The Secret Life of
Musical Notation: Defying Interpretive
Traditions
- Amadeus Press
From Chapter Three - "...of
Rinforzandi" (p. 115)
[...]
Mozart did introduce rallentando,
and the earliest traceable examples
emerge in 1785 in pieces such as
the Fantasie in c minor, K. 475 and
in the String Quartet in E-flat Major,
K. 428, at the onset of the composer’s
experimental phase with new notational
symbols. Before that time, Mozart
had trusted that a performer would
have presumed from the context whether
a decrease in speed was appropriate,
but eventually he became more specific
in instances in which his intentions
might have been unlikely to be deduced.
For example, in the Rondo from the
String Quartet in E-flat Major, K.
428 the rallentando that is indicated
before the last return of the main
theme would probably not be instinctively
executed as such. Or in the Fantasie
in c minor, K. 475, the transitional
material that bridges the Più Allegro and the recapitulation – the
Adagio – may not support a
reduction in speed without the rallentando that specifies it as an interpretive
element.
Occasionally, Mozart wrote a sequence
of progressively larger rhythmic
values in the context of a patterned
melodic figuration – a particular
notation that may suggest a rallentando.
The end of the cadenza from the Fantasie
in d minor, K. 397 is an occurrence
familiar to many:
Example 3.7 - W.
A. Mozart: Fantasie in d minor, K.
397 - mm. 86-89
All the interpretations that I have
heard, from the earliest recordings
of the piece to renditions by some
of the great pianists of our time,
feature a rather strict adherence
to the rhythmic groups of thirty-second-,
sixteenth- and eighth-notes, with
a decrease in speed superimposed
on this careful subdivision by the rallentando. Mozart may have desired
a literal reading of values, I thought
at first, because the rallentando already expresses an agogic coordinate.
But similar rhythmic progressions
occur, for example, in the cadenza
of the Rondo from the Sonata in B-flat
Major, K. 333 and in the cadenzas
or cadenza-like passages from some
of the Concerti for piano and orchestra
in which the marking rallentando is not included. This led me to an
idea that I can only infer: It is
generally believed that the Fantasie
in d minor was written in about 1782;
we have seen that the first instances
of rallentando in Mozart’s
hand can be traced to 1785; a cursory
view of Mozart’s works showed
that a written-out rallentando in
which the rhythmic values become
progressively larger disappeared
as a practice after 1784-1785; the
original manuscript of the Fantasie
has not been located, and its earliest
source available is the first edition
of 1804, completed by August Eberhard
Müller (1767-1817). Is it possible
that the rallentando near the end
of measure 86 of the Fantasie is
not Mozart’s, but was added
posthumously by the well-intentioned
Müller, and that the passage’s
progressive rhythmic diminution served
the purpose of a rallentando before
the marking came into use?
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From
Chapter Two - "...of Sforzandi" (p.
70)
[...]
Working with one of my students on
the middle movement of Haydn’s
Sonata in E-flat Major Hob. XVI/49
brought back memories...
From
Chapter Three - "...of Rinforzandi" (p.
103)
When asked
to describe the role of a rinforzando
that has been placed at the end
of a crescendo whose destination
is an fff, quite a few musicians...
From
Chapter Three - "...of Rinforzandi" (p.
115)
[...]
Mozart did introduce rallentando,
and the earliest traceable examples
emerge in 1785 in pieces such as
the Fantasie in c minor, K. 475 and...
From
Chapter Five - "...of Stretti" (p.
181)
Rather accidentally,
the subject of this chapter took
shape as I was comparing pedal markings...
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