MONDAY, May 4, 2020
Intro: It starts in Cm (I’m going to type Cm for C minor, because the idea is the same), then moves to Eb, the relative major, but immediately it develops, much like a development section. So far this is like a tone poem, or a fantasia. It is free form, but then it winds up on a G7 chord, perfect to get back to Cm. 1:44
Expo section one. He should be in Cm. He is presenting a theme, then wants to get to Bb7, to more to section 2. 2:15
Sonata form, second section to relative major, He goes to Ebm, which is unusual, darker. Normal would be to key of Eb. Lots of quick key changes, then back to Bb7 again. 2:47
This is where labels are trouble. Is this a new theme? Is it a long coda? Doesn’t matter it is in the second section. He moved to Eb from Ebm, really no movement at all. He was sneaky in doing it. Then he finishes with scales then I, IV and V chords. Textbook. He jumps to D7 to G7 at the repeat, then expo repeats in Cm. The whole thing repeats, then at the second ending he uses that same D7, this time to Gm. 5:00
D7 to Gm. New key. Development. Unusual, because he repeats the intro. It was an intro, but he is using it in a new way. And he uses a morph. He has this dim chord: Eb F# A C. You get back to D7 by morphing that Eb down to D for D7. So long as you have the D7 chord, you get right back to Gm. He then takes that same dim chord, this time moves the C down to B7. D7 to B7 is a double morph. You hear this all the time in Tchaikovsky, but Beethoven and Mozart use it too. And Bach. So he gets to that B7 then moves to Em. Jedi mind trick. 5:42
He’s now in Em. The trick is that D7, B7, Ab7 and F7 all morph from one to another. They share a common dim chord. This is not taught in classes, and I don’t know why. Every top composer uses this principle. Now it’s morph city. Em, Am, dim, D7, Gm, dim C7. He is chaining together these patterns, using the main theme from the expo. Now C7 to F7 to G7 C7 Fm dim G or G7 or G7b9. He’s home, just extending things. 6:29
Home. Recap. But this time he’s going to get to section two in a sneaky way. Recap takes 2nd section to either the same key, Cm or parallel major, C. Instead he goes to Fm. But a few bars later he goes G7 to Cm, taking us back to the “right key”. Pretty soon, to distract us, he goes Cm F7 Bbm Eb7 Ab, round the circle. He then takes Ab and morphs it right back to Cm, G7, Cm. 6:48
In the expo he went Cm to Ebm to Eb. This time he’s going Fm to Cm, and he’ll stay there. He ends on a dim chord. That dim chord is F# A C Eb. It’s important that you can always turn a dim chord into X7b9 this way: D F# A C Eb, D7b9. And that can always go like this: D7b9 to G7 to Cm.
That’s what he’s doing. He’s using his intro again, and this is very similar to what Tchaikovsky did in his 2nd symphony. He’s going to use these dim chords to go nowhere in a very dramatic way. 8:30
1st theme for an ending. DONE.