CCinA- Mozart

• Context

  Written during the enlightenment era, when public concerts had become more accessible.
• Context

  Taste was for lighter, simpler and more melody-driven music, in contrast with the complex musical textures of the Baroque, whose music was written for a very different audience and purpose.
• Form and structure

  Rondo form
• Form and structure

  A sections alternate with contrasting episodes to create balance and symmetry.
• Form and structure

  Concertos balance the role of the solo instrument with the orchestral tutti sections.
• Form and structure

  A, B and C section themes contrast, so section A sections contrast with episodes.
• Form and structure

  The B section is reprised in the third A section, creating symmetry and balance.
• Tonality

  The first A section is in A major
• Tonality

  The B section begins in A major but modulates to the dominant E major then the tonic minor, A minor, to end on the dominant chord in preparation to return to A major for the second A section.
• Tonality

  The C section begins in the relative F# minor and modulates to the subdominant D major.
• Tonality

  The third A section begins in D major then modulates to B minor, the relative minor of D major.
• Tonality

  The reprise of the B section begins in A major, modulates to the tonic minor, A minor, then to C major then D minor, the subdominant minor key.
• Tonality

  The final A sections are in the tonic A major.
• Melody

  A section theme is conjunct and in two-bar phrases with a quaver anacrusis.
• Melody

  B section theme is more disjunct and triadic and has no anacrusis.
• Melody

  C section theme is similar to a countermelody heard in the B section, has an anacrusis, includes sequence and is disjunct as it is based on broken chords with an appoggiatura.
• Melody

  None of the themes are diatonic as all are chromatic.
• Harmony

  The Classical style is based on a strong tonic-dominant relationship.
• Harmony


  Chromatically altered chords are used before the dominant so strengthen perfect cadences.
• Sonority

  The solo instrument is the clarinet, an evolving and novel instrument in the late eighteenth century.
• Sonority

  String instruments in Mozart's time would be quieter and lighter, with a limited dynamic range.
• Sonority

  Horns are used only for pedal notes and to strengthen cadences due to limitations.
• Sonority

  The only instrument to have a solo other than the clarinet is the flute.
• Sonority

  Strings often play divisi to create a fuller texture
• Texture

  The main texture is melody and accompaniment, in the Classical and Enlightenment convention, for clarity of melody.
• Texture

  There are imitative and contrapuntal passages in the second B section.
• Texture

  There are harmonic, chordal passages in the second and third A sections.
• Tempo, metre and rhythm

  The tempo marking is allegro, meaning 'quick', a tempo marking with a wide range of accepted speeds, measured in beats per minute. It has no definitive bpm, so the exact speed is left to the discretion of performers.
• Tempo, metre and rhythm

  The metre is 6/8, compound duple time, with two compound beats, each of which subdivides into 3 quavers.
• Tempo, metre and rhythm

  The rhythms of the A and C section themes have a quaver anacrusis on the 6th quaver before their first full bars.
• Tempo, metre and rhythm

  The B section theme begins on the first beat of the bar
• Tempo, metre and rhythm

  There is a passage with a hemiola in bars 131-132 in the second A section.
• Tempo, metre and rhythm

  There are pauses in the reprise of the B section, adding to uncertainty created by chromatic chords.
• Dynamics and articulation

  They are very limited, only including p, f, sfp and cresc.
• Dynamics and articulation

  Cresc. and f are mainly used to emphasise cadences.
• Dynamics and articulation

  Some terraced dynamics in A sections are a baroque throwback.