 a musical joke (in german: ) k. 522, (divertimento for two horns and string quartet) is a composition by wolfgang amadeus mozart; the composer entered it in his  (catalogue of all my works) on june 14, 1787. commentators have opined that the piece's purpose is satirical â that "[its] harmonic and rhythmic gaffes serve to parody the work of incompetent composers" â though mozart himself is not known to have revealed his actual intentions. ==structure and compositorial elements==  400px|thumb|mozart's exercise in polytonality, from the end of the piece  the piece comprises four movements, using forms shared with many classical divertimenti: # allegro (sonata form) # menuetto and trio # adagio cantabile # presto (sonata rondo form) compositorial comedic devices include: *asymmetrical phrasing, not phrasing by groups of four measures, at the beginning of the first movement; *secondary dominants where subdominant chords are required; *discords in the horns; *whole tone scales in the violin's high register. the piece is notable for the earliest known use of polytonality, creating the gesture of complete collapse at the finale. this may be intended to produce the impression of grossly out-of-tune string playing, since the horns alone conclude in the tonic key. the lower strings behave as if the tonic has become b-flat, while the violins and violas switch to g major, a major and e-flat major, respectively. asymmetrical phrasing, whole-tone scales, and polytonality are foreign to music of the classical era. however, these became common for early 20th-century composers like claude debussy and igor stravinsky, who were searching for a new musical language. in this later context, these were legitimate new techniques in serious music. in mozart's time, however, these non-classical elements gave the piece its comedy, expressing the composer's humor. ==translation== the title a musical joke is a poor rendering of the german original: spaÃ does not strongly connote the jocular, for which the word scherz would normally be used. in fritz spiegl's view, a more accurate translation would be some musical fun. ==other uses== a version by waldo de los rÃ­os of the opening of the finale was used fo
1787_compositions Chamber_music_compositions Humor_in_classical_music Serenades_and_divertimenti_by_Wolfgang_Amadeus_Mozart