The EXPO, also referred to as the exposition occurs in this music piece at the beginning with the main aim of exposing the major elements of the music, which include the use of violin, piano, and sound movement in a manner that depicts classical music themes (Fairleigh 15). The first part of this piece is majorly an EXPO in which the composer intends to let the audience hear the tunes and themes of this classical music piece, which are going to be used in the entire part of the performance (Batt 158). Through the exposition at the beginning, the audience recognizes the piece belongs to the classical music genre. The EXPO has been importantly used in this piece to set the tempo, expose the genre and movements. In relation, the recapitulation or RECAP is a kind of movement, which is written in the sonata form and is closely related to EXPO.
It occurs in this music piece after the development of the movement and tempo during the exposition at the beginning. It has been used to represent the musical themes for this piece from the exposition of movements of musical materials, which are violin and piano. The materials have been recapitulated to enhance the tonic keys of the movement, which is essential in reaffirming that violin and piano provide the home keys (Fairleigh 18). The RECAP in this piece presents the EXPO elements in a straight forward manner to influence tone and movements. Violin and piano, which are the major musical devices used in the piece develop varying sounds and tempo of the original piece. The material is kept separate right from the exposition, but they also overlaid as the performance proceed (Batt 163). The RECAP in this piece has been started as an extension EXPO to develop scene and acquaint audience with the piece.
The passage of the piece from the measure 29 to 44 is constituted of phrase structure, which enhances the steady flow of the development and performance without any break. The phrase structure in the passage is complete and exhibit four main elements of phrase. First, the passage demonstrates some level of continuous completeness without break based on the tonic keys of the violin and piano. Second, it eventually reaches a point of relative rest or repose towards the end of the passage. Third, the phrase structure that takes places in the passage involves some harmonic series demonstrated by monochord (Fairleigh 19). Consequently, it exhibits the sense of building tension in the beginning of the passage and then releasing the tension towards the end. Finally the musical structure uses cadence in this passage to frame and manipulate the motives.
The passage from measure 29 to 44 has a period with the two aspects of phrase structure, which includes antecedent and consequent. Two phrases are combined together in this passage. While the first phrase ends in a weak cadence, the second phrase ends in strong cadence. The antecedent in this this passage enhances continuation of the music as the consequent aspect of the combined phrases of the period achieves the conclusion of the cadence. The phrase in this passage exhibit symmetric period whereby the both the antecedent and consequent phrases have similar length throughout the performance (Batt 169). Specifically, the antecedent and consequent phrases of the passage have parallel period because they have similar content in some ways. However, they can also be referred to as the double period because of the similar grouping of the two phrases, although the two periods have taken different roles of antecedent and consequent respectively.
The measure 97 is marked by the arrival of the tonic of its new key, making it seems unusual. However, this is often coincidental with the EXPO, which the start of the first theme, as the second them usually begins at measure 98. The presence of 2-bar motives and timespans starting in measure 98 confirm the lack of simultaneity in measure 97. Since it is an EXPO, which introduces the motives and themes developed in measure 98 and other subsequent measures, the measure 97 is never reused. Instead, it is used once for the purposes of exposition and introduction of movement development, which is extended in the subsequent measures (Fairleigh 21). Furthermore, measure 97 provides a successful link between the transitions from EXPO to DEV and RECAP themes because of three main aspects.
First, measure 97 provides a brief but critical break from the constant flow characterised by the EXPO’s fast-moving notes to the transitional phase that marks the beginning of DEV, RECAP and eventually CODA, which occurs in the end. Second, measure 97 also works as a link between motives and themes to enhance smooth development of movement and materials (Fairleigh 22). Lastly, because the measure 97 is a 1-bar unit, it tends to arrest the continued movement of the 2-bar timespans. Even though there seems to be a connection between measures 97 and 98, it is important to note that measure 98 is consequently heard connected to measure 99 (Batt 165). On the other hand, the utilization of the 2-bar timespans and themes characterized by DEV and RECAP before measure 97 can be traced back to measure 71-72 and in some cases up to measures 61-62.
The transition created by measure 97 seems to be unusual because of the constant and continuous use of the 2-bar timespans. This approach tends to contrast with the main theme of the piece, resulting in irregular use of tonic keys, thematic and motivic materials. The transition with measure 97 tends to reverse the usual contrast between two themes and their transitional features where themes have periodic timespans while the transition is characterized by irregular timespans (Fairleigh 20). Therefore, it can be seen from the three functions that the main work of measure 97 is to make the second theme distinctive from other the first one. The movement of themes and motives changes at as the piece transit from EXPO, to DEV, RECAP and finally CODA, which marks the end. Measure 97, thus gives a rest bar between the transition and the second theme by not necessarily being a silent bar (Batt 167).
The theme is often referred to as the subject of musical material that creates a feeling of sensation and attractiveness among the target audiences. In this piece, the recognizable melody, which exhibit variations from keys and notes of the violin and piano, is the main theme. Being a polythematic piece of music noted by variations in melody based on changes in tones, keys and notes of the instrument, thematic and motivic changes in the can be explained in the four modules of development (Batt 199). These include optional link, entry zone, central action zone and re-transition, which foreshadow the fundamental theme with the aim of developing anticipation for the RECAP.
Fugue is also an aspect of the primary theme used as a composition technique for the development of the piece. In this particular music, it has two voices resulting from the violin and piano to develop the musical theme introduced as the EXPO. The two voices created by the piano and violin recur frequently throughout the development of the music piece (Fairleigh 23). The thematic organization of these two instruments that act as the tonal materials are first presented at the exposition to introduce the main theme. During the development, the tonal materials and elaborated and contrasted to enhance continuity, repetitions and variations in the melody, tone and the primary theme (Batt 178). The development section maintains and changes aspects of melody, tone and fugue through continuation and transitions.
The music piece has Coda as one of its framing module, although it has exposition rather than introduction. It has been used in this piece to provide a frame of its bigger picture. It has also helped in creating coherent melody that builds up to create tension at the climax and resolution at the recapitulation towards the concluding movement, which are often characterised by slowness at Coda (Fairleigh 25). The Coda has successfully followed the end of the thematic cycles at the end tail of recapitulation. It has come towards the end when the harmonic functionality of recapitulation has been accomplished in this piece. It introduces new materials, which tend to fall suddenly towards the end of Coda. The primary themes introduced in the exposition and the theme variations in the recapitulation are dropped with a new falling theme is shortly introduced to mark the end of the music piece (Batt 196).
- Batt, Robert. “Function and structure of transitions in sonata-form music of Mozart.” Intersections 9.1 (1988): 157-208.
- Fairleigh, James P. “Transition and retransition in Mozart’s sonata-type movements.” College Music Symposium 26.1 (1986): 14-26.