Models for Mozart’s Transitions: A Transatlantic Exchange

Abstract

This research note comprises two interlinked texts. The first is a short essay that, developing ideas from Ulrich Kaiser’s (2009) article on Mozart’s transitions, isolates and theorizes a particular transition pattern (the “Prinner transition”) and then illustrates with a series of analyses. The second is a response from Kaiser clarifying the difference between Gjerdingen’s Prinner and his own 4^−1^ (fa–ut) model. The immediate theoretical issues in play involve the relationship between schema theory, formal functions, and voice-leading reduction as well as differences between Anglo-American and Germanic understandings of schemata and models.