Mozart Sonata no 16, in C major, K545
though his Sonata no 16, K545, was not officially submitted
by Mozart until 1788, when he was 32, it sounds musically
now so elementary, so even folkloric in its structure and
cultural impact, that it seems composed at a much earlier
age, but no one knows
it is also to my mind the most clear example of what is
meant when we speak of Classical music
the structure is simple, each movement, of which there
are Classically three, and later four for gravitas, though
Mozart himself in his sonatas never exceeded three,
present an air, followed by a contrasting air, followed
by the whole thing over again, these segments, call and
response, like verse and refrain in folkloric melodies,
are easily identified and even to follow, with Mozart
I often sing along, even in the grander concert stuff
significantly there is no other motive in Classical music
but entertainment, the Church had ceded its hold on
composers to aristocrats, who collected them like
paintings to adorn their courts, and the idea of
personal expression, as implanted by Beethoven
hadn’t yet taken hold, nor had the French Revolution
for a good time, in other words, call Mozart, Haydn
is a lot of unadulterated fun too
Beethoven will allow us to express our feelings,
which in our age has permitted the wails of the
disconsolate to soar to often, I think, too egregious
heights, to replace stalwart courage and honour,
exemplified symbolically in a culture by strict
refinement and courtesy, the very stuff of
Classical sensibility
the piano had been a very recent invention, able for
having been tempered, where notes of all keys had
been adjusted in order to be superimposed on a
keyboard to easily swing, or to modulate, from one
key to another, A, Bb, C#, et cetera, and was in the
process of determining the very sonic landscape
the new era would handle, the very adjustment,
the tempering, by definition supplanted the exact
tone of the key, to fit of course the more convenient
superimpositions, in other words we’ve become
fundamentally attuned to atonality, gotcha, do ré,
mi are off
you change keys for reasons of mood, major, minor,
or to accompany for instance in a more comfortable
range another instrument or a singer
in early Classical pieces keys don’t change much
within a movement, if indeed at all, but do contrast,
at this point in musical history, from one movement
to another, this of course will change
the Sonata no 16, K545, of Mozart, his Sonata facile,
or semplice, is played here by Gavin M. George, age 7
this doesn’t seem at all in this context inappropriate,
Mozart too was a wunderkind, a wonder, at that
precocious age
Richard
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