Musical Analysis Mozart

Christian Liu Xi-Le

Ms Pang Jin

Year 2 Musical Historical Overview

13 August 2015

The third movement of Mozart’s Piano Sonata in A, K. 331 is heavily influenced by the music of Turkish Janissary bands, hence its name “Alla Turca”, literally meaning “in the Turkish style”. The style is musically reflected in the different musical elements of the movement, and the three main features which contribute to its alla turca style that will be analyzed and discussed in this essay are rhythm, melody and timbre.

The first musical element of this movement which incorporates the Turkish style is its rhythm. The simple duple metre of the piece, immediately obvious from the beginning, already alludes to the march style of the piece. Although

the metre does suggest the march style, the specific style of Turkish military music is made apparent from a rhythm used throughout the piece, as seen from the accented notes from bar twenty-five to thirty-one (as seen in Example 1.1). The rhythm, emphasized by the accents and arppegiated appoggiaturas that precede each note that forms said rhythm, is extremely common in music composed in the alla turca style, and it mimics the rhythm of soldiers marching to the music of Turkish Janissary bands. This rhythm is present constantly throughout in the piece, as seen in Example 1.2, where in the first theme, the firsts beats of the cadential rhythm is emphasized with the anacrusis, as well as the climaxing high pitches in the first and third beat of the third bar. The fact that Mozart chose this symbolic rhythm as a recurring motif in this movement is most definitely a nod to the music of Janissary military bands. In addition, the accompaniment part of this homophonic piece is extremely rhythmic. This could be due to the fact that the many instruments used in Turkish military music are percussion, hence Mozart imitates this percussive nature and reflects it in his accompaniment, where the accompaniment from bar forty-one to fifty-six (Example 1.3) is mostly in staccato quavers, with the occasional slurs that, even more, emphasize the first beat. As such, the metre, rhythmic motif mimicking soldiers marching as well as the rhythmic nature of the movement are all rhythmic elements which contribute to the alla turca style.
Example 1.1: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Piano Sonata in A, K. 331, mvt. 3 Rondo Alla Turca
Example 1.2: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Piano Sonata in A, K. 331, mvt. 3 Rondo Alla Turca

Example 1.3: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Piano Sonata in A, K. 331, mvt. 3 Rondo Alla Turca
Besides the rhythm, the melody is also another musical feature that takes inspiration from Turkish military bands.

Themes throughout the piece are constantly developed through sequence, and this was common in the simple Janissary music, where short phrases would be sequenced. Mozart already develops the opening theme in a sequential pattern, and he does the same in the next phrase (see Example 2.1 bars 8-14) as well as the rest of the piece. Other than sequence, repetition is another compositional device Mozart used to mimick Turkish music. Phrases of Janissary bands were very often repeated, and Mozart takes this to the extreme, repeating every phrase bar the coda. Visibly, there is a repeat sign every one or two phrases in the score. Apart from compositional devices, the contour of this movement is another aspect of melody that mimics Turkish music, whose melodies have stepwise contour, often slurred by Turkish instruments. Mozart was not discreet about his allusion to said style; the largest melodic interval within any phrase was the rare perfect fifth, occurring two to three times within the entire three-and-a-half minute long piece, with the rest of the piece staying mainly conjuct. Finally, the unstable tonality of the piece is another melodic element mimicking the style of Janissary military music. The piece, despite being labelled a sonata in A Major, fluctuates in key between A minor, parallel major A major, and relative minor of A major, F# minor. One of Turkish music’s notable qualities are its intricate system of modal scales separate from Western tonality, as well as its constant shifts between tonalities. Thus, the wavering tonality of this piece is another element reminiscent of the Turkish style. Mozart used two compositional devices as well as two melodic elements hinting at the alla turca style, thus melody is defintely one of the main elements of music where this style is

obvious.
Example 3: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Piano Sonata in A, K. 331, mvt. 3 Rondo Alla Turca

Finally, the timbre is the third feature that mimics music of alla turca style. Fufilling its function of being loud enough to signal to soldiers, Turkish military bands often included instruments of shrill timbres such as jingling bells and crash cymbals, as well as a rumbling bass drum. Both extremes were imitated by Mozart, but this could also be due to the natural timbre of the chosen instrument, the fortepiano. With a slightly different construction from the piano, when played in the higher register, fortepianos would make a slight clinking sound, reminiscent of the jingling bells from Janissary music. On the other end of the spectrum, there would be a buzzing sound produced by the vibration of strings when the fortepiano was played in the lower register, similar to that of the bass drum. As such, the timbre of the fortepiano is very similar to the instrumentation of Turkish Janissary bands, and is another reason this movement is similar to music of that style.
In conclusion, the three main musical elements the third movement of Mozart’s Piano Sonata in A, K. 331 imitate the alla turca style are the rhythm, from the metre and rhythm patterns, melody, from contour and tonality, and timbre of the fortepiano, of this piece.

Bibliography
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Ripin, Edwin. "Fortepiano (i)." The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Ed. S. Sadie. Oxford University Press, 2001. Web. 30 June 2015.
Farmer, Henry George. Military Music. London: Parrish, 1950. Print.