3 Unfolding

When you are ready, play the video clip below and follow the activities described there.

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Transcript: Unfolding in Mozart

Robert Samuels

You've just been looking at how we can analyse melodies which actually contain two or more different harmonic voices within a single melodic line. This is a common feature of the sort of baroque figuration used by Bach or Vivaldi, and you might think that this sort of harmony is only found in baroque music. But in this video section we're going to look at examples where Mozart constructs a melody which contains two separate harmonic lines, despite the much less contrapuntal style of Classical period music, which is normally a theme and an accompaniment.

This sort of voice-leading process is called ‘unfolding’. This means that two notes which harmonise with each other are ‘unfolded’ as an interval within the melodic line. Sometimes the two notes of the unfolding come one after another, as was the case in the baroque examples; but sometimes the unfolded interval is filled in with passing notes or neighbour notes.

The first extract which we are going to analyse is the little four-bar section which we looked at right at the beginning of Unit 3:

You remember that we saw how the smooth elegance of this rondo melody comes from the downwards line from F natural to C natural. [play F–E flat–D–C] [play melody through emphasising downwards line]. It is this that gives the extract its shape. Now let’s look a bit more closely at how this line fits into the rest of the melody.

The most striking feature of this opening is the interval of a downward seventh between the last two notes. (Plays downward 7th) So what is it that makes this surprising leap sound part of a balanced melody? The answer lies in an overall harmonic line – that is, a harmonic voice. But this isn't the F to E flat line we have analysed already at the top of the harmony, but a second, lower voice. The melody of the first bar outlines an arpeggio of B flat – the tonic chord – and, just as the top note, the F (plays), falls to the E flat at the beginning of bar two, so the lower note, the B flat (plays), falls to the A natural which is the lower note in that leap of a seventh [graphic for this]. In other words, this melody [play bb. 1–2] outlines these two intervals [play F/B flat–E flat/A: graphic for this].

Now let’s look at bar three. You'll remember that the foreground of the music is a string of appoggiaturas, or accented neighbour-notes [play b. 3 melody], so that the harmonic line is this [play B flat–C–D–E flat]. The elegance and balance of the melody comes from this structure which our analysis uncovers as being made up of two parts: a structural upper voice and a structural alto voice – that is, two voices in which each note leads to the next. That is where voice-leading analysis gets its name from.

So, let’s recap. Our analysis is saying that Mozart’s melody is based on a harmonic progression which is in two parts, made up of these three intervals: [play the three intervals – graphic]. These intervals are ‘unfolded’ like this [play F–B flat–E flat–A–B flat–D – graphic of these], and then they’re filled in with an arpeggiation [fill in b. 1], a consonant skip [fill in b. 2], and a passing note [fill in b.2 passing note] with appoggiaturas as ornamentation [fill in appoggiaturas: play bb. 1–3].

One final comment about the harmony here. You may be wondering how we can claim that the E flat in bar two (plays) harmonises with the A natural later in the bar, because the G natural shows that this E flat is part of a C minor chord, (plays) and not the dominant seventh chord on F [highlight these notes]. Well, this is quite true; and in fact, the B flat at the end of bar one is also harmonised differently from the F at the beginning, with a G minor chord (plays) following the tonic B flat chord [highlight & play these notes]. We haven’t ignored these harmonies; what our analysis says is that these chords – G minor and C minor – are subsidiary to the B flat and F chords. The idea of subsidiary harmonies is what makes this a middleground analysis and not a foreground one.

End transcript: Unfolding in Mozart

Unfolding in Mozart

You are going to start to make an analytical graph of the bars that we've been looking at on the video, using the symbols that you are already familiar with. For this activity you will need Examples 9 and 10 below.

Example 9 Mozart, Sonata in B flat, K333, third movement, bars 1–4

Example 10 Mozart, Sonata in B flat, K333, third movement, bars 1–4: graph with noteheads and guidance symbols only

Example 9 shows you the bars of Mozart's score. Example 10 is a version of these four bars which gives all the notes just as noteheads, with the bar numbers indicated above. A few changes have been made in the alignment to show where the melody harmonises with the bass. Three slurs have already been put in to show where the appoggiaturas are. You should follow the instructions below to continue drawing the graph. There are five things to do. A pdf of Example 10 is provided below for you to print out for marking up.

Click to download pdf version of Example 10 bar graph [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] .

1. Put stems going upwards on the main notes of the top voice.

2. Put stems going downwards on the notes which make the ‘structural alto’ voice.

3. Put stems, also going downwards, on the main harmony notes of the bass voice.

4. Put a slur to show where there is a passing note in the melody line.

5. Finally, put a slur to show how each remaining notehead belongs to one of the notes with a stem.

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Transcript: Making an analytical graph

Robert Samuels

Now compare your graph with my analysis of these bars. Here's the score [graphic of score]. And now, we take out the rhythmic notation and the bar lines, and re-align the treble and bass slightly to make the consonances clear [graphic melts to analytical graph]. If we add the slurs to show the appoggiaturas in bar three, this is what you started with [add slurs].

Robert Samuels

and finally C [add stems]. Next, we show the B flat to A to B flat (plays) shape of the inner voice with downward stems [add stems]. Now we add stems to the main bass notes, which show a sort of contrary motion to the top voice, moving from B flat to C, D, and back to B flat (plays) before ending on the dominant, F [add stems]. The point where the melody moves via a passing note is in bar three (plays), where each note is also decorated by an appoggiatura. So we show this with a slur [add slur]. Now we use slurs to show the arpeggiation in bar one [plays & adds slurs], the subsidiary note and the harmonic interval in bar two [add slurs], and the way that the last appoggiatura in bar three is a neighbour note to the D [add slurs]. Finally, the notes in the bass form consonant skips [add slurs], this descending passing note feature [add slur], a larger-scale ascending passing note feature and a neighbour note to the final dominant harmony [add slur].

Now we are going to add three new notational symbols to make some middleground features even clearer. First of all, we are going to show which note in the top voice harmonises with which note of the structural alto voice in the three unfoldings. We do this by connecting together the stems with beams, which go diagonally like this [add diagonal beams]. Secondly, we indicate the voice exchange by straight lines crossing over to show the notes involved [add voice exchange lines]. Thirdly, the dominant chord at the imperfect cadence is emphasised in two ways which are also typical of the Classical style. It is ornamented by a 6/4–5/3 suspension, and it is has a prominent subsidiary harmony leading up to it over the E flat in the bass (plays). We show the suspension by using figures [add figures], and the subsidiary harmony, which we call a supporting harmony in this case, by adding a stem with a flag to the bass note.

Robert Samuels

This looks like a quaver, although it’s nothing to do with rhythm, but only with the function of the harmony [add flagged stem].

Now our graph is complete.

I hope that you feel you now understand how Mozart’s harmony works a little better. This is one of the main reasons for doing analysis, after all. But another thing that analysis can do is point out connections between different passages of music which we wouldn’t be able to describe otherwise. To show this at work, we are going to look at another four-bar extract from this Mozart sonata. But this isn’t from the same movement, but instead comes from the first movement. In fact, it’s the opening of the whole piece.

This is a very different melody in many ways from that of the last movement which we’ve just been analysing. It begins on an off-beat, it has very prominent appoggiaturas on the first crotchet of each bar, and it ends on the tonic rather than the dominant. But I want you to look now to see if you can identify any unfolded intervals in the melody.

End transcript: Making an analytical graph

Making an analytical graph

To help you compare your graph with mine, my solution is reprinted here as Example 11. You will also see three new notational symbols added. The final completed graph is printed below as Example 12.

Example 11 Mozart, Sonata in B flat, K333, third movement, bars 1–4: intermediate stage

Example 12 Mozart, Sonata in B flat, K333, third movement, bars 1–4: completed graph

As in the previous activity, you're going to start to make an analytical graph, this time of the first four bars of the first movement of K333. As before, you will find below a version of the score (Example 13) and a version of these four bars which gives all the notes just as noteheads (Example 14). A few changes have been made in the alignment to show where the melody harmonises with the bass. As before, you should add stems and slurs to these noteheads. This time, I don't want you to make such a detailed analysis.

Example 13 Mozart, Sonata in B flat, K333, first movement, bars 1–4

Example 14 Mozart, Sonata in B flat, K333, first movement, bars 1–4: noteheads

Click to download pdf version of Example 14 bar graph

Follow the five instructions below.

1. Identify unfolded intervals in the melody line.

2. Place upward stems on the notes of the ‘structural treble’.

3. Place downward stems on the notes of the ‘structural alto’.

4. Connect the stems with diagonal beams to show the unfoldings.

5. Add slurs to show how the noteheads between the notes with stems are related to them.