All Topics  
String Quartet No. 14 (Mozart)

 

   Email Print
   Bookmark   Link






 

String Quartet No. 14 (Mozart)



 
 
The String Quartet No. 14 in G major, K
Köchel-Verzeichnis

The K?chel-Verzeichnis is a complete, chronological catalogue of compositions by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart which was originally created by Ludwig Ritter von K?chel....
. 387, nicknamed the "Spring" quartet, was composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Mozart showed prodigious ability from his earliest childhood in Salzburg. Already competent on keyboard and violin, he composed from the age of five and performed before European royalty; at seventeen he was engaged as a court musician in Salzburg, but grew restless and traveled in search of a better position, always...
 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
Haydn Quartets (Mozart)

The "Haydn" Quartets by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart are a set of six string quartets published in 1785 in Vienna, dedicated to the composer Joseph Haydn....
, a set of six string quartets he wrote during his first few years in Vienna
Vienna

Vienna is the Capital of Republic of Austria and also one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.7 million...
 in honor of the composer Joseph Haydn
Joseph Haydn

Joseph Haydn was an Austrians composer. He was one of the most prominent composers of the classical music era, and is called by some the "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet"....
, who is generally viewed as the father of the string quartet
String quartet

A string quartet is a musical ensemble of four string instruments — usually two violins, a viola and cello — or a piece written to be performed by such a group....
 form.

ith all later Mozart quartets, this quartet has four movements
Movement (music)

A movement is a self-contained part of a musical composition or musical form. While individual or selected movements from a composition are sometimes performed separately, a performance of the complete work requires all the movements to be performed in succession....
:

The first movement, in G major
G major

G major is a major scale based on G, with the pitches G , A , B , C , D , E , and F? . Its key signature has one sharp, F. .Its relative key is E minor, and its parallel key is G minor....
, contrasts fairly diatonic passages with chromatic runs.






Discussion
Ask a question about 'String Quartet No. 14 (Mozart)'
Start a new discussion about 'String Quartet No. 14 (Mozart)'
Answer questions from other users
Full Discussion Forum



Encyclopedia


The String Quartet No. 14 in G major, K
Köchel-Verzeichnis

The K?chel-Verzeichnis is a complete, chronological catalogue of compositions by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart which was originally created by Ludwig Ritter von K?chel....
. 387, nicknamed the "Spring" quartet, was composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Mozart showed prodigious ability from his earliest childhood in Salzburg. Already competent on keyboard and violin, he composed from the age of five and performed before European royalty; at seventeen he was engaged as a court musician in Salzburg, but grew restless and traveled in search of a better position, always...
 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
Haydn Quartets (Mozart)

The "Haydn" Quartets by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart are a set of six string quartets published in 1785 in Vienna, dedicated to the composer Joseph Haydn....
, a set of six string quartets he wrote during his first few years in Vienna
Vienna

Vienna is the Capital of Republic of Austria and also one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.7 million...
 in honor of the composer Joseph Haydn
Joseph Haydn

Joseph Haydn was an Austrians composer. He was one of the most prominent composers of the classical music era, and is called by some the "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet"....
, who is generally viewed as the father of the string quartet
String quartet

A string quartet is a musical ensemble of four string instruments — usually two violins, a viola and cello — or a piece written to be performed by such a group....
 form.

Movements

As with all later Mozart quartets, this quartet has four movements
Movement (music)

A movement is a self-contained part of a musical composition or musical form. While individual or selected movements from a composition are sometimes performed separately, a performance of the complete work requires all the movements to be performed in succession....
:
  • I. Allegro
    Tempo

    In musical terminology, 'tempo' is the speed or pace of a given musical piece. It is an extremely crucial element of composition, as it can affect the mood and difficulty of a piece....
     vivace assai
  • II. Menuetto
    Minuet

    A minuet, sometimes spelled menuet, is a social dance of France origin for two persons, usually in time signature. The word was adapted from Italian language minuetto and French language menuet, meaning small, pretty, delicate, a diminutive of menu, from the Latin minutus; menuetto is a word that occurs only on musi...
  • III. Andante
    Tempo

    In musical terminology, 'tempo' is the speed or pace of a given musical piece. It is an extremely crucial element of composition, as it can affect the mood and difficulty of a piece....
     cantabile
  • IV. Molto allegro


The first movement, in G major
G major

G major is a major scale based on G, with the pitches G , A , B , C , D , E , and F? . Its key signature has one sharp, F. .Its relative key is E minor, and its parallel key is G minor....
, 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 his 4-movement symphonies, all of which place the minuet as the 3rd movement, this quartet has the minuet as its 2nd movement. It is a long minuet, written in the tonic key of G major, with its chromatic fourth
Chromatic fourth

A chromatic fourth is a melody or melodic fragment spanning a perfect fourth with all or almost all chromatic Interval s filled in. The quintessential example is in D minor with the tonic and dominant notes as boundaries:...
s set apart by note-to-note dynamics changes. The minuet is followed by a slow movement in the subdominant C major
C major

C major is a musical major scale based on C, with pitches C , D , E , F , G , A , and B . Its key signature has no flats/sharps.Its relative key is A minor, and its parallel key is C minor....
, 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
Symphony No. 41 (Mozart)

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart completed his Symphony No. 41 in C major on 10 August 1788. It was his last symphony.The work is nicknamed the Jupiter Symphony....
 of 1788, a movement which also begins with four whole notes that are used in a fugal fashion, in the coda
Coda (music)

Coda is a term used in music in a number of different senses, primarily to designate a passage which brings a piece to a conclusion....
, and it also points back to Michael Haydn
Michael Haydn

Johann Michael Haydn was an Austrian composer of the Classical music era, the younger brother of Joseph Haydn....
's Symphony No. 23
Symphony No. 23 (Michael Haydn)

Michael Haydn's Symphony No. 23 in D major, Perger 43, Sherman 22, Sherman-adjusted 23, MH 287, is believed to have been written in Salzburg around 1779....
 in which the finale is also a fugato based on a theme of four whole notes, which Mozart copied out the first few bars of and was mistakenly entered into Köchel's original catalog as K. 291.

Media


Discography

On Naxos, the Éder Quartet recorded this quartet together with three early quartets (8.550541). In most cases, however, it is recorded together with the other Haydn Quartets, for example, the Solomon Quartet on Hyperion, the Artis Quartett on Sony, Quattuor Ysa˙e on Decca, etc.

External links

  • from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
    Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

    The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum or Fenway Court is a museum in the Fenway-Kenmore neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, Massachusetts located within walking distance of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and near the Back Bay Fens....
     in MP3
    MP3

    MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a digital audio Encoder format using a form of lossy data compression. It is a common audio format for consumer audio storage, as well as a de facto standard encoding for the transfer and playback of music on digital audio players....
     format