1.5 Musical form

Grasping the whole composition

Driving through a city for the first time can be very disorienting. Building after building catches your eye. Youcircle past a monument, then a fountain. Restaurants, hotels and shops fly past. Trying to absorb and remember all of theselandmarks quickly becomes tiring. Was the town square before or after the park? Did you pass a museum? If you don't speakthe language, an extra anxiety sets in. You try to decipher the street signs, negotiate the traffic. By the time youarrive at the hotel, you fall on your bed, exhausted.

Similarly, it is easy to get lost in the moment-to-moment progress of a piece of music: There are often too many detailsto remember, too many implications to contemplate. If the work is particularly dynamic, you may become overwhelmed withits rapid progress. If the musical language is unfamiliar, even one poorly understood sound may throw you into confusion.

In your visit to a new city, it is wiser to begin with an overview of the neighborhoods. First, you notice that you aretraversing the old town, where the buildings are closely packed together and the streets narrow and winding. Then, youpass into the modern section, with sleek high-rises, set apart along straight thoroughfares. You don't need to speak thelanguage; nor is there the pressure to remember facades or street-names. Later, you may revisit the old town on foot,discovering quiet alleys and ancient monuments. But, for now, you content yourself with a general sense of the city'slayout: How large is the old town compared to the new? How much variety of architecture characterizes each neighborhood?This more patient, disciplined approach helps to orient your future explorations. It will be harder to get lost oroverwhelmed when you have a commanding sense of the city's geography.

Similarly, the path to informed listening begins with a grasp of the whole composition. There are tremendous advantages tobeginning with a commanding perspective: While details tend to pass by very quickly; the overall trajectory of the musicunfolds more gradually, giving you more time to consider it. The significance of an individual gesture is often clearerwhen related to the work's overall destiny. And, while the immediate sounds are bristling with personality and may bedifficult to grasp, the larger structure is often easier to hear accurately.

Thus, we will approach listening to a piece of music by moving from the whole into the details: We will begin by developingan awareness of the composition's form and destiny, then gradually sink into the details with a stronger sense of theirrelevance.

Musical form is the wider perspective of a piece of music. It describes the layout of a composition as divided intosections, akin to the layout of a city divided into neighborhoods.

Musical works may be classified into two formal types: A and A/B. Compositions exist in a boundless variety of styles,instrumentation, length and content--all the factors that make them singular and personal. Yet, underlying thisindividuality, any musical work can be interpreted as either an A or A/B-form.

An A-form emphasizes continuity and prolongation . It flows, unbroken, from beginning to end. In a unified neighborhood, wander down anystreet and it will look very similar to any other. Similarly, in an A-form, the music has a recognizable consistency.

The other basic type is the A/B-form . Whereas A-forms emphasize continuity, A/B-forms emphasize contrast and diversity . A/B-forms are clearly broken up into sections, which differ in aurally immediate ways. Thesections are often punctuated by silences or resonant pauses, making them more clearly set off from one another. Here, youtravel among neighborhoods travels that are noticeably different from one another: The first might be a residentialneighborhood, with tree-lined streets and quiet cul-de-sacs. The next is an industrial neighborhood, with warehouses andsmoke-stacks.

The prime articulants of form are rhythm and texture . If the rhythm and texture remain constant, you will tend to perceive an A-form. If there is amarked change in rhythm or texture, you will tend to perceive a point of contrast--a boundary, from which you pass into anew neighborhood. This will indicate an A/B-form.

Listen to the following examples. What is the form of each?

Labeling the forms

It is conventional to give alphabetic labels to the sections of a composition: A, B, C,. If a section returns, its letter is repeated: for instance, "A-B-A"is a familiar layout in classical music. etc

As the unbroken form, A-forms come only in a single variety. They may be long or short, but they are always "A".

As the contrast form, A/B-forms come in a boundless array of possibilities. There may be recurring sections, unique ones,or any combination of both. For instance, a Rondo --a popular form in Classical music--consists of an alternation of a recurring section andothers that occur once each. It would be labelled A-B-A-C-A-D-A,. Many twentieth-century composers became fascinated with arch-forms: A-B-C-B-A. etc

An on-going form, with no recurrence whatsoever, is also possible: A-B-C-D-E... Any sequence of recurring and uniquesections may occur.

How would you describe the following form? First, click when you hear a new section. Then, use the pull-downmenu to label each section.

This movement is labeled as an A-B-A form. It opens with frantic, somber, rhythmically persistent music. Thecontrasting section has a lighter, more carefree feeling and a new prevailing rhythm. Finally, the opening sectionreturns exactly.

Conclusion

Understanding the layout of the city is crucial for exploring it: once you understand its topography, you know how to findits landmarks, where the places for recreation or business may lie. Similarly, determining the form of a piece will tell youa lot about it. If it is an A-form, your next focus will be on the work's main ideas, and how they are extended across theentire composition. If it is an A/B-form, your next investigations will be into the specific layout of sectionsand the nature of the contrasts.