Reimagining the Cadenza: Bluegrass and Mozart

Author

• Linna Zheng, University of MississippiFollow

Date of Award

5-2026

Document Type

Undergraduate Thesis

Department

Music

First Advisor

Michael Gardiner

Second Advisor

Armee Hong

Third Advisor

Nancy Maria Balach

Relational Format

Dissertation/Thesis

Abstract

The bluegrass-inspired cadenza for the first movement of Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 5 is a parallel with the “Turkish” episode of Mozart’s composition. While introducing the bluegrass idiom into a Classical concerto may not be idiosyncratic, it can be understood and seen as an extension of Mozart’s own practice and approach to stylistic disruption. This approach can be understood through the concepts of Sonata Theory, revealing the cadenza as a site of productive deformation within a normative formal framework. Along with this, Robert S. Hatten’s concept of troping further supports the idea that the interaction between Classical and bluegrass idioms generates new expressive meanings through stylistic fusion. Lastly, the cadenza is understood as a moment that reframes and reinterprets the movement, in the adaptation of sonata form to the classical concerto the cadenza as a formal parenthesis. Furthermore, the bluegrass cadenza is a theatrically charged, structurally meaningful intervention (or disruption) that aligns and extends with Mozart’s own compositional approach and strategies.

Recommended Citation

Zheng, Linna, "Reimagining the Cadenza: Bluegrass and Mozart" (2026). Honors Theses. 3527.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/hon_thesis/3527