String Quartet No. 15 (Mozart)

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's String Quartet No. 15 in D minor, K. 421/417b is the second of his quartets dedicated to Haydn and the only one of the set in a minor key. Though undated in the autograph,[1] it is believed to have been completed in 1783, while his wife Constanze Mozart was in labour with her first child Raimund.[a] Constanze stated that the rising string figures in the second movement corresponded to her cries from the other room.[3]

Structure

1. Allegro moderato
2. Andante
3. Menuetto and Trio – Allegretto
4. Allegretto ma non troppo – Più allegro
Performed by the Strub Quartet
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Performances of the whole string quartet vary in length from 23 to 33 minutes. It is in four movements:

  1. Allegro moderato
  2. Andante (F major)
  3. Menuetto and Trio (the latter in D major) – Allegretto
  4. Allegretto ma non troppo – Più allegro

The first movement is characterized by a sharp contrast between the aperiodicity of the first subject group, characterized by Arnold Schoenberg as "prose-like", and the "wholly periodic" second subject group.[4] In the Andante and the Menuetto, "normal expectations of phraseology are confounded."[5] The main part of the Menuetto is in minuet and trio sonata form,[6] while "the contrasting major-mode Trio ... is ... almost embarrassingly lightweight on its own ... [but] makes a wonderful foil to the darker character of the Minuet."[7] The last movement is a set of variations. The movement ends in a Picardy third.

Arrangements

An arrangement of the Menuetto and Trio for violin and piano is in Suzuki Violin Volume 7.[8]

Notes and references

Notes

  1. ^ "There is an anecdote, reported by Constanze to Vincent and Mary Novello in 1829, that Mozart wrote the D minor string quartet while she was in labour with their first child, Raimund, and therefore around 17 June 1783."[2]

References

  1. ^ Finscher 2007, p. X.
  2. ^ Irving 1998, p. 13.
  3. ^ Hildesheimer 1991, pp. 164–165.
  4. ^ Irving 1998, p. 33
  5. ^ Irving 1998, p. 35
  6. ^ Rosen 1988, pp. 112–114
  7. ^ Irving 1998, p. 36
  8. ^ Polesky n.d.

Sources

  • Finscher, Ludwig, ed. (2007). Mozart: The Ten Celebrated String Quartets. Translated by Kinloch Anderson. Kassel: Bärenreiter. ISMN 9790006201181.
  • Hildesheimer, Wolfgang (1991). Mozart. New York: Noonday Press. ISBN 978-0-374-52298-8 – via Internet Archive.
  • Irving, John (1998). Mozart: The 'Haydn' Quartets. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-58475-2.
  • Polesky, Mark (n.d.). "Suzuki Violin Pieces in their Original Forms – Volume 7". www.markpolesky.com. Retrieved 18 September 2024.
  • Rosen, Charles (1988). Sonata Forms. New York: W. W. Norton. ISBN 9780393302196 – via Internet Archive.

Further reading