Melody and Theme

Question 1

1750 - Stamitz Op. 3 No. 2

Answer 1

• Mannheim symphonies tend to use very generic material, especially in faster movements that are full of scales and arpeggios that generate excitement rather than memorable melodies.
• Galant music makes use of simple, diatonic material with lots of motivic repetition, like the 3-note idea starting in bar 13 in the 1st movement.
• The last movement starts with a rising arpeggio - a very generic melody idea typical of Galant writing.

Question 2

1778 - Mozart 40

Answer 2

• In the mature classical period music develops motivically 9 particularly in Haydn who uses motifs very intensively) and lyrically (particularly in Mozart’s symphonies).
• Although the melody at the beginning of the 1st movement is constructed from short melodic ideas, the overall effect is of a lyrical melody in which the emphasis is on the broad sweep of each phrase.

Question 3

1791 - Haydn 94

Answer 3

• In the mature classical period music develops motivically 9 particularly in Haydn who uses motifs very intensively) and lyrically (particularly in Mozart’s symphonies).
• Like many of Haydn’s themes, the music is broken up into little motivic units that are repeated and developed intensively.
• The melody is a relentless series of repetitions and developments of the motivic ideas with less emphasis on the longer line.
• In the beginning of the vivace 1st movement, the first 4 bars the music is mostly repetitions and development of a one bar idea.

Question 4

1795 - Haydn 104

Answer 4

• 1st movement is monothematic sonata form, the opening theme repeats in the dominant key in the 2nd subject, but it is fully reorchestrated with a flute and oboe added to the melody.
• The development section of the movement explores the motive of the major second. This same motive then becomes the most important element in Haydn’s rewriting of the recapitulation, where it occupies a prominent position in the horns as part of the transition between the primary and secondary theme, and again at the opening of the coda.

Question 5

1808 - Beethoven 5

Answer 5

• The 4-note opening of this symphony is used relentlessly as a motive both rhythmically and in terms of pitch throughout the rest of the movement.
• The rhythm of the opening theme of the 1st movement can also be heard in the 3rd movement but in crochets rather than quavers. It also appears as an accompanying figure towards the end of the last movement.
• Beethoven’s symphonies are even more intensely motivic than Haydn’s.

Question 6

1824 - Beethoven 9

Answer 6

• In the introduction of the 4th movement the earlier movements are recalled; then the famous ‘Joy’ theme is played first in cellos and double basses alone, next in fuller orchestral settings. Then the movement seems to begin over again and a bass singer sings the ‘Joy’ theme.

Question 7

1830 - Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique

Answer 7

• Both Berlioz and Liszt use motifs in a dramatic context, using them and their transformation to help tell a story.
• 1st movement: Young artist meets and falls in love with his ideal woman, Harriet. Her image is associated with a melodic idea (ideé fixee) that forms the primary theme of the 1st movement.
  The theme erupts and then subsides with a small hairpin crescendos and diminuendos and sudden changes of tempo.
  Nowhere in the symphonic literature before this have we seen such a long main theme with so many radical changes of dynamics and tempo.
• The movement is supposed to depict the storm of emotions that characterised Berlioz’s volcanic emotional attachment to Harriet.
• Midway through the 2nd movement: The ideé fixee is transformed in its meter and rhythm to fit the underlying Waltz theme.
• 3rd movement: The ideé fixee returns in the middle of a section that the program describes as a storm.
  4th movement: The ideé fixee isn’t transformed from the original theme from 1st mov The only alteration is that its been cut off before coming t o a full conclusion.
• 5th movement: Berlioz employs the sound of the E-flat clarinet with trills and grace notes to produce a distortion of the Idee fixee.

Question 8

1854 - Liszt, Les Preludes No. 3

Answer 8

• The 1st movement contains a slow introduction in the key of C major, with a motive.
• This motive is then transformed to make a Primary theme.
• The Primary theme is then itself rhythmically and metrically altered to create the second theme.
• The only new theme in the exposition appears in the horns and closes the exposition in the key of E major.
• In the development of the ‘2nd movement’ the melodic material is derived from the Primary theme of the 2st movement.
• This development than changes tempo and meter again as it moves into a ‘3rd movement’ labelled ‘pastoral.
• The ‘pastoral theme’ that introduces this movement sounds new but contains a small segment of the main notes of the Primary theme from the 1st movement.
• The last movement restates the secondary theme.