Musical Form – Lecture Review

Twelve question-and-answer flashcards covering the lecture’s key points on repetition, contrast, common formal schemes (ternary, rondo, binary), and detailed components of sonata form.

What two fundamental principles underlie the creation of musical form?

Repetition and contrast.

What compositional technique mixes repetition and contrast to modify existing material?

Development (or variation).

What is the basic structural scheme of ternary form?

A–B–A, in which the opening section (A) returns after a contrasting middle section (B).

Which Chopin genre was cited as an example of ternary form, and what elements contrast between its A and B sections?

Chopin’s Mazurka; the A and B sections contrast in tonality, tempo, dynamics, and texture while keeping the same metre, tonic, and rhythmic character.

Give the typical letter pattern of a Baroque rondo as illustrated by Purcell’s ‘Round-o’.

A–B–A–C–A, featuring a refrain (A) that returns unchanged and in the same key each time, with sections of equal length.

In Baroque binary form, how do the two repeated sections relate in key?

The first section moves from tonic to dominant; the second begins in the dominant and returns to the tonic.

What distinguishes Classical rounded binary form from simple Baroque binary?

Rounded binary brings back the opening material in the tonic part-way through the second section, creating an early recapitulation effect.

Name the three principal sections of sonata form.

Exposition, development, and recapitulation (often followed by a coda).

In a sonata-form exposition, what keys are usually assigned to the first and second subjects?

The first subject is in the tonic key; the second subject is typically in the dominant (or relative major/minor).

What is the function of the bridge (transition) passage within the exposition of sonata form?

To modulate from the tonic to the key of the second subject.

Describe the main activity of the development section in sonata form.

Themes from the exposition are broken down and transformed through modulation, sequence, altered intervals, rhythms, dynamics, etc.

How does the treatment of keys in the recapitulation of sonata form differ from the exposition?

All thematic material is restated in the tonic key, avoiding the key contrast of the exposition.