Describe the Features of Beethoven's Septet in E Flat That Make It Typical of the Classical Period

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Describe the features of Beethoven’s Septet in E flat, movement 1 that are typical of the Classical style. Beethoven’s septet uses many different textures which were very typical of the Classical period. For example at the beginning of the exposition (bar 19) he uses an alberti bass with a repeated broken chord quaver rhythm which continues for 10 bars. Within this sequence he uses simple diatonic chords, mainly I, V, II and occasionally IV with the violin playing a melody of a series of chromatic phrases. This was very conventional in this Classical period. Also at this point in the music the harmonic rhythm is fairly slow with generally just 1 chord per bar. However as the music moves towards the perfect cadence at bar 40, it increases to 2 chords per bar at bar 27. In this style of music it was not unusual for the harmonic rhythm of a piece to quicken when approaching a cadence and this is probably why Beethoven decided to do this. He also uses a lot of melody dominated homophony in this piece, including at bars 12 to 15 where the violin has the melody and is accompanied by the woodwind. At this point the writing for the violin is very typically virtuosic. Another feature of this piece which is typical of the Classical style is the fact that it is in sonata form with a slow introduction (bars 1-17), an exposition (bars 18-111), a development section (bars 112-153), a recapitulation (bars 154-232) and a coda (bars 233-end). The introduction begins in the tonic key (E flat) but at bar 10 changes to the tonic minor (E flat minor). Within the exposition there are 2 subjects and a transition stage. The first subject begins in E flat major again. Bars 19-21 are used to emphasise this, using minims at the start of each bar on the notes of E flat, G and B flat. The transition period begins at bar 40 until bar 53. Here the second subject begins in the dominant

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