Mozart Violin Sonata K377 in F: Transcribed for Cello
FIRST MOVEMENT
Surprisingly for a piece in 4/4 time, this movement is characterised above all by its energetic abundance of racing triplets, which come with all manner of different bowings (spiccato, legato and mixed). We can almost imagine Mozart’s smile as he literally plays around with these different articulations: compare for example bars 39, 114 and 117. In this whirlwind of activity the cello has no more more than two occasional bars of rest and there are absolutely no fermatas. The only note changes for the cello transcription of this movement are the revoicing of the cadential chords in bars 36, 51, 97-98 and 125. Mozart, unusually, left no dynamic markings.
Normally in the cello transcriptions of the Mozart Violin Sonatas, there are many high-register passages which need to be to be transposed down an additional octave for the “Easier Version”. Here this is not the case: only 13 of the first movement’s 125 bars use the Intermediate or Thumb regions. Most of the difficulties of this movement come in fact from the coordination challenges associated with the fast triplets, especially in those passages in which slurred and spiccato bowings are mixed. This makes this movement not only great music, but is also a good study for fast fiddly/tricky playing!
Here below are two play-along accompaniment audio tracks, with many thanks to the Violin Playalong YouTube channel. The first is at a reasonably slow tempo while the second is quite fast. Both audios have a the same three-bar introduction added so that we can know when to start playing:
SECOND MOVEMENT
In contrast to these racing triplets, the slow movement is an extensive series of variations: powerful, lyrical, expressive and mostly in the relative minor key. Apart from in the Siciliana variation, only three dynamic indications are given for all the rest of this movement. The only note changes involve the revoicing of a doublestop in bar four of both Variation II and the Siciliana.
Here below is a play-along accompaniment audio file, with many thanks to the Violin Playalong YouTube channel. There are no repeats in this audio.
LAST MOVEMENT
And to calm us all down after the excitement and intensity of the previous two movements, the last movement is a short and graceful minuet that sounds simple but lies in a quite high register much of the time.
In his Violin Sonatas, Mozart often changes the violin’s octave (register) with the same ease as if he were writing for piano. On the piano, playing the same music in different octaves doesn’t change the difficulty level at all. On a string instrument however, once we get above the Neck Region, the difficulty level goes up exponentially and in this movement, the register is high. As occurs in some other high-register passages of his violin sonatas (Trio K304), the piano doubles the string melody much of the time. It appears that Mozart didn’t trust the violinist’s intonation on the E string …..
If we play this movement with our standard one-octave transposition down from the original violin part, more than 2/3 of the cello’s interventions are in the Intermediate or Thumb Regions. This register is uncomfortably high for what should be a very simple, charming, relaxing movement and converts it into something much more difficult. It is for this reason that the cello part of the entire “Menuet” part (till bar 76 and then again from bar 117-160) is transposed down two octaves from the original violin part, even in our “Concert” Versions. The “Easier Version” of this movement is thus very similar to the “Concert Version”.
Here below are two play-along accompaniment audio tracks, with many thanks to the Violin Playalong YouTube channel. The first is at a reasonably slow tempo while the second is a little faster. There are no repeats in this audio.
Here are the engraving files (XML format) for all the cello parts of this Sonata: