Compare the structures of two movements that you have studied.

The second movement in Dvoraks quintet in A major has an unusual structure, being in rondo sonata form. This consists of three sections in the order ABACABA. This piece is a Dumka, meaning sad song, traditionally known as a type of folk music in duple time; they normally have a melancholy character with some moments which have a more joyful nature. Coming from a similar region Tchaikovsky had written his string quartet no.2 in F major. Again looking at the second movement the structure is different to Dvoraks piece being in a simple ternary structure consisting of just two sections in the order ABA. The tonal structure of the Dumka mainly sticks to the tonic of F sharp minor which is the relative minor to the quintets key as a whole. As a hybrid sonata form the B sections first occurrence can be seen as the second subject of the exposition. As expected this is in a different key to the first subject A being in D major, which is the flattened mediant relating to the harmonic version of the scale. The development section C is less stable tonally in particular in bars 139-42, where there are two bars in C major followed by two bars in F sharp minor. The recapitulation is all in F sharp minor sticking to traditional sonata form by putting the second subject into the tonic key. Tchaikovskys scherzo is in D flat major, which unlike the Dumka is a major 3rd away from the key of the opening movement in F major. Both A sections are in D flat major whilst the B section is in A major which subsequently is also a major 3rd away from D flat major. In Tchaikovskys piece there are frequent moments of marked rubato containing stringendos and ritenutos such as in bars 92 and 69, however the listesso tempo at the start of the B sections shows how each section has the same general tempo. This contrasts to Dvoraks dumka which has a different tempo for each section. The A section is marked Andante con moto., whilst the B section ushers very slight change in movement making it slightly faster,Un pochettino piu mosso. And then finally the development section is marked Vivace. Other than between sections any other tempo or rubato changes seem to have been left to the performer as there are none marked. A similarity between the two pieces is a change in time signature in the middle section is present in both. In the scherzo the B section moves from to . This change in time signature creates a more stable middle section which has a contrasting delicate mood to its agitated surroundings. The dumkas change in metre retains the familiarity of duple time while making a large impact of halving the beats length from a crotchet to a quaver dramatically increasing the tempo. This has the opposite effect to the Tchaikovsky adding to the agitation in the middle section rather than taking it away. Texture in both sections in the scherzo are both homophonic however the scoring is slightly busier in the A section with the accompaniment playing several notes in most bars off and on the beat compared to once on the downbeat in the B section. In the Dumka there is heterophony between the melody in the violin and piano in section A whilst section B is largely homophonic. However the frenzied C section has short fragments of melody passed through the instrumentation in polyphony. Overall the two movements are very different in structure. The main similarity that can be seen is the cyclic like shape that the structures use which was very popular with romantic composers.