Compare the Exposition and the Recapitulation of the first movement of Mozarts Symphony 41

In this symphony the exposition starts off the movement and ends on bar 120, and the recapitulation occurs in bars 189 to 313, which is the end of the movement. Both of these sections of the symphony start with the first subject, and they are exactly the same. They both start in C major, use the reoccurring dotted rhythm and use the same instrumentation as before. The changes in them first happen in the transition bar 24 in the exposition, and bar 212 for the recapitulation. The second subject in both copies the first subject, which starts in C in bars 1 and 2, and then there is a feminine answer on the dominant. The strong male question is repeated in the bars 5 and 6, but in the dominant, replied by a feminine answer in the tonic. The exposition starts in C, but the recapitulation plays a C minor chord, and then in bar 216 modulates to Bb major, the seventh chord of C minor, not the dominant. In the exposition it follows the first subject more closely and moves to the dominant, followed by a circle of fifths in bars 30 to 35. The recapitulation goes down a minor circle of fifths instead. This leaves the exposition in the key of G, on the chord of D in bar 49, and the recapitulation still in C on the chord of G in bar 225. The second subject begins the same for both, just in different keys. There are slight variations in melody and in the instrumentation; for example the oboe takes the tune in bars 254 to 259 in the recapitulation, whereas in the exposition it was bassoon. The key stays the same for each, up until bars 81 and 269 for the exposition and recapitulation respectively. Here, Mozart introduces a sudden change by using a distant key. In the exposition, he jumps to C minor, which is a long way from C major. However in the recapitulation the C minor chord has already been used, and this was done purposefully so that Mozart could go to F minor, a key even further away. The reason for this is Mozart firstly wants to make the piece more interesting, and for the exposition, it is also because he wants to move the piece away from the original key to make the piece move. In the recapitulation, Mozart wants to keep the key near to C major so that he can return to it for the end, but he also wants to balance the piece. During the exposition Mozart has moved from C up to G, to C minor, and then going up to a D chord to come down to G for the codetta theme. To counter this, in the recapitulation Mozart has gone down the keys, firstly with C minor, then using Bb and G ends up going down to F minor, where he returns to C for the codetta theme and the end of the movement. The codetta theme is pretty similar; the recapitulation condenses the codetta and adds a finale onto it, but otherwise it stays fairly the same. But he has already achieved his task of balancing out the piece by these two sections, and by

having these two balanced, it allows Mozart to use the development to add plenty of tension, excitement and changes of keys.