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Analyzing Classical Form: Modulating Subordinate TH Eme

The document discusses the analysis of classical musical forms. It provides examples of a subordinate theme that begins in a minor mode and features a descending fifth sequential progression leading to a tonicization of a distant key region. It also analyzes an ingenious variation of an essential cadential progression where the typical bassline ascent is found in the viola part. The document then discusses modulating subordinate themes, where the theme begins in a key other than where it ends, with the goal subordinate key usually being the dominant region of the home key. It provides an example of a subordinate theme that unexpectedly shifts to a major mode through a sudden fortissimo outburst.

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28 views

Analyzing Classical Form: Modulating Subordinate TH Eme

The document discusses the analysis of classical musical forms. It provides examples of a subordinate theme that begins in a minor mode and features a descending fifth sequential progression leading to a tonicization of a distant key region. It also analyzes an ingenious variation of an essential cadential progression where the typical bassline ascent is found in the viola part. The document then discusses modulating subordinate themes, where the theme begins in a key other than where it ends, with the goal subordinate key usually being the dominant region of the home key. It provides an example of a subordinate theme that unexpectedly shifts to a major mode through a sudden fortissimo outburst.

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Anonymous OBveDW8p
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© © All Rights Reserved
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ANALYZING CLASSICAL FORM

398

Example 12.11: the repeat of the subordinate theme begins at the upbeat to m. 50
with a shift to the minor mode. A presentation phrase is followed by a continuation,
whose descending-fifth sequential progression leads the music into the xLK region.
The following passage, beginning at m. 58, consists of an ingenious variation
of an ECP, in which the typical bass-line ascent is actually found in the viola part.
A rewritten version of this progression (Ex. 12.11b) inverts the chords to make
the bass line more conventional. In this form, the augmented triad in m. 58 can be
understood as a chromatic variant of the initial cadential tonic (thus the Bv, rather
than the Cc of the original notation). The following diminished-seventh sonority
substitutes for the pre-dominant built over the fourth degree in the bass.
In Mozarts actual placement of these chords (Ex. 12.11a, mm. 5860), we
perceive that the sustained Cc in the bass voice implies a prolongation of xLK
throughout mm. 5859, thus reinforcing the tonicization of that region. The
diminished seventh LKKe/L of m. 60 obscures any further sense of C major, but it
is not until the arrival of the cadential six-four in the following measure that the
music regains its tonal bearings firmly in the subordinate key of E major.

Example 12.8: the modal shift and ascending-third sequential progression at the
beginning of the theme results in a tonicization not only of xKKK (of the normal subordinate key of E major) but also of a region that is a tritone removed from the key (B-flat
major, effectively xKKK/xKKK), which is the most distant possible tonal relationship.

Modulating Subordinate Theme


The most radical loosening of the subordinate theme by means of harmonic-tonal
devices occurs when the theme begins in a key other than that in which it
ends. Examples of such a modulating subordinate theme are seen most often in
Beethoven and reflect this composers greater use of more far-reaching tonal
relationships than those employed by Haydn and Mozart.
In all cases of modulating subordinate themes, the goal subordinate key,
that in which the theme closes with a PAC, is the dominant region of the home
key. The key in which the theme begins can vary, but the submediant (LK) region
in major-mode movements and the mediant (relative major) in minor-mode
ones are usually favored. This initial key is already established by its dominant
at the end of the transition.
Example 12.14: the unusual nature of the preceding transitionconsisting of a single
harmony L/LKhas been discussed in connection with Example 11.17. The expected
resolution of the dominant would be to F minor, the normal submediant of the home
key, A-flat major. But instead, a sudden fortissimo outburst heralds a surprising shift
to the major mode and initiates a 4-m. model to begin the subordinate theme.
At m. 39, the model is sequenced down a fifth into B-flat (KL of LK), which
functions as the pivot harmony (L) for the modulation to the true subordinate key,
E-flat. The fragmentation in mm. 4348 is supported by an expanded cadential K^.
The rest of the cadential progression in mm. 4950 brings the concluding PAC.

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