Mikael Rasmusson wakes me from my slumbers with this:

>Yes, he (Mozart) produced some great melodies but sometimes I think they
>are too predictable, especially phrase endings.  His harmonies can be
>pretty static too.

The phrase endings are formulaic and belong to the period. You might
as well dismiss all of the Classical Period with the same wave of your
hand.

HOWEVER, (ahem!) I have heard this 'too predictable' phrase used to
describe Mozart for YEARS and I have always felt that the people who say
it are just plain listening to entirely different representative pieces
from the ones I know and adore.  You may THINK you know what's next, but by
golly, that's the joy of Mozart.  He fools you.  For instance, who in the
world but Mozart could write all the rest of the introduction to K465 from
hearing just the first few measures? It knocked off my powdered wig the
first few times I heard it, and it STILL raises goosebumps.  They call it
The Dissonant.  This is predictable?

People who think they know when to come in with their parts are often
flummoxed by Mozart string quartets and quintets.  They think they will
imitate at a certain measure only to find they are a half or whole measure
off.

You may think you know the cadences, but you won't always be sure how you
got there. Or exactly when.

Could you really come up with the sinuous second phrase of the quartet K.
387 first movement after hearing the first phrase? Does one predict the
next?

Can you really see in your crystal ball the course of the magnificent first
movement of the D minor quartet first movement (K.421) that leaps all over
the place, and the mysterious, restless syncopation at m.  15.  Or the next
theme? Who but Mozart could have used those melodic fragments the way he
does in the development? I can sing all the parts but I still marvel at the
way they fit together logically and beautifully.  Surprising, not
predictable at all.

Listen twice or three times to the simple little minuetto and trio of the
viola quintet, K.516.  I d-double-dare you to reproduce the fortes and
pianos, the rests and the overlaps perfectly in the right places.  If it
were so darned predictable you wouldn't even need to listen more than once.
Even with the music in front of us we played that with full attention.  Its
strength is its seeming simplicity.

Viola quintet K.593 is unusual, too.  The strangest part of it is in the
middle of the Adagio movement.  There are just a few measures (starting
around m.27) that outline a normal enough harmony but it sounds like it
came from outer space (if you consider the classical period "predictable"
harmonies and accompaniments.) The melody on top of the eighthnote
accompaniment pattern is just an old scale.  Hey, anyone could have done
it.  But nobody did, before or since.

And those are just a few small examples.

Predictable? Naaaaaaaaaaa. There was only one Mozart. At his best, he is
unique.  And he was at his best most of the time.

Mimi Ezust <[log in to unmask]>