As if three-plus string quartets in an afternoon weren't enough, I had my usual evening at DG's house, ending with a violin sonata, Mozart's A-major, K. 305. This is one of a set of six that were published as Mozart's Opus 1 (not to be confused with the childhood violin sonatas, K.6 and K.7, also published as Opus 1). No wonder no one uses Mozart's opus numbers in talking about his music! Anyway, these six sonatas, K. 301-306, are an absolute delight; I would have been very happy with my purchase if I'd bought them when they were first published.
DG and I had an interesting discussion after finishing the first movement about how Mozart used a diminished seventh chord as a shortcut to get back to the tonic in time for the recapitulation. I correctly diagnosed how this particular chord was serving in a dominant function to a B-flat major chord on one side, and to an E-major chord on the other side. Fun stuff. I am, after all, an engineer, so I feel a natural affinity to music theory.
Today I am finishing an arrangement of John William's movie score "Nimbus 2000" for cello and piano and needed a way to discontinue the harmonic cycle that he uses, as a way to return to the original theme. I pivoted on the dominant seventh chord, moved to the diminished seventh, and voila' it was like magic - I was back to the original key and melody!
ReplyDeleteThe three dominant seventh chords remind me of the people moving belts in the European airports through which I flew this week - they take you where you need to go and in a hurry.