Please help me understand this. Thank you in advance.
Screenshot attached.
From Mozart's "Hafner" Serenade (K 250 ), Andante (2).
In measure 8, the harmony is A7b9 / Bb.
My current understanding is that A7b9 "should" function as a pre-dominant to D minor.
Yet the next measure is D Major. And it sounds magnificent.
I have changed the F# to F (D minor) in measure 9, and it does not have the melodic quality inherent in that passage.
Should I understand that a V7alt. -when in a pre-dominant function in a classical piece- is not always bound by post-modern music theory?
And that the "chromatic" movement (A7b9 / Bb [as a V7/V] to D MAJOR) is actually not uncommon?
Hopefully this will help me analyze other Mozart pieces, where his chromatics are daunting.
-
1Btw, Gary, I wonder where you found this edition. It's full of mistakes. If the horns really are in F, these bars sound awful! Their bar 9 would work if they were in horns in C, but then their bar ten would need to be written a tone higher. Shouldn't they BOTH play bar nine? If not there should be a rest for one of them. Why are 1st and 2nd flutes swapped? Likewise the bassoons. The first C natural in the flutes should be a semiquaver. Flutes and strings should all have slurs over that dotted figure: Dee-a dum: not Tum ti tum.– Old BrixtonianJul 2 at 11:01
-
(Smiling) Excellent! The mistakes are all mine. I was playing with graphical software and slapped the measures together in a minute to provide a visual. I should have put the just the Strings, for that is the passage where the harmony baffled me. (Another typo of mine: the measure marked 9 is actually measure 8....). I am using the following link to formally analyze the piece, (page 33): archives.nyphil.org/index.php/artifact/…– Gary AndrewsJul 2 at 14:08
-
Ha! When you said "it sounds magnificent", I looked at it and thought, "It doesn't sound THAT good!!" Yeah - just the strings would have worked :-) That looks like an interesting site, btw.– Old BrixtonianJul 2 at 16:20
-
:-)Thank you for your assistance. I'll need more of it over the summer. I'm brand new here. That was my first question. Can I somehow include you in a future request for assistance with theory?– Gary AndrewsJul 2 at 20:21
-
Welcome to the group, Gary! You can't ask a specific person a question, but you could write a comment to your question and include an 'at'-sign, followed by a user's handle (e.g. @Old Brixtonian). This alerts that person and draws their attention to your question.– Old BrixtonianJul 3 at 3:13
2 Answers
It's not unusual for a dominant chord to move to either the major or minor (relative) tonic chord, even in the presence of the chordal b9, which can be justified through modal mixture. Consider that even the presence of the leading tone in minor is the result of an alteration.
In this case, since D major is itself the dominant, that's where Mozart wants to be. D minor would serve a different function.
-
This answer is concise, and explained three key aspects of the chordal situation clearly. Your response is very much appreciated. Thank you. Jul 1 at 20:41
Perhaps the more interesting question is how Mozart works B♭ into the eighth bar of a movement in G major. That the phrase ends with a V-I cadence in the tonic, therefore using a D major chord, is not at all surprising.
First, I disagree with the analysis of A7♭9. The A appears only in the second beat of the measure as a passing tone. It isn't structural. A more natural analysis is C♯º7/B♭, so it's the third inversion of viiº7/V.
This is also a pre-dominant harmony, of course; the main difference with this analysis is that it relegates A to a less important role. It's also expressed in terms more favored by classical theory, but that is not particularly critical here.
It also doesn't answer the question. To do so, let's analyze the whole phrase. In the first five measures, the harmonic rhythm is slow. The harmony changes every two measures. We have six beats of G major, six beats of D7, and a cadence on G major. In the sixth bar, the harmonic rhythm changes: there is a new harmony on each beat:
G - C/E - G/D - A7/C♯ - F♯ø7/C♮ - G/B - C♯º7/B♭ - A - C♯º7/G - D/F♯ - D7/F♯
In Roman numerals, that's
I - IV6 - I(6/4) - V(6/5)/V - vii(4/3) - I6 - vii(4/2)/V - V/V - vii(4/3)/V - V6 - V(6/5)
There are two things of note. The first is easier to see in the chord/bass analysis, which is the descending bass line G-E-D-C♯-C♮-B-B♭-A-G-F♯. This helps to explain how Mozart introduces the B♭. The second is increased instability and ambiguity of the harmonies in the passage where the harmonic rhythm is faster. You could argue a bit about it; for example, you could analyze the progression from the third or fourth chord relative to the dominant, in which case the fifth and sixth chords are not vii(4/3) and I6 but vii(4/3)/IV (of V) and IV6 (of V). This gives us a progression of
[G maj:] I - IV6 - I(6/4) (= D maj: IV(6/4))
[D maj:] V(6/5) - vii(4/3)/IV - IV6 - vii(4/2) - V - vii(4/3) - I6 (= G maj: V6)
[G maj:] V(6/5)
When you look at it this way, you see that the progression has the standard functional pattern of movement to subdominant to dominant to tonic.
In any event, the C♯º7 chord has a secondary dominant function as you correctly note. I would suggest, however, that thinking of it as the dominant of D minor is slightly off the mark; it's better to continue to think of it as a pre-dominant. Since it has a B♭, you can think of it as a pre-dominant "borrowed" from the parallel minor key of G minor. After all, this passage still makes musical sense and still sounds like Mozart if we use B♮s instead of B♭s.
Looking at it this way, we can say that the B♭ is a feint toward G minor, not D minor. But since we have to go through the dominant of D major (especially D7), we're not fully committed to G minor, and in fact when we leave D for G, we go to G major instead, back to the home tonality.
As a postscript, this use of the fully diminished seventh chord to introduce the dissonance and tension of minor tonality into major-key music is fairly common. The first thing I thought of was the Recordare from Mozart's Requiem, but of course Bach also loved his diminished seventh chords, and, sure enough, there are several in the first prelude from the Well-Tempered Clavier. Those in measures 12 and 14 are, in particular, part of a similar chromatic descent.
-
Just read this. My sincere gratitude, Phoog. I must take some quiet time and study your much deeper analysis ( "...The A appears only in the second beat of the measure as a passing tone. It isn't structural..."). That caught any attention immediately. It's a Holiday weekend here. But I am looking forward to diving into it as soon as I can. Jul 3 at 20:05
-
BTW: Don't know if you caught this from me in another reply: ""The mistakes [in the graphic] are all mine. I was playing with graphical software and slapped the measures together in a minute to provide a visual. I should have put the just the Strings, for that is the passage where the harmony baffled me...."" I am using the following link to formally analyze the piece: archives.nyphil.org/index.php/artifact/… - Again: Thank you. Jul 3 at 20:06
-
@GaryAndrews I did notice that but was working from a different score so didn't pay much attention. Functionally, the A major is also a secondary dominant to D major-or-minor (it shares with the C♯º7 the two common tones of C♯ and E), so it's not really critical whether you count it as a structural chord (in which case the harmonic rhythm remains in quarter notes) or a passing harmony (in which case the harmonic rhythm has slowed down to the measure). I am leaning toward the second option, but in any event A7♭9 seems wrong: it implies that A and B♭ sound simultaneously, which they don't.– phoogJul 4 at 8:44
-
"....the descending bass line G-E-D-C♯-C♮-B-B♭-A-G-F♯. This helps to explain how Mozart introduces the B♭. " Indeed. I missed going up an Octave (B♭) on the weak beat before continuing downward. To me, this chromatic line harmony is captivating, as is the harmony in Lacyrmosa (Requiem). Lastly: "you can think of it as a pre-dominant "borrowed" from the parallel minor key of G minor. After all, this passage still makes musical sense and still sounds like Mozart if we use B♮s instead of B♭s." Yup. Your analysis will surely help my future studies. Now on to the Prelude in Bach's WTC.... Jul 8 at 14:29
-
@GaryAndrews I'd be curious to know what you make of the passage where the bass goes F-F♯-A♭-G (where someone later added an extra measure in the middle, accounting for its inclusion in Gounod's Ave Maria). I've never been satisfied with any Roman numeral analysis of this progression, which helped to lead me to the conclusion that although RNA is a useful tool for analyzing Bach's music, one should not be surprised that it breaks down in some places because it is after all anachronistic.– phoogJul 8 at 16:20