Delibes, Sylvia, "Pizzicati"

In Léo Delibes's ballet Sylvia (1876), several of the best-remembered numbers occur in the third-act divertissement, which begins with the brief scherzo "Pizzicati." The design is simple: an introduction, 16-bar theme (see below), a five-bar interpolation followed by repetition of the theme's final eight bars (the consequent of its 16-bar period). A trio in the subdominant key follows, at 16 bars, and then the theme's consequent phase is repeated to end.

The two voices represented in the initial tonal space Bb4-Eb5 are easily traced, the close being a rising octave line that fulfills the implications of the bright eighth-note figures in bars 3, 5, etc.