At the risk of being every so slightly lazy I'm not bothering to analyze the introduction. It's an introduction and so it does what it's supposed to do.  Instead I mean to discuss the exposition, development and recapitulation of Molitor's Op. 7 guitar sonata.

Theme 1 begins two four-measure phrases, the second of which elides into what I've labeled Phrase 2, a cadential evasion phrase that is repeated before finally arriving at a tonic key authentic cadence in A minor.  This three-times repetition of a thwarted cadential resolution that finally arrives at A minor is something we'll see in the slow movement of Matiegka's Grand Sonata II, movement 2 but it's something we see here in the fast sonata form Molitor presents in his Op. 7 as well.   

The transition begins as soon as the first authentic cadence in the tonic key is established (highlighted in green) The sixteenth note descending half-wedge motiff alternating after jumping eight-note bass riffs sums up the core of the transition.  This outward expansion/alternation from a fixed tone foreshadows the thematic core of Theme 2 (and we can think of Theme 2 through the close of the exposition as the Second Group).  If the opening short theme was typified by descending gestures Theme 2 is characterized by more complex phase groups. Phrase 1a and Phrase 2 present half cadence endings, followed by a return of Phrase 1a that establishes an authentic cadence in C major.

The end of Theme 2 is elided into the start of Theme 3 (aka the closing theme), which extends the idea of the repeated note as the basis for a theme even further and deploys chromatic descent as a way to add an additional element of contrast to the predominantly diatonic themes in Theme 1 and Theme 2. Theme 3 is also quite long and can be broken into two parts. The first part is the aforementioned chromatic descent theme while the second part is an obviously cadential set of turns of phrase that bring the exposition to a close, before the exposition repeats and before the development proper begins.

Something worth noting this far is that Theme 1, even when we include the three statements of its cadential formula, is twelve measures long. The modulating transition is twelve measures long. Theme 2 is sixteen and a half measures long, while Theme 3 (in its two halves) is twenty-two measures.  So Themes 2 and 3 altogether are about three times as long as Theme 1 and that's IF we count repetition of the cadential formula as an inherently necessary part of Theme 1.

If we regard the repeating cadential turns as an extension that does not necessarily reflect any "essential" core of Theme 1 then Theme 1 is a mere fraction of the size of Themes 2 and 3.  This drastic difference in proportional length (and the corresponding repetition of the exposition) highlights a pattern I proposed at the beginning may be relevant to whether or not a sonata will have a truncated recapitulation that omits Group I material, the presence of a Theme 1 that is significantly shorter than Themes 2 and/or 3 together.

Having written all that, you can peruse the score for  yourself. The exposition can be read below the break.

There's two public domain versions of this work available at IMSLP
http://imslp.org/wiki/Guitar_Sonata,_Op.7_(Molitor,_Franz_Simon)

and here it is. You might want to collapse all the menus on the side of the blog for optimal reading.

Download score 1

and in the next post we'll get to the development and recapitulation.

Molitor Op. 7 Grand Sonata, movement 1: observations about the development and the recapitulation of Themes 2 and 3 without Theme 1

The development section begins with embellishments derived from the modulating transition. Eventually we get to material in G minor derived from Theme 1. The development, not particularly long, draws most from Theme 1 and the modulating transition before preparing the recapitulation section.

Now it is at the recapitulation that we observe Theme 1 is not brought back. Instead we get Theme 2, which is presented in the key of A major.  Modal mutation into the parallel key for a recapitulation has been a well-known option for a sonata form since, obviously, Haydn and Beethoven.  What makes this recapitulation slightly unusual is how Molitor brings back Theme 2 and Theme 3 without bringing back Theme 1.  Of course, this is something we can see in a far more famous sonata, Chopin's Sonata in B flat minor.  What I propose for both case studies of sonata form is that if a Theme 1 is unusually short in actual length or in terms of the material developed (certainly the case with Chopin, not with Molitor, where their respective Theme 1 materials go), this can be a sign that the material will not be brought back in the recapitulation.  It "may" happen, but it's not unreasonable or even an unusual deviation from sonata forms if Theme 1 doesn't come back. 

This can be particularly the case in sonata forms where there are explicit repeats of the exposition.  Chopin's sonata is the more durable and well-known case study but for Chopin's sonata and to a lesser extent for Molitor's Op. 7 what we see at work is a good deal of intra-expositional expansion for Theme 1 materials.  The core of Molitor's Theme 1 is, after all, a mere six notes.  Chopins Theme 1 in his B flat minor sonata is explicable as merely three.  In Molitor's Op. 7 we have a short Theme 1 and a transition that constitute the foundation of the development section and so Molitor's recapitulation can be taken as not beginning until Themes 2 and 3 come back in the tonic key, which they do.

Guitar sonata movements in which Theme 1 is omitted in the recapitulation are actually pretty common.  Molitor has this kind of sonata form in his Op. 7 but comparable examples can be found in the second movement of Matiegka's Grand Sonata II, Sor's Op. 22 and Op. 25 and also in Giuliani's Op. 150.  Another example is Diabelli's Op.29 Sonata 3 in F major.  We'll get to those in other spaces but it's worth noting that the previously mentioned patterns of heavy intra-expositional development of Theme 1 material (and/or the extreme brevity of said material) is a recurring pattern in these sonata forms that fail to recapitulate Theme 1 material.  We're particularly going to see this pattern emerge in the Grand Sonatas of Sor that we'll discuss a bit later. 

In fact this pattern of introducing first theme material that isn't brought back in the recapitulation is sufficiently common in early 19th century guitar sonatas it invites the question of whether Chopin's practice of the incomplete recapitulation was as unusual as some music historians have suggested it was.  It may have been a sonata form regarded as a "lower level default" in the language of Hepokoski and Darcy, but it would not have been classifiable as a genuinely "abnormal" option for a sonata movement.

you can read the development through the recapitulation part of the Op. 7

Download score 2

Now whether or not you LIKE this sonata is an entirely different sort of question. 

I'd hoped to be able to tackle some of Molitor's other solo guitar sonatas to discuss for this series but there's only so many works that have public domain materials available for analysis.  It seems there's an Op. 11, an Op. 12 and a few other guitar sonatas and perhaps someone can gather all of those up and write a more extensive, more officially scholarly treatment of the solo guitar sonata at the start of the 19th century.  Until that happens, this sort of thing may have to suffice.

Next we'll turn to the composer who's my current favorite of the early 19th century guitarists who wrote sonata forms, Wenzel Matiegka, probably best described to non-initiates as the Haydn of the Guitar.