Sonatina by Clementi, 3rd Movement: Right Hand

Hello and welcome back. I'm Joseph Hoffman. in this lesson we've finally made it to the final third movement of Clementi's "Sonatina" Opus 36 Number One. Remember that a sonata or sonatina is most often structured with three separate movements. Each movement could be played as its own piece, but they belong together in a kind of musical trilogy. These three movements usually follow the pattern fast, slow, fast, and that's the pattern we've seen so far in Clementi's "Sonatina" Opus 36 Number One. The first movement was allegro, the second movement was a medium, slow andante. What do you suppose Clementi will use as his tempo indication for the last, third movement? Let's come to the score to find out. Looks like Clementi was true to tradition by finishing with a fast tempo indication: vivace. Which means fast and lively, similar in meaning to allegro, but usually even a little faster. Now what key are we in? We don't see any sharps and flats here after the clef and before the time signature, so that narrows it down to C major or A minor. How do we tell? Well we could look at this first measure. I see we're playing this C chord in the left hand a C major chord broken, and if we look at the end, we see that we end with a C in the left hand and this C major first inversion chord in the right hand. So, because we end on the C major chord, we begin with this C major chord no sharps and flats, we can know that we're in the key of C major. Now, what's our time signature? You see a 3/8 here. 3/8 means there are 3 eighth note beats in every measure. We often see a 4 on the bottom which tells us a quarter note equals 1 beat. When we have an 8 on the bottom, it means an eighth note equals 1 beat, and there will be 3 in every measure. That's why right here you can see these three eighth notes fill the whole measure. 1 2 3 beats per measure. So now our sixteenth notes are kind of like what used to be eighth notes when there's a 4 on the bottom. Now these sixteenth notes are like 1-& 2 3. So with an eight on the bottom, you can think of every eighth note equals 1 beat. Quarter notes now equal 2 beats. Everything is doubled, and dotted quarter notes equal 3 beats now. So, let's check out the rhythm for these first four measures. We have 1 2 3, now this quarter note needs 2 beats. 1 2, and these two sixteenth notes will be 3-&. And then three eighth notes here: 1 2 3, and then 1 2 3. I'm going to add a & here, a little plus sign for this sixteenth note. So, to count and tap this rhythm we would have 1-& 2 3, 1 2 3-&, 1 2 3, 1 2 3. Will you try tapping this rhythm with me while we count the beat out loud? I'll count 3 beats to get ready, then let's tap and count. Here we go: 1 2 3 1-& 2 3, 1 2 3-&, 1 2 3, 1 2 3. Now, pause the video and in your own music I'd like you to write in the counts for the next one, two, three, four more measures. Stop here in measure eight, and if you have sixteenth notes go ahead and put a little & sign. Like right here will be 1-& 2 3, over here in this measure it will be 1-& 2-& 3-&. Write in the counts after pressing pause, and then press play and we'll check it out together. Here's what your count should look like in your score. Remember, these are eighth rests. An eighth rest with an 8 on the bottom will get 1 beat just like an eighth note gets 1 beat. So we have 1 REST REST on beats 2 and 3. Okay, so this rhythm will sound like this: Starting here in measure five: 1-& 2 3 1 2 3-& 1-& 2-& 3-& 1 2 3 Will you try that with me? Let's tap and count this rhythm. I'll count 3 beats and then we'll start. 1 2 3, 1-& 2 3, 1 2 3-&, 1-& 2-& 3-&, 1 2 3 Now, what do you notice when we get to measure nine? You take a look at these notes and see if they seem similar to anything we've seen before. Hopefully you notice these are the same notes we saw in measures one through four. It's important to check every note because sometimes a composer may surprise you and change one little thing. There is one little thing that changes, and that's the dynamics. Starting here in measure nine we switch from piano to forte, but if you look at every note, the notes are the same. So same melody but now a new dynamic marking. So, usually at this point I'd say let's come to the piano and I'd work out with you how to play these, but with all you know about reading notes now. I'd like you more and more to learn how to play the notes on your own. Okay, so I'd like you to pause the video, and by yourself I'd like you to work through and see if you can figure out how to play the right hand part starting in measure one, all the way through measure sixteen. And while you're learning it, I'd like you to hunt for patterns. Can you find where the notes are similar? Where they're different? Are there any repeating patterns where you play the same notes again? I've circled this piano and forte as a clue to help you notice that we have that change of dynamics, but what else can you notice from measures one through sixteen? I challenge you to learn the notes, be careful of the rhythms, be careful of the fingerings, see how much you can learn by yourself, and then press play and we'll work on it toge ...