Fabio Dantas Costa

Form and Analysis 1

Professor: Dr. Shane Anderson

05/07/2017

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, String Quartet No. 4 – KV 157 – 1st movement.

While Mozart was working on his opera Lucio Silla he also spent some time writing

instrumental pieces, string quartets to be more specific. In total, six string quartets were

composed in Milan (KV 155 – 160), therefore these quartets are known as “the Milanese String

Quartets”. The Milanese String Quartets were written in less than one year, starting in late 1772

and finishing at early 1773. There are no documents that can specify when exactly each string

quartet was composed. Mozart decided to set these six quartets in a cycle of fifths (D, G, C, F, B-

flat, E-flat), even though the Milanese Quartets have lots of Italian influence, the cycle of fifths

is an Austrian composition trait, rather than an Italian one. ¹

The first movement of his fourth string quarter has lots of parallel sixths and thirds

between the first and second violin, intervals very alike to happen in vocal duets. The allegro

tempo in the first movement perhaps gives the idea of an overture, where the themes that will be

“sing” are presented for the first time. The allegro tempo is sustained by dotted eight notes

played mainly by the cello and the viola, and in specifics moments, syncopated quarter notes

would give more energy and movement in the accompaniment lines.

¹ The Biography of a String Quartet: Mozart’s String Quartet in D minor K. 421. Alexa Vivien Wilks
 The first movement is in sonata form, ||A :|| ||BA|| where A starts in the key of C major

followed by the second theme which is in the key of G major and ending with a ritornello. The

last chord of A works as a dominant, since a ritornello is written and the main theme is played

once more. The development section, Mozart stays in the dominant of the original key, changing

on measure number 60 where he wrote a secondary dominant, going to the key of A minor but

rapidly change its mode when the motive is played by the second violin and viola. On measure

number 70 Mozart writes a transition using in the key of G major where the whole passage can

be seen as a big dominant chord which leads back to the first theme in the original key, starting

its recapitulation. In the recapitulation, the secondary theme does not move to the dominant, like

it did on the exposition but it stays on the key of C major.

Mozart does not write a coda or codetta at the end of the movement, instead, he re-writes

the same material that he used to finishes the A section, with the same prolongation of two bars

but in different keys. The chart below discriminates each section with more details.

A B A
 C major:

I Primary Theme V – Development I Recapitulation

V Secondary Theme V – Transition I Secondary theme

I – m: 1 – 30. HC V – m: 53 – 69. IAC I – m: 75 – 104. HC

V – m: 31 – 52. PAC V – m: 70 – 74. PAC I – m: 105 – 126. PAC

Mozart recycled the motive of the beginning of the movement, creating a new melody on

the second part of the first theme (measure number 21). A dotted quarter note slurred with an

eight-note followed by two quarters notes is later repeated but with a few alterations. Mozart

replaced the two slurred notes for a half note, followed by two quarters and then four slurred

eight notes.

Still involving the same motive, Mozart change its harmony when the second part of the first

theme is repeated on the recapitulation (m. 95).

 In this string quartet, Mozart makes use of prolongation twice. He repeats the exact same

material through four measures at the end of the exposition and at the end of the piece. On the

exposition, he wrote a very clear V – I in the key of G major, the pedal in G and the other voices

in a moving character increase the tension and finally resolves at the end of the section. The

second time when Mozart makes use of prolongation is at the end of the piece. The main key of

the piece is already stablished with the cello playing its lower C as a pedal. The other three

instruments are playing moving voices, emphasizing V – I until the very end of the peace, when

it finishes with a PAC, since the first violin voice is playing a C at the end of the piece.
 Bibliography

World Heritage Encyclopedia, editor. MILANESE QUARTETS (MOZART). Vol. 1, World

Heritage Encyclopedia.

Vivien, Alexa. The Biography of a String Quartet: Mozart’s String Quartet in D minor, K. 421

(417b). Toronto, University of Toronto, 2015