Serenade KV 361 by Wolfgang Amadé Mozart

Programme notes

This massive transcreation of Mozart's ultimate masterpiece for wind instruments was premiered during a truly out of the ordinary concert in which Mozart's seven movements alternated with the reading of extracts from his letters and works by Edgar Varèse. The concert entitled Mozart-Varèse had the Philharmonic Winds conducted by its then Music Director, Robert Casteels.

Casteels wrote the following in the [prpogramme booklet under the title Why another (sacrilegious) arrangement in 2002?

That The Philharmonic Winds performs a wind serenade in another instrumentation, albeit also for

wind instruments, may puzzle many listeners. That a 21st century composer dares to disfigure one

of Mozart’s masterpieces may sound sacrilegious. In Singapore, Mozart’s music is usually “executed” in exams, saccharine pop arrangements or tacky ring tones. Moreover, the difficulty of finding basset horns and the paucity of performers with authentic instruments means that the Gran Partita is seldom heard in Singapore. Mozart’s wind output and the whole of Varèse’s music are conspicuous by their absence in the repertoire of the local wind scene. My modest ambition is to make this music accessible and relevant to players and audiences hic et nunc.

Rather than arranging, I “transcreated” K. 361 for an ensemble of flutes (four flutes, alto flute

and bass flute), clarinets (nine individual parts in addition to alto, bass and contrabass parts),

closed-timbre brass (four trumpets and four trombones) and open brass (three French horns, and

euphoniums and tubas, a pair of each). By means of subtle variations in instrumentation, I avoided

the romantic doublings and swellings in an attempt to re-create the characteristic phrasing of

Mozart's time. Ornaments, which may have been obvious 200 years ago, were all written out. All

original key signatures remain unchanged. Careful consideration has gone into whether to repeat

sections. In this age of speed, repeat sections are entrusted to different instruments.

Extensive programme notes

see Mozart - Varèse a special project (2002) under Articles. This booklet contains comparative biographies of Mozart and Varèse, a short essay on Mozart's letters, on Wolfgang Amadé the enigma, on Harmoniemusik in the 18th c., on the Serenade in B flat Major K. 361 (370a), on the transcreation of the Gran Partita and Varèse’s works that were then performed.

Completion of the transcreation 

30-X-2001