or
This is Mozart
By David E. Morton
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or
This is Mozart
By David E. Morton
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This is: www.mozartsmtm.org
Last updated on January 22nd, 2012
(Home Page - Preamble and Earliest Use, Type-1 Examples).
Contact: Dmorton965@aol.com
A significant portion of Mozart's music contains a short musical phrase making it
a musical trademark since it is used so often and in so many ways.
It's a very short, musical representation of his music - interesting, complex, innovative,
thoughtful, tasteful, compact, promising, intriguing, harmonically resolving, and
musically satisfying.
It represents Mozart's music and thus, the man. As such, the phrase could be called
"This Is Mozart".
The phrase is sometimes expanded to a multi-bar theme, or is used as a variation,
and is even used symbolically.
Its form may be simple, complex, or very complex and hidden.
There may be hundreds of usages of the phrase, but only 18 citations are listed here,
due to the amount of work involved in citing more.
This paper includes:
● 18 citations of the phrase.
● 17 sound clips of the citations, in MIDI format.
● Citations in 6 musical forms (symphony, opera, piano sonata, etc).
● Citations from a wide range of Kochel numbers - 300's, 400's, 500's, 600's.
● 2 additional sound clips of early usage.
It sounds like this in its most basic, elementary form:
(click to listen)
A more complex form in K.608 with 2 beats combined:
A longer, more complex form in K.594:
The phrase in the 40th Symphony in G minor, K.550
The phrase in the string quartet, K.421
The phrase in the piano rondo K.511, mm 73-75:
A Variation - Requiem K.626,
Confutatis, mm 5-6:
TOPICS
The Trademark Phrase, its Definition, etc (this page)
Preamble
How would you represent Mozart's music?
How would you represent Mozart? With music?
If you used music to represent Mozart's music, how would you do it?
If you used music to represent Mozart - the man, how would you do it?
Let's say you had to represent his music in one measure. How would you do it?
Is there such a thing as a "typical" Mozart piece?
Is there such a thing as a typical Mozart phrase?
Supposing you had to represent Mozart - the man, with some kind of symbol -
with music or anything else. How would you do it?
Would a painting be the best way? A statue? Music?
If you used music to represent him, what music would you use?
What kind of person was Mozart? Does his music help to define him?
Was he complex? Simple? Interesting? Boring? Creative? Uninspired?
Smart? Stupid? Enjoyable? Obnoxious? Fascinating? Predictable?
How about complex, interesting, creative, smart, enjoyable, fascinating?
Might that represent both the man and his music?
Could Mozart have been a simpleton and compose such deep, complex music?
Mozart once told his Father in a letter, "I am consumed with music."
Knowing that, does it seem reasonable to represent Mozart himself with music?
Was Mozart essentially saying, "I am music."??
This paper is a kind of "cart before horse" situation in which possible answers have
been found to questions that probably haven't been asked before involving the
preceding questions, but with Mozart giving us the answers. Namely,
1. How would Mozart represent his music? and -
2. How would Mozart represent himself?
The paper proves the existence of Mozart's "Trademark Phrase" or "Musical Trademark",
but the deeper issue is "What does it mean?" For example, does it represent his music?
Does it represent himself? Does it represent both? Does it have some other significance?
There must be a reason he used it so often.
I'm quite serious, here. This is not some leap into the unknown with a baseless idea.
We already know that Mozart used a certain musical phrase over and over again.
It's not a theory. It's a fact. Perhaps that fact means nothing special, but I think there's
a better chance that it does have a meaning. Mozart was precise and careful with his
composing - not sloppy and whimsical. If he wrote it, he meant it. Every note counted.
It may have begun as an exercise in musical creativity, but I think Mozart's reasons for using
it gradually changed.
I believe that, over time, Mozart used the phrase to represent and identify his music, and
eventually, identified the phrase with himself such that the phrase represented him.
That is, Mozart = his music, his music = the phrase, therefore Mozart = the phrase,
and the phrase = Mozart..
A=B, B=C, therefore A=C. In short, This Is Mozart - at least as a musical representation.
The phrase probably answers 3 questions:
Q1. How would Mozart represent his music?
Q2. How would he represent himself?
Q3. If he used music to represent himself, what music would he use?
ANSWER: Musically, with his "Musical Trademark" phrase - the MTM.
It represents Mozart's music, and Mozart himself.
How do we know this? Because of the nature of the phrase that he used so often.
It represents his music better than any single piece can, and it's representative of the
kind of man Mozart was.
A question implied, but not listed above is:
Q4. WHY would Mozart want to create a representation and identification of his music, and
represent himself in his music in some way?
Answer: If you were a genius and the greatest composer in the world, wouldn't you??
Especially if you were treated as a Wunderkind as a child, and in an era of
dominating symbols such as The Church, Royalty, etc, and you were sometimes
treated shabbily by such institutions? He knew he was special - very special.
He knew he was the greatest composer who ever lived, and possibly the greatest
pianist who ever lived.
He probably wanted to rise above all institutions of the day and say,
"Look at me. I am Mozart, and I'm the greatest composer in the world.".
He knew he deserved some kind of symbol representing himself and his music.
Various institutions had their symbols, and Mozart had his.
Synopsis
Mozart often used a particular, 2-chord musical phrase in a creative and sophisticated way.
Other composers also occasionally used the phrase, but not nearly as often as Mozart, or as
creatively.
This treatise illustrates the existence of the phrase in Mozart's music, and demonstrates how it can
be identified.. The phrase is defined in terms of "note relationships" - not chord names, although
chord names are used in this paper for convenience when discussing the notes.
Examples of most of the phrases are supplied in sheet-music form, and as MIDI sound clips for
playing on a computer.
History
The "Trademark Phrase" was first discovered in the early 1960s by the author. This paper was
first written in 1998, and placed on the web in 2002. A number of revisions have been made for clarity,
and more examples added since 2002..
. . . . . . . .
Introduction
“Trade-mark n ... 2: a distinguishing characteristic or feature firmly associated with a
person or thing. <Derringers became almost a trademark of gamblers>”.
Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary, 1973.
Many of Mozart's pieces contain a particular 2-chord musical phrase (or chord progression)
known as "an Italian 6th chord, followed by a major resolution".
The "Italian 6th" is a form of the augmented 6th chord.
He not only used this phrase far more frequently than other composers, he also focused on it
in some passages, and developed it to a high degree of sophistication as only Mozart could.
It is deeply embedded in much of his music. In some cases, it forms the core musical fabric
of a section or passage.
His frequent usage and development of this phrase has always been one of the distinguishing
characteristics of much of his music (to my ears) which I’ve always thought of as his musical
trademark.
The phrase may exist as:
2 chords (discussed here),
As a series of separate notes forming 2 chords (discussed here),
As a series of non-linear separate notes (in more complex cases, not discussed here).
It should be mentioned that this trademark characteristic of Mozart's music is not simply a
matter of counting how many times Mozart used the phrase compared with other
contemporary composers. Mozart often focused on that phrase with the music seemingly
funneled to it, and sometimes used it in complex ways. The augmented 6th was generally
not used by Mozart as a mere short bridge to some other musical idea: It and its resolution
and preamble were the musical idea, in many cases. It was often the musical fabric itself.
No other composer did this to the extent that Mozart did, making Mozart's usage of the
phrase unique.
Types of Augmented 6th Chords used by Mozart
Mozart used the Italian, German and French forms of the augmented 6th chord.
The latter two are supersets of the Italian form, containing an extra note in each case.
That is:
Augmented 6th - 2 notes (such as D#-----------C#)
Italian 6th - 3 notes = augmented 6th + 1 note (such as D#---G------C#)
German 6th - 4 notes = Italian 6th + 1 note (such as D#---G-A#--C#)
French 6th - 4 notes = Italian 6th + 1 note (such as D#---G-A---C#)
Even when Mozart used the German and French forms of the augmented 6th chord, he
was still using the notes of the Italian 6th to form the basic structure of the chord.
The origin of the names "Italian, French, and German" 6th are unknown.
Reason for its Use
It is not known if Mozart intentionally used this phrase as a way of musically "signing
his name", as an artist would sign his name, or if he simply used it because he liked
the phrase, and its use seemed fitting for a particular location in a piece. Unless a letter
or other evidence turns up where he mentions its intentional inclusion, we may never
know his motivation for using it so often.
Mozart used the phrase so often and in so many different ways, that it is safe to say that
he had an endless fascination with it. Perhaps that was his reason for using it.
Since the phrase does not appear in all his pieces, it might seem that it is not a musical
signature or musical trademark, and would be the equivalent of van Gogh signing
some of his paintings, but not all of them. However, not every piece permits its use,
musically speaking: Some are too short, some have the wrong "ambience", etc.
While van Gogh could sign his name to every painting, Mozart could not do the same
to every composition.
In general, the trademark phrase appears in pieces, which are long enough to permit it,
and have the right musical ambience - sometimes appearing multiple times in a single
piece and even on a single page.
Meaning of its Use
Since we don't know the reason Mozart used this phrase so often, it's difficult or impossible
to assign a meaning to it. However, some elementary conclusions can be drawn:
1. The phrase illustrates the kind of music Mozart liked - at least, in terms of 2 chords.
2. The phrase illustrates the kind of music Mozart was fascinated by.
3. We can see Mozart's creative abilities at work on a single phrase as he invents different
forms of the phrase.
4. The phrase represents Mozart's music to a degree, since it is so pervasive and often
thoroughly embedded..
We can also speculate as to whether the phrase may have represented Mozart himself,
at times, being used as it was in the highly personal piano rondo K.511, the piano part
of the concert aria K.505, and others.
K.505 was written as a "duet" for voice and piano for his friend Nancy Storace, with
Nancy singing, and Wolfgang playing the accompanying piano part. There's no way of
knowing if Mozart used the phrase in K.505 to represent himself, but since the phrase
represents his music, to a degree, and since his music represents who he was. to a degree,
it would not be much of a reach to say that the phrase which represented his music and
who he was, therefore represented him in that piece.
If that speculation is true, then the trademark phrase is much more than a trademark:
It is the musical representation of Mozart himself.
The symbolic value of the phrase may be its most important feature: It may musically
represent Mozart in one "sound bite".
Earliest Use
The earliest use of the phrase appears to be in K.9a/5a, Allegro in C Major for piano,
written in 1763. "K.5a" is the designation in the 6th edition of the Kochel Catalog.
The phrase appears 4 times: Measures 13/14, 34/35, 57/58, and 79/80.
For the first usage (mm 13/14), the trademark notes are: Eb-G-Db, D-(F#)-D.
The F# was interpolated from a higher F#. The actual notes are: D-A-D-F#.
(While this is a fairly sophisticated piece, the violin sonatas which preceded it
(K.7 and K.9) are even more sophisticated. It's truly amazing that a child could compose
such original, interesting, and sophisticated music. It's no wonder that the young Mozart
was regarded as a Wunderkind. He was.)
Another early use of the phrase is K.19d (May, 1765, age 8) for 2-manual
harpsichord, 4 hands, written for performing by himself and Nannerl, his sister.
The date is uncertain since the style of the piece doesn't appear to match Mozart's
then-current style. Wolfgang Plath has doubts as to the authenticity of the piece, but all the
known facts about it seem to make it probable that Mozart was the composer. For example, a
Mozart family portrait depicts Nannerl playing the piano in exactly the same way that she
would have played K.19d as the primo performer of the 4-handed piece on a single keyboard,
with her left hand reaching under Mozart's right hand
As an example of another early piece, the trademark phrase can easily be heard in the
Symphony Number 6 in F Major (K.43) in the first movement, written in 1767 when
Mozart was 11.
Usage by Other Composers
JS Bach: A candidate for occasional usage would be the music of JS Bach, and one such
example is listed here from the Mass in B Minor.
Beethoven: The phrase may also have been used frequently by Beethoven in his early years
when he was writing in the style of Mozart.
Chopin: An example of the phrase from a Chopin Piano Concerto is also provided, although
Chopin appeared to be using that phrase as a rather weak bridge to some other musical idea.
Gasparini: It can be found in some music by (or believed to be by) Quirino Gasparini, some
of which Mozart included in one of his pieces (K.195/186d - Litaniae Lauretanae, number 3:
Salus Inforum).
That is, the Salus Inforum, which contains the trademark phrase, is believed to be by
Gasparini, and Mozart included that piece in his K.195 - Litaniae Lauretanae.
Gasparini also wrote a beautiful piece called Adoramus Te which was originally attributed to
Mozart (K.327) since Mozart had made a copy of it. This piece by Gasparini also contains
the trademark phrase.
So, in Gasparini's case, Mozart used or copied the pieces containing the trademark phrase
penned by Gasparini on 2 occasions, and incorporated them into his own works or study
materials.
Galuppi: It can be heard in the music of Baldassari Galuppi of Venice, notably the Piano
Sonata in C Major, 3rd movement.
Mozart's composition pupils: The phrase can be found in the music of Mozart's composition
pupils.
General Characterization
The phrase consists of 2 chords. Each chord contains 3 notes.
In musical notation it is:
|
(Actually, Eb-G-Db for the first chord)
The 2 lower notes in each chord are major 3rds, highlighted in purple, below.
The top and bottom notes in the 2nd chord are always an octave apart.
The 2-chord phrase always looks like this (pictorially), regardless of the actual notes used:
Eb------G-----Db
1st chord
D------F#-----------D
2nd chord
Both chords:
The 2 notes forming the +6 interval resolve outwardly by half steps to an octave.
The note comprising the major third also moves by a half step.
Additionally, the leading voice moves by a half step (Db to D in the example above).
The root key in the preceding examples is G minor.
The top note of the 2nd chord (D natural in the examples) forms the dominant note
of the root key.
Thus, we usually see the progression:
G--Bb--D--G
==>
Eb--G--Db
==>
D--F#--D
==>
G--Bb--D--G
Minor
(Minor)
Major
Minor
i of G minor It#6 V of G minor i of G minor
Typical progression from minor, to major, and back to minor.
The yellow portion represents the trademark phrase.
The trademark phrase temporarily converts the key from minor to major, and usually
continues to the root key (which is usually minor). Thus, it is usually found where the
piece is in a minor key.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Definition of the Trademark Phrase
The definition of the phrase involves the relationships between the minimum number of notes
which describe the phrase, as well as other factors.
Definition 1 (musical):
1. The phrase being defined is referred to as "Mozart's MTM" (Mozart's Musical
TradeMark) or simply, "the MTM".
2. The MTM phrase consists of 2 chords, with each chord containing 3 notes.
3. The first chord consists of a major 3rd for the lower 2 notes, and an upper note a +6th
higher than the lower note.
4. If any additional notes accompany the first chord in the original music, and they are lower
than the lowest note of the first MTM chord, then the lowest accompanying note must be the
same note as the lowest note in the chord, lowered by 1 or more octaves.
5. The second chord consists of a major 3rd for the lower 2 notes and an upper note an
octave above the lower note.
6. The lowest note in the 2nd chord is 1 semi-tone lower than the lowest note in the first
chord.
7. The 2 notes forming the +6 interval in the first chord resolve outwardly by half steps
to an octave in the 2nd chord.
8. The note comprising the major third in the first chord (the middle note) moves down
by a half step in the 2nd chord.
9. The 2nd chord (the resolution) must appear within 2 measures of the first chord.
10. Key signature is not a factor in the definition.
11. Musical nomenclature involving chord names or types are not part of the definition.
12. For MTM determination, some notes in the original music may need to be eliminated
to strip away unnecessary notes, based on the rules below. See "Reduction of Notes" below.
13. For MTM determination, some notes in the original music may need to be be interpolated
based on the rule "Interpolation of Notes" below.
14. If the 2 chords match the criteria described above, then the phrase is a “musical
trademark” phrase, or "MTM", whether by Mozart or another composer.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note: Rather than using the
formal definition when searching for the phrase, it may be
easier to use the earlier examples for comparison, and mentally convert the notes on the
sheet music to their equivalent locations in the examples, or to quickly check the chord
relationships using the examples as references.
Additional Attributes and Rules:
Nomenclature
The first chord of the phrase is an "Italian 6th"- not a "dominant 7th" - even though the notes
in the two types of chords may be identical.
The standard chord names are used as a shorthand in describing the notes, but the definition
of the phrase, above, is what determines a phrase's qualification to be called a "trademark
phrase."
MTM Determination: Reduction of Notes:
Compression
Compression is simply a preliminary note-removal process, stripping away some of the
non-essential notes to illuminate the trademark phrase.
Where the notes in the 1st or 2nd chords are separated by more than 1 octave from each
other, pitches may be raised or lowered by octave intervals (compressed) as long as their
relative positions in terms of "higher" or "lower" remain the same. This applies to all notes
in both chords. Additionally, intervening notes, if any, are deleted.
Example of compression:
As Written: Eb-Eb---G-Bb-C#-Bb-C#
===> D-D----F#-A--D-F#-DCompressed: Eb---G----C#-Bb ===> D----F#----D-F#
Further Removal of Irrelevant Notes
The notes may need to be reduced further (after compression has been done) to reveal the
trademark phrase.
Example of compression and further removal of irrelevant notes :
As Written: Eb-Eb---G-Bb-C#-Bb-C#
===> D-D----F#-A--D-F#-DCompressed: Eb---G----C#-Bb ===> D----F#----D-F#
Further Removal: Eb---G----C# ===> D----F#----D
Musical TM: Eb---G----C# ===> D----F#----D
MTM Determination: Interpolation of Notes
The phrase often appears in a modified form, configured with its middle note in the upper
position (such as the G below).
When that occurs, the higher note must be moved between the other 2 notes (interpolated)
to form the middle note for the
required major 3rd(s).
When interpolation is done, it must be done to BOTH chords.
First Chord
As Written: Eb--------------Db-----G
Same Chord with
Interpolation: Eb-----[G]------Db
The interpolated middle note is in brackets. It can come from any note that is part of
that beat or phrase. (Normally it is present as part of that beat).
Interpolation applies only to the finalized middle notes of the phrase as defined earlier.
The lowest and highest notes of the finalized trademark chords do not qualify for
interpolation.
For example in the chord Db-Eb-G, the Db could not be moved above the G to form the
finalized chord Eb-G-Db since it is an upper or lower note of the trademark phrase - not
a middle note. Only the G would qualify for interpolation since it is capable of forming the
middle note of the trademark phrase.
modified individual notes
modified phrase
Click to hear modified form of phrase before interpolation of notes
MTM Determination: Delayed Resolution
In some cases, the 2nd chord (the resolution) is delayed by one or more intervening beats.
As far as is known, this deferment does not exceed 2 measures. Therefore, in searching for
this phrase, one cannot always assume that the next chord following a matching first chord
is the one to evaluate.
Example A6, which cites a trademark phrase in K.594, beginning at measure 5, beat 1,
features a delayed resolution of the 2nd chord in the phrase. The resolution is delayed
until the next measure, and the phrase is considered to be a trademark phrase despite the
delayed resolution.
Alternate Definitions
For the purposes of this paper, there are no alternate definitions of "Mozart's Musical
Trademark".
Definition 2 (numeric)
The numeric definition is the same as the musical definition, but uses numbers instead of
note/chord descriptions. See Appendix 1.
______________________________________________________________________________________
Types of Phrases
There are 2 types of trademark phrases:
Type-1: The standard trademark phrase. The chords meet the musical definition..
Type-2: Variations on Type-1.
These incorporate the same, basic musical idea, but have been modified in some way.
For example, the phrase might include the first trademark chord, but proceed to
a minor chord rather than a major chord (Don Giovanni, overture, mm 10-11;
Rondo ala Turca, mm 20-21).
It may include the first trademark chord, proceed to a minor chord, and then to a
resolving major chord, with the minor chord lodged in the middle of the trademark
phrase (Requiem, Lacrimosa, homo reus, m 8).
It may proceed in the direction of an augmented 6th, modify a single note so the
augmented 6th never materializes, then conclude with a minor chord (Magic Flute,
Queen of the Night aria, last 3 measures).
There are doubtless many other examples of variations on the trademark phrase.
Several examples of both Type-1 and Type-2 trademark phrases are illustrated in this paper.
