Mozart Symphony no. 38 mvt 1

Mozart Symphony no. 38 mvt 1

The symphony starts off with very large orchestrated major chords of tonic. They are restated with grace notes from the woodwinds. The opening is very similar to that of the Jupiter symphony. The symphony starts off in an adagio where the violins dominate the texture with developments on the tonality with interjections of full orchestra chords. It feels as though this adagio is leading to something else. There is much anticipation. It does not feel very much like an exposition, but more like a development. The allegro starts and the orchestration now varies a bit, going from violin feature with string accompaniment to all woodwind. The woodwinds, for the most part, are playing the role of the texture, while the melodic interest is mostly in the violins. The trumpet seems to be playing a fairly large role in this symphony. It is mostly grouped in with the texture of the woodwinds. Mozart seems to change the mode of the piece quite frequently. It seems that he uses some of the exact seem sequences that he used in the marriage of figaro overture. There are times that when I am listening to this symphony I can immediately tie it into the marriage of figaro. The overall style of the movement is very light and leggiero. The dynamics do not get very loud save for the full orchestra chords. Other than that Mozart seems to spread out the orchestration and keep the density low. Overall the volume seems to mostly fluctuate from a mp to a f at the most. Again there is another mode change. This time he adds a texture change to this. Making it mostly woodwinds. There is a transitional period that outlines mostly the tonic triad. Here the listener can sense a change in material. After a fermata, a secondary theme is introduced once again the violin. The listener has not heard this motivic gesture, however, just seconds into this new material it is again directly related into the material previously stated, except now with some new developmental ideas, like the rhythms have sped up and the orchestration is slightly different now. Many deceptive cadences are used to further expand the piece and give more changes for repetition/development/mode. The piece is getting close to the end. There is use of pedal notes, which many times indicates the end of a piece. The pedal is inverted as the bass function plays the most important part. Final strokes and triadic material end the movement.