Figure 3. 8 “Reflected Music” by Rafael Peñaloza is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
There are several features of this Introduction which suggest avenues for interpretation.
- This is the only Haydn symphonic introduction to end on a ‘wrong’ dominant. The following main section (the exposition) begins on the tonic of E-flat major, creating a striking harmonic shift with the end of the introduction
- The unity of this introduction is partially accounted for by an almost continual quarter-note pulse. The dynamic marking is mostly piano, with sforzandos and a diminuendo all appearing in the last five measures.
- Haydn plays around with several elements of this introduction in the rest of the movement: not only does he use the melodic elements of the introduction in all of the themes (which is not normal because of the habit of different characters between the themes), he plays constantly around the chromatic elements that appear in the introduction, he repeats the entire introduction in the middle of the Allegro
This section has provided a model for analysing a work in preparation for conducting it. There will soon be a considerable amount of supplementary content in the ConductIT Study Room at www.conductit.eu which demonstrates this process for different pieces. For now, you can download a complete analysis of the first movement of this symphony here:
