Is Rondo Alla Turca in Rondo Form

The differences used to vary the contrasting sections. Sometimes only the melody is different. Sometimes it is a modulation to a tightly bound (or distant) key. Sometimes there is a difference in the orchestration (how many instruments are played), especially in the rondo movements of the concertos. All movements are in the key of A major or minor; Therefore, the work is homotonal. A typical performance of this entire sonata lasts about 20 minutes. [4] This piece is actually a complex rondo; Each section, labeled A or B, has small shapes inside. In this case, the second section B is short and the last melody A does not return to the original key. The folk metal band Ulytau released a metal version of Rondo alla Turca in 2009. His concert tour across Europe lasted three and a half years. He had the opportunity to work in many genres and composed symphonies, sonatas, string quartets, serenades and some small operas. At the age of 8 Mozart wrote a symphony, at the age of 11 he wrote an oratorio and at the age of 12 he wrote an opera. Some of these works are still performed today.

After returning from one of his many trips in 1773, Mozart was employed by the ruler of Salzburg as a court musician. Historically, the rondo dates back to the seventeenth century and is not the same as the medieval French rondeau form, but both have a recurring A section. [†] Rondo is more closely related to the baroque form ritornello, which was a concert form. [‡] Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) was born on 27 January 1756 in Salzburg, the son of Leopold and Anna Mozart. He was a child prodigy and began composing at an early age. Already at the age of five, he composed small pieces, which he played to his father, who wrote them for him. As his family could see that he was a very talented musician, they travelled with him all over Europe for many different performances. In 1762, at the age of 6, Mozart performed for the Prince of Bavaria in Munich and at the imperial court in Vienna. A particularly important influence was Johann Christian Bach, whom Mozart visited in London in 1764 and 1765. The shape of Mozart`s Rondo Alla Turca actually looks more like this: To observe the symmetry of classical forms, here are some details about the Rondo sections: If you look at your form, you can group the sections and get ABC-DEC-ABC. Sound familiar? This is the very simple form of rondo A-B-A in a larger form.

I would consider this piece as a sonata-rondo rather than simply a rondo, as the sections suggest exposition, development, and recapitulation rather than a simple complex A-B-A form. [†] For the medieval form: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rondeau_(forme_fixe) At the time Mozart wrote Sonata No. 11, the music of Turkish Janissary brass bands was very fashionable. These groups are considered the oldest form of military bands in the world. In fact, at that time in Mozart`s life, everything Ottoman was very fashionable, and you can see the influence of the empire in his opera The Abduction of the Seraglio, which takes place in a seraglio – a kind of Ottoman harem or brothel. Rondo is a kind of super flexible musical form. Its distinctive feature is a recurring melodic section that recurs several times, interspersed with contrasting sections. Sections usually receive a letter representing them, so some common examples are identified as ABACA, ABABACABA and ABACADA. This may last for a while, but the 5- and 7-voice rondo (indicated by the number of letters that name the sections) are the most common. [*] Also, there may or may not be a transient part of the music between sections. Transitions can vary in length, from a few notes to several bars.

Not all rondo have exactly the same shape. There are many types of rondos, the most popular variants being A-B-A, A-B-A-C-A and A-B-A-C-A-B`-A (the latter being comparable to your definition). Mozart composed Sonata No. 11 at the age of about 27 – perhaps in 1783 in Vienna or Salzburg. The third and final movement, popularly known as the Turkish March, is in rondo form and was called “Alla Turca” by Mozart himself. In September 2014, Zoltán Kocsis gave the world premiere of the rediscovered score. [13] One of Mozart`s best-known melodies, the “Rondo alla Turca”, is actually the third and last movement of his Piano Sonata No. 11 K. 331. At this point, we have heard a version of the A1 theme at least 4 times, with other sections in between, and so we can successfully call Mozart`s Rondo Alla Turca a Rondo (albeit with an unorthodox structure). Sections A and C are themselves in rounded binary form. Thus, we can develop the notated form of Mozart`s Rondo Alla Turca (again neglecting repetitions) as follows: The explanation is very simple: Mozart never called him Rondo.

Take a look at the Urtext edition here: dme.mozarteum.at/DME/nma/nma_cont.php?vsep=197&gen=edition&l=1&p1=24 A rondo is an elaboration of the ritornello form, in which the chorus is played between contrasting sections. In this case, it turns out that it is B and not A. This link here…: music.stackexchange.com/questions/31899/why-is-mozarts-turkish-march-considered-a-rondo . describes that the form can be reduced to an ABA by what they call “second-order groupings”, but this does not convince me. [*] If you only have 3 sections (ABA), it`s not really long enough to be considered a rondo, depending on who you ask. A famous example of a rondo is Mozart`s Rondo alla Turca (third movement of Piano Sonata #11 in A major, K. 331) and the reason I heard the question “What is Rondo?” Rondo is a common musical form with a simple concept: introduce a theme A, then a theme B, then return to theme A, then maybe do it a few more times and finish the piece. ABA is the simplest form of rondo.

ABACA is also very common. Mozart writes ABCDECABC with an elaborate coda at the end. (Coda is the musical term for “end,” from the Italian word for “tail.”) Mozart himself called the rondo “Alla turca”. [5] It imitates the sound of Turkish Janissary groups, whose music was very fashionable at the time. [6] It sounds more like a rondo when looking at small sections, but often one can only identify the shape of a piece by adding caveats about how it differs from the Platonic ideal. There are only a few pieces that fit exactly in a specific box of a formal label. Mozart was born in Austria and spent most of his life there. Austria`s great military enemy at that time was the Ottoman Empire, simply called “the Turks” by the people. Mozart, like all great composers, was eager to learn more about the musical cultures of other parts of the world. One of the few cultural contacts Austrians had in the Ottoman Empire came from their military bands, which included high-speed percussion ensembles with brass and winds. This fast movement with left staccato rhythms and dramatic piano flourishes is one of Mozart`s attempts to imitate the Turkish musical style.

Hence Rondo alla Turca. Minor and C major have no high or flat tones. C major is therefore the relative major of A minor. Similarly, the major and F # minor have three sharps, so F # minor is the relative minor of A major. When this rondo changes key, it moves either between minor and major or between one relative key and another. Look at the symmetry of the keys used by Mozart: (the minor keys are marked with a small “m”. Master keys do not contain any additions.) The entire sonata has very little in common with the conventional idea (late 19th and early 20th century) of what form a classical sonata should have. The takeaways from all of this are (1) “form” has never been used by good composers as something to learn from a textbook and used as a “gap filling” method for writing music, and (2) “analysis” is useless if you don`t start from what was actually written and try to get it to preconceived ideas about it. how it should have been written. Our performer today is Daniel Barenboim (*1942), a world-renowned pianist and conductor.

When performing a piece of music, he pays meticulous attention to each written note. This rondo shows his attention to detail. He brings to life the different sections of the piece giving each its unique and spirited character. A rondo is defined by repetition (section A in most cases) and you start with a musical idea, go somewhere else (usually called an episode), and come back. Since the first movement of this sonata is a theme and a variation, Mozart defied convention of starting a sonata with an allegro movement in the form of a sonata.