Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791) was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition and proficiency from an early age ...

began his series of preserved

piano concertos A piano concerto, a type of concerto, is a solo composition in the classical music genre which is composed for piano accompanied by an orchestra or other large ensemble. Piano concertos are typically virtuosic showpieces which require an advance ...

with four that he wrote in Salzburg at the age of 11 : K. 37 and 39–41. The autographs, all held by the

Jagiellonian Library The Jagiellonian Library (, popular nickname ''Jagiellonka'') is the library of the Jagiellonian University in Kraków and with almost 6.7 million volumes, one of the largest libraries in Poland, serving as a public library, university library an ...

, Kraków, are dated by his

father A father is the male parent of a child. Besides the paternal bonds of a father to his children, the father may have a parental, legal, and social relationship with the child that carries with it certain rights and obligations. A biological fat ...

as having been completed in April (K. 37) and July (K. 39–41) of 1767. Although these works were long considered to be original, they are now known to be

pasticcio In music, a ''pasticcio'' or ''pastiche'' is an opera or other musical work composed of works by different composers who may or may not have been working together, or an adaptation or localization of an existing work that is loose, unauthorized, ...

s of sonatas by various German composers. The works on which the concertos are based were largely published in Paris, and presumably Mozart and his family became acquainted with them or their composers during their visit to Paris in 1763–64. By using

movement Movement may refer to: Generic uses * Movement (clockwork), the internal mechanism of a timepiece * Movement (sign language), a hand movement when signing * Motion, commonly referred to as movement * Movement (music), a division of a larger co ...

s from the sonatas of other composers, the young Mozart seems to have begun to learn how to cope with the structural problems of composing in the piano concerto form.

Stanley Sadie Stanley John Sadie (; 30 October 1930 – 21 March 2005) was a British musicologist, music critic, and editor. He was editor of the sixth edition of the '' Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' (1980), which was published as the first edition ...

(2008) ''Mozart: The Early Years'' It may be that

Leopold Mozart Johann Georg Leopold Mozart (November 14, 1719 – May 28, 1787) was a German composer, violinist, and music theorist. He is best known today as the father and teacher of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and for his violin textbook ''Versuch einer grün ...

had devised this as a compositional teaching method. If so, it seems that this may have been the first time this had been done by the composer. This is perhaps supported by two facts: First, Leopold excluded the first four concertos from his 1768 list, suggesting that he may not have considered them true compositions by his son. Second, the autographs of the four works are the joint products of both Mozart and Leopold (although K. 41 is mainly in Leopold's hand alone).

No. 1 (K. 37) in F major

The concerto is scored for two

oboe The oboe ( ) is a type of double-reed woodwind instrument. Oboes are usually made of wood, but may also be made of synthetic materials, such as plastic, resin, or hybrid composites. The most common type of oboe, the soprano oboe pitched in C, ...

s (silent in the second movement), two

horn Horn may refer to: Common uses * Horn (acoustic), a tapered sound guide ** Horn antenna ** Horn loudspeaker ** Vehicle horn ** Train horn *Horn (anatomy), a pointed, bony projection on the head of various animals * Horn (instrument), a family ...

s in F, piano (or

harpsichord A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a musical keyboard, keyboard. Depressing a key raises its back end within the instrument, which in turn raises a mechanism with a small plectrum made from quill or plastic that plucks one ...

) and

strings String or strings may refer to: *String (structure), a long flexible structure made from threads twisted together, which is used to tie, bind, or hang other objects Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Strings'' (1991 film), a Canadian anim ...

. The three movements are: The first movement is based on the initial allegro of the sonata for keyboard with violin accompaniment (Op. 1, No. 5) by Hermann Friedrich Raupach, from a set of six published in Paris in 1756. The provenance of the second movement is unknown, although

Eric Blom Eric Walter Blom (20 August 188811 April 1959) was a Swiss-born British-naturalised music lexicographer, music critic and writer. He is best known as the editor of the 5th edition of ''Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' (1954). Earl ...

, the editor of the 5th edition of Grove's Dictionary (1954), suggested that it was in fact by Mozart. The final movement is based on the first movement of the sonata, Op. 2, No. 3, by the Strasbourg-based .

Hermann Abert Hermann Abert (; 25 March 1871 – 13 August 1927) was a German historian of music. Life Abert was born in Stuttgart, the son of Johann Josef Abert (1832–1915), the '' Hofkapellmeister'' of that city. From 1890 to 1896 he studied classical ...

(2007) ''W. A. Mozart''

No. 2 (K. 39) in B major

The concerto is scored for pairs of oboes and horns (in B-flat), piano (or harpsichord), and strings. The movements are: The first and third of the movements are again from Raupach (Op. 1, No. 1), whilst the slow movement is based on the opening movement of Johann Schobert's Op. 17, No. 2, a composer admired by Mozart.

No. 3 (K. 40) in D major

The concerto is scored for pairs of oboes, horns and trumpets (both in D), piano (or harpsichord), and strings. The movements are: The first movement is based on the initial movement of Honauer's Op. 2, No. 1. The second on one by Johann Gottfried Eckard (Op. 1, No. 4 ), the most famous keyboardist of his day. The third movement is based on C. P. E. Bach's piece ''La Boehmer'', published in the early 1760s. Mozart's

cadenza In music, a cadenza, (from , meaning cadence; plural, ''cadenze'' ) is, generically, an improvised or written-out ornamental passage played or sung by a soloist(s), usually in a "free" rhythmic style, and often allowing virtuosic display ...

s for the concerto survive.

No. 4 (K. 41) in G major

The concerto is scored for pairs of

flute The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...

s and horns in G, piano (or harpsichord) and strings. The movements are: As all the movements of this concerto are in either G major or G minor, the work is

homotonal ''Homotonal'' (same-tonality) is a technical musical term that describes the tonal structure of multi-movement compositions. It was introduced into musicology by Hans Keller. According to Keller's definition and usage, a multi-movement compositi ...

. In only four other piano concerti by Mozart are the slow movement in a minor key ( K. 271, K. 456, K. 482, and K. 488). This concerto also opens in triple meter, an unusual feature of Mozart's 27 piano concertos; only K. 41,

K. 413 Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 11 in F major, K. 413 (K. 387a in the sixth edition of the Köchel catalogue), was the second of the group of three early concertos he wrote when in Vienna, in the autumn of 1782 (according to the latest edition of the ...

, K. 491, and K. 449 open in triple meter. The first and third movements are based on ones by Honauer (Op. 1, No. 1), and the middle one on Raupach (Op. 1, No. 1).

Assessment

By comparison to Mozart's later concertos or to those of J. C. Bach, these are slight works. The preludes that Mozart added to the sonatas do not contain a wealth of themes, as is typical for his later efforts, nor does the

exposition Exposition (also the French for exhibition) may refer to: *Universal exposition or World's Fair *Expository writing *Exposition (narrative), background information in a story * Exposition (music) *Trade fair * ''Exposition'' (album), the debut alb ...

or middle section add new thematic material. The role of the keyboard as soloist or continuo is not always clearly delineated. Nevertheless, some traces of his later structures can be detected: for example, the relative sizes of the sections is approximately similar, albeit on a smaller scale.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Piano Concertos Nos. 1-4 (Mozart) 01-04 1767 compositions