Melody and Harmony in the Symphony Flashcards
Classical and Romantic period
What techniques did harmony in the Early Classical period begin with?
Favourable Baroque techniques, including functional harmony, primary chords, and circle of fifths progression.
What was the primary characteristic of harmony in the Classical period?
It tended to be rooted in diatonicism, emphasizing the use of a key.
How is a key constructed in the Classical period?
A key is built using a 7-note scale above a tonal centre, with triads built above each note of the scale.
What role does harmony play in relation to melody in the Classical period?
Harmony supports the main melodic ideas, resulting in a homophonic texture.
What are the two most prominent musical modes in the Early Classical period?
The major and minor modes.
What type of phrase presentations did Early Classical composers favor?
Sentence and periodic presentations of phrases.
When did sentence and periodic presentations of phrases grow in popularity?
At the end of the Baroque Period.
What aspects of Baroque style melodies existed in Early Classical melodies?
Heavy ornamentation.
What was the prime focus of the listener in Early Classical music?
The melody.
What was the focus of harmony in the Mature Classical period?
Harmony in the Mature Classical period was a further expansion of the techniques that started the Classical period.
What relationship was still favored in the Mature Classical period?
The tonic-dominant relationship was still favored, but there was a wider use of all chords in the key.
What types of chords were more commonly used in the music of the Mature Classical period?
Secondary dominants/diminished, Neapolitan, and augmented sixth chords were enjoyed more in the music to create color.
How were cadences used in the Mature Classical period?
Cadences were still employed and used to proportion music.
What was the texture of music in the Mature Classical period?
Most of the texture was still homophonic, but there was a resurgence in polyphony through the First Viennese School.
What was the purpose of polyphony in the Mature Classical period?
Polyphony was often used to support homophonic ideas.
What types of melodies were favoured by composers in the M.C?
Periodic melodies and sentence-based melodies were still favoured by composers.
What change occurred in the melody lines of the M.C?
There was a slight increase in chromaticism in the melody lines of the M.C.
What happened to the heavy ornamentation of the Early Classical Period?
Much of the heavy ornamentation of the Early Classical Period had been phased out.
What was still commonplace in the M.C?
Balanced phrases were still commonplace.
What happened to the importance of cadences during the Romantic period?
The importance of cadences started to lessen.
How did composers treat cadences in the Romantic period?
Composers would frequently avoid cadences or weaken their impact.
What is ‘cadential deferral’?
Cadential deferral is a technique where a cadence is prepared but not reached until later.
What is the Unending Melody?
A technique developed by Richard Wagner.
What characterizes the melodic line in the Unending Melody?
The melodic line seems to continue at length without coming to rest with a cadence.
