A divertimento, singular in many respects, in six movements, for oboes and two horns, together with stringed instruments, seems to have been written quickly for some special occasion in July, 1776 (54 K.), and then to have been laid aside. The score is hurriedly jotted down on already used music paper of different shapes, with abbreviations, directions for the copyist, and various corrections. The second minuet has no trio, but is three times varied. The oboe is prominent and striking, not in passages, but in sustained notes and tuneful melodies. The stringed instruments, without being actually concertante, enliven the whole {DIVERTIMENTI, 1776-77.} (305) by their free arrangement of parts. The national German character of the melodies is very noticeable; they remind us in style of popular German songs. The alliance of the horns with the strings was a favourite one at the time, although the instruments do not readily blend. The freer the thematic elaboration of the string parts the more difficult it became for the horns to keep pace with them, although now and then fine effects might be produced by their means. The difficulty was so to engraft, as it were, the horns on the stringed instruments as to leave them free play for their own natural effects, and to produce a certain richness and depth of colouring not attainable without their aid. In a divertimento, written about 1773 or 1774 (205 K.), two horns are in union with violin, tenor, and violoncello, strengthened by a bassoon. It is short and precise, but cleverly written. The adagio is a duet for violin and tenor, to a very simple bass, the horns being silent. It must be remembered that such pieces as these were always accompanied on the clavier. Two divertimenti or cassationi, as they are oftener called in the letters, for string quartet, with two horns (247, 287, K.),[40] were written in June, 1776 and June, 1777, for the fête-day of the Countess Ant. Lodron; they are finished works of the genuine Mozart type. Both have six elaborately worked-out movements, and abound in grace and fertility of invention, and in skilful harmonic treatment. The style is that of a true quartet, that is, the instruments have each their independent part, but the first violin, as a solo part, is markedly predominant; in the first divertimento, in F major (247 K.), it sustains the melody in every movement, but is bravura and concertante only in the adagio. In the second divertimento, in B flat major (287 K.), which is grand in design and composition, the first violin is treated as a solo instrument throughout, with a strong {INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC.} (306)