Form

Theme and Variations (4 + allegro reprise with development)

Theme (D minor)

Più allegro - motive

Notes

Theme, reintroduces the trill prominance of the 1st movement. It is a perfect little 6/8 binary dance form with characteristic modulations. Siciliano, an Italian dance rhythm with a pastoral quality (Berger).

1st variatiion - 16th notes, 1st violin melody. A Solo steps out. More flowing. Drama emphasized. Singing 2nd reprise.

2nd variation - violins create a thrilling synchopated rhythm. Biting, swirlling, duet with rich accompaniment. Italianate dancelike. Rhythm amped.

3rd variation - viola lead. Soft, deeper, reedier lead, more space, cool, silvery, tender. Tinged with ice that warms and freezes again.

4th variation - D major - both violins share the lead. Sunny pastoral. Relaxed. Bright. Warm. Flowers falling from the sky.

Più allegro - Theme reprise with tense development: alarm, clarion call. Alert, danger? Might Beethoven have found inspiration here? A bold emphatic arrival sounds D-minor, a unision flourish and the end of the D-minor quartet.

Consider now the overall form of the variations, as a sequence, creating the shape of a single entity, a Mozartian playlist. The theme and variations form is always a multi-level drama. The statement, the departure and the return of each variation as a binary dance form. The constant departures inherent in any extended sectional form. The larger departure and arrival beginning with the first variation and ending with the last. Though not unusual for any of Mozart's quartet movements regardless of form, the textural constrasts provide a narrative on yet another dimension: Quartets morph into solos, duos, trios, as the lines and braids wax and wane. Drama within drama. Wholes within parts. Boxes nested inside boxes.

3 (4) note motto darkens the end.

Favorite moments: the 2nd variation with its marvelous rhythmic complexity, the pastoral major variation and the Beethovenish final allegro with its arresting urgency, its brutal fragmentation.