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{{Short description|1787 composition by W. A. Mozart}}
{{Italic title}}
{{Italic title}}
{{use dmy dates|date=June 2024}}
'''''A Musical Joke''''' (in German: ''{{Lang|de|Ein musikalischer Spaß}}'') [[Köchel catalogue|K.]] 522, ([[Divertimento]] for two [[French horn|horns]] and [[string quartet]]) is a composition by [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart]]; the composer entered it in his ''{{lang|de|Verzeichnis aller meiner Werke}}'' (''Catalogue of All My Works'') on June 14, 1787. Commentators have opined that the piece's purpose is satirical – that "[its] harmonic and rhythmic gaffes serve to parody the work of incompetent composers"<ref>{{cite book|last=Sadie|first=Stanley|authorlink=Stanley Sadie|chapter=Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart|title=[[The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians]]|place=London|year=1980}}</ref> – though Mozart himself is not known to have revealed his actual intentions.
'''''A Musical Joke''''' ({{Langx|de|Ein musikalischer Spaß|link=no}}) [[Köchel catalogue|K.]]&nbsp;522, ([[divertimento]] for two [[natural horn|horns]] in F, and [[string quartet]]) is a composition by [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart]]; he entered it in his ''{{lang|de|Verzeichnis aller meiner Werke}}'' (''Catalogue of All My Works'') on 14 June 1787. Commentators have opined that the piece's purpose is satirical – that "[its] harmonic and rhythmic gaffes serve to parody the work of incompetent composers"<ref>{{cite book|last=Sadie|first=Stanley|author-link=Stanley Sadie|chapter=Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart|page={{page needed|date=March 2024}}|title=[[The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians]]|place=London|publisher=Macmillan|year=1980}}</ref> – though Mozart himself is not known to have revealed his actual intentions.


The beginning of the fourth movement is well-known in Britain as the theme tune to the [[BBC]]'s television coverage of the [[Horse of the Year Show]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Mozart – A Musical Joke |url=https://www.classicfm.com/composers/mozart/music/musical-joke/ |publisher=[[Classic FM (UK)|Classic FM]]|access-date=22 March 2024}}</ref><ref name=Hamilton>{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.ie/entertainment/music/musical-fun-fit-for-horse-show-week/36020528.html|access-date=22 March 2024|title=Musical fun fit for horse show week|author=George Hamilton|date=13 August 2017|newspaper=[[Irish Independent]]}}</ref>
⚫
==Structure and compositorial elements==

==English name==

⚫
The title ''A Musical Joke'' might be a poor rendering of the German original: ''[[wikt:Spaß|Spaß]]'' does not necessarily connote the jocular, for which the word ''[[wikt:Scherz|Scherz]]'' would more likely be used. In [[Fritz Spiegl]]'s view, a more accurate translation would be ''Some Musical Fun''.<ref name=Hamilton /><ref>{{cite AV media|date=October 1981|medium=Radio broadcast|publisher=[[BBC Radio 3]]|title=[Untitled talk]}}{{full citation needed|date=December 2018}}</ref> The sometimes-mentioned nicknames {{lang|de|Dorfmusikantensextett}} ("village musicians' sextet") and {{lang|de|Bauernsinfonie}} ("farmers' symphony") were added after Mozart's death; these names ridicule the players more than inept composers.<ref name=Godt>{{cite web|url=https://symposium.music.org/index.php/26/item/2001-mozarts-real-joke|access-date=22 March 2024|title=Mozart's Real Joke|author=Irving Godt|orig-date=1 October 1986|date=24 October 2018|publisher=College Music Symposium}} Extensive analysis with sources.</ref>

⚫
==Structure and compositional elements==
{{Anchor|Structure and intention}}
{{Anchor|Structure and intention}}
[[File:K522 multitonality.png|400px|thumb|Mozart's exercise in polytonality, from the end of the piece {{audio|K522 multitonality.mid|Play}}]]
[[File:K522 multitonality.png|upright=1.7|thumb|Mozart's exercise in polytonality, from the end of the piece<br />[[File:K522 multitonality.mid|thumb|center]]]]
[[File:Iki Ènèng - A Musical Joke (K. 522).ogg|250px|thumb|upright|Synthesized version of the first movement]]
⚫
The piece consists of four [[movement (music)|movements]], using forms shared with many classical divertimenti:

# Allegro ([[sonata form]]), F major
⚫
The piece consists of four [[movement (music)|movements]] and takes about 20 minutes to perform.
⚫
# [[Minuet and trio|Menuetto and trio]], F major (trio in B-flat major)
# Adagio cantabile, C major
# Allegro ([[sonata form]]), [[F major]]
⚫
# [[Minuet and trio|Menuetto and trio]], F major (trio in [[B-flat major|B{{music|b}} major]])
# Adagio cantabile, [[C major]]
# Presto ([[sonata rondo form]]), F major
# Presto ([[sonata rondo form]]), F major


Compositorial comedic devices include:
Compositorial comedic devices include:<ref name=Godt />
*[[secondary dominant]]s replacing necessary [[subdominant]] chords;
*[[secondary dominant]]s replacing necessary [[subdominant]] chords;
*[[dissonance (music)|discords]] in the horns;
*[[dissonance (music)|dissonance]] in the horns;
*[[whole tone scale]]s in the violin's high register;
*[[parallel fifths]]
*[[whole-tone scale]]s in the violin's high register;
*clumsy [[orchestration]], backing a thin melodic line with a heavy, monotonous accompaniment in the last movement;
*clumsy [[orchestration]], backing a thin melodic line with a heavy, monotonous accompaniment in the last movement;
*going to the wrong keys for a sonata-form structure (the first movement, for example, never succeeds in modulating to the dominant, and simply jumps there instead after a few failed attempts);
*going to the wrong keys for a sonata-form structure (the first movement, for example, never succeeds in modulating to the dominant, and simply jumps there instead after a few failed attempts);
*starting the slow movement in the wrong key (G major instead of C major);
*starting the slow movement in the wrong key ([[G major]] instead of C major);
*a pathetic attempt at a [[fugato]], also in the last movement.
*a pathetic attempt at a [[fugato]], also in the last movement.


The piece is notable for one of the earliest known uses of [[polytonality]] (though not the earliest, being predated by [[Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber |Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber's]] ''Battalia''), creating the gesture of complete collapse at the finale. This may be intended to produce the impression of grossly out-of-tune string playing, since the horns alone conclude in the [[tonic key]]. The lower strings behave as if the tonic has become B-flat, while the violins and violas switch to G major, A major and E-flat major, respectively.
The piece is notable for one of the earliest known uses of [[polytonality]] (though not the earliest, being predated by [[Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber]]'s ''Battalia''), creating the gesture of complete collapse at the finale. This may be intended to produce the impression of grossly out-of-tune string playing, since the horns alone conclude in the [[tonic key]]. The lower strings behave as if the tonic has become B{{music|flat}}, while the violins and violas switch to G major, [[A major]] and [[E-flat major|E{{music|b}} major]], respectively.

Whole-tone scales and polytonality are foreign to music of the [[Classical period (music)|Classical era]]. However, these became common for early 20th-century composers like [[Claude Debussy]] and [[Igor Stravinsky]], who were searching for a new musical language. In this later context, these were legitimate new techniques in serious music. In Mozart's time, however, these non-classical elements gave the piece its comedy, expressing the composer's humor.

==Translation==

⚫
The title ''A Musical Joke'' might be a poor rendering of the German original: ''[[wikt:Spaß|Spaß]]'' does not necessarily connote the jocular, for which the word ''[[wikt:Scherz|Scherz]]'' would more likely be used. In [[Fritz Spiegl]]'s view, a more accurate translation would be ''Some Musical Fun''.<ref>{{cite AV media|date=October 1981|medium=Radio broadcast|publisher=BBC Radio 3|title=[Untitled talk]}}</ref> The sometimes-mentioned nicknames "Dorfmusikantensextett" ("village musicians' sextet") and "Bauernsinfonie" ("farmers' symphony") were added after Mozart's death.

==Other uses==
A version by [[Waldo de los Ríos]] of the opening of the finale was used for many years as the theme tune to the [[BBC]]'s ''[[Horse of the Year Show]]'' and other televised [[show jumping]] events.


==References==
==References==
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==External links==
==External links==
*{{NMA|167|223|168|97|Ein musikalischer Spaß}}
*{{NMA|167|223|168|97|Ein musikalischer Spaß}}
*{{Mutopia|553}}
*{{Mutopia|553|''Ein musikalischer Spaß''}}
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*{{IMSLP|work=Ein musikalischer Spaß, K.522 (Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus)|cname=''Ein musikalischer Spaß''}}
*[http://www.mozart-weltweit.eu/mozart-archiv/serie04.htm Recording of ''A Musical Joke'']
*{{YouTube|nx-N9I1eZyM|Animated score}}, [[Dennis Brain]], [[Neill Sanders]] (horn); [[Manoug Parikian]] (violin); [[London Philharmonic Orchestra]], [[Guido Cantelli]]
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*{{IMSLP2|work=Ein musikalischer Spaß, K.522 (Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus)|cname=''Ein musikalischer Spaß''}}
*{{YouTube|df3dr3cDOfo|Discussion of Mozart's intentionally bad counterpoint in this work}}


{{Mozart Divertimenti|state=expanded}}
{{Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart}}
{{Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart}}
{{Portal bar|Classical music}}
{{Authority control}}


{{DEFAULTSORT:Musical Joke, A}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Musical Joke, A}}
[[Category:Chamber music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart]]
[[Category:Humor in classical music]]
[[Category:Humor in classical music]]
[[Category:Serenades and divertimenti by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart]]
[[Category:Serenades and divertimenti by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart]]
[[Category:1787 compositions]]
[[Category:1787 compositions]]
[[Category:Compositions in F major]]

Latest revision as of 16:29, 1 January 2025

A Musical Joke (German: Ein musikalischer Spaß) K. 522, (divertimento for two horns in F, and string quartet) is a composition by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart; he entered it in his Verzeichnis aller meiner Werke (Catalogue of All My Works) on 14 June 1787. Commentators have opined that the piece's purpose is satirical – that "[its] harmonic and rhythmic gaffes serve to parody the work of incompetent composers"[1] – though Mozart himself is not known to have revealed his actual intentions.

The beginning of the fourth movement is well-known in Britain as the theme tune to the BBC's television coverage of the Horse of the Year Show.[2][3]

English name

[edit]

The title A Musical Joke might be a poor rendering of the German original: Spaß does not necessarily connote the jocular, for which the word Scherz would more likely be used. In Fritz Spiegl's view, a more accurate translation would be Some Musical Fun.[3][4] The sometimes-mentioned nicknames Dorfmusikantensextett ("village musicians' sextet") and Bauernsinfonie ("farmers' symphony") were added after Mozart's death; these names ridicule the players more than inept composers.[5]

Structure and compositional elements

[edit]

Mozart's exercise in polytonality, from the end of the piece
Synthesized version of the first movement

The piece consists of four movements and takes about 20 minutes to perform.

  1. Allegro (sonata form), F major
  2. Menuetto and trio, F major (trio in B♭ major)
  3. Adagio cantabile, C major
  4. Presto (sonata rondo form), F major

Compositorial comedic devices include:[5]

  • secondary dominants replacing necessary subdominant chords;
  • dissonance in the horns;
  • parallel fifths
  • whole-tone scales in the violin's high register;
  • clumsy orchestration, backing a thin melodic line with a heavy, monotonous accompaniment in the last movement;
  • going to the wrong keys for a sonata-form structure (the first movement, for example, never succeeds in modulating to the dominant, and simply jumps there instead after a few failed attempts);
  • starting the slow movement in the wrong key (G major instead of C major);
  • a pathetic attempt at a fugato, also in the last movement.

The piece is notable for one of the earliest known uses of polytonality (though not the earliest, being predated by Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber's Battalia), creating the gesture of complete collapse at the finale. This may be intended to produce the impression of grossly out-of-tune string playing, since the horns alone conclude in the tonic key. The lower strings behave as if the tonic has become B♭, while the violins and violas switch to G major, A major and E♭ major, respectively.

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Sadie, Stanley (1980). "Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. London: Macmillan. p. [page needed].
  2. ^ "Mozart – A Musical Joke". Classic FM. Retrieved 22 March 2024.
  3. ^ a b George Hamilton (13 August 2017). "Musical fun fit for horse show week". Irish Independent. Retrieved 22 March 2024.
  4. ^ [Untitled talk] (Radio broadcast). BBC Radio 3. October 1981.[full citation needed]
  5. ^ a b Irving Godt (24 October 2018) [1 October 1986]. "Mozart's Real Joke". College Music Symposium. Retrieved 22 March 2024. Extensive analysis with sources.
[edit]
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