Quintet for Clarinet and Strings in A (also called Clarinet Quintet in A Major) is the common name of the Mozart composition with the Köchel number of 581. It was composed on September 29, 1789. It was commissioned by Mozart's friend, the gifted clarinetist Anton Stadler, and is sometimes referred to as the Stadler Quintet.
It is comprised of four sections: an Allegro, a Larghetto, a Menuetto, and an Allegretto con Variazione .
According to Digital Dream Door, it is the 6th best piece of chamber music composed.
To American audiences, the piece is probably best known from the final episode of M*A*S*H ("Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen"). In this episode, Dr. Winchester befriended a rag-tag bunch of Chinese musicians and taught them to play this piece. However, he later saw all the musicians killed and as a result classical music, his number one solace during the war, became unpalatable to him.
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