The String Quartet No. 14 in G major, K. 387, nicknamed the "Spring" quartet, was composed by

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 ...

in 1782 while in Vienna. In the composer's inscription on the title page of the autograph score is stated: ''"li 31 di decembre 1782 in vienna"''. The work was perhaps edited in 1783. This is the first of the Haydn Quartets, a set of six string quartets he wrote during his first few years in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

and dedicated to Joseph Haydn.

Movements

Average performances of the whole string quartet vary in length from 26 to 33 minutes. As with all later Mozart quartets, this quartet has four

movements Movement may refer to: Common uses * Movement (clockwork), the internal mechanism of a timepiece * Motion, commonly referred to as movement Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * "Movement" (short story), a short story by Nancy Fu ...

: *I. Allegro vivace assai *II.

Menuetto A minuet (; also spelled menuet) is a social dance of French origin for two people, usually in time. The English word was adapted from the Italian ''minuetto'' and the French ''menuet''. The term also describes the musical form that accomp ...

(Trio in

G minor G minor is a minor scale based on G, consisting of the pitches G, A, B, C, D, E, and F. Its key signature has two flats. Its relative major is B-flat major and its parallel major is G major. According to Paolo Pietropaolo, it is the con ...

) *III.

Andante Andante may refer to: Arts * Andante (tempo), a moderately slow musical tempo * Andante (manga), ''Andante'' (manga), a shōjo manga by Miho Obana * Andante (song), "Andante" (song), a song by Hitomi Yaida * "Andante, Andante", a 1980 song by A ...

cantabile, in C major *IV. Molto allegro The first movement, in

G major G major (or the key of G) is a major scale based on G, with the pitches G, A, B, C, D, E, and F. Its key signature has one sharp. Its relative minor is E minor and its parallel minor is G minor. The G major scale is: Notable composi ...

, contrasts fairly diatonic passages with chromatic runs. According to (Williams, 1997) "it must come as something of a surprise to anyone examining this quartet just how much chromaticism there is in it." In contrast to the standard quartet form, which places the minuet as the 3rd movement, this quartet has the minuet as its 2nd movement (another example of this ordering is the String Quartet No. 17). It is a long minuet, written in the tonic key of G major, with its chromatic fourths set apart by note-to-note dynamics changes. Its trio is in

and has a suitably darker and more unsettled mood. The minuet is followed by a slow movement in the subdominant C major, whose theme explores remote key areas. The fugal theme of four whole notes in the finale points ahead to the finale of Mozart's "Jupiter" Symphony of 1788, a movement which also begins with four whole notes that are used in a fugal fashion, in the coda, and it also points back to Michael Haydn's Symphony No. 23 in which the finale is also a fugato based on a theme of four whole notes,David Wyn Jones, "The Origins of the Symphony" ''A Guide to the Symphony'' Oxford: Oxford University Press (1996): 15 which Mozart copied out the first few bars of and was mistakenly entered into Köchel's original catalog as K. 291.

Notes

References

* John Irving, ''Mozart, the "Haydn" quartets''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (1998) * Williams, Peter F. ''The chromatic fourth during four centuries of music''. Oxford : Clarendon Press ; New York : Oxford University Press, 1997: 130

External links

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format {{Authority control #14 Compositions in G major 1782 compositions