# Transcript

Robert Samuels
Here is my analysis of these bars [Show graph with just noteheads]. The first harmony note in the melody is the top F (plays). Mozart’s own notation shows that the initial G is an appoggiatura or neighbour note to this F. This runs down the scale to a B flat at the beginning of bar one (plays), unfolding this interval of a fifth. So we place an upward stem on the F and a downward stem on the B flat, and we analyse the other notes with slurs, and show the unfolding with a beam [add stems, slurs and beam; play b. 1 i–ii]. The melody then moves up via neighbour notes and arpeggio notes to an E flat over the C minor chord in bar two [add slurs; play bb. 1 iii–2 ii], before another run down the scale leads to an A over the F in the bass in bar three.
This unfolds another interval, this time of a diminished fifth [add stems, slurs and beam; play bb. 2 iii–3 ii]. We would expect the E flat at the top to fall to a D (plays), and the leading note A to rise to a B flat (plays).
And indeed, this is what Mozart does, writing the two parts together at bar four (plays). So we can add stems to the D and the B flat [add stems], and show the passing notes with another slur [add slur; play bb. 3 iii–4 ii].
To complete this graph, we should analyse how the bass makes sense. It moves from tonic to dominant [add slur, I and V7] and back again [add slur and I], and the C minor chord is subsidiary to, or leading up to, the dominant [add slur].
I hope that you saw how these intervals are unfolded in this melody. If you found this difficult, you may wish to rewind and look again at how I reached my analysis. Let’s hear these bars again [play bb. 1–4].
You may already have seen the conclusion that I am going to draw from these analyses. The main theme of Mozart’s first movement, and the main theme of his last movement, have exactly the same structure at this level of the harmony. The same three intervals are unfolded to make the melody in each case. Here is the structural progression which gives rise to both melodies.
[Play three intervals; graphic score for this and the following]
In the first movement, they unfold like this:
[Play unfolded intervals]
And are ornamented like this:
[Play K.333/I bb. 1–4]
In the last movement, the same three intervals [Play three intervals]
Are unfolded like this, with an imperfect cadence added:
[Play unfolded intervals]
And are ornamented like this
Our analysis has shown how these two themes, so different on the surface, share the same structure at a deeper, middleground level. The similarity is clearly there in the harmony, and can be seen from a comparison of the voice-leading graphs which we have drawn. This is a very subtle sort of connection between the themes, not evident at a first hearing. But once we’ve noticed it, other details strengthen the family resemblance between the themes. The prominent use of the sixth degree of the scale, G natural, as a neighbour note to the F natural at the beginning of the upper voice is one such feature. In both themes, indeed, it’s harmonised by a subsidiary G minor harmony at the end of the first bar.
This illustrates one use of analysis, which is to reveal an aesthetic feature of the music. The hidden connections between these two themes accounts for the feeling of coherence and unity between the different movements of the sonata. Mozart is one of the earliest composers to create this sort of integrated approach to form, something which was to develop greatly during the 19th century. It’s really an idea associated with Romanticism, and many later works are genuinely a cycle of interconnected movements. You will be meeting some of these works later in the course. Here, this approach to composition is not as explicit as subsequent composers made it. But its subliminal effect is still telling, and it can be identified and made clear by the use of voice- leading analysis.