Ram A.

Ignacio Diatonic Harmony (Theory II)

Comparison of Sequential Passages from the Literature

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) had the premiere of his opera “Die Zauberflöte” in
Vienna, two months before his premature death. It tells the story of Tamino rescuing Pamina from the
grip of the Königin der Nacht or the Queen of the Night, and avoiding the dominance of darkness in the
world. The chosen pieces for this exercise are “Drei Knabchen,” “Der Hölle Rache” and “Wie, wie, wie?”

All of the selected excerpts from the pieces mentioned above have the Descending Third
Sequence, and that is because the sequence prolongates the tonic and leads to the pre-dominant. The D3 (-
4/+2) sequences could be found in Mm. 1 and 2 for A. “Drei Knabchen,” Mm. 2 to 4 for B. “Der Hölle
Rache” and Mm. 2 to the first part of measure 7 for C. “Wie, wie, wie.” The rhythms of the copies may
not completely match the model’s but the intervals are the same. This is evident in Excerpt A – Drei
Knabchen’s first two measures, wherein the copy does not follow the model’s rhythm framework, but it
kept the intervallic descent of the notes, specifically speaking, the 4 eighth notes plus rests did not appear
in the copy, as it had 2 eight notes plus rests, a quarter note and two eighth notes, but they kept the same
intervallic descent. Excerpt B – Der Hölle Rache’s model and copy kept the same rhythm and intervallic
descent. Excerpt C – Wie wie wie has one copy keeping the same rhythm from the model, which is
measures 6 to the downbeat of measure 7. The first copy, which is measure 4 of the abovementioned
excerpt had a “break” in between of the model and the first copy and does not match anything within any
copy or outside of copies in the excerpt. Parallel 5ths and 8ths were avoided and Excerpt A had 3rds and
4ths instead in the outer voices. Excerpt B had 6ths and Excerpt C had 3rds, 4ths and 6ths present.

Inversions were present in the excerpts, usually after the tonic chord was sounded (which is in its
root position). The excerpts also followed the T-PD-D-T phrase model, with the sequence being part of
the first tonic as it is prolongated the said part of the excerpt. Since it is a Descending Thirds sequence,
the sequence leads to a predominant chord, which in turn moves to the dominant chord and back to the
tonic (except for Excerpt A, which ends on a V chord instead of the usual I chord).

Another thing to look at is the movement of the notes. Excerpt A’s model and copy has an
oblique motion, wherein F4 stays the same while D4 went down to C4. The same movement can be
observed with the copy. Excerpt B has a parallel motion and Excerpt C has similar motion.