Mozart: Adagio from Piano Sonata K332: Transcribed For Cello

Stealing the melody of this magical movement from the piano for the cello is like stealing an Aladdin’s cave full of treasures. It also gives us some insight into how Mozart improved his pieces on revisiting them. In the score of the original piano sonata movement (see below), from bars 21-34, two versions are shown. The upper stave version is from the First Edition whereas the lower stave version is from the autograph manuscript. The differences are fascinating as we can see how Mozart “improved” the melodic line in the First Edition, making it more interesting and elaborate than in the initial autograph manuscript. It is this “improved” melodic line that has been used for this cello transcription.

This movement is presented in its original key. The Easier Version has a few note changes but is principally made easier by having large sections transposed down by an octave. The accompaniment part offered here is the very simple harmonic carpet that Mozart wrote under the melodic line, which is played originally almost entirely by the left hand. No new notes have been added to thicken or enrich the harmonic texture, although this could easily be done. Because of the simplicity of this accompaniment line, it lends itself to being played by the harp, which is the instrument that has been used for the play-along audio accompaniment that is offered below.

In spite of the fact that Mozart notates many of the ornaments (turns) with written-out grace notes, we are still left with several options for their rhythmical interpretation:

Our decision as to which option to use is a question of both personal taste and the speed at which we play the movement. In the cellofun Easier Version the slower, triplet turn (option A) is always used but in the Performance Versions (Edited and Clean) we use the faster turn (option B) for all the major key appearances and the triplet (slower) turn for the minor keys.

1.    Edited Version
2.    Clean Version
3.    Easier Version

1. Accompaniment (Piano/Harp/Guitar) Score
2.       Original Piano Sonata Movement

And here is a simple audio play-along accompaniment, “played” on the harp. A two-beat (eight sixteenth notes) introduction has been added so that we can know when to start: