FORM IN MUSIC

New Zealand Listener, Volume 17, Issue 434, 17 October 1947, Page 29

FORM IN MUSIC

h THE eighth of a series of brief articles

by

BESSIE

POLLARD

Mus. Bac.,

on "Form in Music." These articles are closely related to a series of programmes on the same topic now being heard from 2YC on Friday evenings. Each of our articles is illustrated by a few bars of the music under discussion,

S& The Slow Movement

HEN we examined the Sonata as a complete entity, we noticed that usually the opening movement is consid- _ ered the most significant portion f-the whole work. At this stage of the composition the composer is able to command the utmost critical attention from his listeners because their emotional and mental alertness is keen and unimpaired.

hs « So, succeeding the vigorous and thought-provoking first movement we have the relaxing slow movement. This is essentially slow-moving, song-like, full of feeling and harmonious in character, -a complete foil to the quicker speed and concentrated design of the opening movement. It may be cast in any of the following forms: (a) Episodical form -~-on the same three-part formula as the Minuet and the Scherzo; (b) Modified (abridged) "first-movement" form; (c) Theme and Variations; (d) Complete "first-movement" form; (e) Rondo-form, The Episodical form is possibly the one most employed-a very good example is the slow movement of Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto. Modified "first-movement" form is often used also. It is merely "first-movement" form omitting the development section-that is to say, the first on, comprising the principal theme and the _ subsidiary faeeecenesten ateineneenentaeenstienneseteemeneateteeneremienaeienenenemnmrennt

theme, is linked with the third section (principal theme, subsidiary theme, and, coda) by a modulating "bridge" passage, often just one chord. Variation form we have already dealt with in a previous article. Complete "first-movement" form, assuming that it is relatively seldom used, is remarkably represented in the Adagio of Beethoven’s Piano Sonata in B Flat, Op, 22. From the "bird’s-eye view" we have had so far of the Sonata-form works as i

| a whole, and the various types of movement in detail, we can realise that the entire Sonata (and the Symphony) with its "diversity within unity" is the sum of the centuries’ achievements in instrumental composition, and the expansion of those achievements. It musters the combined craftsmanship of harmony and counterpoint, the basic essentials of song and the dance, and that necessary vital perception on the composer’s part of the splendid possibilities of instrumental tonal potentialities, whether heard solo, or in combination. The movements are placed in such sequence as to obtain a workmanlike edifice within whose con-. fines we have an equal and satisfying distribution of mental, emotional and’ formal content. THE SLOW MOVEMENT — the eighth of the series, FORM IN MUSIC -will be heard from Station 2YC at 9.30 p.m. 6n Friday, October 24.