"Ein Musikalischer Spaß" or "A Musical Joke" is not satire, despite what Mozart's critics thought at the time. It is a tribute to Mozart's starling companion, unnamed, but who Mozart would often call Dummkopf, a jester, a blockhead.

00:00 Allegro (sonata form), F major
03:44 Menuetto and trio, F major (trio in B-flat major)
10:27 Adagio cantabile, C major
17:37 Presto (sonata rondo form), F major

Dummkopf, common starling.
Purchased May 27, 1784
Died June 4, 1787

In 1990, psychologists Meredith J. West and Andrew P. King linked the composition with the vocalizations of a common starling, purchased by Mozart in 1784 and recorded in his expenses along with a transcription that bears some similarity to a theme in his Piano Concerto No. 17 in G, K. 453, a work Mozart had completed only a month prior but had not been performed.

There is speculation as to why Mozart purchased the bird but the story I like is that Mozart whistled the song in passing to the bird, was impressed by the accuracy of the bird's performance—and alterations—and took the bird home. He may also have purchased the bird in part to protect his music from falling into the hands of Vienna's unscrupulous copyists. Growing up, Mozart's family kept songbirds including canaries, tomtits, and a robin redbreast so it's no surprise that Mozart wanted a talented companion with unusual, challenging, and frustrating ideas.

Ein Musikalischer Spaß was written in fragments between 1784 and 1787 and completed June 12, 1787, eight days after the death of Dumkopff and a few weeks after the death of Mozart's father (May 28, 1787). In this light, it's hard not to see this piece as an epitaph to both his Father (who pushed Mozart toward commercial compositions) and to his feathered friend.

"The 'illogical piecing together' [of Ein Musikalischer Spaß] is in keeping with the starlings' intertwining of whistled tunes. The 'awkwardness' could be due to the starlings' tendencies to whistle off-key or to fracture musical phrases at unexpected points. The presence of drawn-out, wandering phrases of uncertain structure also is characteristic of starling soliloquies. Finally, the abrupt end, as if the instruments had simply ceased to work, has the signature of starlings written all over it." West & King, "Mozart's Starling" [ Ссылка ]

———
Recorded Saturday, November 10, 1973 at the Edward Johnson Building, University of Toronto.
Performers : Eugene Rittich, horn ; Chamber Players of Toronto (Victor Martin, Clara Schranz, Noriko Martin, Elaine Sargous, Rosalie Zelonka, Patricia Shand, Ted LeCouffe, William Bidell, Donald Wasilenko, Leonard Odynski, Baird Knechtel, Nelson Dempster, Carole Gibson, Peter Madgett/Joel Quarrington, George Brough) ; Victor Martin, director.

Tape no. 731 [ Ссылка ]
Some denoising and EQing. Silent breaks between movements have been turned up as there's a performative aspect to the breaks.

свернуть