Mozart

[karlhenning]

In this earlier post I cited Robbins Landon . . . a citation which I abbreviate here:

We notice that Mozart has made something of a speciality of this incisive and brilliant use of C major:  one of the characteristics of his music in general, but especially of this pageantry in C, is the use of the dotted rhythm in 4/4 time [mus. ex.: quarter-note, dotted-eighth + sixteenth-note, quarter-note, quarter-note]. This particularly Mozartean marching motif pervades the first movement in a quite extraordinary way . . . .

[emphases added]

And, well, lookie here:



. . . from the autograph of the 'Haffner' Symphony, K.385. Glance at mm.4,6,8,10 . . . .

[karlhenning]

The Robbins Landon citation above was from a paragraph discussing the K.338, composed a couple of years earlier than the K.385.

[karlhenning]

Some time had elapsed since Mozart had worked on string quartets in a concentrated fashion; the last of the 'Haydn' series had been completed in 1785.  After that, he composed a single quartet in 1786, possibly commissioned by the publisher F.A. Hoffmeister.  Although this work (in D major, K.499) is in some ways less complicated and less difficult of interpretation than those of the 'Haydn' series, it is nonetheless both beautiful and profound (and contains one of the most original minuets in all eighteenth-century music).  The last three quartets, written for the royal cellist, subtly flattered the king by allotting a much more prominent cello part than is usual, and this led the composer to re-think the whole layout.  Mozart was trying to create a new popular style, similar in scope (but not in content) to that which Haydn had perfected and with which he had already won the hearts of musical Europe.  So in a real sense, the 'Prussian' quartets—as they are called—are 'easier' and more approachable than the austere 'Haydn' series.  One aspect of the difference has been suggested by the late Hans Keller:

On the one hand, there is no doubt that [in the 'Haydn' quartets] Mozart made, if the phrase be permitted, a special effort in view of his expert dedicatee, to whom he would also be psychologically prepared to confide his deepest secrets.  On the other hand, His 'cello-playing Majesty created very particular and grave textural problems with which any composer, including probably Haydn and Beethoven, would have been unable to cope at a high creative level.  Mozart's solutions show an almost incredible capacity for adjustment, a mastery of the medium in circumstances that were nothing short of a textural emergency. . . .

This, again, because I have been listening a great deal to the 'Prussian' quartets (K.575, 589 & 590) this week.

Only a few of a large number of items which 'noseth peculiar' about the recently tempest-in-an-imaginary-teapot is:  Mozart's mature work is (so far as such things can be 'objectivized') undeniably great.  It is staggeringly counterintuitive that any contemporary of his, whose works under his rightful name compare poorly to Mozart's, should write so astonishingly better, for no recognition.  It is hardly possible that publishers such as Hoffmeister and Artaria would traffic in a sham, when the actual name that goes with musical talent on so exalted an order is of such obvious face value.

[Herman]

Splendid works, aren't they, Karl? I think that no matter who composed them, he did a hell of a job.

I believe Mozart's autograph of the wonderful Prussian Qts are still with us.

Which recording were you listening to, Karl?

[Joe Barron]

As Woody Allen wrote, Les Miserables is just Coriolanus with a few obvious changes (say them both fast).

Due to all the squabbling on the other thread (I hestite to call it argument), I went back this weekend and listened to the Clarinet and Oboe Concertos, and well probably be listening to a lot more in the near future. Beautiful stuff. In my recordng with Hogwood, a reproduction of the original clarinet is used, with the lower range. To tell the truth, I don't notice a lot of differences, but to do that, I guess I'd have to go back and listen to the two versions back to back.

My own interest in Mozart's authenticity is undeniably economic. The last thing I want to do is re-purchase all my CDs under different names ...  

[karlhenning]

I believe Mozart's autograph of the wonderful Prussian Qts are still with us.

Which recording were you listening to, Karl?

Leipzig Quartet on mdg, Herman.

[karlhenning]

Due to all the squabbling on the other thread (I hestitate to call it argument), I went back this weekend and listened to the Clarinet and Oboe Concertos, and well probably be listening to a lot more in the near future. Beautiful stuff. In my recordng with Hogwood, a reproduction of the original clarinet is used, with the lower range. To tell the truth, I don't notice a lot of differences, but to do that, I guess I'd have to go back and listen to the two versions back to back.

Often, the difference is just in arpeggiated passages, where the bottommost stretches available to the basset clarinet are transposed up (and/or altered) to suit the standard clarinet in A.

[Joe Barron]

Often, the difference is just in arpeggiated passages, where the bottommost stretches available to the basset clarinet are transposed up (and/or altered) to suit the standard clarinet in A.

The notes also said there wass some connective tissue that was different in the newer "adaptation" as well. The changes were based on a detailed critique of the first publication, written by someone (whose name escapes me) who is said to have known the piece well brefore it was printed.

[karlhenning]

The notes also said there wass some connective tissue that was different in the newer "adaptation" as well. The changes were based on a detailed critique of the first publication, written by someone (whose name escapes me) who is said to have known the piece well brefore it was printed.

I haven't been mad for reconstructions of the piece for basset clarinet (my own reasons); but that would be interesting reading.

[karlhenning]

Precisely. Then stop parading that assertion of Mozart (that he couldn't remember a iota of the symphony) as if it proves anything. It proves nothing.

Part of the reason it proves nothing, is that it isn't really an assertion on Mozart's part, is it? All the assertions involved, are the Propagandist's.  What Mozart wrote was:

The New Hafner Sinfonie has truly surprised me—I didn't remember anything about it;—I am sure it is very effective.

[ letter from Vienna to his father Leopold, 15 February 1783 ]

Mozart composed the Haffner mid-1782, in a rush of activity;  and the resulting four-movement symphony was a result of 'paring down' a more-movemented divertimento.  In a footnote to p.626 of Mozart: A Cultural Biography, Gutman writes:

Leopold had dragooned him into fulfilling the request of a family that had supported his interests since childhood.  As he composed the new Haffner music, he sent it piecemeal to the mail coach.  When Leopold returned the entire composition to Vienna early the following year, Mozart gazed in amazement at what he had conceived under pressure and scribbled as fast as pen could travel: "The New Haffner Symphony has in truth surprised me, for I had forgotten every note of it. Indeed, it must make a good effect."  The march, K.408, no. 2/385a, opened and closed this original (Salzburg) version, which, it has been argued, also had two minuets and thus the ramshackle layout—compared to a symphony—of a serenade.

I wanted to quote the entire footnote, in part, because the translation that Gutman references contains the phrasing "I had forgotten every note of it," which is quite equivalent to Spaethling's "I didn't remember anything about it."  Considering the volume of music that Mozart was composing, at a rapid pace—and especially under these 'chop it out' circumstances—it does not surprise me, that he may not have remembered the piece, before it was recalled to him by viewing the score (which is an entirely different matter to the eisogetical "I've never seen this before!")  As a composer myself, at times I look at music I had written six or eight months earlier . . . and I have forgotten it.  Often, this is also partly a matter of my awareness of even my own work being further imprinted by witnessing a performance, or (indeed) playing it myself—and lo! Mozart wrote this work, packed it off in the mail coach to Salzburg . . . and out of sight, out of mind (all the while working at a good pace on a number of other projects) until early next year—Mozart himself made use of the score, which (again) Leopold returned to him in Vienna in February, at a concert 23 March 1783.

In short, this is all perfectly sensible, and harmonizes with my own experience as a composer.

Nothing to see here, folks . . . .

[Herman]

Leipzig Quartet on mdg, Herman.

I believe I have that one, too. I seem to recall they were very sparing with expressive vibrato, as if HIP-influenced.

I think they're a great quartet.

[karlhenning]

Very nice account;  agility and grace, clear textures.  It's a recording I could almost listen to all day!

[Herman]

I listened to the Leipzig's 589 while I was preparing dinner (and then it turned out I had to coax our two-year old into eating her chicken alongside her dessert). It's funny how the Leipzig has these HIP-ish stylings on this record. I heard them in an all Mozart recital in the Concertgebouw (small hall) three years ago (maybe) and they were back to their more traditional style, and I liked that slightly better. Still one of the better new recordings, with the Peterson and the Prazak Qts.

I also played the Haffner Symphony (beats me why) in the Karl Böhm interp. It's never been a favorite of mine, allthough the minuet is really cool. And of course I just love the timpani part.

[Valentino]

You lot! 

K. 589 next. First Mosaïques, then Hagen. 

[karlhenning]

I also played the Haffner Symphony (beats me why) in the Karl Böhm interp. It's never been a favorite of mine, allthough the minuet is really cool. And of course I just love the timpani part.

I must have a yet-more-HIP-ly one somewhere, but generally I listen to St-Martin-in-the-Fields on the Haffner.

[Herman]

So, as a composer, how do you rate the timpani part? Genius or just corporate?

[karlhenning]

So, as a composer, how do you rate the timpani part? Genius or just corporate?

Oh, no way was that timpani part composed by a committee!

For a decade and more, the Haffner and Linz Symphonies have tended to blur together in my memory.  So, I'm taking advantage of the current spike in Mozart interest, to render them again as distinct entities.

Mr. Newman, just in case it slipped your attention:

Please give us the motives of just two persons out of many:

1. Luchesi
2. Cartellieri

It shouldn't be difficult since you've studied them extensively.

Of course, if either of those third-rate composers had been genuinely capable of anything as artful as the K.385, they would not have languished in obscurity all these centuries.

Again: we are here to state the obvious from time to time, as may be serviceable.

[karlhenning]

[Constanze & Wolfgang] proceeded to Linz, via Lambach Abbey, arriving there just in time for Wolfgang to take over the organ part in the Agnus Dei. ('The Prelate was most overjoyed to see me again . . .')  On Tuesday, 4 November [1783], Mozart gave an academy concert at the Linz theatre, '. . . and since I didn't have a single symphony with me, I'm writing a new one at great speed'.  This was to be the much-loved 'Linz' Symphony (K.425), written in five days at the most, and containing a quiet, but for musicians highly dramatic, innovation — the introduction of trumpets and drums into the slow movement.  This gives a note of solemn splendor to the quietly radiant Andante.

[ Mozart: The Golden Years, pp. 95-96 ]

Luminous timpani here, Herman.

[karlhenning]

The Prelate was most overjoyed to see me again . . . .

This from a letter dated 31 October 1783.

[Herman]

Yes the use of trumpets and drums in the Linz slow mvt is exquisite, and was later used in the same luminous fashion by Beethoven.

Unless of course one assumes these works were written by one and the same 3d rate composer we totally forgot about.