Music Sonata Form Assessment Final Essay

Music Sonata Form Assessment- Mozart Symphony 40.

Introduction:
The music sonata form, has three basic sections that make up the musical sonata form. The three basic sections are exposition, development and the recapitulation. The exposition starts of in the original key also known as the tonic key but then moves to a different key. Then the development passes through many different keys but avoids the tonic key. The recapitulation then returns the key back to the tonic key and then also finishes the symphony off at the end with a coda. The coda is the couple of bars at the end of the symphony which sounds like the symphony is coming to an end.
Exposition:
The exposition of Mozart’s 40th symphony, first movement starts off in the tonic key of G minor and the theme 1 melody is played by the violins. The melody in theme 1 is a call and answer type of melody because the melody builds up but then will come back down. The melody during theme 1 have very balanced phrases, call and answer resolution along with a woodwind harmony joined with sustained notes. The violins that are playing the melody are playing in unison but they are an octave apart. Between bars 1 to 9 the violins are playing sequences. The sequence melody gradually gets higher and higher in pitch. The higher the pitch goes in this sequence the more tension is created and also the suspense is very strong. Both violins 1 and 2 start to play unison again in bars 25 that lead into the bridge. The bridge occurs during bars 28- 44 and is also in the key of Bb major. The bridge is not hard to miss because the dynamics suddenly change from soft to loud which changes around the melody and then would eventually lead to the theme 2. Violins 1 and 2 again are playing in unison in bars 29-37. During bars 34-37 two violins that are carrying the melody are now playing repetitive scalic patterns. The use of the scalic repetition adds more texture to the layers during the bridge. The two violins that are carrying the melody change from playing in unison to playing something completely different during bars 38-41. When the terms ‘completely different’ the violins are both playing different melodies while being accompanied by the rest of the orchestra. In the second last bar of the bridge, which is bar 42, the rhythm rapidly changes from shorter and fast notes to longer and slower notes which really hints that the bridge is coming to an end and will now move onto theme 2. Theme 2 starts from bar 44 and ends in bar 87 and is in the key of Bb major, also the relative major key of G minor. Theme 2 is softer compared to the bridge but the tempo is not slower, just longer notes. The violins are both playing unison again from bars 44 to 54, but yet again still playing an octave apart. Since the start of theme 2 there were barely any instruments playing, making the texture very thin, but those who are playing, they are playing really softly. This implies that it is slowly building up, and soon there will be a loud and thicker texture close by. In bars 62-69 the texture changed from thin to extremely thick. This is because it was building up slowly during the beginning of the theme. In bars 70-71 both the flute, fagotti and the two leading violins were playing descending scalic passages.

Codetta:
The codetta begins and ends in bars 88-100. The codetta is a smaller form of a Coda, which is rounding off the exposition and then leads into the development. In bars 88-89 every single instrument, except for two instruments, were all playing descending scalic passages. This time the descending scalic passage in the codetta has more texture and the dynamics changed from soft to loud. Now that the texture is very thick, that makes the descending scalic patterns stand out more than in theme two, which involved only two violins. The codetta also has a use of short notes which is suitable to round off and ends the exposition.
Development:
“The development is when the composer introduces new keys,

Show More

Related Documents: Music Sonata Form Assessment Final Essay

Characteristics of the Romantic Music Period Essay