Form

Question 1

PAC

Answer 1

The chords are in root position-that is, the roots of both chords are in the bass-and the tonic is in the highest voice of the final chord. This is generally considered the strongest type of cadence and is often found at structurally defining moments. The cadence must meet three requirements: V-I, both chords in root position, tonic scale degree in the highest voice of the tonic chord.

Question 2

Imperfect authentic cadence

Answer 2

There are three distinct types of imperfect authentic cadences (IAC): Root Position IAC: Similar to a perfect authentic cadence, but the highest voice is not the tonic. Inverted IAC: Similar to a perfect authentic cadence, but one or both chords are inverted. Leading Tone IAC: the V chord is replaced with the leading tone (viio) chord, but the cadence still ends on the tonic (I).

Question 3

Half cadence

Answer 3

A half cadence is any cadence ending on the dominant (V), regardless of which chord precedes it. Because it sounds incomplete or suspended, the half cadence is considered a weak cadence that calls for a continuation. Rarely do half cadences end a piece, but they are found many times in the first half of a chorus or verse.

Question 4

Plagal cadence

Answer 4

A plagal cadence is a cadence from the subdominant (IV) to the tonic (I). It is also known as the Amen Cadence because of its frequent setting to the text “Amen” in hymns. Here it is being used at the end of The Doxology Hymn.

Question 5

Deceptive cadence

Answer 5

A deceptive cadence is a progression in which the dominant chord (V) resolves to a chord other than the tonic (I). In most cases, the dominant (V) will lead to the submediant chord (vi in major keys, VI in minor keys). The sound is “deceptive” because the listener expects a resolution to the tonic (I) and does not get it.

Question 6

Phrase

Answer 6

A phrase is a substantial musical thought, which ends with musical punctuation called a cadence. Phrases are created in music through an interaction of melody, harmony, and rhythm. In common practice, phrases are often four bars or measures long[13] culminating in a more or less definite cadence.[14] A phrase will end with a weaker or stronger cadence, depending on whether it is an antecedent phrase or a consequent phrase, the first or second half of a period.

Question 7

Motive

Answer 7

A motif is a short musical idea—shorter than a phrase—that occurs often in a piece of music. A short melodic idea may also be called a motif, a motive, a cell, or a figure. These small pieces of melody will appear again and again in a piece of music, sometimes exactly the same and sometimes changed. When a motif returns, it can be slower or faster, or in a different key. It may return “upside down” (with the notes going up instead of down, for example), or with the pitches or rhythms altered.

Question 8

Contrasting period

Answer 8

The phrases begin differently. The form is ab.

Question 9

Parallel period

Answer 9

The melodies in both phrases begin similarly. The form is aa or aa’.

Question 10

Double period

Answer 10

A double period consists of at least 4 phrases and is comprised of an antecedent group and a consequent group. The first two phrases in a double period are the antecedent group and the final two phrases are the consequent group, which ends with a cadence that “answers” the less conclusive cadence (or “question”) that ended the antecedent group. The melodic scheme of abab’ (four phrases) is commonly encountered in a double period. A double period with this melodic scheme would be described as a “parallel double period” because both the antecedent group and consequent group begin with the same melody.

Question 11

Binary form

Answer 11

a musical form in 2 related sections, both of which are usually repeated. Binary is also a structure used to choreograph dance. In music this is usually performed as A-A-B-B.

Binary form was popular during the Baroque period, often used to structure movements of keyboard sonatas. It was also used for short, one-movement works. Around the middle of the 18th century, the form largely fell from use as the principal design of entire movements as sonata form and organic development gained prominence. When it is found in later works, it usually takes the form of the theme in a set of variations, or the Minuet, Scherzo, or Trio sections of a “minuet and trio” or “scherzo and trio” movement in a sonata, symphony, etc.

Question 12

Binary form

Answer 12

a musical form in 2 related sections, both of which are usually repeated. Binary is also a structure used to choreograph dance. In music, this is usually performed as A-A-B-B.

The binary form was popular during the Baroque period, often used to structure movements of keyboard sonatas. It was also used for short, one-movement works. Around the middle of the 18th century, the form largely fell from use as the principal design of entire movements as sonata form and organic development gained prominence. When it is found in later works, it usually takes the form of the theme in a set of variations, or the Minuet, Scherzo, or Trio sections of a “minuet and trio” or “scherzo and trio” movement in a sonata, symphony, etc.

Question 13

Ternary form

Answer 13

Ternary form, sometimes called song form, is a three-part musical form consisting of an opening section (A), the following section (B), and then a repetition of the first section (A). It is usually schematized as A–B–A. Prominent examples include the da capo aria “The trumpet shall sound” from Handel’s Messiah, Chopin’s Prelude in D-Flat Major “Raindrop”, (Op. 28), and the opening chorus of Bach’s St John Passion.

Question 14

Rounded binary

Answer 14

🔗In a rounded binary form, the material at the beginning of the first section returns, often shortened, after a contrasting phrase at the beginning of the second section.

Question 15

Strophic

Answer 15

A strophic Form is a form of music in which one verse, or passage, the structure is repeated over and over.

It is also called verse-repeating form, chorus form, or one-part song form.

The structure of Strophic Form is just a repeating single verse or passage – AAAA…

The most common version of the strophic form – in fact, the only version you’ll see examples of – is when a song has a single verse of melody and harmonic structure, and then that verse is repeated with different lyrics.

Question 16

Rondo form

Answer 16

Rondo Form can be thought of as an extension of Binary and Ternary form.

The binary form is AB and the Ternary form is ABA, and a Rondo takes this a step farther by adding other letters – it goes ABACADAEA…

It essentially takes a principle theme, or refrain, and alternates it with one or more different themes, which are called episodes.

So the refrain is the repeating “A” section, and the alternating episodes are the “B”, “C”, “D”, and “E”.

Question 17

Sonata form

Answer 17

The standard definition focuses on the thematic and harmonic organization of tonal materials that are presented in an exposition, elaborated and contrasted in development, and then resolved harmonically and thematically in a recapitulation. In addition, the standard definition recognizes that an introduction and a coda may be present. Each of the sections is often further divided or characterized by the particular means by which it accomplishes its function in the form.

Question 18

Sonata-rondo form

Answer 18

A sonata rondo (ABACABA) features the same refrain-episode alternation that we find in the five-part rondo, but certain aspects of sonata form are infiltrate this alternation.

Exposition Development Recapitulation

Refrain 1 Episode 1 Refrain 2 Episode 2 Refrain 3 Episode 3 Refrain 4

Refrain 1 and Episode 1 form a sonata exposition that is recapitulated in Refrain 3 and Episode 3. As is the case in sonata form, the recapitulation contains a “tonal adjustment” so that it ends in the tonic key. That is, Episode 1 and 3 will be the same thematically, but Episode 3 will occur in tonic.
Because it resembles sonata form, the first and third episodes are always constructed as “second-theme” complexes.
Episode 2 (C in the short-hand diagram above) may be a development—possibly containing a prep-zone, CAZ, and retransition—or it may be a simpler interior theme.

Question 19

Ritornello form

Answer 19

The ritornello form was one of the musical structures developed in the Baroque period. It is characterized by a recurring A section in between new sections of music and is often described as ‘ABACA’, where the A section contains a distinctive theme. Importantly, the recurring A section is rarely an identical repeat of the first time we hear it. It often returns in keys related to the tonic, such as the dominant or a relative minor, and if the original iteration was very long, it returns in a shortened form. The sections in between the ritornello sections (B or C) are called episodes.

Question 20

Concerto form

Answer 20

The concerto form is the basic musical form that is used in a musical concerto.

Basic Types of Concerti
Italian - Fast, Slow, Fast
French - Slow, Fast
Baroque - Slow, Fast, Slow, Fast.

The Classical concerto was most commonly seen in this form:

First Movement - Sonata-allegro form
Second Movement - Ternary form
Third Movement - Rondo form

Question 21

Fugue

Answer 21

a contrapuntal compositional technique in two or more voices, built on a subject (a musical theme) that is introduced at the beginning in imitation (repetition at different pitches) and which recurs frequently in the course of the composition. It is not to be confused with a fugue tune, which is a style of the song popularized by and mostly limited to early American (i.e. shape-note or “Sacred Harp”) music and West Gallery music. A fugue usually has three main sections: an exposition, a development, and a final entry that contains the return of the subject in the fugue’s tonic key. Some fugues have a recapitulation.

Question 22

Fugato

Answer 22

a section of a composition that is in fugal style but does not constitute a real fugue.

Question 23

Exposition

Answer 23

In sonata form, the exposition corresponds to the first part of binary form, the development, and recapitulation to the second. The exposition moves from the original key to a new key; the development passes through several keys and the recapitulation returns to the original key.

Question 24

Development section

Answer 24

The functions of the second and third main sections in sonata form follow naturally from what has been established in the exposition. Their purpose is to discuss and resolve the conflicts of tonality and theme that the exposition has raised. The development is an area of tonal flux—it usually modulates or changes keys, frequently, and any keys it settles in are likely to be only distantly related to the keys found in the exposition.

Question 25

Recapitulation

Answer 25

The recapitulation presents the principal subject matter of the movement in a new state of equilibrium. The main subjects of the exposition are heard almost always in the same order as before, but now both subjects are typically in the tonic key, whereas in the exposition the first was in the tonic, the second in the dominant key. As a result of the musical events in the development, the listener perceives the subjects in a new relationship—rather like a traveler who glimpses the constituent parts of a valley separately as he climbs a hill and then, when he reaches the summit, sees the entire landscape for the first time as a whole.