Continuous Exposition in Mozart's Slow Chamber-Music Movements

Abstract

The literature on continuous exposition is characterised by two features: (1) concentration on the music of Haydn and (2) the examination of fast movements. This essay deviates from these starting points by examining Mozart's slow movements. The aim is to give close readings of a small number of works taken from a limited corpus rather than to provide an overview of Mozart's slow continuous expositions. The works concerned are the slow movements of three- and four-movement chamber-music works composed after 1775. Of the 42 slow movements in this corpus there are three with a continuous exposition: Larghetto from the Quintet for Piano and Winds, K. 452 (1784), Larghetto from the Quintet for Clarinet and Strings, K. 581 (1789), and Adagio from the String Quintet, K. 593 (1790). These expositions are analysed, and each of them is paired with another exposition from Mozart's slow chamber-music works that features elements leading in K. 452, K. 581 and K. 593 to continuous organisation. The similarities notwithstanding, these expositions are interpreted as two-part.