Mozart's
Twelve-Tone Row
for Orchestra
early June—July
20, 2014
orchestrated September 2014
Duration:
about 6 minutes 14 seconds
Cover photo; Mozart's manuscript for Symphony No. 40
Score, PDF Cover
Parts (f&b)
Allegro assai: Half Fast: Tempo I: Moderato:
Tempo I [7']
Over
the last decade I have preferred to write pieces from about 15 to 25 minutes
long; this is most suited to the kind of music that I write. Opportunities for
performance are generally for much shorter pieces, especially for orchestral
music. I wrote three short pieces for violin and piano in the summer of 2014,
and this is the first to be orchestrated.
The
score is a modern take on the most dissonant music written by Mozart; the final
half of the final movement of his 40th Symphony. This section starts
with what is very nearly a twelve-tone row. What I have done here, as I have
done several times in the past, is to see what I would do with the key ideas of
this piece written in my own style and form. This is by no means an arrangement
of the original, but instead is an entirely new work. (Never fear—as I have
never written in the twelve-tone style, which I find obnoxious in the extreme,
I have not done so here either.)
The
original orchestra used by Mozart was quite small, with single flute, pairs of
oboes, bassoons, and horns, and strings; no trumpets or timpani. Later he added
two clarinets as an option. The instrumentation of my piece is much larger,
with piccolo, winds in pairs, four horns, and two trumpets, but only one
trombone (preferably bass trombone but tenor will do), tuba, and strings. While
I usually use timpani, the drums were not suitable for this piece and are
omitted.
Accidentals
hold through the measure and not beyond, and do not refer to other octaves.