Prof: Okay,
let me just check the
volume--sounds okay,
let's get started.
This week we're going to
continue our discussion of
musical form,
and we're going to fold that
discussion inside of the
preparation for the concert,
which is when?
 
Saturday.
 
And it is where?
 
Battell Chapel.
 
It should be on the sheet
there, and it's at 8:00 p.m.
And we're going to have the
Saybrook Orchestra perform for
us.
 
Today we're going to talk about
theme and variations,
and one of the pieces that's on
that concert.
And then on Thursday,
we're going to have the
conductor and several of the
soloists come in and talk to us
about the difficulties of this
particular concert and get us
alerted to the sort of the thing
that we should be on the lookout
for as reviewers.
 
We will be continuing with
this, of course,
in sections this week.
 
And when you come to lecture
next time, we will give you what
I call a prep sheet--a sort of
guide to all three pieces that
are going to be performed.
 
And then when you go to
section, you will get a sheet
having to do with how you write
a review.
It's a whole list of sort of
"do's"
and "don't's"
in writing a review.
Those of you that are in the
Monday section:
we will work this out in
advance.
We'll talk about that on
Thursday, but you may be
encouraged to come to an earlier
section,
and if that doesn't work out
we're going to re-form those
Monday sections in a way that
will work for you as well.
I know there are a couple of
students also that can't be here
this weekend.
 
It's inevitable that that's the
case.
There will be a makeup concert
scheduled at a later date so
don't worry about this,
but do keep coming because the
principles involved in writing a
review for this particular
concert are identical to
whatever concert you attend.
Any questions about that before
we get started?
Okay.
 
If not, let's go ahead with the
concert program.
It's kind of fun.
 
I started with this way early
last August, arranging this.
What I wanted to do was get a
concert coming in the middle of
the term because I think you're
ready now to go at this
serious-material concert in the
middle of the term performed by
an undergraduate orchestra in
which the program would be
user-friendly--
would be the kinds of things
that we had been working with.
 
So I contacted a couple of
ensembles,
and the Saybrook group,
1) had the best program and 2)
seemed to be quite responsive in
getting back to me about some of
the things that we might do.
 
And indeed one of the pieces,
the Brahms that we're going to
talk about,
I suggested that they do
because I needed--
for teaching purposes in
here--I needed a good theme and
variation piece.
And I've got one in the
Beethoven, but it's not quite as
clear cut as this particular
one.
So, as you can see,
we have three pieces on this
concert.
 
I hope you all have the sheet
there.
They should be listed:
the overture to The Marriage
of Figaro by Mozart.
 
This is an overture,
an opening to his opera The
Marriage of Figaro.
 
And good news here:
that this spring the Yale Opera
Company,
an undergraduate opera company,
will be performing The
Marriage of Figaro,
and it's an absolutely
delightful opera.
It's to die for.
 
Not only is it lots of fun and
funny, but it happens to be in
terms of the craftsmanship
involved arguably the greatest
opera ever written.
 
So we're fortunate to have it
here and you'll get a preview of
this, this Saturday,
with the overture that we will
hear.
 
Then we will go on to a piece
by Johannes Brahms.
Anybody know anything about
Brahms?
There are interesting
characters in the history of
music.
 
Wagner: he might have been an
"SOB"
but nonetheless,
he was interesting.
Mozart is endlessly fascinating.
 
Bach is interesting in his own
way, Beethoven--sort of the
prototypical romantic genius,
very interesting.
I can't say that Brahms's
person--personal life was all
that interesting,
so maybe we'll just forget
about it.
 
We'll just say that he was born
in Hamburg, Germany,
and he died in Vienna,
and I may have put his dates on
your sheet there,
but he is, of course,
one of the "three
Bs."
Who are the other two in the
history of music,
of course?
 
Bach and Beethoven.
 
I once asked in a quiz in here
who are the "three Bs"
of music,
and a student answered,
"Bach, Beethoven,
and Haydn."
I was very depressed for the
rest of the day.
But Brahms indeed is the third
B here so we don't want to
forget about him.
 
He's a very serious composer.
 
He takes everything very
seriously.
I think I put on your sheet
there--did I or did I not?--the
kinds of things that he wrote.
 
Yes, I did: four symphonies,
two piano concertos,
a violin concerto,
many overtures,
many songs, much great chamber
music.
If you're a violinist and you
get rather advanced,
you can play the beautiful,
beautiful Brahms violin
sonatas.
 
If you're a cellist and you get
reasonably advanced,
you can play the beautiful
cello sonatas.
So he wrote a lot of really
great chamber music.
Oddly, he wrote no program
music--and we'll talk about that
a little bit later on,
what program music is--and he
wrote no opera--
well, so a little bit
different, very much sort of
heavy-duty instrumental music.
Well, let's talk about this
composition.
It will not open the piece.
 
It will be the second on the
concert.
It won't open the
concert.
It'll be the second piece--a
set of variations on a theme by
Joseph Haydn.
 
Well, the theme probably isn't
really by Joseph Haydn,
but when Brahms got it,
everybody thought it was by
Joseph Haydn.
 
It's probably just a religious
folk song in honor of Saint
Anthony, but that's neither here
nor there.
The shape of this song,
or theme, that Brahms is
working with here is one that
we're very familiar with.
Now instead of putting A B C
B--I could have done that up
here--I'm going to flesh this
out a little bit.
We're going to call this
Antecedent, Consequent,
Extension, Consequent.
 
But it's the same form that we
saw in the Beethoven "Ode
to Joy" so it's a familiar
organization for a musical
theme--
opening, closing,
extension, and then closing
again,
and in this particular set of
variations Brahms will do this,
which of course is our--what
sign again?
Repeat sign.
 
So he's going to repeat each of
these two sections.
Actually, Beethoven did that to
some extent in the "Ode to
Joy" too.
 
So he's got this very
straightforward theme with that
particular form.
 
Let's listen to the theme,
and we'll try to pick up where
the antecedent concludes,
and where the consequent
begins.
 
Oh, and before that,
we could plug in other
information.
 
What's the meter?
 
Ask yourself as you listen
what's the meter of this,
what's the mode--major or
minor?
What is the bass doing,
what string technique is the
bass employing here?
 
>
 
Okay. That's the consequent.
 
Now he's going to repeat it.
 
 
 
>
 
Here's the antecedent.
 
>
 
Here is the consequent,
>
extension, >
rising melodic sequence.
 
>
 
Now he's going to bring it back
down--descending melodic
sequence >
and the consequent.
 
>
 
Okay.
 
Let's pause.
 
We're just going to pause it
there.
At this point,
what he does is take that
>
 
, that tonic pitch,
and extend it for a long period
of time.
 
And it's down in the bass;
it's being held.
This is a device that derives
from organ technique where an
organist would just put his foot
or her foot on a particular key
and just hold it for a long time
so we call it "pedal
point."
 
So what Brahms is doing here is
sort of extending this tonic
harmony by means of a pedal
point.
So let's listen to this,
>
>
 
--but now we have got to repeat
I believe >
so we're back to the extension,
>
going up the sequence,
now back down,
>
 
and here is the pedal point.
 
>
 
Okay. So that's the theme.
 
It's rather straightforward and
really quite lovely.
The solo instrument there of
course was an oboe,
solo oboe there.
 
So now we're going to go on.
 
We're not going to go through
all these variations on your
sheet.
 
What about these timings here?
 
Can you come in with a stop
clock and have your--
or watch or it set in a way
that at two minutes and nineteen
seconds you expect the first
variation to come in?
Is that going to work?
 
Oscar, why won't that work?
 
Student: Because a
conductor might interpret
things--
Prof: A conductor might
interpret things his or her own
way.
We are going to have both a
male and female conductor on
Saturday night,
so yeah, exactly,
because different conductors
have different ideas about
tempo.
 
Brahms would write
"allegro assai"
or something like that.
 
It's "rather fast,"
but how fast is rather fast?
So there are not precise
indications so these times are
approximate here but they give
you a sense of when things might
happen.
 
So we're going to go on now to
variation five,
I believe, which is at eight
minutes and thirty-six seconds
or an approximation thereof,
and here we're going to give
you maybe the most difficult of
all the variations for the
orchestra to play.
 
It's very disjunct rhythmically.
 
They're not all together.
 
It's very contrapuntal.
 
Counterpoint is always harder
to play in an orchestra than
homophony because every-- we've
got all these things that have
to be coordinated.
 
So let's listen to this.
 
If things seem muddled and
unclear in a performance of this
piece,
my guess is it's--it may well
happen here,
but let's listen just to a
little bit to show you how
difficult and how far away from
the theme Brahms can go.
 
>
 
Okay. So we'll stop it there.
 
So it's hard for me even to
get--in terms of the rhythm
there--to be actually sure where
the beat is because there's so
much syncopation.
 
I think that's a very fast
one-two with a triple
subdivision underneath,
but again the point there may
be, "Gee,
I didn't remember
hearing--"
>.
"Where'd that theme go?
 
That was hard to hear."
 
Well, he was varying it so much
that he's pretty much totally
disguised the theme at that
point.
Let's go on now to listen to a
little bit of variation seven at
11:03 or thereabouts.
 
This is my favorite variation,
but let's listen to a bit of it
and see if you like it too.
 
>
 
And there's the A section.
 
>
 
Here comes C,
>
back to A.
 
>
 
Okay. Let's pause it there.
 
Now what am I doing up here?
 
What is this?
 
Well, what I'm trying to do is
indicate what we call a
"compound meter."
 
It's one of these where you
basically have a two,
but you have a triple
subdivision, and the conductors
if it--
if that two is slow
enough--might go "one,
two, three, four,
five, six,"
"one,
two, three, four,
five, six,"
so it'll be interesting to see.
 
Maybe we should ask the
conductor on Thursday how he or
she--
I forget who is conducting
exactly which pieces here--
how he or she is going to
conduct that,
whether he's going to do it
>
 
, a very slow two like that,
or are we going to really show
the subdivisions.
 
If he's showing the
subdivisions,
that's probably a suggestion
that maybe he doesn't have--
or she doesn't have quite as
much confidence in the orchestra
and wants to really show that
beat very clearly rather than
with--
working with a very experienced
group where you can just kind of
give the large patterns and
they'll be able to put it all
together.
 
 
We are now at this spot.
 
We're going to have the
extension, and it's kind of fun
to watch what Brahms is doing
here.
Brahms is obsessed with rhythm
and it drives you nuts when
you're a performer of this
stuff.
One, he is obsessed with
variation;
and two, he's obsessed with
rhythm.
He will change things even when
he doesn't need to change
things.
 
I remember accompanying my last
child in the Brahms Cello Sonata
and I would have to continually
change hand positions for no
good reason,
which is kind of
arbitrary--that he wanted maybe
just a slightly different sound
whereas the sound before,
that Beethoven would have been
satisfied with,
and Mozart would have been
satisfied with,
wouldn't suffice for him.
So, he's obsessed with
variation and he's obsessed with
rhythm,
and as we listen to this
passage we will see the basic
"one,
two, three, four,
five, six,"
"one,
two, three, four,
five, six,"
and then suddenly he will
change it,
"one, two,"
"three,
four," "five,
six," "one,
two," "three,
four," "five,
six," "one,
two," "three,
four," "five,
six," emphasizing this way.
 
That in music is called hemiola.
 
There's probably some kind of
Greek root there having to do
with twos and threes.
 
I'm not really sure,
but as you can see we've
got--what we had was,
in effect, two units of three.
Now we've got three units of
two.
I remember in Leonard
Bernstein--I don't know whether
it's West Side Story or
not, >.
What is that from?
 
Student: West Side
Story.
Prof: Is it from West
Side Story?
Okay.
 
So that's a good example of
hemiola too.
I think it's called
"America"
or something like that.
 
So that's what hemiola is--when
you're rolling in one of these
and you suddenly shift to the
other, back and forth.
So let's listen to this lovely
six become three groups of two.
>
 
--one, two, three,
four, five ,
one two, three,
four, five, six,
one, two, three,
four, five, six,
one.
 
Let's do that again.
 
It took me a while to find the
sixth beat there.
So go back and--a little before.
 
>
 
So here is E.
 
>
 
--three, four,
five, six, one,
two,
three,
four, five,
six,
one, two, three,
four, five,
six, and then he goes back,
four, five,
six, one, two,
three, four,
five six.
 
Okay.
 
Well, that's just a little
rhythmic filip there with
Brahms, but it's the kind of
thing that keeps interest in his
music.
 
Now we're going to go on to the
last variation,
and it's an interesting one
because it's got two things
going on here.
 
He's got a theme and then he's
got what we call an ostinato in
music.
 
Anybody remember--I think we've
bumped into this term
before--what an ostinato is?
 
What does an ostinato do? Roger.
 
Student:
>
Prof: Good.
 
That's it exactly--from the
Italian obstinare,
obstinate-- and it just repeats
the same phrase over and over
and over again.
 
So what he's got here
repeating, oddly,
is in the bass.
 
>
 
There's his tonic.
 
>
 
And that just keeps repeating
over and over and over,
above which we have a very
distant variation of the theme.
It doesn't sound like the theme
very much, so let's listen to
the ostinato and this highly
varied theme up above.
>
 
Can you hear the bass?
 
>
 
>
 
Let's pause it there.
 
Notice also--
>
What's he throwing in against
his basic beat?
>
 
What--what's that?
 
We've talked about it before.
 
We're coming on
>
one, two, one and two and one
and two and
>.
 
What's that?
 
Triplets? Okay?
 
So we talked about that before.
 
So here he's making this more
complicated rhythmically by not
only using hemiola and
syncopation, but also threes
against twos simultaneously.
 
He's throwing in some triplets
in the melody up above.
Okay.
 
Let's continue just a bit more.
 
>
 
So at this point you say,
"What the heck happened to
my theme?
 
I--" >
 
"I don't remember that at
all.
I've--"
We've sort of lost track of
that as this ostinato bass keeps
grinding away underneath.
But gradually what he does is
take that ostinato and move it
up in to the upper part of the
register of the orchestra and
then gradually make this
transform back into the theme,
sort of magically transform
itself back into the theme.
 
 
>
 
It sounds very confused,
but if you listen to the upper
register you can hear the--
>
--and then >
the theme is coming back in the
upper woodwinds,
>
 
on pedal point.
 
Okay.
 
So now you think the piece is
over, slowing the tempo way
down, >
the sound diminishes,
could end it right here.
>
 
And that last little bit at the
end, of course,
is called the--
Student: Coda.
Prof: Coda, right. Okay?
 
So he--once again with theme
and variations if you don't give
the audience a coda,
they're expecting the next
variation to begin.
 
So you got to throw in that
coda so that everybody knows,
hey, that really was the
end--no fooling.
Questions about that?
 
So that's Brahms's
Variations on a Theme by
Haydn and it's--
I can't say it's a beautiful
piece but it's a very serious
piece but it's a good piece for
you.
 
This is a very serious group
this year.
I'm impressed with the
seriousness with which you show
up here and that you take this
I--
sometimes I see that you're
actually much more interested in
the classical stuff that we're
doing than in the pop stuff,
which is not always the case
over the years,
working with Yale
undergraduates.
Okay. A question.
 
Yes, Daniel.
 
Student: Is his
variation theme always on an A B
C B?
 
Prof: Yes.
 
One--however disguised it is,
how--the question is:
is the framework of the theme
always this A B C B business?
No matter how far he goes
melodically from the original
pattern and how complex in terms
of counterpoint and rhythmic
permutations he becomes,
it still is dropped within this
same framework of the A B C B--
although admittedly it's pretty
difficult to hear sometimes.
 
Yeah, David.
 
Student: Michael.
 
Prof: Michael. Sorry.
 
Student: That's what
Brahms >
Prof: That--I--that is
just with this piece here.
You can work with other
composers, Rachmanioff's
Variations on a theme of
Pagainif,
for example where the length of
the variations will become very
different and it'll be--
it won't be sort of,
as I like to say,
boxcar-like as this arrangement.
This is still boxcar-like even
though it's very diversified in
terms of what's put in and on
those boxcars.
Two good questions there.
 
Thanks.
 
All right.
 
Having finished theme and
variations for the moment,
let's go on to talk about
rondo, r-o-n-d-o,
rondo.
 
Is that really true?
 
Well, it goes by a couple of
different names.
The English call it rondo form.
 
The Germans call it rondo form
and Mozart wrote--and I've
looked at a lot of his
autographs--wanted to write
rondo and he spelled it
r-o-n-d-o.
Si nous allions en France,
on y va dire
"rondeau"--
"C'est une rondeau,
monsieur"--
but if you go to Italy they
would call it the
"ritornello."
Locciamo ritornello.
 
I love--these Latinate
languages are so wonderful,
aren't they,
the way they play with the
vowels--ritornello.
 
So it's the same idea.
 
A rondo,
a rondeau,
and a ritornello,
it's the same principle.
And oddly the principle
develops right out of the thing
that we were talking about and
that Frederick introduced us
to--the idea of verse and
chorus.
Because what's involved here is
really one musical concept--one
big theme coming back again and
again and again.
And this goes all the way back
to the Middle Ages where they
would have soloists singing new
verses and then everybody would
sing the chorus,
and the thing that we all
remember is the chorus.
 
That's the big-ticket item.
 
That's the thing that everybody
is doing.
So that's the thing that keeps
coming back again and again and
again.
 
So this, in an odd way,
I think is the easiest of these
forms to remember.
 
If you hear some music where
you get music and then something
else and then hit in the face
with that same music again,
then something else,
and then you get hit in the
face with that same music again
and then something else and then
the same music again that's
probably rondo form.
And you can give it these
different names in different
languages but the idea is the
same and as I suggest it's
primordial.
 
I think on your sheet to show
you how primordial it is,
I even gave you the text of a
rondo by Guillaume Du Fay
(1397-1474) that goes all the
way back in to the fifteenth
century.
 
We don't have to go back that
far and you can see we'll end up
today with a rondo by Sting so
this has been around for a long
time--
this particular form.
Let's--yeah--have an
introduction to it by listening
to a reasonably well-known piece
by Jean-Joseph Mouret,
who was a composer in residence
at the court of King Louis the
Fifteenth at Versailles,
and in Paris,
in the early years of the
eighteenth century.
You probably know this music
because for years it was the
background theme of the
introductory material for
"Masterpiece Theatre"
on public television.
So let's listen to a bit of
this.
And let me take this material
off and we'll chart here and
I'll ask you what the meter of
this is--
what the meter--and how many
measures of our refrain--
our main theme,
what we'll call "A"
here--
how many measures we have in
our theme.
 
>
 
Two. Okay.
 
>
 
Okay. Let's stop it there.
 
So what'd you think about that?
 
What's the meter?
 
Well, I kind of gave that away.
 
Sometimes when you listen to
music you can't stop yourself.
It's like the end of
"Doctor Strangelove."
Did you ever see that movie?
 
So yeah, it's a piece in duple
meter.
How many measures did we have
in our theme?
How many measures did we count
there?
Well, listen to it--let's
listen to it again,
right back to the beginning I
guess, Lynda.
>
 
So what do you think?
 
Eight? All right.
 
Let's put eight up here and
let's listen again now.
Just continue, please.
 
>
 
And we're going to stop it
there.
We had how many there?
 
Student: Eight.
 
Prof: Eight again.
 
So everything is always fours
and eights in music?
No, not exactly.
 
If you start--we're counting
measures there in the Brahms.
His theme sometimes has five
measures in those sections,
but this one happens to be
different and more common--
eight plus eight,
and actually in reality here
this is just slightly different
than the first eight.
The ending of it is slightly
different from the first eight.
So there we are.
 
We've got our refrain or our
theme in place,
our big A idea.
 
Now let's go on to the next
material.
>
 
Let's stop it there.
 
How many bars did we have there?
 
Well, eight again. Okay?
 
So we could call the--,
>
a different sort of rhythm
there.
We could call this a B idea or
we could even call it an X,
the--something different,
and that lasted for eight bars.
Back it up just a couple
of--Lynda if you would,
please, so we can get back in
to that B and then we'll go on
to the next A.
 
>
 
That's okay.
 
>
 
So here we are with our B.
 
>
 
Okay. Let's stop it there.
 
So what happened to our A this
time?
How long was it?
 
It was still eight.
 
Did we get it again, though?
 
No.
 
We got just one statement of
it.
Why didn't we get it again?
 
Well, maybe he didn't need to
give it to us again.
Ever watch television
commercials when they first come
on, and then what happens to
these commercials a couple of
months later?
 
What do they do?
 
>
 
Yeah, they shorten them.
 
They'll run a sixty-minute
version of it,
then a--sixty minutes.
 
That'd be interminable.
 
A sixty-second version,
then a thirty-second version.
You
psychologically--subliminally,
you'll--you're filling in the
missing information.
So keep an eye out for that
kind of thing,
and composers do that too.
 
They know it,
well, we've heard this a fair
amount.
 
Well, we'll give the
psychological force of the whole
thing but really just give it to
them in half.
Okay.
 
 
 
>
 
Okay. Here we got to count now.
 
>
 
Two, two, three, two, four .
 
>
 
So let's pause there.
 
How long was that section?
 
Student: Twenty?
 
Prof: Twenty.
 
Yeah, twenty bars there.
 
It was a long run of other
material.
And then as you can hear here
our A theme is coming back.
Let's see if we get it repeated.
 
Just continue.
 
>
 
Was there a coda there?
 
No.
 
How did this particular group
of performers make the piece
sound as if it were ending?
 
Daniel or Angela is it?
 
Yeah.
 
Student:
>
Prof: He retarded--
>
--slowed it way down,
so you know,
that's another way of getting a
sense of end here rather than
throwing on some extra bricks to
say the thing has concluded
harmonically.
 
All right. So that's one rondo.
 
Let's go on to a more
sophisticated rondo.
We're going to go on to one by
Vivaldi here.
Now this is in ritornello form
as you'll see when you read the
textbook, but the principle is
the same.
We have a theme that keeps
coming back again and again and
again, and you all know this
theme.
You've probably heard it at
Starbucks or Au bon Pain eight
zillion times.
 
Right?
 
Anybody sing it?
 
Anybody remember what the
Vivaldi "Spring
Concerto"
sounds like?
Okay.
 
Angela's on a roll this morning
so nice and loud.
Don't be shy there.
 
Student:
>
Prof: Good.
 
Okay.
 
>
 
Then we have a second idea,
>
so here it's kind of our main
theme here,
really kind of two ideas,
A and B, but we're going to
just for the sake of argument
here just call this "big
A" here.
 
Okay.
 
So that's the theme so let's
listen to a bit of this.
Well, no.
 
We don't even have to listen to
this because Angela has given us
the ritornello.
 
So let's go on to the first X
here.
We've got something else coming
in, and it's Vivaldi's attempt
to write birds chirping away on
a beautiful spring morning.
So let's listen to the birds
here.
>
 
After the birds chirp,
we get our A coming back so
let's listen to our A come back
here.
>
 
Okay.
 
So now we're taking a walk
through a beautiful forest in
this spring day and we see a
babbling brook and the brook is
foaming,
surging away,
so that's what we've got here.
 
>
 
>
 
So what was that that we just
heard?
>
 
Was that something else or was
that our ritornello?
Jerry, nice and loud.
 
Student:
>
Prof: Okay.
 
That was my next question.
 
You've jumped to it.
 
So it was the ritornello.
 
And my next question is:
but what was different about
that ritornello?
 
Well, the first time we had it
>.
Now we're getting
>.
It's in a lower key so we've
had a modulation.
This is actually down on the
dominant.
We don't need to know that.
 
We don't need to know whether
it's tonic or dominant,
but I think it would be good if
we heard that as just a little
bit different.
 
It's lower, maybe a little
darker than the brighter sound
up above.
 
So we had that and now let's
see what happens.
Doesn't a storm come up and
sort of threaten us here in the
beautiful forest?
 
>
 
Lots of tremolo,
lots of agitation,
>
 
>
 
Now what happens?
 
>
 
Okay. We'll stop there.
 
Yes, that was our ritornello
coming back--our theme coming
back--but how was it different?
 
Okay. Yeah, it was in minor.
 
>
 
>
 
So it had changed key again.
 
And again, we don't need to
know what key it went to.
If you were a betting man in
Las Vegas or a betting woman in
Las Vegas, what would you say it
went to?
The relative minor,
because about half of the time
that's what they do.
 
And indeed in this particular
case it went just three half
steps down,
to the relative minor,
but hearing that it went to the
minor is all we're after here.
So this was in a minor key here
and then on it goes.
We needn't play this out to the
end.
It gives you a sense of how
ritornello form can
inform this particular
rondo.
Let's turn to another one by
Mozart here.
Yeah, I think we've got time
for that.
Take this off.
 
So it's a horn concerto by
Mozart written in the eighteen
seventies,
and we're just going to start
it out here and we're going to
hear the first theme.
>
 
It's the basis of Listening
Exercise twenty-six,
which we'll get to in a week or
so.
>
 
Okay. Let's stop there.
 
Why is this an easy theme to
remember?
Because it's full of
>.
It's a lot of notes right on
the same pitch,
>
 
and it actually starts dominant
>
and sort of goes along like
that, so we keep a mental graph
of this with our X's.
 
Now, in a second--and then the
orchestra repeated this.
Then in a second,
the B theme is going to come in
and it's going to be very
different.
>
 
What's that?
 
Arpeggio. Okay?
 
So instead of using repeated
pitches, we mark the B section
of this by the use of lots of
leaps here.
So we're going to have lots of
space between our Xs.
>
 
And then it's going to have a
couple of different motifs in
here, but they're all very
skippy;
they're all very disjunct.
 
And it's these disjunct leaps
that mark the B section.
So let's just continue.
 
>
 
More jumps.
 
>
 
Now listen to the bass here.
 
We've got another pedal point,
>
sitting on the dominant,
>
>
 
What's this?
 
>
 
This is our theme A coming back.
 
>
 
Okay.
 
We're going to stop it here.
 
So here we are at this
particular juncture.
Notice: each time the French
horn plays the theme;
then the orchestra repeats it.
 
Now as we go in to this section
we'll get a new theme.
It's C and it will be marked by
an interesting development.
>
 
What's happened to the mode?
 
>
 
So what happened to the piece
there?
>
 
Changed to minor--so we're
moving fast here.
We're doing all this in just
one hearing.
So there we are--our C section
is marked by minor.
So let's continue.
 
>
 
Rising sequence here,
melodic sequence.
>
 
Now falling sequence.
 
>
 
Now a step lower >
and a step lower yet again
>
and then A snakes in,
>
repeated by the orchestra
>
and here come our jumps,
so we are back to B.
>
 
A little deceptive cadence
there.
>
 
Let's pause it right there.
 
Sing the next pitch.
 
>
 
Not only >
 
but that somebody started
singing >.
You know what's happening next.
 
He's set you with this big,
long dominant pause
>
 
and off it goes.
 
>
 
Now this we--we have had our A
and the orchestral repeat of it,
but we haven't heard this kind
of stuff before.
What would you imagine's
going--what is this we're
listening to now?
 
Coda, I'm moving things along
here, so we have a coda and
notice that down--I forget the
particular key.
>
 
And Mozart is working through
the "Duke of Earl"
harmony once again in this
particular section.
So let's listen to a bit of
that.
>
 
And this is just filler,
arpeggiatic filler here.
>
 
So that's our coda again to
show us that the piece is at an
end.
 
You can end your rondo in a
couple of ways,
but the point here is:
notice the form that has been
created by Mozart and again,
it is timeless.
I think we have time now to
show a slide,
and Jason isn't here today.
 
I wanted him to do this.
 
I think I can turn this on
myself though,
and we're going to listen to--
>
Okay.
 
So let's stop that just for a
moment.
What do I have up here on the
board?
Anybody ever seen this before?
 
Anybody been there?
 
Where would you imagine it is?
 
In France at the Chateau de
Chambord, C-h-a-m-b-o-r-d.
I took this leaning out of a
bus.
And you can see over on the
left, we have one idea,
the A idea, contrasting idea,
return to the A idea,
a largely contrasting idea here
in the middle,
return to your central concept,
a contrast here that matches
this contrast over there,
and then the central idea at
the end.
 
It's in--exactly in one of
these palindromic,
A, B, A, C, A,
B, A form--the same thing that
you get here in the Mozart horn
concerto and the same thing that
Sting and the Police have
programmed into their particular
rondo.
 
You've got the sheets on this.
 
Maybe I'll turn the lights back
on 'cause we don't need to see
that anymore.
 
 
 
So let's listen to--we--I'll
just tell you we've got this
initial idea.
 
>
 
Where is he--what key is he in?
 
A-- >
 
Once again I,
VI, IV, V, I,--"Duke of
Earl" stuff,
but interestingly enough,
here >
--half the time he doesn't come
back.
>
 
He goes >
, which is what?
 
A deceptive cadence!
 
>
 
So he alternates here between
authentic cadences and deceptive
cadences.
 
So we'll listen to a little bit
of it and if we run out of time
then we'll stop.
 
>
 
There's the VI, IV, V.
 
There's the VI deceptive
cadence.
>
 
I, VI, IV, V,
I.
>
 
Yeah, we gotta stop it here or
the copyright people will be all
over us.
 
Then it goes on to the B
section, "Oh,
can't you see,"
and for that we have a
different chord,
>
"That you belong to me,
my poor heart breaks,"
>.
 
Okay.
 
We can continue to play now.
 
>
 
That's this section.
 
>
 
All right.
 
Let's move it up to the next A.
 
I want to get to C.
 
Tell you what. Go straight to C.
 
This is pretty cool what he
does here.
He's in this particular key
>
and he gives us this sound,
>
kind of a shocking chord change
right in the middle of the
piece.
 
It's kind of what we would call
a flat seventh degree.
Let's see if we can hear this
tonal shock and then we'll stop.
>
 
Then he jumps back to the tonic
>
and from there on out he's just
running the I,
VI, IV, V, I instrumentally in
this section.
Then the B section comes back
and the A section at the end
>
 
so that's it.
 
I think we're out of time.
 
And I thank you for staying
over a bit and we'll see you on
Thursday.
 
>
 
 
 
