Who knows whats happening in this score?

Question

Ran into some confusion when trying to work out the harmony of this keyboard piece, I have labelled the problem bars, '3, 4 and 5'.

In the second half of this piece, we seem to rolling through the circle of fifths starting from DMajor. We go through A7-D7-G7, and resolve on CM in 'bar' 4.

Shortly after in the same bar, an F sharp is reintroduced (the home key of the piece is G major), which leads to a tied G, which immediately made me think we were heading back to G major. However, along with the 'resolution' note G, there is an A in the bass and a C at the top of the melody. I have tried looking at this from various angles but still no luck.

So, does anybody know whats going on here?

Any help very gratefully received!

Ed

Answer 1

Here's my "solution" to the exercise.

X: 1
T: Hummel exercise
M: 3/8
L: 1/8
K: Gmaj
%%score (V1 V2) V3
[V:V1] ||d| DFA   | A z e  | ABc  | d z d  | G  A2  | B2 c | d e2- | ed z  |
[V:V2] ||x| x3    | x3     | F3   | =F z z | E2 ^F- | F G2-| G2 A  | G^F z |
[V:V3 clef=bass]
       ||z| z z D | ^CB,A, | =CDA,| G,A,B, | C3     | D2 A,| B,C^C|D z D,, |

This agrees with your "circle of fifths" answer (note: your D7 should be F#o, but same function), making use of what amounts to a series of parallel thirds in mm. 5-6.

Answer 2

Are you saying that bar 4 is C minor from your post? It’s an e natural rather than a flat so if it implies a C chord it would be a major rather than a minor. Given the piece is in Gmajor would an E and a G not be likely to imply an E minor with the F sharp acting as the 9th over that chord?

The end of bar 5 also appears to conclude with an A in the bass clef and a C in the treble clef which would imply an Aminor rather than A7

If so the chords would G7, Em (relative minor of G), Am (moving through circle of 4ths from Em), major change to A7, then to D7 (circle of 4ths again)