Book Description

This creative project presents a look at the background of Mozart's Concerto for Bassoon and Orchestra in B-flat Major, K. 191, its form and ornamentation. The Concerto was written in 1774 and was believed to have been written for Thaddeus Von Durnitz. It was also written for a bassoon that is entirely different than the ones modern performers have become accustomed to, with less keywork and reeds that were designed entirely differently. The first movement of the work is a standard sonata allegro form, movement two is a condensed da capo aria form with two primary musical themes and the third movement is in a rondo form, which utilizes a repeated "rondo theme" to create cohesion and is broken up by episodes from the soloist. This paper details the different types of ornamentation throughout the piece. Included are performance suggestions on whether trills should be performed as "Upper-note" or "main-note" trills as well suggestions on how to treat the vorschlage markings. Musical context and the denomination of the markings are used to determine how to perform the ornaments.