Mozart: String Quartet in C major, K. 465 (“Dissonance”)

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s C-major String Quartet is the last of the so-called “Haydn” Quartets, a set of the six string quartets (K. 387, 421, 428, 458, 464, and 465) published in 1785 by Artaria in Vienna, and dedicated to the composer Joseph Haydn (1732–1809). Its nickname “Dissonance Quartet” emerged in the early 20th-century and relates to the unusual accumulation of dissonant harmonies that opens the piece.

Introduction

The six quartets dedicated to Haydn are Mozart’s response to the older composer’s quartets (Op. 33) of 1781 (also published by Artaria). He greatly admired them because Haydn put the string quartet genre on a new level in terms of musical form and compositional design. Mozart followed Haydn’s four-movement format (Allegro–Andante–Menuet/Trio–Allegro) and harmonic plan (slow movement in the subdominant key, or F major), except for the last quartet of the set, in which he starts with a slow introduction to the first movement—a practice previously limited to orchestral symphonies.

History

The genesis of Mozart’s six “Haydn” Quartets extended over several years, starting with the first (K. 387) in late 1782, and finishing with the last (K. 465) in January 1785. Every one of the quartets occupied him for quite a while—in stark contrast to his earlier habit of conceiving and writing musical pieces with considerable ease and speed. The extant autograph scores bear this out, and the numerous drafts, corrections, and false starts demonstrate how Mozart truly labored over each quartet movement. Moreover, in the dedicatory preface to the published set that addresses Haydn as “mio caro amico” (“my dear friend”), he admits that these quartets were “the fruit of long and arduous labor” (“il frutto di una lunga, e laboriosa fattica”). 

Mozart: Quartet in C major for Strings, K. 465 ("Dissonance")

For the first performances of the quartets, Mozart invited Haydn to his house on January 15 and February 12, 1785. Haydn then complimented Mozart, and, according to a letter Mozart’s father Leopold (who was present at the performances) wrote to his daughter, Haydn said: “I tell you before God, as an honest man, that your son is the greatest composer I know, both in person and by name; he has taste, and moreover, the greatest knowledge [‘science’] of composition.”

Analysis

The C-major string quartet, K. 465, and notably its opening Adagio, offers, perhaps, the most striking example of Mozart’s newly acquired compositional sophistication. Its refined polyphonic structure—with the successive entries of cello, viola, second violin, and first violin—initiates, from the start, one sharp dissonance after another, as between the first notes of measures one and two: A-flat (viola) against A-natural (violin I). Friction and discord build steadily through harmonic cross (false) relations and movement, by adjacent (chromatic) pitches, into dissonance. The key of the slow introduction is ambiguous and searching for 18 measures: beginning in C minor, the actual key of C major (barely) reveals itself only four measures before the introduction ends. Yet the dazzling richness of the multifaceted, chiaroscuro opening characterizes the composition in its further course.

The Allegro’s principal theme is based on an unpretentious melodic motive of two measures, starting on the tonic pitch C. Mozart moves the two-measure motive up to D, then it unexpectedly leaps to G rather than E, delaying the E until the second quotation of the theme by violin I in measure 47. The second theme, emerging from a forceful chord in violin I, represents a contrasting and stunningly virtuosic gesture that intensifies the rhythmic drive of the movement. The development section largely focuses on elaboration and fragmentation of the motive and harmonic transformation of the principal theme. Following the recapitulation, the coda—enhanced with pitches outside the key—presents a series of successive dissonances, echoing the harmonic ambiguity of the slow introduction.

The “Andante cantabile” in F major surpasses the first movement with its rich lyricism for four string instruments. Drawing on a bel canto theme (i.e., in the beautiful vocal style of Italian opera), the piece features a dialogue between violin I and cello, centered around a sighing motive that leads to two solemn suspensions—two falling melodic gestures that delay harmonic resolution. The coda concludes with a final twist of this motive.

The third movement consists of a “Minuet and Trio” in C major. The chromatic elements suggested in the first two movements are expressed openly in the Minuet, while the Trio revisits the minor keys introduced in the first movement, adding further depth to the musical narrative.

The “Allegro molto” finale is a lively contredanse in sonata form, showcasing lyrical energy, notes outside the key, and minor-key excursions. Its second theme is polyphonic, and the third modulates to E-flat major while violin I performs virtuosic passages. Mozart incorporates rhythmic and textural variety, evoking Haydn's witty use of rests (pauses). The harmonically bold development cycles through minor keys and returns to the main theme, ending with an extended, playful coda.

Critical Thoughts

The last and compositionally most advanced of Mozart’s “Haydn” Quartets underscores the crucial function of these works for the composer’s artistic development. Haydn’s Op. 33 quartets of 1781 proved to be a challenging model, and Mozart’s response to them reveals a significant learning process that began in 1782, the year Mozart established residence in Vienna. The exposure to the rich metropolitan musical culture—in combination with the intensive study of music by Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handel, as well as the seminal works by his admired contemporaries Christoph Willibald Gluck and Joseph Haydn—led to lasting changes in his compositional style. The “Haydn” Quartets provide a case in point and demonstrate how his composing technique grew more intricate and polyphonic, and his musical language richer, more varied, and more erudite.

Legacy

Mozart’s “Haydn” Quartets enjoyed from the very beginning swift distribution and widespread reception. In 1789, the Magazin der Musik, a periodical published in Copenhagen, praised Mozart's complexity: “his six quartets for violins, viola and bass dedicated to Haydn confirm it once again that he has a decided leaning towards the difficult and the unusual. But then, what great and elevated ideas he has, too, testifying to a bold spirit!” 

An anecdote from Mozart’s wife Constanze was reported in the pages of Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung (Leipzig, 1799): that the Italian engraver sent the printer’s copy of the C-major string quartet back to the publisher because he assumed that the music contained too many wrong notes. And the same periodical conveyed, in 1832, an early analytical insult to the piece that was penned by Giuseppe Sarti (1729–1802). Mozart met him in 1784, considered him a “good honest fellow,” and wrote a set of keyboard variations (K. 460) on one of his arias. However, in his analysis of the quartet, Sarti called the violin's opening dissonance “execrable” and accused the composer of having “ears lined with iron.”

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Article by Christoph Wolff