Beethoven's Violin concerto in D major Op. 61 1st movement

• Written for solo Violinist Franz Clement for a charity concert

• Written after the Violin was greatly developed with a lengthened neck, increased sounding length of strings, more between notes and more practical higher notes, a modern bow made by Francois Tourte which was more balanced, curved inwards, with more hair and weight at the bottom.

• Written between the Classical and Romantic period

1-88 D Expostion 1 (tutti)

89 - 224 D Exposition 2 (Solo)

224-364 A-C-Bm-Gm  Development

365-510 D Recapitulation

510 D Cadenza

511-535 D  Coda

• D-major

• Orchestra only

• Strong timpani motif of 5 crotchets used throughout to create unity

• Woodwind melody follows

• B.10 there is a strange D# creating suspense

• No perfect cadence ending on an unresolved dominant 7th chord.

• D-major

• Bowing indicated by slurs

• Detatched bowing over a scale up-to top D

• Bar 122 orchestra reduces and solo violin begins to dominate it is reduced to just strings, oboes and bassoons

• Solo becomes more varied and challenging towards the end quickly moving from one figure to another like fast ascending scales to rapid octave leaps.

• A-Maj-Cmaj-Bmin-Dmin

• Dramatic entrance of tutti over an interrupted cadence

• Repeat of expostion in the dominant key

• Tutti sounds forceful b.256 when marked sempre ff

• Retains intensity through constant semi-quaver movement in violins

• Key changes to C-maj through use of enharmonics where the timpani motif becomes a very important feature.

• D-maj

• First theme returns with tutti orchestra

• Solo uses many semi quaver rhythms

• Section ends with lots of trills and long scales

• Full orchestra enters on a sudden Bb chord bar 497 moving to a sudden fermata for the cadenza

• D-maj

• Long trill signals for the orchestra to begin

• D-maj

• Violin solo continues with the second subject on the D and G strings to exploit the lower and darker tones

• Ends on a tutti playing the closing theme of the second subject group.