Sequential expansion and Handelian phrase rhythm

Summary

Introduction: the basic pace

In the second part of the Allemande from his Suite in C, K.399, known as the “Suite in the Style of Handel” (an inauthentic but not inaccurate title), Mozart follows the practice of Baroque composers in elaborating on the sequential spinning he had begun in the first part (see Example 1). The early sequence of bars 3 and 4 moves essentially in quarter notes, following what one might call the basic pace of the composition – marked by the even, largely stepwise motion of its outer voices in their normalized, unexpanded state. Just after the central double bar, Mozart complements the first sequence with a slower moving one, advancing in half notes (bars 15 and 16). He then continues with a still slower sequence, one that progresses basically in whole notes, in bars 18, 19, and 20. (The music is quoted in Examples 1a and 1b; the gradual expansion in sequential duration is shown by means of asterisks and rhythmic notation above and below each system. These symbols mark the points at which the underlying motion takes place. The parentheses in each system enclose the ancillary chords that extend the time span of the more structural adjacent chords.)