Piano Quartet No. 1 (Mozart)
Encyclopedia
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
's Piano Quartet No. 1 in G minor, K. 478, is considered the first major piece composed for piano quartet
in the chamber music
repertoire.
from the publisher Franz Anton Hoffmeister
. Hoffmeister thought this quartet was too difficult and that the public would not buy it, so he released Mozart from the obligation of completing the set. (Nine months later, Mozart composed a second quartet in E-flat major, the K. 493, anyway)..
Hofmeister's fear that the work was too difficult for amateurs was borne out by an article in the Journal des Luxus und der Moden published in Weimar in June 1788. The article highly praised Mozart and his work, but expressed dismay over attempts by amateurs to perform it:
The assessment accords with a view widely held of Mozart in his own lifetime, that of a greatly talented composer who wrote very difficult music.
At the time the piece was written, the harpsichord was still widely used. Although the piece was originally published with the title "Quatuor pour le Clavecin ou Forte Piano, Violon, Tallie [sic] et Basse," stylistic evidence suggests Mozart intended the piano part for "the 'Viennese' fortepiano of the period" and that our modern piano is "a perfectly acceptable alternative."
set of parts has rehearsal letter
s throughout the whole work; the Eulenburg Edition
study score has measure numbers but no rehearsal letters, the same goes for Bärenreiter
.
The quartet is also available in an arrangement for string quintet.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
's Piano Quartet No. 1 in G minor, K. 478, is considered the first major piece composed for piano quartet
Piano quartet
In European classical music, piano quartet denotes a chamber music composition for piano and three other instruments, or a musical ensemble comprising such instruments...
in the chamber music
Chamber music
Chamber music is a form of classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small number of performers with one performer to a part...
repertoire.
Composition and reception
Mozart received a commission for three quartets in 17851785 in music
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from the publisher Franz Anton Hoffmeister
Franz Anton Hoffmeister
Franz Anton Hoffmeister was a German composer and music publisher.Born in Rottenburg am Neckar, he went to Vienna at the age of fourteen to study law...
. Hoffmeister thought this quartet was too difficult and that the public would not buy it, so he released Mozart from the obligation of completing the set. (Nine months later, Mozart composed a second quartet in E-flat major, the K. 493, anyway)..
Hofmeister's fear that the work was too difficult for amateurs was borne out by an article in the Journal des Luxus und der Moden published in Weimar in June 1788. The article highly praised Mozart and his work, but expressed dismay over attempts by amateurs to perform it:
- "[as performed by amateurs] it could not please: everybody yawned with boredom over the incomprehensible tintamarre of 4 instruments which did not keep together for four bars on end, and whose senseless concentus never allowed any unity of feeling; but it had to please, it had to be praised! ... what a difference when this much-advertised work of art is performed with the highest degree of accuracy by four skilled musicians who have studied it carefully."
The assessment accords with a view widely held of Mozart in his own lifetime, that of a greatly talented composer who wrote very difficult music.
At the time the piece was written, the harpsichord was still widely used. Although the piece was originally published with the title "Quatuor pour le Clavecin ou Forte Piano, Violon, Tallie [sic] et Basse," stylistic evidence suggests Mozart intended the piano part for "the 'Viennese' fortepiano of the period" and that our modern piano is "a perfectly acceptable alternative."
Movements
The work is in three movements:- I. Allegro, in G minorG minorG minor is a minor scale based on G, consisting of the pitches G, A, B, C, D, E, and F. For the harmonic minor scale, the F is raised to F. Its relative major is B-flat major, and its parallel major is G major....
- II. Andante, in B-flat major
- III. RondoRondoRondo, and its French equivalent rondeau, is a word that has been used in music in a number of ways, most often in reference to a musical form, but also to a character-type that is distinct from the form...
(Allegro), in G majorG majorG 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; in treble-clef key signatures, the sharp-symbol for F is usually placed on the first line from the top, though in some Baroque music it is placed on the first space from the bottom...
Editions and versions
The C. F. Peters EditionEdition Peters
Edition Peters, also known as C.F.Peters Musikverlag, is a German music publishing house, founded in Leipzig in 1800.From the 1860s it was largely run by members the Hinrichsen family, who were Jewish. The company was confiscated by the Nazis and administered by the "Trustee of Jewish Property"....
set of parts has rehearsal letter
Rehearsal letter
A rehearsal letter is a boldface letter of the alphabet in an orchestral score, and its corresponding parts, that provides a convenient spot from which to resume rehearsal after a break. Rehearsal letters are most often used in scores of the Romantic era, beginning with Louis Spohr...
s throughout the whole work; the Eulenburg Edition
Ernst Eulenburg (musical editions)
Ernst Eulenburg the music publisher was established by Ernst Eulenburg in Leipzig in 1874. The firm started by publishing a series of studies by a Dresden piano teacher, and then expanded into light music and works for men's chorus, at first all non-copyright works.-Origins of the miniature...
study score has measure numbers but no rehearsal letters, the same goes for Bärenreiter
Bärenreiter
Bärenreiter is a German classical music publishing house based in Kassel. The firm was founded by Karl Vötterle in Augsburg in 1923, and moved to Kassel in 1927, where it still maintains headquarters; it also has offices in Basel, London, New York and Prague...
.
The quartet is also available in an arrangement for string quintet.
External links
- Performance of Piano Quartet No. 1 by the Nash EnsembleNash EnsembleThe Nash Ensemble of London is an acclaimed English chamber ensemble. It was founded by Artistic Director Amelia Freedman in 1964, while she was a student at the Royal Academy of Music, and was named after the Nash Terraces around the Academy...
from the Isabella Stewart Gardner MuseumIsabella Stewart Gardner MuseumThe Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum or Fenway Court, as the museum was known during Isabella Stewart Gardner's lifetime, is a museum in the Fenway-Kenmore neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, located within walking distance of the Museum of Fine Arts and near the Back Bay Fens...
in MP3MP3MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...
format