Classical Developments are Surprisingly Simple (How They're Structured)

How did Classical composer's structure the Development?
👨🏫 How I Got Mozart as My Private Teacher • How I Got Mozart as My...
📚 Many of the ideas in this video come from my favorite music book of all time:
Analyzing Classical Form by William Caplin geni.us/lxrqx
In Analyzing Classical Form by William Caplin, the author explains the Pre-core Core structure that was the basis for countless Sonata-Allegro movement development sections by composers like Mozart and Beethoven.
In this video we will break down that structure and use Mozart's Clarinet Quintet in A to show how it works.
The recording of the quintet was performed by The Philadelphia String Quartet with William McColl on clarinet, found via IMSLP with a Creative Commons license.
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TIMESTAMPS
0:00 Intro
0:27 Opening theme
1:11 Core
4:02 Pre-core
5:58 Standing on the Dominant
7:52 The whole development
9:25 How to get Mozart as your private teacher

[@RyanLeach]

📚 How I Got Mozart as My Private Teacher kzbin.info/www/bejne/lWGogWt_q8ekg80

[@FocusMrbjarke]

If you could only use one method to improve(score reading, books, teachers, transcribing etc) would you say this method beat them all?

[@RyanLeach]

@@FocusMrbjarke There's probably nothing better to improve than just keeping your butt in the seat writing music!

[@eugenetzigane]

Finally!! Thank you, Ryan, for taking the time to make a video showing how to apply Caplan/Schönberg's Formenleher to musical comprehension!! I've been preaching the gospel according to St. Caplan for nearly two decades. It's my primary method for analyzing music before WWI and the Modernist Revolution. Using Formenleher allows us to basically have a conversation with the composer.

[@eugenetzigane]

@@FocusMrbjarke Classical Form is absolutely the best for analysis of music pre-Modernist Revolution (c.1920). For score reading, start with the Dandelot solfege books in the different clefs and then apply that knowledge to the Boyd-Reimenschneider Bach Chorales in Open Score (No.1-91). Start by playing the outer voices, then add either alto or tenor, switch, then finally all four voices. It's quite a workout! As for orchestration, Andrew Stiller wrote the best book. Also check out Rimsky-Korsakov and the Berlioz-Strauss books. These are old-school but they provide insight into how composers of the 19th century conceived of sound.

[@RyanLeach]

@@eugenetzigane I would love to see the ideas applied to post-Beethoven Romantic works. Do you know any good resources?

[@klop4228]

You know, I've written music for a few years now (and honestly I'm quite happy with where I am), but it's funny how, when you start self-taught, you just kind of skip some of the not-quite-fundamentals. I never knew the specifics of how this worked, but I'm glad to have seen it here!

[@mathewowen8148]

This is perfect for my students who are writing a development section of a classical string quartet! I constantly use your videos to supplement my teaching. Thank you for distilling information so concisely and in such an engaging way. Most useful composition channel on KZbin!

[@joecool1588]

As a clarinetist I am happy you picked this piece

[@RyanLeach]

Probably my favorite Mozart piece!

[@franzliszt9799]

You uploaded this at the perfect time. I'm literally writing a symphony now

[@RyanLeach]

Aren't Symphonic Poems more your thing?

[@FocusMrbjarke]

@@RyanLeach you should do a video on liszt. I would happily watch it.

[@theamaturepro]

How did it turn out?

[@henrique_zsp]

Wow this was a great breakdown of the topic! I feel like the way you use visual and auditorial aids to explain makes it so much easier to understand it. Somehow I never went in depth on development in Caplin 's book, I feel like I should give it a try anytime soon. This was great, thanks Ryan!

[@RyanLeach]

Thanks! Yea the book is so dense with information, I get something new out of it every time I go in

[@mustuploadtoo7543]

Your content is so varied and insightful. Being straight to the point is a bonus as well!

[@greyscale1546]

Right timing. Just read the chapter about development in Caplin's Book 👌

[@charlesrobichaud-parahawkm4088]

There is a lot to unpack here, I will need to listen to this more. Thank you nicely done.

[@snarf1504]

Good video. Development is definitely an underappreciated topic in the 'YT music theory sphere'. My only problem with this video was that it was sometimes quite hard to tell where we were in the piece. E.g. whether the current fragment occurs before or after the last.

[@ct1monkey548]

can I just say how much I appreciate all of your videos. It brings me so much joy to learn about all these things, mostly because you explain it SO well. I think I speak for many people who like composing, whether professionally or not, that you help making it more accessible and understandable for everyone!

[@monohive]

You keep knocking it out of the park Ryan. Love it!!

[@sig.polpetton2682]

Thank you for your great content. I admire your channel and your way of teaching: very professional and "polished". I wish you the best.

[@RyanLeach]

Thank you very much!

[@terryslade6240]

Thank you for this timely presentation.

[@wernervannuffel2608]

I learn so much with all your videos. They are all - the one after the other - brilliant gems... Your KZbinchannel is a how to music composing goldmine... Thank you so much, Ryan... 👍👌

[@TheJerry2912]

This book was on my list for weeks now.. After watching this video, I ordered it :D Thank you for sharing your knowledge and for creating these amazing videos! :)

[@ljdobles8104]

Super instructivo. ¡Gracias!

[@jennychenmusicalworld4256]

Thank you for the great video! so wonderful!

[@redel37]

finally! the video I was looking for... thanks.

[@lespieces9614]

Thank you for the explation. It will be un solution for my boring wrtting pattern . These days I had learnd a lot on this channel.

[@juneyoo]

Classical writing and analysis (beyond the elementary counterpoint taught in every music theory class ever) is such an intimidating topic to even begin studying, even with all the abundance of knowledge supposedly on the internet these days. (Maybe it's because classical musicians don't know how to use the internet? Lol) Everyone will tell you what a perfect cadence, an exposition & development is, but no one will show you how they function practically in the real great works. Glad to have people like you finally start to make this stuff accessible to a larger audience!

[@joshlee9614]

Thanks for putting your stuff out there - very helpful for a composer- in- training. Could you make a video as to what is considered developing a theme versus varying a theme? Some things you've said contradict what I've been told by my professor.

[@listeningcolors9888]

Great lesson Ryan .. Thank you🙏🙏 It would love to see a video on using this technique and create a small development section, so it would be more helpful to grasp the technique as a beginner.😄

[@RyanLeach]

Yea that is a good idea, writing a development section with this structure from an existing theme

[@benjaminh.abraham6815]

Great Video! Can you do a video on how different composers use development in their pieces? (Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Bruckner, Mahler, Mendelssohn, Wagner, etc.)

[@jonlascelles6250]

You are good! Chapeau!

[@jaijeffcom]

Who knew it was so simple and clear? Okay, now I'm going to write a theme and try developing it. Cover me, I'm going in! If I make it out again, I'll hit the Ernst Toch approach next.

[@jaijeffcom]

Hey @RyanLeach, you're brilliant. Thank you for this illuminating video. I keep a notes file and I added the harmonic outline of Mozart's Clarinet Quintet to it. Heck, that isn't mysterious. I found I could improvise on those "changes" in any key. So, what do you know, I know how to modulate down a third, how to sequence to any interval comprised of whole steps above, and how to turn a minor chord into a submediant preparation for a prolonged dominant. It was so easy to improvise on those "changes," I made up two trashy little tunes with discernible rhythmic motifs. I plugged them into a sonatina form and the development skeleton from the Clarinet Quintet. In about 45 minutes, I had an actual Sonatina movement! Of course, it isn't a good piece, but harmonically and structurally it hangs together just fine. Now that I'm confident I can put together something that doesn't break, I can think about expressing something and writing something more meaningful, knowing that it will stand.

[@Taiwanaj]

I seriously doubt there's a better channel or teacher than Ryan Leach. It's like you always know my struggles, so: thank you again and again! Question (maybe a stupid one): what exactly is Standing on the Dominant? I've studied so many books (Chaplin included), but it still doesn't make sense to me as there are so many definitions, but so few worthwhile explanations and examples. Could you perhaps explain to me so that it makes sense??

[@VictorRamirezMusic]

Amazing video! Could you please link the book that you used for this? Thank you very much

[@shortfilms898]

Nice

[@davidgleba3832]

There are G-naturals in the violoncello part on the fourth beat of the first and third bars of the first standing on the dominant; they should be G-sharps.

[@Snommelp]

I'm going to need to rewatch this over and over again until it completely sinks in; I usually write hymn tunes, so developing beyond a core of 4-8 phrases is a big challenge for me.

[@chrissahar2014]

Hope you do analysis of Haydn's developmental process as it foreshadows much of Beethoven's experimentation. I suggest the famous development section of the d minor String Quartet from Op 76 as an excellent starting point of standard and somewhat unusual techniques of development . In fact you could do a whole series of the study of the Op 76 string quartets.

[@Myownpageai]

When it shows videos with different meanings with recycling for example, it’s hard to keep the same attention on such a not simple things to learn for me. Thank you❤

[@Myownpageai]

Thank you very much for this video😊🙌🏻

[@SilverlingVirtualStudio]

I’d be very interested to see this kind of summary of one of Mahler’s developments. Or Hanson. Or Sibelius. 😂

[@griffinandtheflyingv]

🔥

[@homzymusic]

The opening four notes, since 1894, they sing: "East Side, West Side, All (around the town) -

[@tanukibrahma]

The intonation issues turned this development section into a demolition section for me.

[@glenkuenzi4302]

I love the video, but what recording is this? It sounds a bit amateur

[@RyanLeach]

Yea I know 🫤, it was what I found that had a Creative Commons license so I didn't run into copyright issues

[@wobblyorbee279]

5:10

[@francobonanni3499]

What do you mean by lick? Can you explain better this word please. Thank you.

[@RyanLeach]

"motivic idea" "melodic material" "melodic phrase"

[@kingvii7250]

Just wondering... why do I feel that the instruments sounds a bit out of key?

[@Mondelfe]

They definitely do!

[@RyanLeach]

Unfortunately best I could find without copyright issues

[@Mondelfe]

@@RyanLeach Totally okay, the video is great and one can understand exactly what you are explaining from the background music. And most people know by now how KZbin bullies content creators.

[@kingvii7250]

@@Mondelfe I agree. I like the content 👍

[@danielbrandt9072]

It sounds like a real little orchestra is playing!! What is the trick?

[@RyanLeach]

It's a live performance

[@danielbrandt9072]

@@RyanLeach Alright! Yes, that trick works. 😂

[@Warstub]

As a listener I'm always disappointed by Mozart's development sections because he never takes the music to a new place, meaning themes don't transcend themselves like they might with Beethoven later on, but instead mostly just move through new keys. I always felt like the themes were already developed so much in the expositions that there wasn't really anything left to do with them. This is a really great video because it does still show how ingenious Mozart's use of the thematic material still is, even in a "limited" form. Thanks!

[@RyanLeach]

Yea I think Haydn was more of the "developer" and then Beethoven totally ran with it

[@brianr.3085]

Not even in works like the opening movements of the "Prague" symphony k.504 or the 25the piano concerto k.503? None of the themes presented in the exposition of either of those are particularly striking or memorable on their own, yet he still manages to create some pretty memorable and dramatic development sections out of them. The piano concerto, for example, the opening material consisting of pretty basic materials: triadic fanfares, an ascending scale, a rhthmic motif similar to the opening theme of Beethoven's 5th. The development climaxes with a double canon made from two of the opening themes: one between the woodwinds and bassoons, the other between the upper and lower strings, with free accompaniment in the piano between. And the development of the Prague is just breathtaking and defies explanation(at least in my opinion).

[@craia25]

today almost everyone makes music and you have so many tools at your disposal... and yet nobody actually manages to create music of the quality of Mozart, Beethoven... what is behind it?

[@elrichardo1337]

oh please can we stop with the deification of these classical composers I guarantee you there is still quality classical style music being composed out there; you just have to look a bit harder

[@GizzyDillespee]

I think many people make some kind of music, but not many people today try to create music in the style of Mozart and Beethoven. When people do, it's usually as a trope in the service of visual media. They use it similar to how they use piz strings or dueling banjos etc - it's shorthand because people have been trained what to associate with it, FBOW. If you mean quality, not style... how do you judge that? How do you judge quality in a contemporary classical or jazz composition? Same metrics you use for Mozart? Every other condition is different, so why would the metrics be the same? Also, maybe you're comparing just anybody today, with the biggest commercial successes of yesteryear. I play piano or synth improvs instead of watching TV. Sometimes I'll cut a few parts out that I don't like before posting them to KZbin. If my process could produce results as good as a Mozart symphony, I'd be highly suspicious that I'm living in a simulation. I think many of the people who are "making music" are also being less ambitious than "symphony orchestra", and are less experienced too. Tons of ordinary folks made music back in Mozart's day too. The hip-hop and electronic music today is like contemporary folk music, except for maybe the most ambitious professional releases. We might be less subtle, and it smells even worse here than in the castle, if you can believe that. But we have a good time! (Even though I'm not a composer, I'm here for subconscious inspiration - somehow stuff from videos like this seeps in to your playing, just from watching a video. It's the weirdest phenomenon. Afterwards, you listen back and recognize something halfway through, oh wow I know where that came from! Simple joys, compared to writing a symphony. Comparatively simple results, too, however)

[@Warstub]

While I was in a progressive rock metal band I had the idea of creating a full fugue for a four piece including a drum kit. I never did it, but the idea is still there. If drums are tuned to notes, there's no reason why this kind of classical composition can't exist for any sort of band. Music styles change, the way people compose changes; it's all just fashion in the end. Even Classical/Orchestral music moved into far simpler forms: from Carl Orff, to Arvo Pärt. Good and Beautiful music still exists, but most people realise that it doesn't need to be complex, or have lots of counterpoint.

[@connorgregory5625]

Surprisingly? It's Classical; everything was made to be simple

[@colinliaubass1712]

Mozart is deceased

[@elias69420]

So?

[@phantomvhs3537]

Mozzarella