Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

God is our refuge

God is our refuge, K. 20, is a motet for four voices in G minor composed in July 1765 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart when he was 9 years old. Based on Psalm 46, Mozart wrote it in London on the Mozart

Score#

The 23-bar work is scored for four voices: soprano, alto, tenor and bass, and is written in time.

Lyrics#

God is our refuge, our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble, a present help in trouble.

Influence#

As the manuscript for this work is still intact, one can find two separate, distinct handwritings: Wolfgang’s, and his father’s Leopold. It can be seen that Wolfgang most likely wrote the tempo markings, key signatures and clefs, as well as all of the notes. Leopold was suspected to have a hand in the written words after bar seven, as the young Wolfgang seemingly had trouble judging the amount of space necessary to fit in the written text (as can be seen by the wave pattern of the bar lines near measure 7).

Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart