Rondo Alla Turca by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart played by various top pianists. Learn how to play the piece on various musical instruments, find sheet music, song samples, remixes, and more.
Rondo Alla Turca
The Piano Sonata No. 11 in A major, K. 331 (300i), by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is a piano sonata in three movements.
The last movement, “Alla turca”, is one of Mozart’s best-known piano pieces and is quite often played on its own. Mozart himself titled the rondo “Alla turca” as it imitates the sound of Turkish Janissary bands, the music of which was much in vogue at that time.
The Turkish March theme was first used in Beethoven’s “6 Variations on an Original Theme”, Op. 76, of 1809.
Turkish March: History
“Alla turca” is also popularly known as the “Turkish March”.
Its believed that the Turks and their ferocious horse raiders/warriors “The Akincilar” inspired Mozart to create this wonderful musical piece!
So if you’re a music student, probably looking for the meaning of this themes, as to why its called “Turkish March”, then this is it.
The music imitates the sound of Turkish Janissary bands: steady strong tones with drums and cymbals, trumpets and bells, widely believed to be the oldest variety of military marching band.
It was during the fevered political atmosphere that Mozart gave us the Ottoman-inspired “Alla Turca.” From the Austrians perspective, the ongoing skirmishes (between the Austro-Hungarians and Ottomans) meant the survival of Christianity itself was at stake, pitted time and again against a powerful Muslim enemy.
Rondo Alla Turca: Videos
Watch: Glenn Gould playing the Turkish March
Watch: Lang Lang playing Rondo alla turca
Watch: Rondo Alla Turca on the Piano by Lars Roos (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Rondo alla Turca (from “Piano Sonata No. 11 in A major”)
Watch: Rondo Alla Turca (Turkish March) on the Clavichord by Wim Winters. Excellent playing, nice and more appropriate interpretation of this popular Mozart piece.
Rondo Alla Turca: Sheet Music Links
More Anicent Turkish Music Videos
KeytarHQ editorial team includes musicians who write and review products for pianists, keyboardists, guitarists & other musicians. KeytarHQ is the best online resource for information on keyboards, pianos, synths, keytars, guitars and music gear for musicians of all abilities, ages and interests.
Reading in de series Anatomy of a classic: Mozart Sonata in A Major, K 3312, (ed Maurice Hinson, 1990) there is a strong suggestion indeed evidence that Mozart did not write the melody of strong part of his Alla Turka movement ( i.e. bars 24.25) that has the typical Turkish march rhythm but merely arranged an actual Turkish march played frequently in the period of before 1830 and beyond, by the Janissary marching bands.
The broken octaves in one of the repeats of the theme try to imitate the sound of the brass bands and their kettle drums. Page 4 relates an observation that in 1917 in a remote mountain village near Medeah, the melody was heard, sung by some Arab urchins. It had been left behind and became Algerian folk music when the Turks left in 1830 ( to be replaced by the French. During their time in Algeria the Janissary prestigeous and highly disciplined troops acted as the military police there. they will have taken their normal music units with them.
It was quite common to plagiarise folk music or foreign music into classical music.
There were no copy right laws then.
http://www.classicalmpr.org/story/2013/11/12/mozart-alla-turca