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Turkish March (Rondo alla Turca, opening)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, c. 1783. Excerpt, written out for reading practice.
- Music
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
- Date
- c. 1783
- Key
- A minor
- Time
- 2/4
- Clef
- Treble
- Level
- Intermediate
- Length
- Excerpt
About the music
The “Rondo alla Turca” is the last movement of Mozart’s Piano Sonata No. 11 in A major, K. 331, written in the early 1780s. Viennese audiences loved the sound of Turkish military bands, and Mozart imitates their jangling percussion in the left hand.
This is the right hand’s famous opening in A minor. It climbs quickly from the middle of the staff to C6, two ledger lines above it, so it is a real test of reading high notes at speed.
Reading tips
- Each group of four sixteenths circles around a note: B, A, G♯, A circles A.
- The circling figure rises each time: around A, then C, then E. Read the starting note of each group.
- C6 is two ledger lines above the staff. See the ledger lines lesson.
How to practice it
Read the piece through once without playing, naming the starting note and looking for patterns and repeats. Then press Play and follow the notes as they light up. When you are ready, choose Practice this piece: it opens in the practice tool, where you can slow it down, play along on the on-screen piano, a MIDI keyboard or your voice, and have every note checked.
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