The Mystery of Mozart’s Minuet in D

[@lumenvera9452]

Those who truly know Mozart are absolutely certain that he was ahead of his time. Mozart is not only the hinge between the baroque and the classicism, but also the precursor of romanticism and inspiration of many composers. Dissonance was used by Bach, but the mozartian approach to it is a whole new world. Mozart's versatility is second-to-none. From chromaticism to diatonicism, from heavy counterpoint and fugues to simple melodies. From elaborate harmonies to slight progressions. Let alone the vast repertoire expressed in operas, symphonies, duets, quartets, concerts, sonatas, masses, chants, minuets etc. Mozart is, as Tchaikovsky praised him, "The musical Christ" for a number of reasons. Along with Bach, he transcends the great into the sublime.

[@tomlabooks3263]

These comments make this channel even greater than it already is

[@riverwildcat1]

In a famous letter he wrote that taking a ride in the country, or other type of relaxation, he would find himself in a state where a work of music appeared - in his mind’s eye- whole and complete, like statue. As soon as he got pen and paper he would write it all out in one draft, with no corrections, or few.

[@colinjames2469]

nevermind Beethoven.... 🤦🏻‍♂

[@Alix777.]

Well put. Mozart is being so much hated on Reddit classical subs it's insane, Mozart is dull and boring, didn't invented anything, etc.

[@Alix777.]

​@@colinjames2469 Beethoven harmonic language is incredibly poor compared to Mozart. Mozart is a God of musical science. Beethoven attempted all his life to write a proper fugue and never succeed, where as Mozart was written perfect double fugues a 16..

[@fendermarxist]

that whole section around 7:30 with the chromaticism and strong 5ths motion gives me a strong jazz feel! absolutely incredible how far ahead of his time he was. he would have THRIVED in the 20th century.

[@ahujeffrey]

Admittedly, while not a fan of Mozart, I loved this video. It truly exposes the chromatic innovations of Mozart. Your alternative ending is also VERY satisfying and logical/well-founded. Bravo!

[@themusicprofessor]

Thank you!

[@remorrey]

To say you are an excellent, entertaining, and profound teacher is such an understatement. I'm so proud and honored to be included in the Patreon credits for this analysis and performance. More coming your way. Best regards and deep appreciation from this plain, old, musically uneducated American bloke...who is a little more educated now thanks to you.

[@themusicprofessor]

Amazing! Thank you so much for supporting the channel and for your huge encouragement!

[@Siansonea]

I really like what you did with the end there. It feels organic to the rest of the piece. I'm not familiar with the original published version though, so I'm coming to it fresh.

[@themusicprofessor]

Thank you very much. There's a recording of the original version by Mitsuko Uchida which is so beautifully played that it's completely compelling! kzbin.info/www/bejne/eZ3VYX1jiM6Yma8si=LIim-eYbURODeTN9

[@riverwildcat1]

Thanks!

[@themusicprofessor]

Thank you!

[@olly8453]

I love that you've finally gotten to this piece. Bravo for the brave new completion.

[@bearcb]

Talking about Mozart’s chromatism and dissonances, what about the intro of his “Dissonance” string quartet? Not only a century ahead of his time, but also stunningly beautiful!

[@themusicprofessor]

Absolutely right. All Mozart's 'Haydn' quartets are wonderful.

[@farmergiles1065]

Entirely so! But this characteristic is much more widely demonstrated, especially in later works, than is commonly observed. It's just that he blends it so well with the classic elements that your ear is lured into hearing the works as "classical". But how extraordinary they are! As an example of a different turn of inventiveness, consider the quintuple ( *quintuple!* ) fugue ( *fugue!* ) from the Jupiter symphony. Bach wrote such things, as well as such wonderful chromaticisms, but you would never hear Bach as anything other than Baroque. What a transformation to hear the same techniques in the classical style! Mozart's genius was just astounding!

[@CJFCarlsson]

Most interesting to me as a musical layman is how my layman feeling without verbalisation around a musical piece can be converted into a intelligent discource on intention and technical expression of the intention. Thank you very much.

[@rnnyhoff]

What an enlightening and informative analysis of a seminal piece that I was unfamiliar with. Thank you for the lesson in musical theory and the connections with other Mozart works. Well done. You have earned another Patreon supporter.

[@themusicprofessor]

Thank you!

[@zfid]

Only recently discovered your channel and I find your explanations of classical pieces, something that has been a slightly turgid mystery to me, absolutely compelling so many thanks for helping me to open my ears!

[@riverwildcat1]

Remarkable and illuminating. Great job. Your version is something Mozart would appreciate, since relatively few of his listeners knew the machinations and radical inventions he was playing around with. Loved the detour to Ravel and his Menuet Antique, one of my faves.

[@themusicprofessor]

Great to hear you liked the Ravel reference!

[@musicmusings6311]

Been watching your videos almost back-to-back for a couple of hours now! Love the way you present the material, enhanced with a broad sweep of context. You mentioned Robert Levin here. Love listening to him talk, too. Incidentally, I find the two of you share a few expressions, facial, physical, verbal and tonal! (Just wish a couple of your videos had better audio.) Thanks, and have a good day!

[@themusicprofessor]

Thank you! We are slowly working towards improving the audio.

[@fredhoupt4078]

one of my favorite Mozart short pieces. Delightfully quirky but betraying a deep knowledge of chromaticism. Your alternative ending is persuasive. Not sure that Woolfey would have chosen an octave jump up but your version is enjoyable. Well done.

[@themusicprofessor]

It seems extreme, and you may be right, but I followed his own example in the first half...just jumping a little further!

[@angelikafranz4545]

"Wolferl", that's how he was called by his sister Nannerl.

[@fredhoupt4078]

@@angelikafranz4545 I'll bet she called him a German version of "fartknocker". He had quite the toilet humor.

[@harryturner9304]

Underrated channel. You deserve more subs!

[@nodoglikealongdog]

I just love your interpolations and explanations.Even though I have studied music my entire life I continue to learn new things all the time. I really appreciate your information !

[@lucanutricati8520]

Please keep doing videos. Absolutely brilliant!

[@garydmcgath]

_The Marriage of Figaro_ had strong connections to the French Revolution. The original play was by Beaumarchais, who had an important role in financing the American Revolution. The play was supposed to premiere in 1783, but the performance was prohibited at the last minute under Louis XV. It didn't get its first public performance till the next year. Performing it was also banned in Austria by the Emperor. Da Ponte had to tone down the most inflammatory parts for the operatic version to avoid censorship. It probably helped Mozart's cause that the opera was in Italian, which most common people in Austria didn't understand.

[@marymactavish]

And I'll bet dollars to doughnuts Mozart was very aware of that benefit.

[@marymactavish]

10:55 scenes like this are why I have watched this movie at least 10 times.

[@mrkitty777]

Who wrote the Libretto?

[@johanhartman6368]

Marriage of Figaro is also the second play of the trilogy, and Mozart's opera was intended as a sequel to Paisiello's very successful Baber of Seville (same play that Rossini later set), so he knew it was commercially viable

[@mrkitty777]

I did Don Giovanni into sequencer only, but the greatest thing missing is human singing. Like that scene in Amadeus where Salierrie voice over about the commander singing Don Giovanni I come To Dinner, saying Mozart was trying to call his father back.

[@karensmith5580]

That was a nice rewrite at the end, sounded very complete and polished.

[@sdzhchannel]

Being about 9 minutes in, I am going to make the (slightly contrarian) claim that these harmonies and modulations, while indeed bold, are still within the pre-existing tradition - I see in the individual phrases Phrygian dominant cadences with a chromatic middle voice, which are found in the Baroque period (from which also quite daring chromatic works exist). Sequences going one tone downwards or along the circle of fifths are also not unusual. Which, of course, doesn't deny the boldness of the piece, and the combination of all these elements is truly interesting. I am always impressed by late Mozart' s chromaticism and polyphony, e.g. in the Adagio and Fugue in c minor or "Oro supplex" from the Requiem. I am just stating that it has its solid foundations in the Baroque music, from which Mozart evidently drew a lot.

[@unwrought9757]

I find your version with alternative ending beautiful indeed and very logical, fitting perfectly the original idea. Well done, sir.

[@themusicprofessor]

Thank you very much!

[@unwrought9757]

@@themusicprofessor I was considering to arrange this very piece for our student guitar ensemble. I try to present them some interesting pieces such as this one, not only pieces belonging to the traditional 19th century guitar repertoire. Wouldn’t you mind my using your completion? It’s wonderful.

[@themusicprofessor]

Of course you may.

[@87linceed]

please do more mozart he is a genius and your approach to it is also genius

[@themusicprofessor]

Thank you! There will be more Mozart!

[@Swaroque]

We are grateful to have these videos.

[@olly8453]

Another "out there" piece I've always been fascinated with by Mozart has been K608. There is just so much going on with it. Maybe one day you can tackle it.

[@themusicprofessor]

Yes. Fab. So is his other mastrpiece for musical clock: the adagio and allegro K 594

[@theophilos0910]

I agree - it seems so incongruous that such a rare example as K. 608 (March-April 1791) of Mozart’s mastery of counterpoint was intended as (or at least paid-for-as) a composition for ‘Ein Orgel im eine Uhr’ - a miniature organ in a clock - whose ‘squeaky little pipes’ annoyed M. so much - when in his mind he surely would have envisaged K. 608 to be performed on a large pipe organ which he often called ‘the veritable King of Instruments !’

[@ScottGlasgowMusic]

Nice improvisation speculation. What a cool piece I really did not know (and I am conservatory trained). Cool channel, keep it up.

[@Alix777.]

Love your own completion ! Very interesting video ! Subscribed

[@farmergiles1065]

You take me back to my days as a graduate student in music! Not that your presentation is the same highly detailed and academic material as I got there, but that your insight and connections are just as spot on. What a joy to have the work of a very familiar and beloved master revealed in such wonderful ways! It makes me wish I could begin again focusing on piano instead of strings (but without giving up strings). Alas, it would need multiple lifetimes. Life has taken me too far from these things. It is good to come back. Many thanks for all your thoughts here! I must say I prefer your ending to Stadler's (if it is Stadler's), even though it was far better fitting than anything Salieri might have dreamt up. Yours, however, has that touch of Mozartian inventiveness that was missing. Perhaps he didn't have time or attention enough to devote to it at first. Perhaps he just hadn't decided (though that's not characteristic). But your ending has the perfect balance needed, and I love the touch of the little coda - an almost Haydnesque touch of humor in it, or a wry bit of Mozartian. But I find it a delightful thought.

[@themusicprofessor]

Lovely comment. Thank you.

[@carlosrobertoalvarado6462]

Excelent!!! Thank you so much 😊

[@amazingdoggo]

It's interesting to consider how far he might have gone, had he lived as long as Haydn, for example. Had he lived long enough, Mozart might have worked his way through everything thought of as music and been considered "mad" at the end! Had that happened, we'd still be debating whether he died a madman.

[@arthurstreeb-greebling1088]

Well if Beethoven had lived only as long as Mozart we still would have had the Eroica the Kreutzer the Waldstein, just about squeezing in the Razumovsky's, to name but four. Works beyond Mozart imho...

[@themusicprofessor]

They're both marvellous!

[@FamilyGuyVids11]

keep up the great work. so interesting!

[@rossanopinelli5150]

Dear Professor, thank you from the bottom of my heart for this extraordinary analysis of such a revolutionary masterpiece as this incredible Minuet, one of the most subversive things of Mozart's prophetic genius. I am a composer and I really appreciate the depth of your analysis as well as, at the same time, the profound emotion -- palpable, engaging -- with which you reveal to us the wonders, the priceless treasures hidden in such a small/great masterwork. Thank you!!!

[@themusicprofessor]

Thank you for your lovely comment.

[@victorialove9104]

I was not at all familiar with this piece. Now I want to learn to play it. Your ending seems perfectly cohesive and true.❤

[@Lasselucidora]

Mozart was 92 years old when he died. He was ahead of his time. Time travelling costs.

[@Contrapunctus1984]

Nice completion!

[@henryopitz3254]

Fantastic video!

[@flyingmusicnature]

Very interesting, thanks.

[@samanthacridland9730]

Loved the video and your Revolver shirt!

[@MrInterestingthings]

I'm so glad I found and subscribed to this channel ! I hope I can find the famous Gigue everyone talks about from Uchida to Donald Tovey and others .

[@themusicprofessor]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/rpnCpWScppWnoqMsi=HxMwvlyy1sd7iWXR

[@sigurfeanaro3356]

I found this video wonderful, one of my most preferred of this channel, Herr Professor!

[@themusicprofessor]

Thank you!

[@robhaskins]

Very interesting; thanks for your work.

[@ricucci-hillmusic]

Idk why, but I keep hearing a teeny bit of the Letter aria from Eugene Onegin in the second half of the first subject. And when you mention that Tchaikovsky wrote a piece based on this that just solidified it in my head

[@themusicprofessor]

Mozart was Tchaikovsky's favourite composer and there is a strong influence. The letter aria is a magnificent example.

[@classictastic]

Exceptionally well made video. Had me hooked

[@amadeeuuss]

Thank you! Thank you!

[@clavichord]

The avant-garde Mozart! I also sometimes get the feeling of listening to early Romantic/post-classical Mozart with keyboard pieces like his Fantasia in D minor K397, although not as bold as this minuet...

[@themusicprofessor]

Yes, absolutely. I'll do a video about the D minor fantasia soon.

[@clavichord]

@@themusicprofessor That would be great. I look forward to it

[@ericrakestraw664]

Like the minuet, the D minor Fantasia is another Mozart piece that was completed by someone else and where the ending could use a little more imagination. I'll be interested to hear your take on that one.@@themusicprofessor

[@themusicprofessor]

I've done it - it will be the topic of another video!

[@Alix777.]

Fantasia in C minor k.396 Fantasia in C minor k.475 Rondo in A minor k.511 Adagio in B minor k.540 Kleine Gigue k.574 Are all avant-garde Mozart, but I prefer the "true Mozart" what he really wanted to do, and not written music for pupils or princes

[@izzyk9601]

Cool ending!

[@ThalesF75]

Love the T-shirt. And love, of course, the video. Amazed by the chromaticism, got myself the piece and plan to study it very soon. Thanks!

[@matttondr9282]

Let’s not forget that Mozart was a prominent freemason and included a lot of that symbolism in his work as well.

[@kwekuhaizel2999]

Wow..I love this. Thanks

[@anti64]

Awesome video, thank you!

[@kyleethekelt]

Thank you for making Mozart intriguing. I always thought of Beethoven as being the one to do all the fun stuff, but I'll now have to take a closer look. Pity they never met. They could have made very exciting music together.

[@themusicprofessor]

They may have met in 1791. There is an apocryphal story that they did, and that the young Beethoven played to Mozart who said, "He is destined to make a great noise in the world." Impossible to verify though.

[@Alix777.]

Imagine a large Concerto for 2 pianos composed and performed by Mozart and Beethoven ! Sounds pretty epic to me

[@CarloGinex]

Great job

[@GSHAPIROY]

One thing that I should point out is that in the second measure of the piece, the second lower note in the right hand, according to the original edition, is an E. Later editions changed it to E#, which might be slightly less awkward pianistically, but from a harmonic standpoint is impossible given that the bass note is an E. Similarly, in the left hand in m. 20, the second note should be F# (the natural sign was also arbitrarily added in later editions).

[@themusicprofessor]

Thank you. There are different views about these passing notes. I think to modern ears the original notation, though more 'correct', seems slightly more awkward melodically.

[@srothbardt]

Tchaikovsky orchestrated this piece for his Suite No. 4, Mozartiana

[@revelry1969]

Amazing stuff

[@official_javaLand]

Thanks for the video!

[@danal81]

I don't think Mozart would've chosen to finish exactly like that (my hunch only, I think he wanted to be very 'discrete' with the complex material in that piece), but it sounds ok, organic and logical nevertheless.

[@bookmouse2719]

Thank you 😍

[@alger3041]

In case it hasn't been already mentioned, this minuet was used by Tchaikovsky in his Mozartiana Suite.

[@Alexagrigorieff]

Along with the Gigue

[@Quotenwagnerianer]

It has been mentioned. Within the first minute of the video. Which you clearly didn't watch before commenting...

[@alger3041]

​@@QuotenwagnerianerSo what's your point?

[@Quotenwagnerianer]

My point is that people like you should have the decency to watch a video and actually LISTEN to what points are being made before trying to fact drop facts that have been dropped in the video. As opposed to you, WE did pay attention!@@alger3041

[@hammerhead6194]

Consonance is the nobility and the stability that shaped the world. Dissonance is the unruly masses, strident, demanding to be heard, unsophisticated, and shocking. Mozart wrote the world he heard in song.

[@gaopinghu7332]

Dissonance is as important as consonance. It isn't inferior to it.

[@markoslavicek]

In Amadeus, a piece by Salier is not a minuet but a march. Not only is it mentioned in the movie, but the meter is 4/4 which by definition cannot be a minuet.

[@themusicprofessor]

Yes, the march from Amadeus (which is a fictional piece anyway) is only quoted to make the general point that Mozart takes 18th century conventions and turns them into gold.

[@markoslavicek]

@@themusicprofessor Do you happen to know who is the author of the piece in the scene (if it's really fictional, as you say)? That's such a legendary scene, Mozart goes full crazy and starts to play Don Giovanni (still uncomposed at that point of his life). Forman is amazing.

[@themusicprofessor]

It's a very interesting question. Since the march is a variant on Mozart's 'Non piu Andrei' I think the composer may be the famous British composer, Harrison Birtwistle (it's not at all typical of his normal work!) Birtwistle was the composer for the original National Theatre production, so I imagine that he composed the 'Salieri' march in order for it to transform into Mozart's famous melody.

[@markoslavicek]

@@themusicprofessor Oh wow, the famous New Complexity Harrison Birthwistle? Had no idea that he was involved in the production, this is a very pleasant surprise.

[@themusicprofessor]

He was indeed. Birtwistle was composer in residence at the National Theatre when Amadeus was premiered there. The little march has no credit on it, so there's no definite way of knowing its author - I suspect that Birtwistle may have preferred not to have his name on it!

[@renzo6490]

Wonderful, entertaining video. I enjoyed ever minute of it. Oh, and someone just told me that off to the side, there was a guy talking about music or something.

[@careerdetective]

Thank you for a very lucid presentation.I look forward to playing your completion myself - this is one of my favourite Mozart piano pieces. My least favourite Mozart piece is the Ronda Alla Turca - which sounds like he had an off day. I would appreciate your analysis of it and wonder if you agree with my view.

[@themusicprofessor]

OK - I might manage it at some point. I rather like it - it's earlier in Mozart's output and is really in his most popular style. It's entirely homophonic and apparently incredibly simple and yet absolutely charismatic, and it has some very interesting rhythmic features.

[@Tetsugakusha75]

7:30 The Tristan chord can be heard already in the trio of the minuet in Haydn's second "Tost" quartet, op. 54, no. 2.

[@themusicprofessor]

Oh wow! Yes. Fascinating. The whole trio with it's strange A flat minor/augmented thing is really something. (kzbin.info/www/bejne/pV7TeGOFp8R0aq8si=qJcoVzxndkqXyIdv&t=728) Thanks for the recommendation.

[@Tetsugakusha75]

​@@themusicprofessor You're welcome! It first occurs (incompletely, without the F, just B-E♭-A♭) at the end of bar 50 (11:35 in the recording for which you gave the link), then - in the second part of the trio - again at the end of bar 64 (12:08), and at the end of bar 66 (12:11) the cello adds the F, completing the Tristan chord F-B-E♭-A♭.

[@antoinemozart243]

Yes but a chord is not enough to make a great piece of music. Haydn discovered many things but was unable to use it with enough strength.

[@themusicprofessor]

...be careful. Haydn is amazing!

[@Tetsugakusha75]

@@themusicprofessor Haydn is a towering genius, incredibly prolific in inventing rules and exceptions. He "lacked strength" so much that for an age, the whole of Europe composed like him, and when a certain Mozart wrote string quartets, the first thing he wanted to know was what Haydn thought of them.

[@MateaLekoPiano]

This is the most interesting lesson on Figaro and Don Giovanni I have heard😂🙏 Love your videos!👏👏

[@themusicprofessor]

Thank you!

[@PushkaryovVsevolod]

Шикарно!

[@themusicprofessor]

Thank you!

[@RanBlakePiano]

@@themusicprofessor this is a fabulous video !

[@OctopusContrapunctus]

I Quite love your rewritten ending, the Original published one sounds a Bit empty and abrupt.

[@themusicprofessor]

Thank you. I think so too!

[@dantrizz]

I always play the Levin completion as it's easily the completion that offers the most natural and "correct" sounding music given what we already know in the exposition of material at the start. I think your version is very fine. I would say there are 2 things that stand out to me that I wouldn't have done (but this could just be me), firstly the jump from a in the bass to the b flat in the completion forms a flat 9th which I personally find dissatisfying especially when you could just continue the sequence literally down a flat 2nd and still retain the leap in the right hand. And that's compounded by the e in the A chord before the 2nd phrase group resolving to an F# in the wrong register. I'm sure you could dig out a mozart example that does something like that, but it's pretty rare and, moreover, that issue is only caused by the leap up of a flat 9th and then needing to leap down, when if you just stayed where you were, the problem never comes up. Second issue, would be the last 4 bars. They sound perfectly fine (and indeed rather lovely) inandof themselves, however, this may just be me again, but the 4th bar from the end that starts the initial material, I at least hear this as the final bar of the phrase that's just occurred. And thus it is the next bar that starts the phrase for the end of the piece, which now, is only 3 bars. Mozart pretty much never does this. Again I'm sure there's the odd counterexample that mozart did do this, and indeed he does odd phrasing a lot, but it's almost always in development sections or in transitional material. I can't think of any example where that's true of the last 4 bars concluding the whole piece. The idea of actually having a 5 bar phrase, where the first bar is actually the final bar of the previous phrase and your mind is tricked into hearing it as the first of the next phrase, but actually it's the bar following that, this idea is so so SOOOO common in Mozart's work. I can't think of a single piece that doesn't employ this trick. It is the go-to-gold-standard thing he does, literally all the time. So personally if I were completing this (which in all honesty I wouldn't have the guts to do) I'd have stuck in an extra bar before the last 2 bars of the piece. But these are very very specific Mozart trope critiques that I'm super familiar with throughout so much of his work so I appreciate this is me being very pedantic. I actually rather like the sound of the final 4 bars as a way of recomposing the initial theme.

[@themusicprofessor]

This is amazing! I love the way you're thinking through the minutiae of Mozart's phrasing. I love the depth of your discussion and you make excellent critical observations. I think I stand by ending though - not because it's precisely what Mozart would have done...I think that's pretty much impossible to determine. However, I do think it's reasonably Mozartean (also...it was improvised during the recording so done 'in the moment' - a not unMozartean approach!)

[@dantrizz]

@@themusicprofessor yeah that makes a lot of sense, and certainly retains your own desires/character as an individual. And that's probably actually a good thing, as rather agree with Glenn Gould that mozart's music towards the end has a lot of cliches. Plus in certain forms and structures Mozart's later works become amazingly predictable in certain respects precisely because of this structural thing (personally I love that but that's a different issue.) So maybe it's very much worth having things like this to change it up a bit

[@themusicprofessor]

Actually - this came up earlier. Someone else had asked why Gould didn't like Mozart, and I responded: "I'll have a go at this. Gould was an astonishing musician but he also had profound limitations. His inability to understand Mozart is a glaring problem (he had similar problems with Beethoven). He just couldn't get his head around how the simple homophonic 'style gallant' textures in Mozart could be anything other than trivial. His performances of the sonatas(and his polemical broadcast, 'How Mozart became a bad composer') demonstrate that Mozart's ability to spin gold out of the conventional tropes of 18th century style was not something he could grasp - he seemed only to hear the tropes. And Mozart's prodigious talent as a harmonist and rhythmician (something that the great French composer, Olivier Messiaen understood deeply) was apparently beyond Gould's powers of perception too. Also, Gould liked to be a contrarian. He didn't really like Chopin or Schubert either."

[@mazzandrolopez511]

hey, I really like your completion of the minuet! much more compelling. I am gonna write it down for me to study, do you mind if i publish it on musescore?

[@themusicprofessor]

Better if you use my score. Could you email me at the channel?

[@mrkiplingreallywasanexceed8311]

Oh god that was INFINITELY better than the "original"😂. Immodesty forgiven🤭😎

[@mateuszandrzejewski3616]

Some harmonic progressions reminds me Chopin's Mazurka f sharp minor op. 6 no 1.

[@themusicprofessor]

Yes, you're right: the two pieces are not not dissimilar. Chopin often explores intense chromatic writing in the mazurkas: that one is the first.

[@DrStrangeLemon]

Speaking of Amadeus - I always thought that casting the Queen of the Night as WAM's mother-in-law was brilliant. Thank you for another gem, I'm sure to watch, rewatch, re-rewatch, ... (BTW the unfinished portrait WAM reportedly said was a good likeness). Bravo on the alternative ending. Interesting that Mozart (who along with skittles loved a dance) chose to break the rules in the context of the Minuet form - that's really flipping the bird at the Ancien Régime - I wonder if he slipped in a waltz (3/4 time) into the piece (triple) [are there 2 pieces in there?]?

[@themusicprofessor]

Maynard Solomon's famous biography of Mozart also suggests that the Commandatore in DG is a symbolic representation of his own dominating and controlling father, Leopold who had died a few months earlier (Schaffer seems to suggest something similar in Amadeus)

[@orenlevintal7666]

Very nice completion! Should be published! Also send ot to Robert Levine

[@jacobtapianieto9655]

A great example of proto-serialism would be the orchestral unison of the beginning of the development of the 4th mvt of his Symphony K.550 (No. 40).

[@themusicprofessor]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/ZpuTn3WMiq2Vhs0si=9vTU7VGk84f_WjIy&t=36

[@amuller3101]

All semitones in three chords also in K 516 (string-quintet in g-minor like K550)! Bruce Adolphe on K516: kzbin.info/www/bejne/lZmZZpqVjNOEircsi=lsspRZ58-afs85AZ&t=531 I like your video!

[@MikaelRasmussonGläntanskolan]

The augmented triad is a Listian thing, already employed by Liszt in 1838 (Il Penseroso).

[@themusicprofessor]

Yes, certainly. It's also a Purcellian thing.

[@timothy4664]

I have always found this piece very unusual.

[@gerhardprasent3358]

The "popular" subject is NOT a 2nd subject, but the "closing section", the confirming cadence after the modulation ... before the repetition - and the next "middle" section resp. ... which is no real developement, for that it would have to be a sonata form.

[@themusicprofessor]

The contention of the video is that it IS in a miniature sonata form.

[@lelilleolee]

I literally burst into laugh when the Cake walk was played

[@alextinlin4347]

Nice t-shirt :)

[@blindcanseemusic]

What you have done is excellent. I would like to slightly change your final 4 bars... i'd love to show you my edit suggestion. Thanks for letting me dwell on Mozart.

[@themusicprofessor]

By all means. Send it over to: www.matthewkingcomposer.com/form__map

[@mrbrianmccarthy]

I like your addition better than stadlers. Some of stadlers additions to Mozarts unfinished pieces are nice, but some as you pointed out here are pretty pedestrian and dont rise to the level of the original piece. (PS---what you did here, adding to the original is something I do all the time. Again. nice job, I am sure Moxzart would like your version better than stadlers)

[@davebillnitzer5824]

I would add "Cosi Fan Tutte" to your list of potentially offensive and revolutionary operas. Two young noblemen make a bet that each can seduce the other's fiancee first, and they set out to do it... and make a mess of things. It does not paint a flattering picture of the aristocracy treating relationships with such disrespect. Add to that the plot point that the two noblemen go off to a supposed (but unnamed war) and immediately return disguised as Albanians... Why Albanians specifically? Because Austria had been at war with the Ottoman Empire the previous year (which is why Mozart did not get a commission in 1788) and Albanians were still thought of as the enemy. Imagine the aristocrats who had just funded a war the previous year now being depicted as faithless, fickle and rather cruel towards women, dressed up as the country's enemy... and this is supposed to be a comedy? It is in its own way another slap at the ruling class. Also the aria "Non piu andrai" from "Figaro" is not a minuet. It's a military march and it's not in 3/4 time.

[@themusicprofessor]

Yes, Cosi is the most subversive of all. (The Amadeus quote was merely to show Mozart 'improving' the conventionalities of 18th century style)

[@PatrickDavoine]

At the end of the animated commentary is mentionned a testimony from a contemporean poet : his name is not "Trek" but Tieck !

[@Archiekunst]

I was always unconvinced with the ending to the d minor fantasia. I completed it. May I share it with you for comments? An email perhaps?

[@themusicprofessor]

Funny you should mention this piece - I recorded it last week with a new ending of my own! It will be in a video at some point. Yes, it would interesting to see your version. Feel free to send it a pdf using the email details at www.matthewkingcomposer.com/

[@sansangaga8560]

I love your content. It is very interesting and helps comprehend a piece much better with your break downs the little details. Unfortunately, your voice’s volume is too low. Really hard to follow through. I hope you can fix this issue. Thanks for sharing your knowledge

[@themusicprofessor]

Thank you - yes, we will try to improve our sound, as the channel develops

[@123perceval123]

Very nice, thank you! 🙏 But sorry, I can't help myself, how about a bit of tuning and voicing the piano 🙈

[@jcxz100]

Total rock head here, enjoying Mozart

[@composercaleb6592]

Very Mozartean sharp 5 going to 6 in the bass before a cadence! 😊

[@themusicprofessor]

Yes - it felt like the right thing to do!

[@potsdam521]

Correct me but are not minuets usually containing some chromaticism to give that kind of dreamy air in the middle?

[@themusicprofessor]

It began as a 'courtly' dance in 3/4 and a very common dance in the 18th century: they are common in baroque dance suites and, later in the century, they often occur as the 3rd movement in a symphony. Most minuets are not especially chromatic although Mozart, being a composer who loved chromaticism, often made them so: the minuet in his Jupiter symphony is a famous example.

[@DeflatingAtheism]

Mozart systematically uses unprepared semitone and major seventh appoggiaturas for a minuet most everyone would recognize as a lark, and yet he later used the same technique in the Lacrimosa to an effect which most everyone recognizes as gorgeous.

[@mrkitty777]

They don't know Latin language like Requiem Dies Illa 😮 Here a little Lacrimosa for you, souds familiar doesn't it? A4 F5 D5 D5 D5- twice. Then play starting from D4 E4 F4 G4 A4 B4 C5 D5 E5- E5 F5 G5- G5 A5- A5 where a minus is a half tone lower then letter mentioned.

[@angusmcmillan8981]

How come it got a low Köchel number K355 if it was written in 1789, late in his life?

[@themusicprofessor]

The date is the subject of some controversy. Köchel numbered it earlier but the more recent consensus is that it's a late piece.

[@robertboege9836]

Even, with Bach, the progenitor of jazz, without the cacophony of bongo drums, and jungle beats, etc. ?

[@clarekuehn4372]

12:35-12-36 What is it you say there? "That, in itself, is a kind of 'homeona' (?)". @themusicprofessor & your historico-musical analyses are awesome. But you need to caption everything. Musical lpudness and linguistic accent and passionate phrases while speaking, sometimes make it unintelligible to hear your points. Thanks!

[@themusicprofessor]

Sorry about that! The word is hemiola.

[@edgarvalderrama1143]

Does anybody know why Glenn Gould deprecated Mozart?

[@themusicprofessor]

I'll have a go at this. Gould was an astonishing musician but he also had profound limitations. His inability to understand Mozart is a glaring problem (he had similar problems with Beethoven). He just couldn't get his head around how the simple homophonic 'style gallant' textures in Mozart could be anything other than trivial. His performances of the sonatas(and his polemical broadcast, 'How Mozart became a bad composer') demonstrate that Mozart's ability to spin gold out of the conventional tropes of 18th century style was not something he could grasp - he seemed only to hear the tropes. And Mozart's prodigious talent as a harmonist and rhythmician (something that the great French composer, Olivier Messiaen understood deeply) was apparently beyond Gould's powers of perception too. Also, Gould liked to be a contrarian. He didn't really like Chopin or Schubert either.

[@sansumida]

Thought the development counter melody in the bass derived from the simple diatonic 2nd subject, at least I heard it that way😊

[@themusicprofessor]

Well, it has the running semiquavers in common with it. But it's essentially a canon in diminution (if you go from the A in the RH in bar 16 and follow the lower line in the RH from bar 17, the LH imitates that line)

[@sigurfeanaro3356]

That's why I think that Wagner is a literal reincarnation of Wolfie..

[@themusicprofessor]

They do have some common interests!

[@johnryskamp2943]

Isn't this the third movement of K 576? I always think that a four movement sonata must have been talked about - how would it be done? And of course, we aren't far away from Schubert. 355 is sort of an aria. It's narrating something. What? BTW, Godard uses 576 wonderfully in Weekend. We don't really understand Godard's use of Beethoven and Mozart. See The Married Woman and Two or Three...Why does music progress so ridiculously slowly? People are so timid! Pieces like this are sarcastic references to equal temperament.

[@themusicprofessor]

Very interesting. I must watch Weekend again. (I see the famous 360 degree take with Mozart is visible here (marvellous!) kzbin.info/www/bejne/g3-pi5uXnptgmdUsi=PxrzoVW7HXiWwzzJ. Yes, I do discuss K576 briefly at around 8:50. I personally don't think the minuet makes sense in the context of the final sonata, simply because neither Mozart nor Haydn (nor Clementi for that matter) ever considered writing a 4 movement sonata. Until Beethoven's Op 2, I don't think anyone thought it appropriate to do so. Also, I don't see how it fits into the sonata - the 2nd movement is already an aria!

[@samujazz]

REVOLVER! ❤

[@chrissahar2014]

Late Mozart was strongly influenced by his deeper studies of CPE Bach and his father JS Bach. Some of CPE Bach's Symphonies do some remarkable key changes for its time that influence composers all the way to Schumann. You can see where Mozart got some ideas from JS Bach -- just listen to Bach's organ partita BWV 768 which develops each variation upon the other until you get this magnificently dense 5 part setting of the hymn tune. kzbin.info/www/bejne/b2fEnap4i6eMo5o Another late work I suggest you do a video is Mozart's Rondo in A minor - basically anticipating at times Brahms' mature works kzbin.info/www/bejne/aHuZaqVohLKkfsU

[@pkguy3]

Poor Lokie might have a yeast infection scratchy ears and excessive chewing in her paws. :(

[@themusicprofessor]

Loki (like many cockapoos) gets a lot of allergic reactions.

[@robertmueller2023]

My cream miniature poodle? Rudimentary tails, smaller muzzles, stouter and shorter bodies? But about the same color. It's odd that the same species has such different tails?

[@themusicprofessor]

Yes. Loki is a cockapoo.