Alla turca

arranged for marimba and piano by Kevin Hathaway and Ian Wright

The last movement of the Piano Sonata in A major, K.331, is a natural for percussion arrangement. When Mozart wrote it, in Paris in 1778, there was a vogue for all things Turkish, including the military music of the janissary bands. Mozart was aware of that, of course, and he must also have come across keyboard instruments with a “janissary stop” which allowed the player to add, say, a cymbal clash as and when required. Given Mozart’s exotically coloured rondo alla turca, as the movement is headed, a harpsichordist or pianist equipped with a janissary stop would have had little difficulty in deciding where to apply it.