Uri B. Rom is an Israeli musicologist, composer and conductor. He studied conducting and music theory in Tel Aviv and Berlin. In 2011 he earned his PhD at the Humanities Faculty of Berlin’s Technical University summa cum laude, writing on the compositional significance of key choice in Mozart’s works. His compositions in original and historical styles and completion of fragments by Mozart have been published, and his oboe concerto in the style of the Venetian Baroque was recorded by the Berlin Academy for Ancient Music for harmonia mundi france (this CD was shortlisted for the Gramophone Award 2015). His musical adaptation of Dante's La vita nova was commissioned by the Renaissance Theatre Berlin and premiered in Leverkusen and Berlin in 2010. His research interests encompass Formenlehre and corpus studies on musical form; the relation between structure and expression in Mozart’s music, as well as advanced chromatic harmony and enharmonicism. Between 1998 and 2009 he taught orchestral conducting at the Berlin University of the Arts. Since October 2011 he is Assistant Professor for Music Theory at the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music, Tel Aviv University. In 2017, Uri Rom received a three-year research grant from the Israeli Science Foundation to explore structural implications of key choice in tonal music and key-related compositional profiles. Address: Buchmann-Mehta School of Music, Tel Aviv University P.O. Box 39040, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel https://en-arts.tau.ac.il/profile/urom
Theories of tonal music take for granted that all keys of the same mode (i.e., all major and all ... more Theories of tonal music take for granted that all keys of the same mode (i.e., all major and all minor keys) are employed by composers in essentially the same way; however, newer analytical and cognitive research challenges this view by pointing to aspects of transpositional nonequivalence among the keys. The present study offers possibly the first systematic, data-driven investigation of correlations between the choice of absolute key and structure across a composer's body of works. By performing an extensive corpus-based analysis of music by Wolfgang Amadé Mozart (1756–91), we derive 55 prototypes, subsuming phenomena from three independent domains: dynamic-rhetoric gestures that launch orchestral works, digressions to the parallel minor in sonata-allegro movements, and the occurrences of a particular six-note motive across Mozart's complete oeuvre. Ten prototypes display a significant association with a specific key after correction for multiple comparisons, amounting to ...
The question of adding embellishments in music performance is generally regarded from a primarily... more The question of adding embellishments in music performance is generally regarded from a primarily practical perspective. In this article I make a case for embellishments as an object of music-theoretical inquiry in their own right. While exploring this question mainly in conjunction with Mozart's music for solo piano, I address the more fundamental question of what makes a given moment in the music suitable for added ornamentation. Tolerance to embellishment is defined as a quality of the melodic surface tantamount to the flexibility and exchangeability of melodic formulations with variants. Thus defined, only some of the embellishments notated by composers are indicative of a flexible melodic surface (optional embellishments), whereas others are shown to be irreducible owing to their participation in substantive thematic processes (obligatory embellishments). My investigation focuses on embellishments introduced in sonataform recapitulations and other types of recapitulatory re...
A follow-up: After posting this note I became aware of the RISM-data made public by the Internati... more A follow-up: After posting this note I became aware of the RISM-data made public by the Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum. Based on these data it appears highly unlikely that the source of the manuscript is Nannerl’s music book, as I speculated in my note. Whereas the leaf's horizontal measurement, 29 cm., is only slightly below the approximation given for the music book, 29.5-29.6 cm., there is a substantial difference between the vertical measurements: c. 21 cm. for Nannerl’s music book, and 16.8 cm. for K. 626b/16. Of course, the newly re-emerged leaf may have been originally larger, but there are striking differences in the stave-ruling as well. The eight staves pro page in K. 626b/16 are more tightly squeezed together than in the music book. As can be seen in the facsimile edition made public by the Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum, the staves on the newly re-emerged leaf are both closer to one another and shorter in comparison with an average page from the Nannerl Notenbuch. Further, the top margin of the leaf on which Mozart notated K. 626b/16 doesn’t appear to have been much wider originally. Had he had more space above the uppermost stave, Mozart may have placed the indication “allegro” there, instead of between the staves as he did. This leaves us with a standalone leaf of an apparently unusual size, on which Mozart seems to have drawn the staves using a Lineal prior to jotting down the music. As the watermark is—according to the RISM-data—unidentifiable, a study of the paper will possibly yield no further insights in this case. What remains is the apparently contradictory evidence derived from the handwriting on the one hand, and the piece’s style on the other. While Mozart’s handwriting suggests—according to the information published by the Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum—1773, the style analysis forwarded in my note seems to point to a much earlier composition date. February, 6th, 2021 ABSTRACT The short undated Allegro in D, which recently resurfaced somewhere in Europe and was purchased by the Mozarteum International Foundation and presented to the audience for the first time on Mozart's 265th anniversary, raises a host of speculations. While identified beyond reasonable doubt as a Mozart original, nothing is known about the context of this concise galant composition. Against the view presented in connection with the premiere performance by Dr. Ulrich Leisinger, I consider the rather late dating offered (1773) unlikely from a style-analytical perspective. In this short contribution I analyze the piece and speculate on a possible connection to Nannerl’s “Notenbuch,” the music book owned by Mozart’s sister in which the young Mozart’s very first compositions were recorded.
This report documents a dataset consisting of expert annotations (symbolic data) of interthematic... more This report documents a dataset consisting of expert annotations (symbolic data) of interthematic (higher-level) cadences in the exposition sections of all of Mozart's instrumental sonata-allegro movements.
The question of adding embellishments in music performance is generally regarded from a primarily... more The question of adding embellishments in music performance is generally regarded from a primarily practical perspective. In this article I make a case for embellishments as an object of music-theoretical inquiry in their own right. While exploring this question mainly in conjunction with Mozart’s music for solo piano, I address the more fundamental question of what makes a given moment in the music suitable for added ornamentation. Tolerance to embellishment is defined as a quality of the melodic surface tantamount to the flexibility and exchangeability of melodic formulations with variants. Thus defined, only some of the embellishments notated by composers are indicative of a flexible melodic surface (optional embellishments), whereas others are shown to be irreducible owing to their participation in substantive thematic processes (obligatory embellishments). My investigation focuses on embellishments introduced in sonata-form recapitulations and other types of recapitulatory restatements (e.g., the return of the refrain in the rondo form). A movement’s form and tempo are shown to affect its amenability to added ornamentation. At a local level, I draw on aspects of music perception and musical memory to account for a correlation between a passage’s temporal position in the movement and its suitability for added embellishments. I conclude by pointing to a Mozart-specific category of unembellishable motives, demonstrably intended by the composer to be performed with no decoration. Engaging in a dialogue with Robert Levin’s recorded embellished version of the slow movement of Mozart’s Piano Concerto in A major, K. 488, this primarily theoretical discussion also leads to some tentative practical implications for performance.
In this paper I address questions of continuity and process building in
Mozart’s string quintet K... more In this paper I address questions of continuity and process building in Mozart’s string quintet K.516. I attempt to show that this work, probably more than any other Mozart composition, exemplifies the concept of an overall structure, crossing the borders between the individual movements. I further argue that, allowing for a metaphorical interpretation, the G minor String Quintet may be viewed as a representation of grief process as described in modern psychology.
A Note on Mozart’s Newly Rediscovered Allegro in D , K. 626b/16, 2021
A follow-up:
After posting this note I became aware of the RISM-data made public by the Internati... more A follow-up: After posting this note I became aware of the RISM-data made public by the Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum. Based on these data it appears highly unlikely that the source of the manuscript is Nannerl’s music book, as I speculated in my note. Whereas the leaf's horizontal measurement, 29 cm., is only slightly below the approximation given for the music book, 29.5-29.6 cm., there is a substantial difference between the vertical measurements: c. 21 cm. for Nannerl’s music book, and 16.8 cm. for K. 626b/16. Of course, the newly re-emerged leaf may have been originally larger, but there are striking differences in the stave-ruling as well. The eight staves pro page in K. 626b/16 are more tightly squeezed together than in the music book. As can be seen in the facsimile edition made public by the Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum, the staves on the newly re-emerged leaf are both closer to one another and shorter in comparison with an average page from the Nannerl Notenbuch. Further, the top margin of the leaf on which Mozart notated K. 626b/16 doesn’t appear to have been much wider originally. Had he had more space above the uppermost stave, Mozart may have placed the indication “allegro” there, instead of between the staves as he did. This leaves us with a standalone leaf of an apparently unusual size, on which Mozart seems to have drawn the staves using a Lineal prior to jotting down the music. As the watermark is—according to the RISM-data—unidentifiable, a study of the paper will possibly yield no further insights in this case. What remains is the apparently contradictory evidence derived from the handwriting on the one hand, and the piece’s style on the other. While Mozart’s handwriting suggests—according to the information published by the Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum—1773, the style analysis forwarded in my note seems to point to a much earlier composition date. February, 6th, 2021
ABSTRACT The short undated Allegro in D, which recently resurfaced somewhere in Europe and was purchased by the Mozarteum International Foundation and presented to the audience for the first time on Mozart's 265th anniversary, raises a host of speculations. While identified beyond reasonable doubt as a Mozart original, nothing is known about the context of this concise galant composition. Against the view presented in connection with the premiere performance by Dr. Ulrich Leisinger, I consider the rather late dating offered (1773) unlikely from a style-analytical perspective. In this short contribution I analyze the piece and speculate on a possible connection to Nannerl’s “Notenbuch,” the music book owned by Mozart’s sister in which the young Mozart’s very first compositions were recorded.
Theories of tonal music take for granted that all keys of the same mode (i.e., all major and all ... more Theories of tonal music take for granted that all keys of the same mode (i.e., all major and all minor keys) are employed by composers in essentially the same way; however, newer analytical and cognitive research challenges this view by pointing to aspects of transpositional nonequivalence among the keys. The present study offers possibly the first systematic, data-driven investigation of correlations between the choice of absolute key and structure across a composer's body of works. By performing an extensive corpus-based analysis of music by Wolfgang Amadé Mozart (1756–91), we derive 55 prototypes, subsuming phenomena from three independent domains: dynamic-rhetoric gestures that launch orchestral works, digressions to the parallel minor in sonata-allegro movements, and the occurrences of a particular six-note motive across Mozart's complete oeuvre. Ten prototypes display a significant association with a specific key after correction for multiple comparisons, amounting to ...
The question of adding embellishments in music performance is generally regarded from a primarily... more The question of adding embellishments in music performance is generally regarded from a primarily practical perspective. In this article I make a case for embellishments as an object of music-theoretical inquiry in their own right. While exploring this question mainly in conjunction with Mozart's music for solo piano, I address the more fundamental question of what makes a given moment in the music suitable for added ornamentation. Tolerance to embellishment is defined as a quality of the melodic surface tantamount to the flexibility and exchangeability of melodic formulations with variants. Thus defined, only some of the embellishments notated by composers are indicative of a flexible melodic surface (optional embellishments), whereas others are shown to be irreducible owing to their participation in substantive thematic processes (obligatory embellishments). My investigation focuses on embellishments introduced in sonataform recapitulations and other types of recapitulatory re...
A follow-up: After posting this note I became aware of the RISM-data made public by the Internati... more A follow-up: After posting this note I became aware of the RISM-data made public by the Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum. Based on these data it appears highly unlikely that the source of the manuscript is Nannerl’s music book, as I speculated in my note. Whereas the leaf's horizontal measurement, 29 cm., is only slightly below the approximation given for the music book, 29.5-29.6 cm., there is a substantial difference between the vertical measurements: c. 21 cm. for Nannerl’s music book, and 16.8 cm. for K. 626b/16. Of course, the newly re-emerged leaf may have been originally larger, but there are striking differences in the stave-ruling as well. The eight staves pro page in K. 626b/16 are more tightly squeezed together than in the music book. As can be seen in the facsimile edition made public by the Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum, the staves on the newly re-emerged leaf are both closer to one another and shorter in comparison with an average page from the Nannerl Notenbuch. Further, the top margin of the leaf on which Mozart notated K. 626b/16 doesn’t appear to have been much wider originally. Had he had more space above the uppermost stave, Mozart may have placed the indication “allegro” there, instead of between the staves as he did. This leaves us with a standalone leaf of an apparently unusual size, on which Mozart seems to have drawn the staves using a Lineal prior to jotting down the music. As the watermark is—according to the RISM-data—unidentifiable, a study of the paper will possibly yield no further insights in this case. What remains is the apparently contradictory evidence derived from the handwriting on the one hand, and the piece’s style on the other. While Mozart’s handwriting suggests—according to the information published by the Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum—1773, the style analysis forwarded in my note seems to point to a much earlier composition date. February, 6th, 2021 ABSTRACT The short undated Allegro in D, which recently resurfaced somewhere in Europe and was purchased by the Mozarteum International Foundation and presented to the audience for the first time on Mozart's 265th anniversary, raises a host of speculations. While identified beyond reasonable doubt as a Mozart original, nothing is known about the context of this concise galant composition. Against the view presented in connection with the premiere performance by Dr. Ulrich Leisinger, I consider the rather late dating offered (1773) unlikely from a style-analytical perspective. In this short contribution I analyze the piece and speculate on a possible connection to Nannerl’s “Notenbuch,” the music book owned by Mozart’s sister in which the young Mozart’s very first compositions were recorded.
This report documents a dataset consisting of expert annotations (symbolic data) of interthematic... more This report documents a dataset consisting of expert annotations (symbolic data) of interthematic (higher-level) cadences in the exposition sections of all of Mozart's instrumental sonata-allegro movements.
The question of adding embellishments in music performance is generally regarded from a primarily... more The question of adding embellishments in music performance is generally regarded from a primarily practical perspective. In this article I make a case for embellishments as an object of music-theoretical inquiry in their own right. While exploring this question mainly in conjunction with Mozart’s music for solo piano, I address the more fundamental question of what makes a given moment in the music suitable for added ornamentation. Tolerance to embellishment is defined as a quality of the melodic surface tantamount to the flexibility and exchangeability of melodic formulations with variants. Thus defined, only some of the embellishments notated by composers are indicative of a flexible melodic surface (optional embellishments), whereas others are shown to be irreducible owing to their participation in substantive thematic processes (obligatory embellishments). My investigation focuses on embellishments introduced in sonata-form recapitulations and other types of recapitulatory restatements (e.g., the return of the refrain in the rondo form). A movement’s form and tempo are shown to affect its amenability to added ornamentation. At a local level, I draw on aspects of music perception and musical memory to account for a correlation between a passage’s temporal position in the movement and its suitability for added embellishments. I conclude by pointing to a Mozart-specific category of unembellishable motives, demonstrably intended by the composer to be performed with no decoration. Engaging in a dialogue with Robert Levin’s recorded embellished version of the slow movement of Mozart’s Piano Concerto in A major, K. 488, this primarily theoretical discussion also leads to some tentative practical implications for performance.
In this paper I address questions of continuity and process building in
Mozart’s string quintet K... more In this paper I address questions of continuity and process building in Mozart’s string quintet K.516. I attempt to show that this work, probably more than any other Mozart composition, exemplifies the concept of an overall structure, crossing the borders between the individual movements. I further argue that, allowing for a metaphorical interpretation, the G minor String Quintet may be viewed as a representation of grief process as described in modern psychology.
A Note on Mozart’s Newly Rediscovered Allegro in D , K. 626b/16, 2021
A follow-up:
After posting this note I became aware of the RISM-data made public by the Internati... more A follow-up: After posting this note I became aware of the RISM-data made public by the Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum. Based on these data it appears highly unlikely that the source of the manuscript is Nannerl’s music book, as I speculated in my note. Whereas the leaf's horizontal measurement, 29 cm., is only slightly below the approximation given for the music book, 29.5-29.6 cm., there is a substantial difference between the vertical measurements: c. 21 cm. for Nannerl’s music book, and 16.8 cm. for K. 626b/16. Of course, the newly re-emerged leaf may have been originally larger, but there are striking differences in the stave-ruling as well. The eight staves pro page in K. 626b/16 are more tightly squeezed together than in the music book. As can be seen in the facsimile edition made public by the Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum, the staves on the newly re-emerged leaf are both closer to one another and shorter in comparison with an average page from the Nannerl Notenbuch. Further, the top margin of the leaf on which Mozart notated K. 626b/16 doesn’t appear to have been much wider originally. Had he had more space above the uppermost stave, Mozart may have placed the indication “allegro” there, instead of between the staves as he did. This leaves us with a standalone leaf of an apparently unusual size, on which Mozart seems to have drawn the staves using a Lineal prior to jotting down the music. As the watermark is—according to the RISM-data—unidentifiable, a study of the paper will possibly yield no further insights in this case. What remains is the apparently contradictory evidence derived from the handwriting on the one hand, and the piece’s style on the other. While Mozart’s handwriting suggests—according to the information published by the Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum—1773, the style analysis forwarded in my note seems to point to a much earlier composition date. February, 6th, 2021
ABSTRACT The short undated Allegro in D, which recently resurfaced somewhere in Europe and was purchased by the Mozarteum International Foundation and presented to the audience for the first time on Mozart's 265th anniversary, raises a host of speculations. While identified beyond reasonable doubt as a Mozart original, nothing is known about the context of this concise galant composition. Against the view presented in connection with the premiere performance by Dr. Ulrich Leisinger, I consider the rather late dating offered (1773) unlikely from a style-analytical perspective. In this short contribution I analyze the piece and speculate on a possible connection to Nannerl’s “Notenbuch,” the music book owned by Mozart’s sister in which the young Mozart’s very first compositions were recorded.
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Papers by Uri Rom
Mozart’s string quintet K.516. I attempt to show that this work, probably more than any other Mozart composition, exemplifies the concept of an overall structure, crossing the borders between the individual movements. I further argue that, allowing for a metaphorical interpretation, the G minor String Quintet may be viewed as a representation of grief process as described in modern psychology.
Drafts by Uri Rom
After posting this note I became aware of the RISM-data made public by the Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum. Based on these data it appears highly unlikely that the source of the manuscript is Nannerl’s music book, as I speculated in my note. Whereas the leaf's horizontal measurement, 29 cm., is only slightly below the approximation given for the music book, 29.5-29.6 cm., there is a substantial difference between the vertical measurements: c. 21 cm. for Nannerl’s music book, and 16.8 cm. for K. 626b/16. Of course, the newly re-emerged leaf may have been originally larger, but there are striking differences in the stave-ruling as well. The eight staves pro page in K. 626b/16 are more tightly squeezed together than in the music book. As can be seen in the facsimile edition made public by the Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum, the staves on the newly re-emerged leaf are both closer to one another and shorter in comparison with an average page from the Nannerl Notenbuch. Further, the top margin of the leaf on which Mozart notated K. 626b/16 doesn’t appear to have been much wider originally. Had he had more space above the uppermost stave, Mozart may have placed the indication “allegro” there, instead of between the staves as he did. This leaves us with a standalone leaf of an apparently unusual size, on which Mozart seems to have drawn the staves using a Lineal prior to jotting down the music. As the watermark is—according to the RISM-data—unidentifiable, a study of the paper will possibly yield no further insights in this case. What remains is the apparently contradictory evidence derived from the handwriting on the one hand, and the piece’s style on the other. While Mozart’s handwriting suggests—according to the information published by the Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum—1773, the style analysis forwarded in my note seems to point to a much earlier composition date.
February, 6th, 2021
ABSTRACT
The short undated Allegro in D, which recently resurfaced somewhere in Europe and was purchased by the Mozarteum International Foundation and presented to the audience for the first time on Mozart's 265th anniversary, raises a host of speculations. While identified beyond reasonable doubt as a Mozart original, nothing is known about the context of this concise galant composition. Against the view presented in connection with the premiere performance by Dr. Ulrich Leisinger, I consider the rather late dating offered (1773) unlikely from a style-analytical perspective. In this short contribution I analyze the piece and speculate on a possible connection to Nannerl’s “Notenbuch,” the music book owned by Mozart’s sister in which the young Mozart’s very first compositions were recorded.
Mozart’s string quintet K.516. I attempt to show that this work, probably more than any other Mozart composition, exemplifies the concept of an overall structure, crossing the borders between the individual movements. I further argue that, allowing for a metaphorical interpretation, the G minor String Quintet may be viewed as a representation of grief process as described in modern psychology.
After posting this note I became aware of the RISM-data made public by the Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum. Based on these data it appears highly unlikely that the source of the manuscript is Nannerl’s music book, as I speculated in my note. Whereas the leaf's horizontal measurement, 29 cm., is only slightly below the approximation given for the music book, 29.5-29.6 cm., there is a substantial difference between the vertical measurements: c. 21 cm. for Nannerl’s music book, and 16.8 cm. for K. 626b/16. Of course, the newly re-emerged leaf may have been originally larger, but there are striking differences in the stave-ruling as well. The eight staves pro page in K. 626b/16 are more tightly squeezed together than in the music book. As can be seen in the facsimile edition made public by the Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum, the staves on the newly re-emerged leaf are both closer to one another and shorter in comparison with an average page from the Nannerl Notenbuch. Further, the top margin of the leaf on which Mozart notated K. 626b/16 doesn’t appear to have been much wider originally. Had he had more space above the uppermost stave, Mozart may have placed the indication “allegro” there, instead of between the staves as he did. This leaves us with a standalone leaf of an apparently unusual size, on which Mozart seems to have drawn the staves using a Lineal prior to jotting down the music. As the watermark is—according to the RISM-data—unidentifiable, a study of the paper will possibly yield no further insights in this case. What remains is the apparently contradictory evidence derived from the handwriting on the one hand, and the piece’s style on the other. While Mozart’s handwriting suggests—according to the information published by the Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum—1773, the style analysis forwarded in my note seems to point to a much earlier composition date.
February, 6th, 2021
ABSTRACT
The short undated Allegro in D, which recently resurfaced somewhere in Europe and was purchased by the Mozarteum International Foundation and presented to the audience for the first time on Mozart's 265th anniversary, raises a host of speculations. While identified beyond reasonable doubt as a Mozart original, nothing is known about the context of this concise galant composition. Against the view presented in connection with the premiere performance by Dr. Ulrich Leisinger, I consider the rather late dating offered (1773) unlikely from a style-analytical perspective. In this short contribution I analyze the piece and speculate on a possible connection to Nannerl’s “Notenbuch,” the music book owned by Mozart’s sister in which the young Mozart’s very first compositions were recorded.