Amazing! I'm very tired but at least want to start contributing right away, more to come from day to day. It would be great if we would converge to a consensus view from our individual postings over time. Not sure if someone will bother to read and comment on this long post, but it would be very nice! (I also plan to give Harmosis and allazart's posts a more thorough reading)
Harmosis, good idea to approach the topic from different angles: Allazart analyses "bottom-up" (exactly what I thought of), so your top-down view is a good complement. Sorry what are the acronyms PAC and HC?
In this post, I'm just looking at measures 1-41:-------------------------
Part 1: Summary of tonic centers and modulation techniques (please correct if wrong!):1-22: F-> From F to d minor without modulation, just bei using the Leitton c# (is this technique of changing keys called a displacement/Rückung??)
22-28: d minor-> From d minor to c minor by using the diminished seventh chord B-D-F-Ab which can be heard as V7/9 without basis G in the new key of c minor.
But does this chord also have an interpretation in the "old" key of d minor?29-40: c minor-> From c minor to c major without any modulation whatsoever! Is it easy to use this in own compositions or is there anything to consider?
41-: c major-----------------------------------
Part 2: Harmonic analysis:bars 1-4:
I view bars 1-4 as essentially static F major harmony with an implied F pedal-point (the first LH quaver of each bar) which underpins the harmony and establishes the F major tonality.
I think my view is a bit different (please challenge or correct!):
bar 1: F, heard as the tonic
bar 2: Now it's F7 which suggests the ear to hear this as a dominant. That's a pretty rare harmonic start isn't it?
bar 3: Bb with 5 in the bass (and sixte ajoutee on beat 3). Is it intended that this is heard ambiguously? I mean "ambiguously" in the following way:
For the tonic F, this bar is a clear subdominant.
However, when we hear F7 as a dominant function, Bb would be the tonic. So, the ambiguity in this bar is that it can be heard either as a tonic or as a subdominant function.
bar 4: this resolves the ambiguity in that C7 is heard (even though the C itself does not appear in this bar). The F on beat 1 in the RH is just an appoggiatura (I mean "Vorhalt" in German, hopefully the right translation?). The F in the bass on beat 1 I would agree as a pedal point (to be honest, I don't know how pedal points fit in with harmonic analysis). In summary, I'd think the harmony for this bar is a dominant 7.
Given that the dominant of bar 4 resolves to the tonic F in beat 1 of bar 5, the tonic center of F is now established.
Mozart embellishes this architecture by changing the implied harmony on a one bar rhythm: I - V7/IV - IV6/4 - viio6 and back to I at the start of bar 5.
I guess bar 4 could be considered to be some kind of chord derived from the dominant eleventh but I rather consider it a simple leading tone triad in second inversion over the persistent F pedal.
Sorry, I don't understand this paragraph. It sounds like we have some differences in understanding bars 1-4?
--------------------
Because I'm tired, let me jump directly to
bars 22 to 41, because I don't really understand these and have some questions.
General remark for bars 22-37: It seems to me that in these bars, the use of leading tones (Leitton in German) in the RH melody is quite important for making sense of the harmonic progressions in two places (specifically, the c# in bar 22 and the b at the end of bar 30). I haven't tried so far, but I guess it wouldn't work without the leading tones (?).
The unequivocal reiteration of the F major tonality may be due to what Mozart intends to do next.
Maybe he wanted to contrast the placid stillness of F major with the sudden plunge into d minor that now occurs.
Because at bar 22b the closing figure quickly becomes a transition into a vigorous D minor theme that begins in bar 23.
Sounds good. Until bar 22, we are firmly in F. But in bar 23, we don't hear the d minor as the parallel of F, but rather as the new tonic center (do we?) - even though there is no formal modulation at all. It's just mediated by the use of the c# which is not proper to the F scale and is heard as a leading tone.
After two bars of d minor (as new tonic), bar 25 brings a diminished seventh chord (abbrev. "Dv"). The "natural" Dv chord in a given key/scale builds from the VII of the scale upwards in minor thirds. In d minor it's C#-E-G-Bb. The Dv chord can also be considered a dominant7/9 chord without the basis (in this case, missing A). After two bars of diminished seventh we go back to tonic d minor (with 3 in the bass) in bar 27.
From bar 29 on I'm uncertain and have several questions. In 29 and 30 we have again a diminished seventh chord, but this time NOT the "natural" diminished seventh that comes from piling up minor thirds from the VII (C#). So this chord would NOT be seen as a dominant7/9
relative to d minor without the basis!
So questions regarding this are:
(1)
Can I use any arbitrary diminished seventh chord in any inversion, no matter which is my current tonic center?(2)
Does this chord also have an interpretation in the key of d minor (for example, could I use it in d minor without modulating?), or is its use only justified retrospectively after the new tonic center c minor appears in bar 31?Bars 31 and 32 more precisely: we are in c minor (as new tonic center for a short time) with 3 in the bass. This shows in hindsight that the previous two bars should be heard as the "natural" Dv chord (G missing)-B-D-F-Ab of the key c minor. The leading tone at the end of 30 helps to appreciate c minor as new tonic (?).
Bars 33/34: Ab with 3 in bass: parallel key to the subdominant (relative to c minor as tonic center)
35/36: I don't get this - it sounds like Ab7, but is notated with F# instead of Gb, and I'm sure Mozart has a reason for writing it like this. Moreover, since Ab is parallel to the subdominant, it seems very uncommon to have a minor seventh in a subdominant chord.
Help?!The harmony this time is an augmented sixth and while the treble motive remains the same it plays a more essential harmonic role of providing the important f#.
Or is it just what Allazart writes? However, I'm not familiar with augmented sixths chords as a subdominant function. It sounds like a seventh chord, so I'm not convinced yet.
37-41: G7 as dominant sept chord still relative to c minor. Half-close ("Halbschluss") on the dominant.
41: Without modulation, use of C major, instead of c minor, as new tonic center!
That's it for today. I'd be really happy about
any kind of feedback or help on my questions.