A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Turca, Alla

by George Grove

TURCA, ALLA, i.e. in Turkish style; the accepted meaning of which is a spirited simple melody, with a lively accentuated accompaniment. The two best examples of this are the finale to Mozart's PF. Sonata in A (Köchel, 331), which is inscribed by the composer 'Alla Turca,' and the theme of Beethoven's variations in D (op. 76), which he afterwards took for the 'Marcia alla Turca,' which follows the Dervish chorus in the 'Ruins of Athens.'

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