Pieces › Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

String Quartet No. 21 in D major, K. 575

4 movements

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart · 1789–90 · D major · 614 bars · 423 chords analysed

One of the three “Prussian” quartets written for King Friedrich Wilhelm II, a keen cellist — which is why the cello gets so many tunes.

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: D major, A major, E major, F♯ major, G major, F major, A minor, E minor.