Music TheoryPrint

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

String Quartet No. 15 (Mozart)

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's String Quartet No. 15 in D minor, K. 421/417b is the second of his quartets dedicated to Haydn and the only one of the set in a minor key. Though undated in the autograph,

Structure#

Performances of the whole string quartet vary in length from 23 to 33 minutes. It is in four movements: The first movement is characterized by a sharp contrast between the aperiodicity of the first subject group, characterized by Arnold Schoenberg as “prose-like”, and the “wholly periodic” second subject group. In the Andante and the Menuetto, “normal expectations of phraseology are confounded.” The main part of the Menuetto is in minuet and trio sonata form, while “the contrasting major-mode Trio … is … almost embarrassingly lightweight on its own … but makes a wonderful foil to the darker character of the Minuet.” The last movement is a set of variations. The movement ends in a Picardy third.

Arrangements#

An arrangement of the Menuetto and Trio for violin and piano is in Suzuki Violin Volume 7.

Further reading#

  • *A Mozart pilgrimage: being the travel diaries of Vincent & Mary Novello in the year 1829. Ernst Eulenburg, 1975. 112.
    • *Performance of String Quartet No. 15 by the Borromeo String Quartet at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in MP3 format
Composer
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart