Music Essay - 2nd Movements/Slow Movements

What 12 symphonies are relevant for this topic?

1. 1750 - Stamitz No. 2 in D major

2. 1773 - Mozart No. 41

3. 1795 - Haydn Symphony No. 104

4. 1804 - Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 ‘Eroica’ in Eb

5. 1822-24 - Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 in D ‘Choral’

6. 1830 - Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique

7. 1833 - Mendelssohn No. 4:

8. 1888 - Mahler Symphony No. 1 in D

9. 1888 - Rimsky-Korsakov Sheherazade

10. 1893 - Dvorak Symphony No. 9:

11. 1893 - Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 6

12. 1893-4 - Mahler No. 2:

What are the 2 elements of Stamitz’s 2nd Symphony that are relevant to 2nd/slow movements?

• Loose rounded binary form (but with no repeats)

• Relaxed andante in subdominant (typical classical period - later composers wrote slower/more impassioned Adagio 2nd movements)

What are the 5 elements of Mozart’s No. 41 (1773) that are relevant to 2nd/slow movements?

• A typical mature Classical Andante second movement

• In sonata form with a lyrical tune that gets decorated with embellishments and counter melodies.

• Has reduced instrumentation, leaving out the trumpets and timpani.

• In the more relaxed subdominant key of F major.

• The lyrical beauty of the opening theme is interrupted by a suddenly loud passage in the minor (as in Mozart’s final symphonies and Haydn 104)

What are the ? elements of Haydn’s No. 104 (1795) that are relevant to 2nd/slow movements?

• Second movement in G major (the subdominant of the home key of D), requiring reduced instrumentation because neither timpani nor brass could play in the key of G major without being retuned or changing crooks

• In ternary form or theme and variations form - typical of Haydn’s London Symphonies, but quite unusual for Classical Era music in general

• Ternary Form (Section A: Bars 1-37, Section B: Bars 38-73, Section A: 74-152)

• Monothematic - utilises the theme first heard in bars 1-8 throughout the movement

• Some elements reminiscent of the first movement (e.g. intervallic melodies and double dotted rhythms)

• Theme is made up of intervallic ideas (2nds and 5ths) as in bars 1-2

What are 2 elements of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 (1804) that are relevant to 2nd/slow movements?

• This very slow and sombre funeral march is very different in tone to the Andante movements more typical of Haydn and Mozart’s 2nd Movements

• It is in an expanded ternary form with considerable development, with a brief B section in C major

What are 3 elements of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 (1822-24) that are relevant to 2nd movements?

• Beethoven puts a scherzo in his 2nd movement instead of his 3rd

• Beethoven expands the perfect 5th to an octave to start his 2nd movement

• A scherzo theme finally runs into a trio section reminiscent of nature before the scherzo breaks onto the scene and the movement ends with a final snapshot of the trio

What are 5 elements of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 (1804) that are relevant to slow movements?

• Beethoven writes his slow movement as the 3rd movement

• It is a very beautiful, heartfelt, intimate hymn reflecting the beauty of nature

• Unexpectedly, brass enters in in a totally different key before returning to his original key

• The apex of the symphony, introducing us to the reality of Beethoven’s personality

• Has several false endings

What are 5 elements of Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique (1830) that are relevant to 2nd/slow movements?

• 2nd movement is dance movement and third movement is slow movement

• The second movement of the symphony is the equivalent of the minuet/scherzo and in this programmatic piece, it represents a waltz where the artist sees his beloved

• 2 harps dominate the texture in the beginning of the movement

• Berlioz combines the original waltz movement with the idee fixe from the first movement

What are 5 elements of Mendlessohn’s No. 4 (1833) that are relevant to 2nd/slow movements?

What are 4 elements of Mahler’s No. 1 (1888) that are relevant to 2nd/slow movements?

• Effectively 2 slow movements in this symphony, the second movement (an Andante) and a fourth movement

• Modified minuet and trio (replaces an earlier movement titled Blumine which was removed)

• Mahler replaces the minuet with a ländler, a ¾ dance-form that was a precursor to the Viennese waltz (a frequently-used structure in Mahler's other symphonies, as well as Franz Schubert's)

• The main melody outlines an A major chord with a secondary subject based on the Blumine melody, but phrased in ¾ time as opposed to 6/8

What are 4 elements of Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade (1888) that are relevant to 2nd/slow movements?

• Ternary theme and variation

• Variations only change by virtue of the accompaniment

• Inside the general melodic line, a fast section highlights changes of tonality and structure

• Theme is made up of a curling bassoon melody supported by 4 double basses which is passed around the woodwinds before more dramatic events intervene

What are 5 elements of Dvorak Symphony No. 9 (1893) that are relevant to 2nd/slow movements?

• Slow and nostalgic

• Starts with an extraordinary chord progression the modulates to the Db

• major of the main idea

• The subsequent theme for Cor Anglais is very soulful and reminiscent of spirituals

• The middle section is much more lively

What are 4 elements of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6 (1893) that are relevant to 2nd/slow movements?

• A waltz

• Allegro con grazia

• Gracefully dance-like, though being in the irregularly used 5/4 meter

• These pages of almost interrupted rapture serve perfectly for offsetting the grimmer tensions of the first movement.

What are 3 elements of Mahler’s No. 2 (1893) that are relevant to 2nd/slow movements?

• A gentle ländler, a sort of rustic Austrian folk minuet

• Its lyricism is interrupted twice by suggestions that death is still with us.

• Mahler wrote that the Andante second movement was like a memory of a happy moment. It is like a Landler (sometimes found in third movements) and has a delicate sense of innocence. The form is very simple as the Landler idea is alternated with two contrasting ideas in the form ABACA.