So how would pop music sound if Mozart were writing it today? It is a bizarre question but on reflection, not so absurd. After all, at the end of the 18th century, no one would have been surprised if a composer, known for his operas, symphonies, concertos, masses and string quartets, was to exploit his talents by writing dance music. In November 1787, Mozart finally received an paid position in Vienna: he was appointed court chamber musician to replace the recently deceased Gluck. His new job brought with it few obligations, his principal duty being to composed dance music for court balls. These were organised during the carnival season in both the small and large ballrooms of the Vienna imperial palace, the two Redoutensaal. In the last winter of Mozart's life, 1791, the Mozart scholar H. C. Robbins Landon asserts that Mozart “produced a large series for the court, the finest dance music that had ever been written (…) This ushered in a splendid new tradition: in 1792 and the following years, the elderly Haydn provided the music and then in 1795, it was the turn of Beethoven: his first Viennese commission was to compose the dance music heard in the Redoutensaal. (…) The tradition reached its climax with the waltzes of Lanner and the Strauss dynasty. The Austrians were always mad for dance – and Mozart was no exception.”

The Köchel catalogue lists some 120 minuets, more than 50 German dances and approximately 40 contra-dances among Mozart's work. All the German dances and a third of all the other types were composed after Mozart's appointment to the court in 1787. The majority are in 16 or 32 bars, for strings (conforming to the court dance band practice, he omitted viola) and various woodwind. Analysts have praised Mozart's late dance music for its artistic finish and mature orchestration.

The German dance (Deutscher Tanz) in 3/4 time, an Austrian folk dance and a close relative of the ländler and the waltz; it was particularly fashionable at the end of the 18th century. The construction of Mozart's German dances are nearly all in trio form (after a main section, there is a contrasting section, the trio, before the main section is reprised.) The K. 600 and K. 602 sets, just as with all the dances heard in this concert, were written for the 1791 ball season at the end of January and early February. In the orchestration of the E flat major piece, K. 600 no. 4, the interaction between woodwind and flute is particularly noteworthy. It is interesting that the trio commences in the dominant, thus linking it to the main section without a break. The next German dance in nicknamed “Canary” which is because of the lengthy trill like theme of its trio.  Here, Mozart does not employ the usual repeat but reorchestrates the repetitions: first the first violin and flute play the melody, the second violin plays the bass, while on the second hearing, it is the piccolo and bassoon joining the first violin with the bass line handled by cello and double bass. In the K. 601 No. 3 dance in C major, Mozart supplements the orchestra in the trio with a hurdy-gurdy. The entire section is played across a suspended fifth (C – G) which derives from the nature of the instrument. Another subtle compositional idea sees the trio beginning with the same two bar motif with which the main section finishes.