8th Symphony (Mozart)
The symphony in D major Köchelverzeichnis 48 was composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in Vienna in 1768. According to the Old Mozart Edition, the symphony bears the number 8.
General
The autograph is dated December 13, 1768. Thus, the Symphony Köchelverzeichnis (KV) 48 was probably completed after the concert of December 7th, 1768 (at which the mass KV 139, the Offertory KV 47b and a trumpet concerto KV 47c were performed) and shortly before the departure from Vienna to Salzburg . The return of the Mozarts to Salzburg was already overdue and Leopold Mozart's salary was canceled when the day after the dating of KV 48 on December 14, 1768, his father wrote in a letter to a friend:
“As much as I wished and hoped to be on the Consecration Day S: r Your Highest Grace in Salzburg, it was still impossible, as we could not bring our matter to an end sooner, as much as I was confident. But we will leave here before the Weynacht Feyertage ... "
What the cause of the delayed return to Salzburg was, as well as the composition of KV 48 (for a private client, the farewell concert in Vienna or for a concert planned immediately after the return to Salzburg) is unknown.
To the music
Instrumentation: two oboes , two horns in D, two trumpets in D, timpani , two violins , viola , cello , bass . In contemporary orchestras it was also customary to use bassoon and harpsichord (if available in the orchestra) to reinforce the bass voice or as a continuo , even without separate notation .
Performance duration: approx. 15 minutes
With the terms used here based on the sonata form, it should be noted that this scheme was designed in the first half of the 19th century (see there) and can therefore only be transferred to the Symphony KV 48 with restrictions. - The description and structure of the sentences given here is to be understood as a suggestion. Depending on the point of view, other delimitations and interpretations are also possible.
First movement: Allegro
D major, 3/4 time, 93 bars
Movement opens with a motif of dotted half notes played alternately in forte and piano, which descend in large intervals (fourth - fifth - ninth) to the subdominant G major. Hermann Abert (1955) describes this as the "battle theme". A restless sixteenth-note figure follows as a contrasting ending . In the eight-bar theme, a range of two and a half octaves is already accommodated within the first six bars (the beginning of the first movement of the symphony KV 74g shows a similar structure ). The continuation of the initial motif modulates to the double dominant E major (bar 13, dominant effect to the following A major), now with even larger interval steps (duodecime up and down).
After the short dialogue between the strings and the oboes (“oboe figure”), which is repeated echo-like in the minor key, a continuous flow of rapid sixteenths in the violins begins in bar 18 (considered by Abert (1955) as the second theme), which is only interrupted once by two quarter breaks (bar 21, "dramatic silence"). The first part of the sentence ( “Exposition” ) ends in measure 33 with the short final group.
The “development” begins like the exposition with the main theme, but changes with the repetition of the opening motif from A major to F sharp, and then in an extended passage with the dialogue strings - oboes over B major, A major and G major modulate. The “recapitulation” begins in measure 60 with the main theme in the tonic in D major. With the repetition of the initial motif - as a further increase - again larger interval jumps (over two octaves) occur; this passage is also extended at the expense of the dialogue motif. The rest of the recapitulation corresponds structurally to the exposition. Both parts of the sentence are repeated.
Second movement: Andante
G major, 2/4 time, 45 bars
The Andante is only written for strings and, apart from a few accents, is consistently in the piano. It is based on two themes / motifs, the first (bars 1–6) being characterized by a song-like melody, the second (bars 7–16) by larger interval jumps and a few suggestions. A connecting element in both themes is an ascending sequence of notes in parallel strings (bars 3 and 13). The first part ends in bar 16 on the dominant D major.
The second part (bar 17 ff.) Takes up the first theme again: first in D major, but then in E minor (bar 22 ff.) And then leads with an octave jump motif from the second theme in the circle of fifths down through A. -, D, G and C major. In measure 36, the second theme begins in the tonic in G major. Both parts of the sentence are repeated.
Third movement: Menuetto
D major, 3/4 time, 24 + 32 bars
The minuet and trio are each based on two contrasting motifs:
- in the festive, pompous minuet, slow-stepping quarters (with “reverberation” on the accentuated chord at the first beat) stand opposite fast sixteenth-note runs;
- in the trio (G major, without trumpets and timpani) a forte unison figure with dotted rhythm on the one hand, a lyrical motif in the piano on the other.
Neal Zaslaw (1988) thinks that in the minuet "the courtly pomp (was) captured very nicely, which the minuets of the Viennese symphonies of the time used as a stepping stone to the Dionysian finale, so to speak after the Apollonian slow movement ."
Fourth movement: Molto allegro
D major, 12/8 time, 58 measures
The head of the first theme consists of the alternation of a strong beat and an "echo" in the piano (similar to the beginning of the minuet). This first phrase of the symmetrically structured, eight-bar theme is followed as the second phrase by a continuous eighth figure in the violins. This is then spun from the violins in an imitative manner in virtuoso runs and gives the whole movement the sweeping character of a jig . On the second theme (bars 12-16) in the dominant A major, the violins play a dancing, jumping figure, accompanied by the grounding bass and the sustained E of the horn. Up to the end of the exposition in bar 29, the whole orchestra then presents two small motifs in the forte under the continuous hammering eighth note movement, the first of which is initially led in a fallacy to F sharp minor (bar 20). After a noisy chord melody, the exposition surprisingly ends with a phrase in the piano.
The second part of the movement consists of the modified sequence of the first with the first theme in A major, then swings briefly to B minor, and then returns to the tonic in D major. Both parts of the sentence are repeated.
Volker Scherliess (2005) thinks that the sentence "with its hectically vibrating triplet movement (runs) in a kind of" baroque unitary sequence ", as Mozart occasionally adopts later (for example in the finale of the symphonies KV 133 and KV 338 )." One Mozart uses the closing phrase in the piano e.g. B. also in the last movement of the symphony KV 202 .
Individual references, comments
- ↑ a b c d e Neal Zaslaw: Symphony in D major KV 48. Contribution to: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: The Symphonies Vol. VII , German translation by Decca 1988. Recording by the Academy of Ancient Music ; Concertmaster Jaap Schröder, continuo: Christopher Hogwood. Decca Record, London 1988.
- ↑ a b c Hermann Abert: WA Mozart. Revised and expanded edition of Otto Jahn's Mozart. First part 1756-1782. 7th expanded edition, VEB Breitkopf & Härtel, Musikverlag Leipzig 1955, 848 pp.
- ↑ a b c The repetitions of the parts of the sentence are not kept in some recordings.
- ↑ Volker Scherliess: The symphonies. In: Silke Leopold (Ed.): Mozart-Handbuch. Bärenreiter-Verlag, Kassel 2005, ISBN 3-7618-2021-6 , pp. 277-278
Web links, notes
- 8th Symphony (Mozart) : Score and critical report in the New Mozart Edition
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Sinfonia in Do, K. 48. PR 782, Ricordi-Verlag, Milan 1955 (pocket score).