Piano Sonata No. 10 (Mozart)

The first movement typically takes about five to nine minutes to perform. The length of the movement depends largely on whether both repeats (the repeat of the exposition and the repeat of the development and recapitulation) are observed. The movement shows two clear major themes, which have been decorated by the use of ornamentation, as was typical of the time.

The movement is in typical sonata form (composed of exposition, development, and recapitulation).

The first subject is in tonic key of C major and modulates to the dominant, G major, for the exposition of the second subject. The development is more intense and contains wider modulations. In the recapitulation, the first subject is heard, again in C major. The music then modulates to G major, and then returns to C major for the recapitulation of the second subject in the tonic key.[1]

The second movement takes between five and seven minutes to perform. The very end of the movement which Mozart wrote, an F major coda, was misplaced in the autograph but appears in the 1784 publication.

This key is F major, the subdominant of C major. After the exposition is heard twice, the music then modulates to the development in the parallel key of F minor, and its relative key (A-flat major). The movement then modulates to the tonic, for the recapitulation, followed by a short coda.

The third movement is the most energetic among the movements of the sonata. Performance times range from three to five minutes. Use of arpeggios is prevalent throughout the piece. Like the second movement, the last few bars were lost in the autograph as well.