IB Music SL

Art Music Unit 9

Materials of Music - Form
 The Development of
Musical Ideas
 Theme – musical idea used as a building
block in the construction of a composition
 Thematic development – expansion of a
theme achieved by varying its melodic
outline rhythm or harmony
 This is one the most important techniques
in musical composition and requires both
imagination and craftsmanship of the
creator
 Motive – a themes smallest melodic or
rhythmic unit
 Sequence – repeated at a higher or lower
level
 Ostinato – short repeated musical pattern
 Fugue – single theme manipulated
through imitation, transposition,
inversion, retrograde, or retrograde
inversion
 Themes
can be
developed
through
extension,
contraction
and
repetition
The Moon Reflected on the
Second Springs
 28. Classical Forms
 Absolute music
 Multimovement cycles
 The First Movement (I)
Sonata-allegro form / first-movement
form / sonata form
 Exposition
 Theme I, in tonic key
 Bridge
 Theme II, in contrasting key
 Closing section
 Development
 Musical conflict and action
 Frequent modulations
 Tension
 Thematic development, motives
 Recapitulation

 Restatement of tonic key

 Theme I, in tonic key
 Bridge
 Theme II, also in tonic (not contrasting
key)
 Closing section
 Coda: last section of sonata-allegro form
 Closes the entire movement
 The Second Movement
(II)
Typically an Andante or Adagio
 Ternary (A-B-A) form

 Shortened sonata form

 Theme and variations

 Slow rondo
 Theme and variations
 Change of key
 Melodic variation
 Harmonic variation
 Rhythmic variation
 Meter, texture, dynamics, and
timbre
 The Third Movement
(III)
 Classical era = almost always a minuet and trio
 Minuet: dance in triple meter and ternary form
 Clear-cut structure, phrases of 4 and 8 measures
 Two main sections (A-B), return (da capo) to (A)
 Each part in binary form (A-B), or rounded binary
 Rounded binary: the B section returns to the tonic at its
close
 Repetition of a section is marked in the score by
repeat signs: ||: :||
 In the 19th century minuet replaced by a scherzo
 Scherzo
 Scherzo-trio-scherzo
 Faster pace and rhythmic drive
 The Fourth Movement
(IV)
 Typically a Rondo
 Rondo Forms:
 A-B-A-B-A

 A-B-A-C-A

 A-B-A-C-A-B-A, etc.
 The Multimovement
Cycle as a Whole
18th Century: movements of cycle as
individual
 First, third, and fourth movements in
home key
 Second movement in contrasting key

19th Century: movements as part of the

whole
 Cyclical structure