MOZART’S PIANO MUSIC by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-07-10T16:00:00+00:00

The Concerto in C Major, K. 503, First Movement

If the compositional problem in K. 284 related especially to issues of continuity and musical development, the reasons for the revision of K. 503 were specifically associated with the relation of the piano soloist to the orchestral tutti. The evidence of Mozart’s compositional process in this case is preserved in the autograph score of the concerto held at the Staatsbibliothek Preussischer Kulturbesitz in Berlin. In an article on this source published in 1953, Walter Gerstenberg isolated and transcribed 127 measures from the beginning of the concerto, describing these as a particella, or original outline draft, of the movement that was later revised when Mozart completed the piece.13 Gerstenberg’s work offers a valuable platform for further study of the genesis of K. 503.

More recently, the studies of Alan Tyson have broadened our knowledge of Mozart’s working methods in ways that enrich the interpretation of this source. Tyson’s main contribution has consisted in a close study of the papers used by Mozart for composing his music. Since Mozart used a considerable number of different paper types, and he needed to acquire new paper at regular intervals, his use of these papers reflects the chronology of his compositional activity. Furthermore, the investigation of Mozart’s original papers has cast new light on a striking aspect of the Mozart sources: the survival of a substantial number of unfinished scores or fragments in various formats. Tyson observes about these sources that “in 1799 Constanze Mozart arranged for a careful catalogue of them to be compiled by the Abbé Maximilian Stadler, and after she had disposed of all the available scores of her late husband’s completed works to the publisher Johann Anton André in January 1800, the fate of the fragments, which had not been included in the sale, began to exercise her.”14 Despite the efforts of Constanze Mozart, publishers like Breitkopf and Härtel showed no interest in the fragments, which have long remained obscure. Only in 2002 was a full catalogue of these sources with facsimiles published as a volume of the Neue Mozart Ausgabe, edited by Ulrich Konrad.15

Tyson’s investigation of these fragments and of Mozart’s use of music paper led to an important conclusion: that some of his finished works began as fragments that were only completed after a considerable length of time had elapsed. It appears that Mozart’s reputation for composing works swiftly was connected in part to his practice of setting aside torsos of incomplete works that could be taken up and finished when an occasion arose, such as a performance opportunity. Such was evidently the case with the first movement of K. 503. Mozart entered this work into his Verzeichnüss (thematic catalogue) with the date of 4 December 1786, and he premiered the work on the very next day, 5 December 1786. However, the three double-leaves at the beginning of the autograph score of K. 503 differ from the remainder of the score in that they consist of a rare paper type, one that turns up in six other examples.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.