A musical Joke

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Mozart's sextet "A Musical Fun" , KV 522, was composed in 1787 . The reason for the creation and dates of a first performance are not known. The nicknames “Dorfmusikantensextett” and “Bauernsinfonie”, which the piece got after the composer's death, are a bit misleading, because the target of the coarse fun is also the performing musicians, but primarily amateur composers who have both technical skills as well as a lack of ideas and of which Mozart certainly knew many.

The line-up requires strings (2 violins, viola, bass) and two horns. There is some evidence that the piece was intended as a satire for a symphony and that the strings should therefore be cast with chorus.

The first movement ( Allegro ) in the form of a sonata main clause begins with a motif in F major, essentially an ascending and descending scale that unexpectedly ends after three (instead of the school-like four) bars, but the intended dominant again not reached. Later, for four bars, only accompanying figures are heard before a “melody” sounds, which again has the main theme of the scale. The exposition of the first movement ends with a fanfare figure and is repeated - because tradition demands it. The implementation at the beginning of the second part is - for lack of thematic material and technical skill of the "composer" - very short, recapitulation and coda is lacking as to joke; nevertheless the second part of the sentence is repeated.

The tempo for the following movement is “ Maestoso ”, for a “ Menuetto ” (originally a dance movement!) Decidedly too slow, but probably appropriate to the abilities of the musicians. At a point marked “ dolce ” the horns “play away” (they “transpose incorrectly”); instead of the planned thirds, violent dissonances up to the second and tritone sound . The most important theme in the trio is the B major scale over two octaves.

The “ Adagio cantabile” consists of a series of “beautiful” cliché figures. A solo cadenza for the first violin towards the end of the sentence ends in a very high position with a whole-tone scale (because the player's fingers are too fat?).

In the last movement, traditionally a rondo at the “ Presto ” tempo, the “composer” even tries a four-part fugue , which, however, gets stuck in the beginning; A ritardando composed based on Haydn's example is easier to implement . With the short-winded two-quarter time, which expands the movement to 458 measures, the conductor is also “performed”. He becomes a "clock beater" who can only indicate "ones" in quick succession. Towards the end of the movement the musicians are so “unfocused” that everyone plays the three final chords in a different key.

In addition to the obvious rudeness described, the composition also contains numerous harmonic jokes that sound far less grotesque to today's ears, which are influenced by romanticism and modernity than in Mozart's time.

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