Invertible Counterpoint in the Finale of Mozart's D Major String Quintet, K. 593

This video guides the listener through one of Mozart's great fugal finales: the "Allegro" 4th movement from the String Quintet in D, K. 593. In the finales of both the Jupiter Symphony and the K 593 Quintet, Mozart consciously flaunts his contrapuntal prowess. The Jupiter Symphony's finale strikes the listener as an extremely academic, meticulously worked out movement, in which the learned sections truly achieve an elevated level of expression. In contrast, the "learned" sections of the quintet's finale, and especially the final climax, strike the listener as jocular in character. It seems more the result of his own capricious musical personality than of a desire to create something elevated in style. In fact, he is almost parading his ability to do effortlessly what other composers find enormously difficult. Mozart's choice to conclude the movement with a passage containing 5-part invertible counterpoint almost suggests he is lampooning his own greatest symphonic masterpiece (composed just two years previously). The difference in tone between these two extraordinary finales shows the dual nature of his personality -- he was a master of serious composition when it suited him, but was also a prankster.

-Richard Atkinson

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