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The Creative Hornist

Jeffrey Agrell, Series Editor
Improvising Cadenzas in Mozart
by Leslie Hart

Figure 1. Opening theme, harmony, and bass line to Mozart

L
earning to improvise cadenzas in Mozarts horn concer-
tos helps horn players deepen understanding of this Concerto No. 3.4
repertoire. I grew up playing the published cadenzas in
the performance editions of the concertos and often avoided
concertos K. 447 (No. 3) and K. 495 (No. 4) because I did not
know how to approach a cadenza. I imagine that most students
have a similar experience. Improvisation often invokes fear, but
by learning to improvise, horn players have an ideal opportu-
nity to approach Mozarts concertos creatively, and to internal-
ize this rich musical vocabulary.
Improvisation is analogous to conversation in language.1
Think about the words that you are currently reading. Are you
paying attention to the individual letters in this sentence? Most
likely, you are 1) grouping letters into words and words into
phrases, 2) predicting what is next, and 3) comparing what is
the same and what is different from what you have read be-
fore. These skills, which facilitate speaking, reading, and writ-
ing language with comprehension, are also important to the
process of learning to improvise.2
The following musical examples and Seven Skills from
Developing Musicianship through Improvisation3 are designed
to introduce you to improvising a cadenza for Mozarts Horn Dennis Brains Cadenza
b
Concerto No. 3 in E , K. 447, first movement. All musical ex-
b
amples are written for horn in E . Transpositions in F and sound Dennis Brains cadenza for this movement demonstrates a
files can be found at lesliehart.com. creative approach inspired by the harmony in the opening
phrase of Figure 1. Sing and play through the melody and bass
Mozarts Theme line and familiarize yourself with the reuse of rhythmic,
melodic, and harmonic content of this cadenza.

Sing and play the melody, cello/bass part, and roots to ex- Figure 2. Dennis Brains cadenza5
amine the harmonic, melodic, and rhythmic content of the
opening theme (Figure 1). Notice the reuse of melodic, rhyth-
mic, and harmonic content. This musical material can be the in-
spiration for improvisation. For example, the harmony and the
rhythm patterns in the opening theme provide a context for
learning to improvise. This familiar harmonic and rhythmic
content are common in Western music. The more repertoire you
know that contains familiar harmonic functions in major and
minor tonalities and rhythm patterns in duple and triple me-
ters, the easier it will be to predict, group, and compare within
Mozarts horn concertos.

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The Creative Hornist
Seven Skills
We can utilize the Seven Skills to examine Brains ca-
denza and guide the creation of our own improvisation. Sing
and play through each of these examples and then improvise
your own version of each skill.
Skill 1: Improvise rhythm patterns over the bass line.
Skill 2: Voice leading principles.
Skill 3: Sing and play through Skill 2 over the progression of
Brains cadenza.
Skill 4: Improvise rhythm patterns over the harmonic progres-
sion.
Skill 5: Improvise tonal patterns over the harmonic progression.
Skill 6: Improvise tonal patterns with added rhythm.
68 The Horn Call - May 2010
Skill 7: Improvise passing tones and embellishments.
Guidelines
Modern day and classical musicians have established ca-
denza guidelines. Though not specifically for horn players,
Robert Levins description of cadenzas for the Mozart piano
concertos is relevant to this discussion.
Levins description of normative cadenzas:6
1. Introduction (optional): passage-work of a bar or more that
provides a virtuoso springboard for what follows (missing in
K453).
2. First section, often derived from the primary group. Care
is taken to remove harmonic stability from quoted material.
This is usually done by avoiding the root position tonic triad,
whose presence would immediately destroy the tension on the
initial 6-4 with fermata. Mozart often replaces root position
tonic triads with a 6-4. Compare the quotation in the cadenza
of the first theme of the first movement of K453 with its origi-
nal form.
The first section leads to an arrival either on V7 or on the
tonic 6-4; this is often underscored by a fermata, and an op-
tional bridge of passage-work leads to the second section.
3. Second section, often derived from the secondary group.
Again the stability of root position tonic is usually avoided, and
non-modulating sequences are sometimes made chromatic (or
more chromatic). Compare the second theme from K453 with
its treatment in the cadenza.
Like the first section, the second culminates in a clear ar-
rival, here on the tonic 6-4, elaborated by passage-work and a
fermata. Sometimes the dominant note appears alone (with oc-
tave building), but it is clear that I 6-4, not dominant, is meant.
4. Conclusion: a flourish or running scale that prepares the
trill, which ends the cadenza.
Levins description is based upon the cadenzas that Mozart
wrote for his piano concertos. Comparing the piano concerto
cadenzas with that of Horn Concertos No. 3 and 4, John
Dressler provides a cadenza model for horn players. Dressler
discusses form and balance as a means to understand Mozarts
content when learning to improvise and writes, Mozarts own
cadenzas to his piano concerti serve as excellent examples by
which to study this balance of form as he, himself [Mozart], in-
tended.7 Another set of guidelines for cadenzas was described
by D.G. Trk in the late 18th century. Trks rules for caden-
zas:8
the cadenzashould particularly reinforce the
impression the composition has made in a most lively
way and present the most important parts of the whole
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composition in the form of a brief summary or in an
extremely concise arrangement.
The cadenza, like every extempore embellishment,
must consist not so much of intentionally added diffi-
culties as of such thoughts which are most scrupu-
lously suited to the main character of the composition.
Cadenzas should not be too long, especially in
compositions of a melancholy character.
Modulations into other keys, particularly to those
which are far removed, either do not take place at all
for example, in short cadenzas or they must be used
with much insight and, as it were, only in passing. In
no case should one modulate to a key which the com-
poser himself has not used in the composition. It seems
to me that this rule is founded on the principle of unity,
which, as is well known, must be followed in all works
of the fine arts
Just as unity is required for a well-ordered whole,
so also is variety necessary if the attention of the lis-
tener is to be held. Therefore as much of the unex-
pected and the surprising as can possibly be added
should be used in the cadenza.
No thought should be often repeated in the same
key or in another, no matter how beautiful it may be.
Every dissonance which has been included, even
in single-voiced cadenzas, must be properly resolved.
A cadenza does not have to be crudite, but novelty,
wit, an abundance of ideas and the like are so much
more its indispensable requirements.
The same tempo and metre should not be main-
tained throughout the cadenza; its individual frag-
ments (those parts which are incomplete in
themselves) must be skillfully joined to one another.
For the whole cadenza should be more like a fantasia
which has been fashioned out of an abundance of feel-
ing, rather than a methodically-constructed composition.
From what has been said it follows that a cadenza which
perhaps has been learned by memory with great effort or has
been written out before should be performed as if it were in-
vented on the spur of the moment, consisting of a choice of
ideas indiscriminately thrown together which has just occurred
to the player.
It is interesting to note that in rule no. 6, Trk describes im-
provising music as the expression of a thought. His other
rules demonstrate the importance of predicting, grouping, and
comparing.
Improvisation and Composition
Figure 3 is a cadenza that I have composed for modern
horn. If interested, the process for learning to improvise can
also be applied to natural horn, the instrument available dur-
ing Mozarts time. In addition to improvising your own ca-
The Creative Hornist
denzas, transcribe cadenzas from other horn players. Practice
your skills of grouping, predicting, and comparing by relating
your transcriptions to that of Dennis Brain, as well as Levin and
Trks guidelines. Be patient with yourself, and be encouraged
by the words of 18th-19th century musician Johann Nepomuk
Hummel:
I close by recommending free improvisation in
general and in every respectable form to all those for
whom [music] is not merely a matter of entertainment
and practical ability, but rather principally one of in-
spiration and meaning in their art. This recommenda-
tion, to be sure, has never been so urgent now, because
the number of people whose interest belong to the for-
mer category and not to the latter has never been so
great. Even if a person plays with inspiration, but al-
ways from a written score, he or she will be much less
nourished, broadened, and educated than through the
frequent offering of all of his or her powers in a free
fantasy practiced in full awareness of certain guide-
lines and directions, even if this improvisation is only
moderately successful.9
Figure 3. Cadenza by Leslie Hart
Notes
1
Christopher D. Azzara, Improvisation and Choral Musicianship, in The School Choral Program:
Philosophy, Planning, Organizing, and Teaching, ed. M. Holt and J. Jordan (Chicago: GIA Publications, 2008),
203.
2
Ibid., 204.
3
Christopher D. Azzara and Richard F. Grunow, Developing Musicianship Through Improvisation, Book
I/CDs (Chicago: GIA publications, 2006).
4
W. A. Mozart, Horn Concerto No. 3 in Eb, K. 447, Neue Mozart Ausgabe, Internationale Stiftung
Mozarteum (Packard Humanities Institute), dme.mozarteum.at/DME/nma/start.php?l=2
5
Hans Pizka, Mozart & the Horn, Facsimile collection, (Munich: Schttner, 1980).
6
Robert D. Levin, Instrumental Ornamentation, Improvisation and Cadenzas, in Norton/Grove
Handbooks in Music: Performance Practice: Music after 1600. ed. Howard Mayer Brown and Stanley Sadie
(Norton: New York, 1990), 283.
7
John C. Dressler, On the Cadenzas in Mozarts Horn Concerti, The Horn Call 15, 1 (October 1984):
47-51.
8
D. G. Trk, Clavierschule, in Levin, 280.
9
Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1828/1829), in Improvisation, Christopher D. Azzara, The New Hand-
book of Research on Music Teaching and Learning (Oxford University Press: 2002), 176.
Leslie Hart is a DMA candidate in Performance and Literature
and Music Education at the Eastman School of Music. She is on the
faculties of Nazareth College and Roberts Wesleyan College in
Rochester NY. See lesliehart.com.
The Horn Call - May 2010 69
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