The A Major Sonata is the penultimate of the group of six sonatas for piano and violin composed by Mozart in 1778. All were written during the long journey to Mannheim and Paris undertaken by Mozart and his mother Maria Anna during 1777 and 1778. The present work dates from after the couple's arrival in Paris in the spring of 1778, being dated from some time during the summer of that year. The stay in Paris was neither successful nor happy. Mozart failed to gain the employment his father Leopold hoped for, and on July 3, father and son suffered a disastrous blow with the death of Maria Anna at the age of 57. Whether or not the A major Sonata predates this sad event is not known, but the music, unlike the E minor Sonata (its immediate predecessor) certainly shows no sign of emotional upheaval. Indeed, Mozart's biographer Alfred Einstein describes the work as a "social" duet, "ideally untroubled," and "full of cheerfulness, freshness and innocence," an opinion that would be difficult to contradict. Like all the earlier sonatas in the group it consists of only two movements, an Allegro di molto followed by a theme and variations marked Andante grazioso. In common with all the sonatas of this period for this combination, Mozart seeks to redress the traditional hegemony of the piano (note that these are sonatas for piano and violin) by giving the violin greater equality. Both movements open with the principal theme stated in unison by both instruments (as had the opening Allegro of the E minor sonata), while the use of variation form in the second movement allows the violin a moment of lyrical glory in Variation 4. The six sonatas K. 301 through to K. 306 were published in Paris later in 1778 as "opus 1, No's 1-6" with the title page bearing a dedication to the Maria Elisabeth, Electress of the Palatinate. For this reason they are frequently known as "Palatine Sonatas."

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