Exposition
mm. 1-29 Loud heraldic first theme in main key
mm. 30-46 Soft hymnic second theme in a subordinate key
Recapitulation
mm. 47-63 First theme again in main key
mm. 64-78 Second theme again, but transposed into the main key
(Hoteev even recommends, in his liner notes, inserting a brief silence before the start of the second theme, which is common at this juncture in traditional sonata forms.) However, the subordinate key is not the key a perfect fifth above the movement’s main key of E-flat, but the key of a perfect fifth below. This inversion of usual tonal practice extends beyond key choice, as the example below suggests. This example lines up a reduction of the exposition and recapitulation of a typical sonata-form movement—I chose the first movement of Mozart’s Eine kleine Nachtmusik—with a reduction of the beginning of “The Great Gate of Kiev.” Whole notes represent roots of chords. T, S, and D refer to tonic, subdominant, and dominant. I chose clefs that made the mirroring between the two movements visually apparent. The subscripted p refers to the “parallel” transformation in German-language music theory, which allows for a change of chordal root without change of function, as I have further shown with the baritone clef, the F clef in the middle of the staff.
mm. 1-29 Loud heraldic first theme in main key
mm. 30-46 Soft hymnic second theme in a subordinate key
Recapitulation
mm. 47-63 First theme again in main key
mm. 64-78 Second theme again, but transposed into the main key
(Hoteev even recommends, in his liner notes, inserting a brief silence before the start of the second theme, which is common at this juncture in traditional sonata forms.) However, the subordinate key is not the key a perfect fifth above the movement’s main key of E-flat, but the key of a perfect fifth below. This inversion of usual tonal practice extends beyond key choice, as the example below suggests. This example lines up a reduction of the exposition and recapitulation of a typical sonata-form movement—I chose the first movement of Mozart’s Eine kleine Nachtmusik—with a reduction of the beginning of “The Great Gate of Kiev.” Whole notes represent roots of chords. T, S, and D refer to tonic, subdominant, and dominant. I chose clefs that made the mirroring between the two movements visually apparent. The subscripted p refers to the “parallel” transformation in German-language music theory, which allows for a change of chordal root without change of function, as I have further shown with the baritone clef, the F clef in the middle of the staff.
[click image to enlarge]
Notice how authentic motions (D-T) in Mozart match plagal motions (S-T) in Mussorgsky, and how each second theme in its respective exposition reaches an apogee—in the thirty-ninth measure of each!—four perfect fifths away from the main key’s tonic, then gradually eases back toward this tonic in the measures that follow.
