Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition r ...
's String Quartet No. 18 in A major,
K. 464, the fifth of the
Quartets dedicated to Haydn, was completed in 1785. Mozart's autograph catalogue states as the date of composition ''"1785. / the 10th January"''. It is in four movements:
# Allegro
# Menuetto and Trio (the latter in
E major)
# Andante (theme with variations),
D major
D major (or the key of D) is a major scale based on D, consisting of the pitches D, E, F, G, A, B, and C. Its key signature has two sharps. Its relative minor is B minor and its parallel minor is D minor.
The D major scale is:
:
Ch ...
# Allegro non troppo
The whole piece is characterized by the use of several different
contrapuntal
In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more musical lines (or voices) which are harmonically interdependent yet independent in rhythm and melodic contour. It has been most commonly identified in the European classical tradi ...
devices. In England "this quartet is known as the ''Drum'' because the cello part in variation six
f the Andantemaintains a
staccato drum-like motion."
In his biography of Mozart entitled ''Mozart: A Life'', musicologist
Maynard Solomon quotes
Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classic ...
as telling his pupil
Carl Czerny
Carl Czerny (; 21 February 1791 – 15 July 1857) was an Austrian composer, teacher, and pianist of Czech origin whose music spanned the late Classical and early Romantic eras. His vast musical production amounted to over a thousand works and ...
that this work, with its complex contrapuntal techniques, was Mozart's way of saying to the world, "Look what I could produce, if only you were ready for it." Beethoven thoroughly studied this quartet he much "admired and even copied into score", which he used as model for his
String Quartet in A major, Opus 18 No. 5.
[Nicholas Marston, "Chamber music for strings alone" ''The Beethoven Compendium: A Guide to Beethoven's Life and Music'' ed. Barry Cooper. Ann Arbor: Borders Press (1991): 233]
Even though it is one of Mozart's longest quartets, there is a great economy to the writing. The finale is as monothematic as anything Haydn ever wrote, with all the development deriving from the opening two phrases, and the other movements make use of a very small amount of melodic material for their development sections as well. The minuet for example, builds primarily on just two small motifs.
References
Further reading
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External links
*
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Performance of String Quartet No. 18by the
Borromeo String Quartet
The Borromeo String Quartet is an American string quartet, in residence at the New England Conservatory since 1992. They have performed throughout North and South America, Europe, and Asia, at numerous festivals and in many distinguished chamber mu ...
from the
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts, which houses significant examples of European, Asian, and American art. Its collection includes paintings, sculpture, tapestries, and decorative arts. It was found ...
in
MP3
MP3 (formally MPEG-1 Audio Layer III or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III) is a coding format for digital audio developed largely by the Fraunhofer Society in Germany, with support from other digital scientists in the United States and elsewhere. Origin ...
format
#18
1785 compositions
Compositions in A major
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