# Mozart and through-composition



## obwan (Oct 24, 2011)

Did Mozart write any through-composed music?

Would you consider the finale to Don Giovanni "Don Giovanni a cenar teco m'invitasti e son venuto" to be through-composed? 

Other then question and answer type phrases it doesn't repeat any music (and cm'on give him a break he's still a classical composer), he repeats the "ah padron, ah padron, ah padron" three times, but each "ah padron" starts on a different degree of the scale, he repeats "Dite di no!" twice, but I still don't think that counts if you consider the whole thing as a single phrase...

and it has such a different feel than most other mozart arias and ensembles... it doesn't seem to me to be a "numbers" piece. it doesn't have that ok we're gonna go through this to get the melody out there... then we can worry bout the drama/repeats/etc.etc.etc later.... it seems to be a lets get down to buziness plot advancing aria....

Why don't people include this as an example of Mozart's contribution to through-composed music?
nowdays as popular as mozart is, practically every wikipedia article on music has a paragraph or two about how he contributed to that (whatever topic it is xyz etc etc etc).


What do you all think? Essentially, is there really something else that I'm missing that Wagner's music has that Don Giovanni a cenar teco m'invitasti e son venuto doesn't?


----------



## howlingfantods (Jul 27, 2015)

no, through-composed means the whole work is composed. Having one section include recitativo obbligato doesn't make the entire work through-composed.


----------



## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

obwan said:


> Did Mozart write any through-composed music?
> 
> Would you consider the finale to Don Giovanni "Don Giovanni a cenar teco m'invitasti e son venuto" to be through-composed? ... it doesn't seem to me to be a "numbers" piece. it doesn't have that ok we're gonna go through this to get the melody out there... then we can worry bout the drama/repeats/etc.etc.etc later....
> 
> ...


No Mozart opera is through-composed, but short sections of some of them are. And yes, when he does it, he does it well, as he does everything he does. I assume he receives credit for that, though he isn't he first composer to do it. Monteverdi did it (before there was a distinct thing called recitative), and Handel and Gluck did it even though they continued to use recitative.

Wagner increasingly obliterated the distinction between recitative and non-recitative, moving flexibly through the whole continuum between speech rhythms and lyrical song. What his mature music has that Mozart's (or any previous composer's) doesn't is a musical development carried as much, if not more, by the orchestra as by the the vocal lines, which often simply trace one more line in the harmonic texture.


----------



## obwan (Oct 24, 2011)

Woodduck said:


> No Mozart opera is through-composed, but short sections of some of them are. And yes, when he does it, he does it well.


I'm familiar with many of his operas (although not necesarily very intimately) but this is the only song that has dawned on me as being through composed.

can you think of any other sections of his operas or other large scale works that are through-composed?


----------



## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

Certainly the finale to Act 1 of figaro was the longest through-composed section of opera up to that point.


----------



## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

obwan said:


> I'm familiar with many of his operas (although not necesarily very intimately) but this is the only song that has dawned on me as being through composed.
> 
> can you think of any other sections of his operas or other large scale works that are through-composed?


I think DavidA is correct about the Act 1 final ensemble in _Figaro._ I'm not familiar enough with all the other operas to say what might be found in them.


----------



## obwan (Oct 24, 2011)

Don't you mean the finale to Act II? The finale to Act 1 is Non piú Andrai isn't it?


----------



## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Yes, it's the Act 2 finale. I believe that sometimes Acts 1 and 2 are performed without intermission.


----------



## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

DavidA said:


> Certainly the finale to Act 1 of figaro was the longest through-composed section of opera up to that point.


That just seems to be in the same idiom as








K.196 (1774)









(first performed in 1775) Act I Finale
"Andron Apanton" [5:42] www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPAN4uK58do
"Piazza … Piazza" [1:16] www.youtube.com/watch?v=erGpIFu6LAQ
"Volle il destino mio" [3:20] www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFiIYjq_O3Q
"Viva, viva" [2:01] www.youtube.com/watch?v=hskeJuhtx4o
"Ferma, imprudent" [2:26] www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YuFB9p0py4
"Io non mi fido più" [1:49] www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-PlETJ_b90


----------



## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

howlingfantods said:


> no, through-composed means the whole work is composed. Having one section include recitativo obbligato doesn't make the entire work through-composed.


Howabout







(1787)










(1793)
All the numbers (including the overture) are connected without breaks, with accompagnatos in between connecting them.




(^this one, btw, kind of reminds me of Mozart K.425/ii, K.504/ii)






The ensemble of the very end resembles that of the very beginning, as if to signify a resolution.










By the way, here's what I wrote about some of its noteworthy harmonic progressions, in the thread <Half step modulations in classical music>:




the measures inside the box: by the shift, [Cb, Ab, Eb]—[B, G#, E], the altered, A flat minor triad, i6 (G sharp minor, enharmonically) leads to V64 of A minor, acting as a transition between the section in A flat and the one in A minor-


----------



## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

hammeredklavier said:


> accompagnatos connecting them


eg. the final ensemble of Act I (take note of the section at 0:23~1:23)




which is preceded by


----------



## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

Somebody likes Erwin und Elmire. Actually, someone is obssessed with it!

N.


----------

