Music and Letters Advance Access originally published online on May 8, 2007
Music and Letters 2007 88(2):201-225; doi:10.1093/ml/gcl150
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© The Author (2007). Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.
Replacing Haydn: Mozart's ‘Pleyel’ Quartets
Correspondence: *University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Email: mebonds{at}email.unc.edu.
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Abstract |
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In a letter to his father dated 24 April 1784, Mozart lavished extravagant praise on Ignaz Pleyel's string quartets Op. 1 (1783), and he urged Leopold to go out of his way to secure a copy: ‘You will at once recognize in them his master. Fine—and it will be fortunate for music if Pleyel in his time is capable of replacing Haydn for us!’ Pleyel had studied with Haydn in the 1770s and openly modelled several movements in Op. 1 on movements from Haydn's Op. 20 quartets. Mozart was himself about halfway finished with writing his own ‘Haydn’ Quartets in April 1784, and he appears to have recognized in Pleyel a rival of sorts. Mozart's engagement with Haydn's music in the ‘Haydn’ Quartets is well known; what has not been recognized to date is his simultaneous response to at least two of Pleyel's Op. 1 quartets, in the first and third movements of K. 464 and in the opening movement of K. 465. Mozart's commentary on Pleyel's Op. 1—both verbal and musical—has much to tell us about the unusual nature of the ‘Haydn’ Quartets as a whole, the set's celebrated letter of dedication, and Mozart's perception of his own place in the history of music.