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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

String Quartet F major K. 168

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Preface

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

String Quartet F major K. 168

Wolf-Dieter Seiffert (Epilogue)

Facsimile of the autograph, hardcover

String Quartets

Pages 33 (IX+24), Size 24,3 x 19,5 cm

Weight 281 g

HN 3209 · ISMN 979-0-2018-3209-8

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String Quartet F major K. 168

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About the Composer

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Mozart is one of the few composers to have produced masterpieces in all genres. On the concert tours he undertook in his early years (London, Mannheim, Italy, Paris) he gained many varied musical impressions that he assimilated in his youth and which formed the prerequisite for his later consummate musical language.

1756	Born in Salzburg on January 27, the son of musician and later court composer Leopold Mozart. His early regimented musical education from his father began in 1761, first compositions at age five.
1763–66	Extended concert tours through various German cities and to Paris, London, Amsterdam, Switzerland. He composes his first sonatas for violin and piano, K. 10–15, dedicated to Queen Charlotte, as well as the first symphonies from London, K. 16 and 19, which show the influence of the works of Johann Christian Bach and Karl Friedrich Abel (the three-movement Italian sinfonia form).
1767	Premiere in Salzburg of the sacred light opera “Die Schuldigkeit des ersten Gebotes,” K. 35 (written with Michael Haydn and Anton C. Adlgasser), and the intermezzo “Apollo et Hyacinthus,” K. 38. Journeys with his father and sister to Vienna.
1768	Probably the premiere in Vienna of his Singspiel “Bastien and Bastienne,” K. 50. Composition of his first masses.
1769	Performance in Salzburg of the dramma giocoso “La finta semplice,” K. 51.
1769–71	Two tours to Italy; he meets Farinelli, P. Nardini, and Padre Martini, among others, and, on the second trip, Hasse. Premieres in Milan of his opera seria “Mitridate, Re di Ponto” in 1770 and of the festa teatrale “Ascanio in Alba” in 1771. Composition of symphonies and his first string quartet (1770, K. 80).
1771	Composition of the oratorio “La Betulia liberate,” K. 118, in Salzburg/Italy.
1772	Premiere of the serenata drammatica “Il sogno di Scipione,” K. 126, for the accession of Salzburg Archbishop Hieronymus Count Colloredo. He receives an appointment as salaried concertmaster of the Salzburg Court Chapel (of which he had been an unpaid member since 1769). Third journey to Italy with his father, premiere in Milan of the dramma per musica “Lucio Silla,” with general success. The final trip to Italy spells the ends of his youthful phase of appropriation; he has tested out all important instrumental genres (symphony, sonata, string quartet) and all the main genres of opera (Singspiel, opera buffa, opera seria, festa teatrale).
from 1773	Composition of string quartets (K. 168–173) under the influence of Haydn, and of symphonies, divertimenti, serenades. He increasingly devotes himself, contingent upon the duties of his post, to liturgical music; several masses are written. Begins to compose violin and piano concerti.
1775	Premiere in Munich of the dramma giocoso “La finta giardiniera” and the serenata “Il Rè pastore.” Piano sonatas, K. 279–284.
1777	He vacates his post temporarily to undertaken a promotional tour with his mother to Munich, Mannheim, and Paris.
1778	Composition of the “Paris” Symphony in D major (K. 297). In Paris he experiences the quarrel between the proponents of Gluck and those of Piccinni. Publication of violin sonatas.
1779	Resumes his duties in Salzburg, as court organist. Coronation Mass in C major.
1781	Premiere in Munich of his tragédie lyrique “Idomeneo,” in which French and Italian elements are synthesized. Journey to Vienna. After his falling out with the Archbishop of Salzburg, he gives up his post, moves to Vienna, and earns his living as a free composer through concertizing and giving music lessons. His last great period of creativity begins.
1782	He becomes acquainted with the works of Bach and Handel through Baron van Swieten; after this he arranges Bachian fugues and incorporates the “learned style” (fugues and counterpoint) into his works beside the “galant style” (e.g. in the String Quartet in G major, K. 387, in 1782; Piano Sonata in F major, K. 533, in 1786; the Jupiter Symphony, K. 551, in 1788; “Die Zauberflöte” (“The Magic Flute”), and the Requiem in D minor, K. 626, both in 1791). Premiere in Vienna of his Singspiel “Die Entführung aus dem Serail” (“The Abduction from the Seraglio”). Composition of the Haffner Symphony in D major, K. 385.
1783	Mass in C minor, K. 427; Linz Symphony in C major, K. 425.
1784	Hunt Quartet in B-flat major, K. 458.
1785	Premiere in Vienna of the oratorio “Davide penitente,” K. 469. “Dissonance” Quartet in C major, K. 465.
1786	Premiere of the comedy with music “Der Schauspieldirektor” (“The Impresario”), K. 486, which Salieri’s competing work “Prima la musica e poi le parole” (“First the Music and Then the Words”) bests. Premiere in Vienna of the opera buffa “Le nozze di Figaro” (“The Marriage of Figaro”), whose extended action-packed finales form a highpoint of opera buffa. Prague Symphony in D major, K. 504.
1787	Serenade in G major (“Eine kleine Nachtmusik”), K. 525. He is named imperial and royal chamber composer. Premiere in Prague of the dramma giocoso “Il dissoluto punito ossia Il Don Giovanni,” a synthesis of serious and comic opera.
1788	Composition of the large Symphonies in E-flat major, K. 543; G minor, K. 550; and C major (Jupiter Symphony), K. 551. Clarinet Quintet in A major, K. 581.
1790	Premiere in Vienna of the dramma giocoso “Così fan tutte ossia La scuola degli amanti.”
1791	Premiere in Prague of the opera seria “La clemenza di Tito” and in Vienna of the Singspiel “Die Zauberflöte.” Clarinet Concerto in A major, K. 622. The Requiem remains unfinished. Dies in Vienna on December 5.

About the Authors

Wolf-Dieter Seiffert (Epilogue)

Dr. Wolf-Dieter Seiffert, born in 1959 in Frankfurt/M., read musicology, modern German literature, and philosophy at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich. On a scholarship from the “Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes”, he did his doctorate in 1990 with a thesis on “Mozarts frühe Streichquartette” (Rudolf Bockholdt). That same year, Seiffert started work at G. Henle Publishers as an editor. Parallel to his work at the publisher, he completed a diploma in business studies at the St. Gallen University, KMU-HSG, financed by the Günter Henle Foundation. Seiffert became managing director of G. Henle Verlag in 2000.

Seiffert has edited numerous Urtext editions for G. Henle Publishers, predominantly on Mozart’s works.