Piano Sonata In Bb Major K.333: Movement I

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Instruments/ Forces

This piece is arranged for Solo Piano, so the piano is the only instrumental resource.

Context

This Piano Sonata by Mozart is written in an elegant and galant classical style, which made it enjoyable for the general public to listen to during the Classical Era.

This Piano Sonata was also published in Vienna in 1784, which tells us that at that time, the piano had replaced the Harpsichord. However, the piano was lighter in tone than today.

Tempo

The tempo marking indicated for this piece is "Allegro", which means that it should be played at a brisk and lively pace.

StructureThis piece by Mozart uses Sonata form, which means that it has 3 sections- Exposition, Development and Recapitulation.

The Exposition shows off the main ideas of the piece, the Development uses these ideas and presents them in a new and altered way and the Recapitulation returns to the material of the Exposition but stays in the tonic key.

TonalityThe key of this piece is Bb Major, because it has 2 flats in the key signature- B flat and E flat.

During the Development section the key moves from the dominant through a range of related keys.

In the Recapitulation section the key returns to Bb Major due to the addition of accidentals and flats.

TextureThis Piano Sonata has a Melody Dominated Homophony texture. This means that the piece has a clear right hand with a chord accompaniment.

The piece also has a thin, clear texture due to the frequent use of 2 part textures and clear harmonic progressions.

Periodic phrasing is also used at the beginning of the piece.

MelodyThis Sonata has an ornate right hand melody with a broken chord left hand and frequent use of Alberti Bass.

During the Development section, Mozart uses clear harmonic progressions with regular cadences to define the keys.

Periodic phrasing, pairs of equal length question and answer phrasing, is used in the Exposition section a lot.

HarmonySimple triads are commonly used in the Exposition and Recapitulation sections , especially in the tonic and dominant keys of the piece.

However during the Development section, the use of chromatic harmony is introduced as a main feature.

Mozart also uses an augmented 6th chord and a diminished 7th chord near the end of the Development section.

RhythmThis Piano Sonata has a 4/4 time signature, which means that there are 4 crotchet beats per bar.

Most of the rhythms in this piece are on the beat, but occasional dotted rhythms can be found throughout. Notes lengths such as crotchets, dotted crotchets, quavers

and semi-quavers are amongst the most common notes used in the Sonata.

DynamicsThere is only small use of dynamics in the piece. For example, the beginning has no dynamic markings, so it should be played at "Moderato Forte".

There are only several other dynamic markings throughout, such as "piano" and "forte".

This suggests that Mozart wanted pianists to interpret this piece in their own manner.

By Adam Horwich