory": he did not
need to think about what he would write down, he already had it in his
mind. That's the geniousity of really great musicians.

However, it is quite beyond doubts that Mozart was involved in
constructing the Mozart dice game, even if it was first published
after his death.

After all, in those days a keyboard instrument was very common in
citizens houses, since learning to play an instrument was part of a
normal education. Unfortunately, there is a wide gap between being
able to play more or less successfully, and composing a piece of music.
Mozart's game allows to compose Wienese minuets, according to the
harmonic and compositional requirements of that time.

Mozart did have at least one major contemporary example at hand: Joseph
Haydn.  So there was a market for this kind of game. Otherwise there
would not have been so many different games.

But the Mozart-version became famous and successful.  And indeed, as
can be learned by playing the games on the CD-ROM, the more or less
specific musical language of the composer can easily be recognized.
It must have been great fun in those days (and still is) to make your
"own"  Mozart-menuets.

By the way:  on the above mentioned CD-ROM you can find five dice-games,
which can be played on your computer. Your compositions also can be
exported, using the MIDI-Export option, so that you can work on them
using any capable software.  Of course the score can be printed.

The games are published by, or known under the name of: C. Ph. E. Bach,
G. Gerlach, J. Haydn, J.Ph Kirnberger, W.A. Mozart, and an anonymous
author (possibly M. Stadler).

You minimally do need a PC 486/100 (Pentium is preferred) with CD-ROM
player (4 x) and 16 Mb RAM, VGA 640 x 480, MIDI-compatible soundcard,
Windows 95 or later.

The CD-ROM can be ordered using the Internet. The ISBN is 3-7957-6076-3.
Just look at http://www.schott-music.com
The site is also in English.

I did not check, but I'm almost sure that Schott is represented in
the USA.