Elgar 1st Symphony - Movement 1 (Recapitulation + Coda) Flashcards
What is the structure of the recapitulation?
It mostly follows the structure of the exposition.
How does the 1st subject of the recapitulation compare to that of the exposition?
The orchestration is thinner.
What happens just before figure 35?
The climaxing rising sequence from the exposition (figure 7) is now doubled by the Flutes.
What happens in figure 35?
The tonality changes to Fm, which didn’t happen in the exposition. This is because Elgar is planning on putting the 2nd subject in a different key.
What key are we lead into at figure 38?
After hearing the transition material restated, we are lead into Ab major, the tonic of the piece.
When does the 2nd subject reappear and in what instruments is it played?
Figure 38 and in the 1st Violins.
What happens leading up to figure 44? And what is being lead up to?
The music builds up to the closing theme, which then enters here.
How does Elgar lead us up to the coda?
The music subsides before the coda enters at figure 48.
What theme begins the coda? And what is interesting about it?
The start of the coda is built around a reinstatement of the motto theme, but it is more subtle. Only the last desk of the Violins and Violas are playing in octaves, for a weak, distant, ghostly sense of power.
What does the Cello play during the reinstatement of the motto theme in the coda?
They refer back to the development theme of figure 19, but now in compound time.
What happens to the treatment of the motto theme leading up to figure 51?
It is introduced in more and more instruments and by figure 51 it feels confident and assertive. It then quickly melts away as Elgar avoids a grand finish.
What theme is introduced during figure 51? And how is it treated?
The development theme is reintroduced and erodes the tonal stability of the previous passage (chromaticism). Melodic ideas from the development return here.
Which theme returns at figure 54? And how?
The motto theme returns delicately, in the flute.
What theme does Elgar use to end the movement?
The closing theme heard originally at 17.
Describe the bass in the final cadential movement.
It moves from a D natural to an Ab. Those are the two tonal centers of the movement and so it is a fitting end.
