The Piano Sonata in F major by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

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...

, K.

Köchel-Verzeichnis

The Köchel-Verzeichnis is a complete, chronological catalogue of compositions by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart which was originally created by Ludwig von Köchel. It is abbreviated K or KV. For example, Mozart's Requiem in D minor was, according to Köchel's counting, the 626th piece Mozart composed....

 332/300k, was written at the same time as the Piano Sonata, K. 330

Piano Sonata No. 10 (Mozart)

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Piano Sonata No. 10 in C major, K 330 is among one of the three works in the cycle of piano sonatas K.330-332. The sonata was composed in 1783, when Mozart was twenty-seven years old...

and Piano Sonata, K. 331

Piano Sonata No. 11 (Mozart)

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Piano Sonata No. 11 in A major, K 331 is a sonata in three movements:#Andante grazioso — a theme with six variations#Menuetto — a minuet and trio#Alla Turca: Allegretto in A minor and major....

(Alla turca), Mozart numbering them as a set from one to three. They were once believed to have been written in the late 1770s in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, but it is now thought more likely that they date from 1783. Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

 has been suggested as a possible place of composition, with others believing the sonatas were written during a visit to Salzburg

Salzburg

-Population development:In 1935, the population significantly increased when Salzburg absorbed adjacent municipalities. After World War II, numerous refugees found a new home in the city. New residential space was created for American soldiers of the postwar Occupation, and could be used for...

 where Mozart introduced his wife, Constanze, to his father, Leopold

Leopold Mozart

Johann Georg Leopold Mozart was a German composer, conductor, teacher, and violinist. Mozart is best known today as the father and teacher of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and for his violin textbook Versuch einer gründlichen Violinschule.-Childhood and student years:He was born in Augsburg, son of...

. All three sonatas were published in Vienna in 1784.

Form

The sonata is in three movements and has a conventional structure:

1. Allegro - in sonata form
   Sonata form
   Sonata form is a large-scale musical structure used widely since the middle of the 18th century . While it is typically used in the first movement of multi-movement pieces, it is sometimes used in subsequent movements as well—particularly the final movement...
   
   
2. Adagio - a slow movement in the key
   Key (music)
   In music theory, the term key is used in many different and sometimes contradictory ways. A common use is to speak of music as being "in" a specific key, such as in the key of C major or in the key of F-sharp. Sometimes the terms "major" or "minor" are appended, as in the key of A minor or in the...
   
    of B flat major
3. Allegro assai - in sonata form
   Sonata form
   Sonata form is a large-scale musical structure used widely since the middle of the 18th century . While it is typically used in the first movement of multi-movement pieces, it is sometimes used in subsequent movements as well—particularly the final movement...
   
   

A typical performance takes about 18 minutes (25 minutes with repeats).

The first movement, in sonata form

Sonata form

Sonata form is a large-scale musical structure used widely since the middle of the 18th century . While it is typically used in the first movement of multi-movement pieces, it is sometimes used in subsequent movements as well—particularly the final movement...

, offers a classic example of a fake-out of an essential expositional closure half-cadence postmedial caesura

Caesura

thumb|100px|An example of a caesura in modern western music notation.In meter, a caesura is a complete pause in a line of poetry or in a musical composition. The plural form of caesura is caesuras or caesurae...

 extending the secondary theme zone and deferring the essential expositional closure to the next perfect authentic cadence.

The second movement (adagio) is in ABA form. In the autograph, the return of the principal theme (measures 21 ff.) is essentially a literal repeat of its initial presentation. In the earliest printed editions, however, it is considerably elaborated.

The rapid finale is in 6/8 time

Time signature

The time signature is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats are in each measure and which note value constitutes one beat....

. While it starts out with a forte chord and passagework, it concludes with a pianissimo cadence.