Janacek Sinfonietta mvt III moderato

The piece starts off somberly with tuba playing tonic. The texture is four part strings. It is perhaps the most beautiful melody in all of the repetoire. It is very hymn like and meloncholy. The melody sounds like its structured under a large period with repeats. The antecedent is played then repeated. Then the cosequent is played, but not repeated, almost a contrasting period in and of itself. The consequent inverts the antecedent to a degree. At the end of the phrase repetition and a cresecendo is used to signal the end of the larger phrase group. More intstruments are added but the texture never gets bright. It is thick, creamy, milky, etc throughout...very rich, sonorous, and gorgeous. We move into a different texture. The main melody is played by the english horn, oboe, then high strings. The melody is not exactly the same each time, leading one to believe this may be a development section of the melodic material. Cellos accompany the melody. The harmonic structure is different now too, even though for the most part the melody is the same. The hapr adds some accampaniment. The flute and bass clarinet then play the melody, inverting and developing it some as the orchestration is changed brilliantly. Woodwinds play the melody again, differently, leading us into the B section which is very very different. It is a fanfare brass choral with the texture dominated mostly by the trombone. In between each short phrase of the brass the high woodwinds furiously play an altered scale pattern, stringing the brass phrases together. A second trombone solo is played. The scale the woodwinds played is now played again and again repeated and sequenced, with the flute leading right into the same note the tuba played in the beginning, bringing back the A section and the main melody. However, this time the orchestration is slightly different, with a quicker tempo and more of an emphasis on the high strings. There is less of a feeling of beauty now...there is some urgency. The solo flute plays the same scaluar passage used in teh B section now, in between the phrases of the A section melody. The main motive of this main melody of the A section is used to create a whole new sectin of music based off this motive. It is iniated by a trombone solo playing this new, rauncy, peasant-like, heavy footed dance-like melody. It is passed between section and is developed some. Then the trumpets play the melody, bridging us back into the main fanfare of the B section, this time dominated by the trumpets, who did not play the first time around. There is definately more intensity this time around with victory in sight. The main melody is then played by the english horn, somewhat modified, then briefly interrupted by harmonic material from the B section. It returns to A section harmony and fades out.