String Quintet No. 2 (Mozart)

Movements#

The work is in standard four movement form typical of contemporary symphonies and string quartets: *I. Allegro (cut time) in C minor Mozart contrasts the stark opening theme with a lyrical second subject in the relative major – E flat. In the recapitulation, however, the second subject returns in C minor, rather than C major, allowing the whole movement to conclude uncompromisingly in C minor. *II. Andante in E-flat major The structure of the lyrical slow movement is unremarkable. As far as the process of arrangement is concerned, Mozart made small adjustments throughout to the musical material of the original wind serenade when rewriting the music for strings, one of which can be heard in the second subject of this movement. In the string quintet version, he inserts a chromatic note into the descending scale motif and adjusts the rhythm to accommodate it. *III. Menuetto in canone in C minor, with Trio in canone al rovescio in C major The Menuetto is a canon in which the violin enters first, with the cello following at an interval of one bar. The trio, in the major, is a double Mirror canon, in which the second viola is silent. In it, each answering voice plays the previous musical material upside-down. *IV. Allegro in C minor (ending in C major) The last movement is a set of variations which, Wigmore points out, often treats the theme quite freely. The fifth variation, begun softly by violas (horns in the original wind version) is on a larger scale and is in the relative major key of C minor, E flat major. The seventh variation explores the theme with chromatic harmonies. It is only with the final variation that the work finally turns to C major.