Vlad-Cristian GHINEA - The Slow Introduction: Comparing the Features of Two Chamber Music Works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven
Abstract
During the transition between the Baroque and Classical periods, composers began to opt for articulated phrases grouped into periods, the amplification of chromatic moments or the use of a wider dynamic palette within the sonata form. The string quartet is one of the main chamber music genres that became a real laboratory for composers such as Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven to experiment with musical parameters. Although not large in scale, the slow introductions analysed in this essay illustrate the compositional mastery of Mozart and Beethoven, who homogenised elements of form with those of harmony, melody and rhythm, giving new perspectives regarding the macrostructure of the work.
Keywords
String Quartet, String Quintet, German, Austrian, Viennese, Composer