About this work
A C minor chord, a dotted rhythm, then another step: the Funeral March, K. 453a, establishes its character in a few notes. Mozart entered this short piece in his pupil Barbara Ployer’s notebook in 1784. Beneath the title comes “del Signor Maestro Contrapunto”, a phrase that may have a playful tone; exactly whom it refers to remains uncertain.
The right hand soon moves beyond block chords. Eighth-note lines separate, answer one another and meet again, while bass octaves mark the march’s pulse. The score has sixteen bars in two repeated sections. Register changes and dynamic contrasts give the second section more movement.
Start with the bass octaves and keep their pulse steady. Add the dotted rhythm without shortening the longer note or putting extra weight on every chord. Where the right hand divides into several lines, choose fingering that lets one voice sustain while another moves. Listen to the rests too: they interrupt the march and shape its phrases.
What the document containsScore: One page for piano. The MIDI plays through once, without the repeats marked in the score.Maurizio Tomasi’s LilyPond engraving is distributed as public domain by the Mutopia Project. Its stated source is a reproduction of Mozart’s autograph. The Mutopia PDF retains the credits; the download also links to LesPartitions.info.