Romanza from "Horn Concerto No 3, K 447"

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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (arr. Clark)


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General Info

Year: 1787 / 1997
Duration: c. 4:00
Difficulty: III 1/2 (see Ratings for explanation)
Publisher: C.L. Barnhouse
Cost: Score and Parts (print) - $60.00   |   Score Only (print) - $5.00


Instrumentation

Full Score
Solo Horn
Flute
Oboe/Bells
Bassoon
B-flat Soprano Clarinet I-II-III
B-flat Bass Clarinet
E-flat Alto Saxophone I-II
B-flat Tenor Saxophone
E-flat Baritone Saxophone
B-flat Trumpet I-II
Horn in F
Trombone I-II
Euphonium
Tuba
String Bass
Percussion

(percussion detail desired)


Errata

None discovered thus far.


Program Notes

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Horn Concerto No. 3 in E-flat major, K. 447 was completed between 1784 and 1787, during the Vienna Period. The composition was written as a friendly gesture for the hornist Joseph Leutgeb (his name is mentioned few times in the score), and Mozart probably didn't consider it as particularly important, since he failed to enter it to the autograph catalogue of his works. The autograph score remained well preserved; it is stored in the British Library in London.

- Program Note from Wikipedia


Mozart wrote perhaps six horn concerti for an older acquaintance, Ignaz Leutgeb, some of them now lost, most of them, to one degree or another, incomplete. Parts for some were completely written out. Other parts were sketched out. Still others are missing altogether. The so-called Third Concerto provokes debate because the movements seem to have been written at different times. The middle movement, Romance, having the date 1783 on the autograph (now lost), seems less mature than the other two movements, thought by some specialists to have been written no earlier than 1787.

Mozart is reported to have become fond of horn music when, at the age of eight, he was "on tour" in England, and heard the music of the popular barge parties on the Thames at Chelsea, where his father was recuperating from an illness.

Although Mozart developed a love for the horn early in his life, he professed to dislike the clarinet, until he was persuaded of its beauty by the virtuoso Anton Stadler, for whom he completed a concerto for clarinet in 1791, the final year of his life. It is this late-developed acceptance of the clarinet that makes it seem as though the Horn Concerto No. 3 was written later than supposed, because instead of the expected oboes, it was scored for clarinet and bassoon.

The horn, in Mozart's time, was comparatively new to the orchestra, having been developed as a hunting horn. Unlike today's instrument, it was without valves, and key-changes had to be effected through the exchange of "crooks," short, curved pipes which lengthened the tube of the horn, lowering its pitch and providing different sets of harmonics. Pitch could be "trued up" by stopping the bell to one degree or another with the hand. The introduction of valves removed the awkward necessity of the crooks, but players still stick their hands in the instrument to vary the timbre, as well as alter the pitch.

- Program Note from Manchester Symphony Orchestra concert program, 12 March 1995


Media


State Ratings

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Performances

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