Life of Mozart

14 MOZART'S INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC.The last movement of the G major quartet is written instrict form, and highly interesting by reason of the eleganceof its counterpoint ; the finale of the A major quartet isfreer and easier, but neverthelessThe D minor quartetpolyphonic in treatment.^°concludes w^ith variations, the originaland long-drawn theme having the rhythmical and sharplyaccented harmonic form of the siciliana. It is in imitationof a national song, and is sometimes like a slow gigue,sometimes like a pastorale. The rhythm of the 6-8 time issomewhat peculiar, in that the first of three quavers is dottedthroughout ; the tone is soft and tender. There is a verysimilar siciliana in Gluck's ballet " Don Juan " (No. 2),showing how marked the typical character is.^^ The variations,which are as charming from their grace and delicacyof form as from their singular mixture of melancholy andmirth, bring this wonderful quartet to a close in a veryoriginal manner.The middle movement of the A major quartet is also invariations— more earnest and careful on the whole—theprecursor of the variations in Haydn's " Kaiser " andBeethoven's A major quartets. These quartet variations farsurpass the pianoforte variations in character and workmanship; they consist not merely of a graceful play of passages,but of a characteristic development of new motifs springingfrom the theme.The success of the quartets, on which Mozart put forth allhis best powers, was scarcely sufficient to encourage him tomake further attempts in the same direction ; not untilAugust, 1786, do we find him again occupied with a quartet(D major, 499 K.), in which may be traced an attempt to20This movement has been scored by Beethoven ; the original is in Artaria'spossession.21 A siciHana occurs among the variations in a sonata for pianoforte and violin(377 K., ,3) simpler and shorter than the one under consideration, and altogetheromitting the transition to the major key. The same form is the basis of therondo to the pianoforte Trio in G major (496 K.), but freely carried out. Thesiliciana is employed, according to old usage, for the slow middle movements ofan early Sonata in F major (280 K.), and of the pianoforte Concerto in A major(414 K.).