Mozart: an analysis of the 2nd and 3rd movement of the Symphony K550
Second movement: Andante
In case you don’t have it at hand, here’s a quick link to the score.
“The key of passionate grief” that dominates 3 out of 4 movements of the symphony – G minor – leaves room here to the warm and regal key of Eb major.
This movement has a constant pulse of eight notes: it’s the beating heart of the piece. In my imagination, I also picture it as a king entering a hall full of courtesans, respectfully bowing with elegance.
Exposition
The tempo marking is Andante which means, literally, going, or moving. This gives you the idea of not too slow of a tempo. The first phrase is a perfectly balanced 8 bars phrase, split exactly in half. The beating heart starts in the violas
followed by the 2nd violins one bar later, then the first, and finally the horns, unfolding one bar after the other.
Look at harmonic wonders: we start on Eb major obviously. The Eb is held by the violas in the second bar its function changes becoming a 7th built of the second step of the Eb major scale. But that 7th is missing the 3rd, the C, which comes first as a Cb in the cellos and basses and then as a C natural, leading us into the dominant seventh of the following bar which then resolves on the tonic.
The second half of the phrase is a sequence of elegant reverences. It also includes the first appearance of an element that will be used times and again throughout the entire movement
Technical tip
The tempo is where it gets tricky: the phrase is obviously in 2. But, conducting-wise it’s quite a slow 2 and could become quite unclear in many passages. You could do it all in 6, but that would either result in quite a slow tempo, defeating the phrasing; or it will inevitably slow down throughout the movement.
What you need to have is a mix of 2 and 6: the general stroke is in 2 but the inner pulses will ensure clarity for the players.
Watch the video to see where the pulsing occurs.
For a full technical analysis of the 4th movement, look up the video in the repertoire section
Oops...
This content is available for free with all memberships.
Already a member? Login here.
Not a member yet? Subscribe today and get access to more than 80 videos, scores analysis, technical episodes, and exercises.
Development
The pulsing rhythm begins the development moving half a step up to an Ab minor chord. The rhythm alternates with the small 32nds cell: tension and release.
That doesn’t last long: the tension is now built by the 2 elements overlapping one another and by the use of 2 bars model which is taken one step higher each time
A chromatic scale of 3 bars takes us to a false reprise of the first theme. But Mozart needs another 5 bars to balance the phrase. They come in the form of the beating heart idea plus the chromatism on top. To this, the 32nds element is added starting on the 3rd bar.
Recapitulation
More than being cut short, the recapitulation is a wonderful example of how Mozart can reorder parts of his own music without losing the logical thread of it. The recapitulation starts as expected but on bar 86 we are already presented with the second idea.
It looks like a regular shortened recapitulation. But 3 of the cut bars – 13 to 15 in the exposition – come back and bridge to the corresponding section of bar 26. It’s a wonderful example of Mozart’s ability to reuse the exact same material in different ways.
Third movement: Minuetto – Allegretto
The 3rd movement is a classic Menuet. It’s a dance, not too fast as hinted by the tempo marking: Allegretto. We are back in the G minor key. The interesting thing right away is the overlapping of ternary and binary rhythms: the bass line is clearly on 3 pulses per bar. But in the top line Mozart moves the barline with a motive that places the accent every other beat. Over 2 bars that still equals to 3.
The model is repeated twice. The first time moves up to the 3rd of G minor – the Bb. The second time it’s back on G but the harmony underneath starts from the 6th of the scale – the Eb – modulating to the dominant, the D.
The action is reversed in the second part: we start at the top and come down a third each time. The 4 eighth notes forming part of the motivic cell are reused to bridge each reiteration of the model in a downward arpeggio, underlining the direction of the phrase
Those same 4 notes tighten up the line leading to the first idea played out in a canon, completely disorienting the listener for a few measures
The balance is restored and the same motive ends the first section in piano. Notice how beautiful that chromatic scale in the bassoon is
Trio
By the book, the trio is the other side of the coin: G major. Only the violins are playing, delicately but in the warm mid-low register.
Lower strings interject with one single note, like a question mark, and the phrase is closed by those same 4 notes we heard in the first section
The conversation is passed on to the oboes answered by the flute and then bassoon
The strings take over again closing the first part of the trio with a doubling of the oboe.
The second part starts with a more masculine-feminine contrast: cellos and basses ask the question and the woodwinds answer
It’s a very short conversation of only 8 bars before going back to the main motive of the trio. This time the violins are joined by the horns
And we’re ready to go back to the beginning of the Menuet.
In conclusion
This concludes the analysis of the 2nd and 3rd movement of this symphony. You can find the first one over here while the last movement of the symphony is the subject of the bonus episode on Patreon, with particular attention to the technical analysis.
0 Comments