♫ But now it really is time to play the exposition! Here it is, in its entirety. ♫ So, as you can hear, the ideas that were spotlighted in the opening phrase continue to feature prominently throughout the exposition. And by “ideas”, I mean first of all, the literal ideas – that falling fifth, and the short-short-short-long motive, and I’ll point out the many appearances of each – but also the “idea” of the character being mercurial, of the alternation of wistful and playful music. Immediately following the theme we have this. ♫ The falling, sighing interval in both of the first two bars, and the harmonic tension in the second make them skew wistful, ♫ but then the answer’s rhythm is very playful. ♫ “See, it’s not so serious!” This juxtaposition plays out again and again. The transition to the second theme uses the opening idea, but darkens it further by moving it to minor. ♫ And you’ll notice, once again it’s: falling fifth/falling fifth, short-short-short-long. But now that the serious half of the phrase has been made MORE serious, by virtue of the minor mode, and also more drawn out, the “don’t be so serious” ending of the phrase has become an even more dismissive correction. ♫ “Don’t. Be. Like. That.” This prepares the second theme, which yet again lives between characters. The first time through, it is very lovely, more dolce than giocoso. ♫ But upon immediate repetition, Beethoven embellishes it in a way that turns it almost flippant, with two-note slurs chopping up a long line, or perhaps, giving it the hiccups. ♫ The substance of the music is unchanged, but the details greatly alter the character. This leads to the most energetic portion of the exposition, in which hemiolas increase the urgency of the music. To review: a hemiola divides music that has three beats in a bar into groups of two, so from 1-2-3, 1-2-3 to 1-2, 1-2, 1-2. ♫ But as always in this movement, the more strongly one character is established, the more strongly a different one establishes itself in the next phrase. The next phrase, in this case, being a closing theme, really just a variant of the opening one, as amabile as the previous music was rambunctious. ♫ And to the end, the tools he uses are: falling intervals (though sixths this time), ♫ and short-short-short-long. ♫ The character of this movement maybe subtle, varied, and hard to pin down, but structurally and motivically, Beethoven is relentlessly on message.
