Violin Concerto No. 5 in A Major, K. 219

Composer: MOZART, Wolfgang Amadeus
  • Mozart completed this concerto on December 20, 1775, in Salzburg.1
  • Mozart was 19 when he composed this concerto.2 
  • This concerto is sometimes referred to as the “Turkish” because the final movement contains a passage of music in what Classical Europeans considered an alla turca style. In this example, Mozart evokes a Turkish style by using a minor mode and having the strings use the percussive col legno effect.3 (Other examples of “Turkish” music by Mozart include the Rondo alla Turca and the overture to The Abduction from the Seraglio.) 
    • Search this Research Site for the terms “janissary music” for more discussion of the alla turca style in the Classical era.

Sources

  1. Cliff Eisen, and Stanley Sadie, “Mozart, (Johann Chrysostom) Wolfgang Amadeus,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed March 24, 2021,  https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-6002278233.
  2. Steve Lacoste, “Violin Concerto No. 5, ‘Turkish’,” The Los Angeles Philharmonic, accessed March 24, 2021, https://www.laphil.com/musicdb/pieces/4578/violin-concerto-no-5-turkish. 
  3. Ibid.

Cut IDs

40653 44729 45397 48583 20240 19978 20355 20217