Sonata in B Minor for Tranverse Flute and Bass Continuo HWV 376

The Complete Wind Sonatas
Handel
The piece begins with an octave leap from do to lower octave do, with bass. This helps establish minor feel, and introduces the listener to the two octaves they will be exposed to. The first phrase begins with just bass, and introduces the theme of me-re-do-t-do-te-le-sol-do, the rhythm being a sixteenth dotted and dotted eighth. The accompanient mirrors the phrase to emphasize its importance. The rhythm is crucial to establishing the simple duple time signature, giving it a very definate, boxy feel. Although it would seem to be rigid, the constant repetition of the rhythm eventually creates a legato feel. The next phrase begins with sol-la-ti-do, again on the same rhythm, and reinforces do. It ends on an IAC, much like the first phrase. The third phrase begins by returning back to the theme; me-re-do..., and ends in a HC. The next phrase ends in a PAC, sort of bringing an end to the first half of the piece. I look at the second half as starting in this next phrase because the flute jumps to the upper octave. Because the rhythm and mode already have a dark effect on the piece, it sort of lightens up the style without losing the effect of the minor key. There are also more trills in this section, and it represents the main core of the piece as a whole. I couldn't make a complete organized sense of the phrase, but I did hear a lot of antecedent-consequent periods (contrasting). I think the phrases went something like IAC, PAC, IAC, HC, PAC, IAC, PAC. I heard 2 definate contrasting periods in the last four phrases. Overall, I liked the piece, I liked it simply because it had very monotonous rhythms. They seemed to create a very stable effect