Pieces › Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

String Quartet No. 17 in B-flat major, K. 458 (Op. 10, No. 3) “Hunt”

4 movements

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart · 1784 · B♭ major · 734 bars · 417 chords analysed

The opening theme bounces like a hunting-horn call.

Mozart's 23 quartets include the six he dedicated to Haydn in 1785 — the fruit, he wrote, of “long and laborious effort” — and the three “Prussian” quartets written for a cello-playing king.

Keys visited: B♭ major, F major, F minor, C minor, G minor.