Offenbach, Pomme d'api (1873), no. 6 Rondeau

Number 6 is in three sections, after a short opening call "A table! A table!"  I wrote about the chanson "Versez, versez" in an earlier post: link. After a brief scena/recitative comes the rondeau "J’en prendrai un, deux, trois," which is the subject of today's post.

The design is vaguely that of a rondeau in the usual sense (that is, recurring theme with intervening contrasting sections). The A section consists of a 16-bar theme (bars 3-19), which has no cadence, after which another 16-bar theme is heard (bars 20-35); this one—we'll call it B—closes with a PAC in the dominant. A third, contrasting section C (bars 36-57) moves immediately to bVI of the dominant, introduces new melodic material (though the text continues in its catalogue fashion) and before very long reaches V (as dominant), where it stays for some time. When A returns (bars 57-72), the theme now closes firmly in the tonic and is followed by a lengthy coda (bars 72-92). After this, B and C are repeated in toto (bars 93-108 and 109-130, respectively), and so is the reprise of A and its coda (bars 130-161).

Here, voice part only, are A (theme1) and B (theme 2).

Here is the reprise of A. Note that the theme has a new second half, and that ends with a very straightforward descent in the cadence.

And here is the extended coda that immediately follows. The ascending octave in the cadence is very similar to the ending of no. 4.

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Note: In no.8, the finale of the operetta, the opening 72 bars of the rondeau are repeated, or ABCA'-coda.