CLXI. MOZART, Wolfgang Amadeus (1756-1791)
A cassation is basically the same thing as a serenade or a divertimento.
It seems to mean music prepared for an outdoors performance. Picture a beautiful summer day in Salzburg ...
... the nobility are supping around a large table and off to the side -- the musicians -- making sure that the duchess digests her sweet meats ...
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The actual origin of the word is not clear. Perhaps it was meant to refer to the word cassa (bass drum), since the movement starts off with a march.
Or perhaps it comes from a transformation of the term gassatim gehen, referring to street performers ...
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1. Marcia -- Allegro molto
Leonard Bernstein used to show how a composer constructs a theme by illustrating the first four bars of Rossini's William Tell Overture:
In bar 2 it goes up; in bar 4 it goes down ...
Mozart does something similar here. Notice the difference in the melody in bars 1-2 and 5-6:
The first phrase goes down; the second goes up.
At age 14 -- the year Beethoven was born -- this boy was writing exquisite melodies like this. The Allegro which follows contains all the seeds which will germinate in his future music -- the proud, forte declarations; the pianissimo whispers that follow -- all the building blocks were in place when Mozart was a young teenager.
2. Andante
Moving to the sub-dominant (E-Flat Major), this melody spins out like a vocal aria. Mozart uses a few deceptive cadences.
3. Menuetto -- Trio
The duchess finishes her desert and gets up to dance.
4. Andante
Switching to the Relative Minor (G), this movement is more polyphonic than the previous melodic Andante. The texture is rich and layered, with the oboes adding to the higher registers ...
5. Menuetto -- Trio
An exquisite Trio, featuring stretto passages ...
6. Finale: Allegro assai / 7. Allegro-Andante-Allegro-Andante
The cassation concludes with a return to the initial March.
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