Canons as Hypermetrical Transitions in Mozart

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Ellen Bakulina

Abstract

This article explores gradual hypermetrical shifts, or hypermetrical transitions, in imitative contexts. The concept of hypermetrical transition, introduced by David Temperley, presupposes metrical conflict in the course of the transition. My principal goal is to place imitative metrical conflicts in the context of Schenkerian theory and to propose that each imitative part may suggest its own middleground structure, based on this part’s individual metrical pattern. The relative validity of the two resulting voice-leading graphs, based on harmonic and other musical cues, is then viewed as a tool for “measuring” the smoothness of the shift. The article includes analyses of several imitative passages from Mozart’s chamber works and culminates in a discussion of a lengthy canon from the String Quartet K. 499, movement 1, an exemplary case of a smooth hypermetrical transition.

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