Mozart fifths

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In music theory , the term Mozart fifths refers to parallels of fifths that arise from the progression from an excessive fifth sixth chord to the triad of the  fifth degree :

\ new PianoStaff << \ new Staff << \ set Score.tempoHideNote = ## t \ tempo 4 = 90 \ override Staff.TimeSignature.transparent = ## t \ relative c '' {\ voiceOne s4 b2 c4 \ bar "| | " } \ new Voice {\ voiceTwo s4 f'2 e'4} >> \ new Staff << \ override Staff.TimeSignature.transparent = ## t \ clef "bass" \ relative c {\ voiceOne s4 \ override NoteHead.color = #red \ override Stem.color = #red \ override Accidental.color = #red as'2 g4} \ new Voice {\ voiceTwo s4 \ override NoteHead.color = #red \ override Stem.color = #red \ override Accidental .color = #red des2 c4} >> >>

The term was probably coined by Wilhelm Tappert :

“ More than once Mozart resolved the excessive fifth-sixth accord directly and thus - made fifths; he did this so often that one can speak of "Mozart's fifths". "

- Wilhelm Tappert : Leipziger Allgemeine musical newspaper . 3rd year Leipzig and Winterthur 1868, p. 275

In his study The Ban on the Parallels of Fifths (1869) Tappert dedicates a separate section to the “Mozart fifths”. Previously, Adolf Bernhard Marx had already marked an example like the one above with the note “Mozart” in a discussion of the excessive sixth chord, but without commenting on it.

More recent literature emphasizes that such parallels of fifths do occur in Mozart, but are a rarity in his oeuvre overall. Examples include a .:

In some of the examples given by Tappert (including The Abduction from Seraglio No. 16, mm. 96-97) the voices are used in such a way that in truth there are no parallel fifths.

On the other hand, Mozart fifths are hardly a rarity in 19th century music, e.g. B .:

As early as 1802, Charles-Simon Catel explicitly allowed this type of fifth parallel in his influential Traité d'harmonie , provided it did not take place between the outer voices. In German harmony teachings of the 20th century, it is also expressly approved as the "Mozart fifth".

Sources (chronological)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Tappert 1869, pp. 77-82.
  2. ↑ Marx 1841, p. 127.
  3. ↑ z. B. Ulrich Konrad :  Mozart, (Joannes Chrysostomus) Wolfgang. Section II.5.c. In: Ludwig Finscher (Hrsg.): The music in past and present . Second edition, personal section, volume 12 (Mercadante - Paix). Bärenreiter / Metzler, Kassel et al. 2004, ISBN 3-7618-1122-5  ( online edition , subscription required for full access)
  4. ↑ Catel 1802, p. 61: “Les deux quintes de suite que renferme ce passage sont tolérées, pourvu qu'elles ne soient pas placés dans les parties extrêmes, c'est-à-dire entre la partie la plus aigue et la plus grave. "
  5. ↑ z. B. Louis, Thuille 1907, p. 380: “The so-called Mozart fifths should probably no longer be objected to today”; Schönberg 1922, p. 296 f.