Mozart k310 sonata (2nd movement)

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Mozart k310 sonata (2nd movement) Analyzation

The 2nd movement of the Mozart k310 Piano Sonata resembles standard sonata form in many ways. It opens with a first theme in F (same as key signature). The theme is four bars long; two bars of antecedant, two bars of consequent. Mozart then starts the first theme again with a 32nd note run pick-up instead of the 16th note arpeggio pick-up in the the begginning of the piece so we are prepared for variation in the second statement of the first theme. He then continues the theme with variation until the consequent phrase which is completely different from the first consequent phrase. This new consequent has not only faster rythmic movement but also compressed harmonic rythym. This tension prepares the listener for the textural shift that is about to occur. The Bridge begins with 16th note arpeggios in the bass, a contrast to the quarter note dominated bass of the first theme. Unlike a typical bridge section which modulates far from the original key, this bridge just moves from I to V7 for several bars before going to ii. Then, rather than using the ii in a familiar ii-V7-I cadence, the ii is arpeggiated for an entire bar in the melody. This is further obscured by the chromatics used in the arpeggio, a half step movement to each chord tone. The next bar returns to I without a real cadence and then quickly moves to V. We are now at the second them and it does begin in C (V, the way most second themes begin), but C has not really been tonicized. C still sounds like V. This is solved by the ‘b’ natural in the pickups to the second theme, implying the new key center with a leading tone in place of a true tonicization from a cadence. The second theme, like the first, has an antecedant and consequent phrase. However, they are each only one bar rather than two as in the first theme. They are then repeated without variation but in another register with a trill in the treble. There is then a sonata form rounding off of the second theme for three bars. The closing follows the second theme and is quite long in this piece. A short repeated figure in the first bar and a half is ended by what sounds at first like modulation, but does not actually continue to another key. It instead rounds off back to C and the first short repeated figure enters again, this time with ornamentation. This time the figure ends when it arrives at a...

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..., and the implied tonicization of C using a ‘b’ natural in the pickups to the second theme. There is a major difference this time, though. The ‘b’ natural is quickly negated by a ‘Bb’ in the continuing pickups. This sets up the second theme to be in F rather than C. So the second theme occurs transposed to F but without much other deviance from the exposition. The second theme, however, is followed by something very unusual; a five measure developement and variation of the second theme similar to the three measure rounding off in the exposition but unique enough that it cannot be called a simple rounding off. The closing material then enters with little variation other than the transposition to F. The two scale figures (formerly d melodic minor and G major in the exposition, g melodic minor and C major here) end on a viio on beat one and are followed by a weak V65 on beats two and three, which prepare for the final cadence. But since the dominant chord is weak, the ending is not fully prepared and there is another two measure codetta to round off to the final cadence: a strong V7-I with a pedal F that moves down an octave at the resolution of the upper staff.

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