Sonatina in G: Second Movement: Form & Artistry

Hello and welcome back. I'm Joseph Hoffman. And in this lesson we'll be analyzing the form of "Sonatina in G" second movement. We'll also be talking about how to play "Sonatina in G" with artistry. Let's get started by checking out the score. Here's the score for the second movement, and let's start by figuring out the form for this entire movement, and I'd like you to try it on your own today. So you're going to pause the video, and I'd like you to hunt for the A section. Figure out where that starts and ends, and then figure out where the B section begins, and then see if the A section comes back. Figure out where the coda is. So we're basically looking for an A section, a B section, where the A section comes back if it does, and then where the coda starts. Mark that in your music, like if you find the B section put a big capital B where the B section begins, and mark all of that, and then press play and we'll check it out together. All right, well the A section is usually the easiest to find because it's the start of your piece and we've got these few pickup notes here and then here's our A section. To figure out where this section ends, we're looking for a cadence where the music comes to rest like what happens here. See how it kind of feels like it comes to rest there? That's a cadence. So that's a prime spot for the end of section A. We have the first ending goes back and repeats. Also repeat signs can be sometimes a clue, and then this is where we would begin the B section with these pickup notes right here. Now, does the A section return? If so, where? It comes back right here with these pickup notes it brings us back to our main theme. And then where's our coda? Here's our fancy coda symbol, or you can just write the word coda begins right here where we have a new section. It's brand new music for a special ending. So, to write the entire form out we can say we have an A section that repeats, and then we have a B section. The A section returns, and then we have a coda. So this would be our form for the second movement of "Sonatina in G." Now, let's talk about some artistry. So to play a piece with artistry, I always love to start with the tempo indication for a clue as to what kind of mood the composer is going for. Well, this time we have a bit of an unusual tempo indication. It's romanze, which is implying that this is a romantic piece and romantic remember doesn't mean exactly the same today that it did in Beethoven's time. In the early 1800s, romantic sometimes just meant it had a lot of emotion or feeling. So this should be played with a lot of expression and feeling. To me, this has a playful, happy quality to it. I imagine children playing in a meadow, or maybe young ducklings playfully tumbling down a stream. It just has a lot of happy playfulness to me. So how do we capture that feeling? I think the left hand can help a lot by not being too heavy. We don't want it to sound like ogres stomping around with big boots on. You know, that ruins the feel for me if the left hand is played too loudly. It's got to stay very light. Think, if you can, pianissimo on those staccati chords. Remember, we talked about an oompapa oompapa So practice your left hand. Try this with me. Play those two chords as light as you possibly can, and again, the thumb can be such a heavy clumsy finger. What will help it not to sound clumsy is with thinking of an up motion. Up, up, down, up, up. Try that with me. Down, up, up. Now you try. Good, and now combine that with good voicing. The melody is in the right hand part, so let's make this hand a little louder, the left hand a little softer. Hear how much more beautiful that is than the stomping ogre sound. Keep that left hand as light and as delicate as you can. Another thing that will make this artistically beautiful, is thinking about your phrasing. Where is the climax of the phrase? I hear that B right there at near the end of the phrase as a bit of a climax, and then we get softer on the last note of the phrase. And then hear how that phrase has a lovely climax right there as we go up that C major triad. And then the decrescendo brings us to the end of that phrase. So give each note a shape. Every phrase has growth to some climax, and then the last note of the phrase brings the energy back down. Then there's a great opportunity for phrasing in the B section right with this big crescendo. And then decrescendo to the end of that phrase. Okay, make that as dramatic as you can. It adds to the fun. Don't just be boring. Then I fall asleep. You do big crescendo, and with your whole body you can kind of lean into those crescendos. Kind of lean into it, and that makes it even more exciting not just to hear, but also to watch. If we can see with your body you're expressing those crescendos, with how you sit even. It's part of the performance. As you get more and more advanced, it's not just about the notes you play it's about how you play it. How you express it with your body When we get to this section in measure 18. How dramatic can you make this? Hold us in suspense on that fermata. What's going to happen? Then it gets quieter, quieter, quieter, quieter, and then that A-sharp is almost like teasing us because it's li ...