Assignment for Monday, October 1, 2012

Please download the first movement of Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 23 in A Major, here. Also, after printing it out, please number the bars, so we all know where we are when we talk about the piece.

Concerto form is related to sonata form but it is a little different; the main difference is the presence of a ritornello, which reappears throughout the movement. In K. 488, the ritornello first appears in bars 18-30. The other big difference is that the exposition appears twice: first in the orchestra, as an introduction; then with the soloist.

Keeping these two big things in mind, analyze the movement with Roman numerals and with formal labels. It's OK to move to more of a "forest view" for this movement, by which I mean you don't need to analyze every single chord. But if I ask what a chord is, you should be able to tell me! What I often do is scan through the piece, listening to it in my head (or with a recording); I listen to the harmony (mostly tonic, predominant, dominant) without labeling too much. When I notice something unusual, like a modulation, deceptive cadence, augmented sixth, etc., I stop and try to figure it out.

When I first started analyzing classical music, I didn't know much about form beyond what we all learn in 1st and 2nd year theory; so now I am on the lookout for sentences, periods, and their various hybrids; standing on the dominant as well (although that is usually pretty easy to spot). Finally - this is our first transposing score, with clarinets and horns in A; they both sound a minor third lower than written. Or in other words: if it sees a C, it plays its key (which in this case is A).