Theory 3

Sentence

Period

Hybrid

Compound Period

Compound Sentence

Small Ternary

Large Scale Formal Structure of a Sonata

(Slow Intro) - Identify with a tempo marking

Exposition - Almost always repeated

Development

Recapitulation

(Coda) - After the codetta (can be a transformation)

Large Scale Tonal Structure of a Sonata (Cadences)

Exposition:

• Home Key

  • (Often) Ends with PAC = Closing

  • Ends with HC = Standing on dominant

• TRANSITION

  • (Modulated) SK: HC

  • (Non-modulated) HK: HC

• SK Theme

  • Ends with PAC → Codettas

• (Maybe) Retransition

Development

• Explores multiple tonal centres

  • Confirmed by a HC

  • Less often confirmed by a PAC

• Ends with HC in HOME KEY

Recapitulation

• Stays in home key

• Move to subordinate ( IV ) region without a confirmed modulation occurs

• PAC in HOME KEY

The exposition’s main theme ends with a HC especially in ____

Minor-mode movements

As a general rule, the exposition emphasizes what modality? What about the development?

Major modality for exposition

Minor modality for development

For major-mode sonatas, what are the development keys? For minor-mode?

Major-mode:

• Minor-mode regions of VI, III and II

Minor-mode

• Minor-mode regions of IV and V

For exposition, what are the subordinate keys for major mode? For minor mode?

Major: V

Minor: III (major) or V (minor)

3 Principle Thematic Functions of an Exposition (Parts + Cadence)

• Main Theme

  • Tight: biased towards sentence

  • SOMETIMES: Two main themes that each end with a PAC = Main theme group

• Transition

  • Loose form of sentence: destabilize the home key to modulate to SK

  • End with HC in SK → post-cadential standing on the dominant of the SK

• Subordinate Theme

  • Loose: Extensions / expansions to DELAY and dramatize the arrival of the PAC

  • Multiple SK themes: each end with PAC = subordinate theme group

  • FINAL PAC IN SK → Closing section (series of codettas)

Retransition: leads the music back to home key for repeat

What is a closing section? What is a codetta?

If a PAC’s tonic is extended using a final tonic prolongation = codetta

Codettas = range from a single chord to a 4m phrase, repetitions of PAC, plagal extensions, short progressions, sometimes over a pedal point

MULTIPLE codettas = Closing section

A small minority of transitions in expositions are

non-modulating, ending with HC or dominant harmony in home key

How does the transition/subordinate key theme express a looser organization than the main theme?

1. Harmonic Instability

2. Asymmetrical Grouping

3. Standing on the dominant (repetition of the cadential phrase that appears at the end of SK)

In tight-knit sentences, it normally fuses continuation and cadential functions into ___ wheras in looser sentences it ___

tight knit: fuses continuation and cadential functions into one continuation sentence

• eg. main theme

looser: gives these two parts their own distinct phrases with different melodic content and harmonic progressions

• eg. subordinate key theme

Development Formal Structure

• Precore

• Core

  • Fragment into a HC

    • SK:HC → Standing on the dominant

    • I: HC → recap

What is a “core”

Found in the development section

Model around 4-8m. which is sequenced one or more times

Formal Structure of the Recapitulation

• Main Theme

  • Returns without significant changes

  • Sometimes: ornamental decorations

  • No cadence needed to confirm the home key since there will be no change in key for the recap

• Transition (harmonic difference)

  • Emphasizes IV to function as a PD to the home key dominant

  • I: HC

• Subordinate Theme

  • Appears in tonic key

  • FINAL PAC IN SK → Closing section (series of codettas)

    • Codettas will be similar to exposition

    • Evaded cadences + ECP’s

Optional: Coda

Define coda

Occurs after the codetta in a recap, contains one or more coda themes (PAC phrases) to reinforce home key or compensate for unrealized ideas

Formal Structure of a Fugue

• Exposition

  • Subject appears in ALL voices

• (Episode + Middle Entry)

• Episode + Final Entry

• Final Cadence

Real vs Tonal Answer

Answer = subject appearing in the dominant key of the fugue

Tonal answer = Intervals are not exactly modulated

Real answer = Intervals are exactly modulated

Bridge

Occurs in fugal exposition, brief modulatory passage occuring between answer to next subject to help V→I

Episode

Section that does not contain a full statement of the fugue subject but develops the subject through fragmentation and model-sequence technique

Middle/Final Entry

Essentially just a fugal exposition but happening in the middle/final part of the fugue

Features statements of the subject in all voices

Rhythmic augmentation / diminution

Augmentation = lengthening of time values of melody notes ( dramatic effect)

Diminution = shortening of time values of melody notes (urgency)

Melodic Inversion

Moving by the same intervals in opposite direction

Stretto

Overlapping of subject entrances

Countersubject

Counterpoint that consistently accompanies the subject

Identify this piece and the important elements:

Fugue no. 2 in c minor WTC BWV 846

Fugue exposition

Identify this piece and the important elements:

Episode + Middle Entry

Total 3 episodes + 2 middle entries + 2 final entries (m.20) + coda (m.29)

Identify this piece and the important elements:

Mondnacht by Schumann

Opening interval depicts large difference between heaven and earth

Identify this piece and the important elements:

Erlkonig by Schubert

Ballad: Narrative Poem / Horror Ballad

4 characters: Narrator, elfking, father, child

Opens with the piano part depicting galloping horses

Identify this piece and the important elements:

Ihr Bild by Schubert

Identify this piece and the important elements:

Ihr Bild by Schubert

What is the plot of La Traviata?

La Traviata by Verdi

• 1853

• Genre: Italian Opera

• La Traviata tells the tragic story of Violetta Valéry, a Parisian courtesan who falls deeply in love with a young nobleman, Alfredo Germont.

• They live happily for a time, but Alfredo’s father persuades Violetta to leave him for the sake of his family’s honor.

• Heartbroken and ill with tuberculosis, Violetta dies in Alfredo’s arms just after they are reunited.

What is the standard Italian opera scene?

1. Introduzione: Orchestra Intro

2. Scena: Action/dialogue - open to modulate

3. Cantabile: Slow aria - ends w PAC in home key

4. Tempo di mezzo: Action/dialogue - open to modulate

5. Cabaletta: Fast aria - ends w PAC in home key

What is lyric form?

Standard way of setting 8-verse poetic text

Chromatic mediant

The parallel major or minor of the regular, diatonic mediant that can be sharped or flattened.

In Brahms: Begins in F Major, goes to D major (VI) then A major (III)

Contrasting derivation

Use of a motive or idea to build a section that contrasts with the section that motive or idea originates in

Brahm: Bars 9-10 taken from basic idea

Motivic Contamination

the infiltration of a section by a motive from an earlier section. Most typically, a recapitulatory section that incorporates motivic material from an earlier contrasting section.

In the Brahms, an example is bars 18–19 in the A' section, which replace the basic idea from the consequent with the variant from the beginning of the B section.

Linkage

the technique whereby an immediate repetition of the same motive is used to first end one section and then start a new one.

Brahms: end of MT in bar 21, beginning of TR in bar 22, using the exact same motive (although harmonized differently). The use of linkage can result in an obscured formal boundary.

Obscured formal boundary

the general tendency to hide boundaries between sections, so that it is unclear where exactly a new section starts.

Identify this piece and the important elements:

Brahms:  the first movement of the String Quintet in F major, op. 88

Small ternary: A (ends w A major PAC), B (D major), A (F major)

Identify this piece and the important elements:

Brahms:  the first movement of the String Quintet in F major, op. 88

Transition → SK theme uses developing variation

Define developing variation

technique in which the variations are produced through the development of existing material

Dvorak, Symphony no. 9: Instruments and Transposition