26: The Landscape - Part Two

Whereas Part One is largely created with a melodic cycle, Part Two is created with a harmonic cycle. A group of seven chords is repeated over and over through the course of the movement.

(Gustave Dore)

The chords are in fact compressed from the opening phrases of the horn solo at the beginning of Part Two. This example shows both the horn solo and the seven chords: Lightfall-Part-2-Cycle-of-Chords

This horn solo can be listened to here: 

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As a result of the strings sustaining the horn’s notes you can hear something very close to the seven chords.

At bar 6, where the main section begins, and at the closing bars of Part Two, an A major chord takes the place of the first chord in the cycle. As I have said previously, A major was always the home key of the movement; its replacement by the C major chord through most of the movement has the effect similar to an insistent interrupted cadence.

Like Part One there are layers of cycles. The ground layer moves at glacial speed:
I: b6-34
II: b32-49
III: b50-66
IV: b67-85
V: b106-125 (mallets, woodwind, piano, harp)
VI: b122-139 (strings)
VII: b149-171 (solo, horns, violins)
I: b169-188 (solo, woodwind, piano)

At times the chord changes overlap (like b32-24), at other times this ground layer is put on hold while alternate layers of the cycle are inserted.

The chorale layer at b86 is one of these inserts, alternating between the brass and strings until fading off at b125.

A faster layer of the cycle begins at b134 on the low woodwind, later joined by the piano at b141 and the basses at b161, until b168. It is then continued by basses alone until b187.

At b189 the chorale layer is played on its own, now that the ground layer has completed a full cycle. This time it keeps returning to the start before completing a cycle, each time getting further along the sequence until chord VI is reached at b228.

The long crescendo beginning with the timpani at b229 remains on chord VI, over the top of which chord VII is alluded to by the soloist and orchestral horns from b260 and the basses at b272.

Cycle Circle

The coda (b275) is a repetitious cycle of the fast layer played by most of the orchestra except the woodwind who have a Bm7 that could be seen as either chord VII or chord V. The harp meanwhile plays an arpeggio on chord IV, then from b310 a composite of chords IV and II.