Richibi’s Weblog

these whet my appetite always for the entire
meal, the source from which these playful
tidbits originate, like an ebullient tributary
returning to its more elementary, and
profound, as it were, spring, a lost child
needing to return to its place of origin
for direction and validation

Mozart, you’ll note, is not Beethoven, though
he might be a not inconsequential Mozart, I
think of his stuff as music for the nursery,
toy soldiers and rocking horses, dairy maids
and cuckoo clocks, not at all to inform but to
delight, the musical structure is foursquare,
lilting ever, and entirely comprehensible,
Mozart just wants to have fun, with here
and there a nod to melancholy, perfect, I
would think, for a powdered and pampered,
though pilloried eventually, indeed
guillotined then, court

the first movement, you’ll remark, is a set
of variations, a bit of a novelty still during
this period, 1778 to 1783 approximately,
the date of composition is not precisely
known, which allowed for, of course, a
variety of styles, voices, to be flaunted
in one only section of a work, instead
of the usual call and response of,
ordinarily, the traditional movement,
extending already, incidentally, the
possibilities of the sonata form, which
later composers would make much
use of

neither of the next movements are
slow, Mozart, as I said, just wanted
to essentially enjoy himself, or his
sponsors did, music did, that’s
what they payed him for

but the times they were a’ changing

as indeed they still are

Richard