Form

sonata

Theme (D minor)

Theme (F major)

Development - Fugato

1st 2 motifs from the 1st theme

Motive from the end of the exposition and like the 3rd motive from the 1st theme

Coda

Cello motive like the 4th motive from the 1st theme

Notes

Its exposition is elegant, wistful, blossoming briefly into the major key as classical sonatas in the minor mode do. With its development and redcapitulation, it booms into a searing tragedy and remains steadfast in its sorrow by remaining in the original minor key.the opening movement of Mozart's only quartet of the six dedicated to Haydn in a minor key. The deepening of the tragic mood begins with the development: the theme is stated, in unision, in a new minor key, a dour call to attention. The texture fractures into the learned counterpoint of fugato writing extending using but a fragment of the 1st theme, its first motive.

drum beats, trills

swooping drama

tense fugato

blossoming major

recap: definitive minor

minor transition/bridge

2nd theme in minor, an aria of tender, fatal sorrow

triplets climb, tighten

coda - drifts into major in the cello, an echo of happiness

definitive destroyed by the minor coda

This could be called the "trills" sonata: trill "motives" are used throughout in various different ways from elegant ornamentation to anxiety ridden repetition.

Fluid, complex and diverse part writing for truly independant voices and sub-groupings (e.g. trios, bifurcated upper and lower duos, polarized treble/bass, etc.) makes this a masterpiece of quartet texture, a perfection underlying the gallant gloss, the polish of Mozart's writing.

It is dramatic, with emotional performances of both tenderness and strength. Because its variegated texture and modality sculpts a mercurial journey for the ear and the heart, both light and deep but always changing, the closure on the minor cadence is unusually definitive and potent. The end is charged with the finality of the tragic: its truth is deafening, stunning the spirit the ultimate silence.

Motive game (4 motives, find em all). Theme -> Motive -> fragmentation, delay, extension, "episode"

three (four) note unifying motto throughout quartet (motto vs. motive vs. motif vs. theme vs. tag)