Welcome to Try This! Your weekly look at a partimenti rule. This week we are looking at an example of a rule from the reperetoire.
Last week we looked at the ascending 7-6 sequence. If you haven’t worked that through, you can find it here.
Check out how Mozart uses the ascending 7-6 sequence in Sextet No 19 “Riconosci in questo amplesso” from Le Nozze di Figaro.
Below is the piano reduction. Here’s a recording. The ascending 7-6 sequence is in the second line.
Go to your instrument and try this!
- Play just the bassline, watch out for the arpeggiation! The bassline in the second line is a whole note D then a whole note E then a half note F.
- Play just the melody in the vocal part. Notice how Mozart is using the 7th then 6th then 8v as the melody.
- Play just the melody and bass, no chord or inner voices. If you play a single-line instrument heres two ideas for you 1) try playing the bass note in a comfortable, but lower, register then follow that with the melody in a higher register, or 2) record yourself playing the bassline (you can also put a metronome on, somehow rhythm the whole notes, or count out-loud to help yourself later) then put some headphones on and play the upper voice against the bassline.
Are you up for a challenge?
Here are some things to try:
- There are two and a half iterations of this sequence, try to keep it going! See if you can go for a whole octave so your bass ends up back on D.
- Change the meter, try adapting Mozart’s melody to 3/4 or 6/8.
- Try adding some embellishment to the melody while keeping it’s structure intact. Try doing this in one of the other meters you have adapted the sequence into.
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