The Symphony No. 21 in A major

A major

A major is a major scale based on A, with the pitches A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. Its key signature has three sharps.Its relative minor is F-sharp minor and its parallel minor is A minor...

, Hoboken 1/21, was composed by Joseph Haydn

Joseph Haydn

Franz Joseph Haydn , known as Joseph Haydn , was an Austrian composer, one of the most prolific and prominent composers of the Classical period. He is often called the "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet" because of his important contributions to these forms...

 around the year 1764. The symphony’s movements have unusual structures that make their form hard to identify. The parts that pertain to sonata form are often hard to recognize immediately and are often identified “only in retrospect.”

Movements

The symphony is in four movements and is scored for two oboe

Oboe

The oboe is a double reed musical instrument of the woodwind family. In English, prior to 1770, the instrument was called "hautbois" , "hoboy", or "French hoboy". The spelling "oboe" was adopted into English ca...

s, two French horns in A, violin

Violin

The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....

s I and II, viola

Viola

The viola is a bowed string instrument. It is the middle voice of the violin family, between the violin and the cello.- Form :The viola is similar in material and construction to the violin. A full-size viola's body is between and longer than the body of a full-size violin , with an average...

, cello

Cello

The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...

 and basso continuo.

• I. Adagio, 3/4
• II. Presto, 4/4
• III. Menuett
  Minuet
  A minuet, also spelled menuet, is a social dance of French origin for two people, usually in 3/4 time. The word was adapted from Italian minuetto and French menuet, and may have been from French menu meaning slender, small, referring to the very small steps, or from the early 17th-century popular...
  
   and trio, 3/4
• IV. Allegro molto, 4/4

I: Adagio

The entire first movement is slow, with the tempo marking adagio. It is uncommon for Haydn to have an opening movement set at a slow pace for its entirety; usually he will begin a first movement with a slow tempo for an introduction but the main body will be at a faster tempo. The slow section also ends on the tonic, an unusual ending for an introduction.

The first movement has a structure that corresponds with no formal type, and sharply contrasts with Haydn’s usual style of structuring movements. It is closest to sonata form but only vaguely. The piece quickly reaches the dominant (m. 13), in which the opening ritornello is restated, but soon reverts to the tonic (m. 16). The dominant is suggested again in m. 26, but then segues into a development-like passage around m. 29-41. However, it does not conclude with a cadence. Instead of a half cadence on dominant, the development ends with a V⁴²-I⁶ progression that does not return to the opening theme. The tonic key immediately returns with an authentic cadence soon afterwards (m. 48).

II: Presto

The second movement has a mirror recapitulation, that is the “opening material does not return at the beginning of the recapitulation, but is instead transplanted to the end as a coda.” This is unusual for both a work of Haydn’s and a symphony. Haydn does this because the opening statement (m. 1-9) is played only in octaves instead of triads, a contrast with the rest of the piece. The next theme, beginning at m. 10, brings triads into the picture. The octave sonority does not return until the opening theme returns as the coda. As the material does not return in any form during the main body of the piece, the theme in octaves serves as an introduction to contrast with the rest of the movement.

As for the body of the movement, the exposition is made of two parts, not three: a tonic section (mm. 1-16) and a dominant section (m. 17-42). Yet, the half cadence that divides the two sections in the exposition does not appear in the recapitulation; m. 15-21 do not have corresponding measures in the recapitulation. This is because m. 17 corresponds with m. 10 but in the dominant. If m. 17 appeared in the recapitulation, it would be transposed into the tonic key, and therefore be a repetition violating sonata rules.

III: Menuett and Trio

The opening eight bars of the Meneutt can be easily divided into antecedent and consequence respectively, ending on a half-cadence and an authentic cadence in tonic. The two phrases contrast sharply “in dynamics, in orchestration, in the rhythm of the accompaniment, and in the register of the upmost voice.” These eight bars, the Menuett’s A section, appear slightly altered at the very end of the menuett as its A’ section; the viola and violoncello e basso parts descend in the first two measures instead of coming in on the second measure and ascending.

In the Trio, the first two measures of the A section are immediately repeated, as happens in the second phrase as well.

The first eight notes of the menuett were used verbatim to start the minuet of Mozart's

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...

 Eine Kleine Nachtmusik

Eine kleine Nachtmusik

The Serenade No. 13 for strings in G major, K. 525 was written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in 1787. The work is more commonly known by the title Eine kleine Nachtmusik. The German title means "a little serenade", though it is often rendered more literally but less accurately as "a little night music"...

(K. 525).

IV: Allegro molto

Movement iv is a “binary variant of sonata form in which the opening eight measures of the exposition do not return in the recapitulation. The beginning theme does return (m. 41)before the recapitulation , but as the theme is now in dominant, it cannot be considered part of the recapitulation. The piece moves to dominant at m. 9 and remains so through m. 58. The recapitulation starts at m. 59 when the tonic returns, and m. 9-40 are replayed in A major to close the symphony.