J. S. BACH Jonathan Berkahn - Victoria University - Victoria ...

very little to it, which is of course the reason Haydn can put it to so many different
uses. We have here an extreme example of Haydn’s monothematicism; all the
material in this movement except for the most conventional cadential passages (e.g.
bb.99-107) is derived from the opening theme. We see this clearly in the main rondo
theme. The opening subject appears first of all against a homophonic accompaniment,
then in close imitation at the upper third/lower sixth (b.12), then against an
accompaniment of repeated chords which turn out to be entries in the bass (b.19), then
in canon at the second (b.28), and then a development of the subject’s first bar leads
back to the start of the theme again. There is a repetition of bb.5-23 (with the direction
of the appoggiaturas reversed in bb.57-60) and a definitive cadence in the tonic,
reinforced by yet further use of the same material. At this point (b.73) a sonata-like
transition to the dominant begins, with yet more close imitation and a distinct new
development at b.91, which leads through a big cadence to an unmistakable ‘second
subject’ in b.107. For many years Haydn had exploited the use of repeated-note
material when it came to constructing discreet but thematic accompaniments. Here the
repeated chords are impeccably relevant, but of almost Rossinian simplicity; an
excellent foil to the close working of the rest of the movement. The melody is of
course the main tune again, this time with its metrical stress reversed so the anacrusis
leads to the strong beat rather than away from it. An effective turn to the (dominant)
minor leads to more generic cadential material in the dominant, and thence to the
beginning of the rondo theme again. This time it deposits us in the relative minor.
Analytically it makes sense to orient the next section around this key (in which it
begins and ends), but the local tonal instability makes the densely imitative texture
seem more like a fugal working-out than ever. Eventually the ‘second subject’ returns
in full, in the very distant key of D flat, and a Neapolitan approach to V/vi leads back
to the main theme. By the standards of Haydn’s later style the recapitulation is
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