STRUCTURE AND STYLE

The study and analysis of musical forms

STRUCTURE
AND STYLE
The study and analysis of musicalforms

LEON STEIN
Director of the Graduate Division, De Paul University School of Music

Summy-Bir chard Company

Evanston, Illinois
 Preface

T
he author and publisher gratefully acknowledge the permission of var-
ious publishers, credited below the music examples, to reproduce por-
tions of their copyrights.

The author also wishes to thank the following for their coopera-
tion and assistance:

The administration of De Paul University for their generous provi-

sion of stenographic and secretarial assistance.

Dr. Wayne Barlow, Fr. Fidelis Smith, and Dr. Edwin Warren for
their reading and critical review of the manuscript.

Dr. Karl Jirak and Mr. Herman Pedtke for proofreading the
music examples in the text.

Dr. Anthony Donato for proofreading the text.

Finally, I would be remiss, indeed, if I did not acknowledge the

stimulation of those students — teachers of teachers —who share en-
thusiasms, pose problems, and ask questions. These, demanding solu-
tionsand evoking answers, helped clarify the content of a subject
— —
which of all the branches of music study makes music not only
most comprehensible, but most meaningful.

Leon Stein

Chicago, Illinois

[I
 Introduction

T
JLhhe need for a new text in analytical technique is in part the result of

the development of music in the past half -century. This development

has taken two directions: on the one hand it involves present-day
organization in composition; on the other, it involves a probing into
and a growing awareness of the music of an often-neglected past. In
regard to contemporary music, not only are we concerned with new
patterns or modifications of established forms, but we find it neces-
sary to reinterpret and redefine concepts and terms which were pre-
viously taken for granted, and, in some cases, were even assumed to
have achieved a certain finality. Furthermore, the need to relate form
to style is emphasized by the treatment of forms in earlier texts as
abstract patterns dissociated from historic and stylistic determinants.
The frequent disregard of music composed before the eighteenth
century is partly the result of an attitude which at one time consid-
ered composers of these earlier centuries as "forerunners" and as-
sumed that their music was necessarily "preparatory." The extensive
research into early Baroque and pre-Baroque music, combined with
the revived interest in the publication and performance of music of
these periods, has emphasized the need for a clearer understanding
of that music and has led to an actual transvaluation of values. The
fact that (after a lapse of centuries) devices and, in some cases, pat-
terns in active use in Baroque, Renaissance, and even Gothic music
are emergent once again, in twentieth-century music makes the study
of these early forms particularly pertinent today.
Every crystallized form has a two-fold aspect. There are stylistic
features which characterize that form during a particular period, and
there are certain basic characteristics which do not change from
period to period. For example, the fugue is found in the works of
Bach, Beethoven, Richard Strauss, and Hindemith. The nature of the
subject and the intervals of subject-answer relationship may differ
in the fugues of each of these composers —
these are the stylistic char-
Introduction

acteristics —but the essential fugue procedure is retained in each case.

In order to distinguish between the stylistic and the essential norm,
some knowledge of the history of a form is necessary. Historical in-
formation is obviously necessary also, in order to know the "how"
and "when" in relation to the emergence of However,
specific forms.
in a textbook on form, the historical treatment must necessarily be
concise and considered as background to the forms themselves.
The forms with which this book is concerned are those found in
Western music. The idiom, form, and aesthetics of Oriental music
make it so markedly different from Western music that only a sep-
arate study could do it justice.
Concerning the table of Forms and compositional procedures
which follows, several possible arrangements of the various patterns
suggested themselves; secular-sacred, single-compound, monophonic-
homophonic-polyphonic, vocal-instrumental, etc. But the fact that
there are too many overlappings and ambiguities involved in such
classifications — a cantata may be secular or sacred, a toccata a single
or compound form, a hymn monophonic, homophonic, or polyphonic,
and a motet, though a vocal form, could and often did involve in-
struments — led to the conclusion that the least confusing and con-
troversial arrangement of the forms (at least from the student's view-
point) would be alphabetical listings within the respective eras.
The majority of works to be analyzed are those which use the
tonal-triadic idiom, composed generally between 1600 and 1900.
The reasons for this are: (a) most of the larger instrumental forms
were crystallized during this period; (b) the idiom is that most fami-
liar to students who have completed the theory courses usually pre-

requisite to the study of form; and (c) it is these works which are
most frequently performed. However, to disregard works composed
before 1600 or after 1900 is not only pedagogically unsound but,
even from the standpoint of current repertoire, unrealistic. Therefore,
one chapter is devoted to forms before 1600, and another to twen-
tieth-century techniques. However, rather than consider twentieth-
century music in an altogether separate category, twentieth-century
procedures and structures are related to known patterns wherever it
has been possible to do so. In some instances, this has involved broad-
ening and even revising traditional concepts. Such a revision becomes
necessary, for example, if we wish to maintain the concept of cadence
as a kind of structural punctuation even when dissonant or non-triadic
groupings occur in the final chord of a phrase or section. On the other
hand, a unique technique, such as the tone-row system, must be con-
sidered by itself.

Ambiguity and lack of uniformity in terminology have always been

problems in analysis. For that reason, the most generally accepted
XII terms are used; those which might be equivocal or obscure have been
 Introduction

rejected, and personal or singular nomenclature has been avoided. A

glossary of definitions of basic terms has been provided since, as
many instructors have found, terms often taken for granted are fre-

quently misunderstood. Therefore, while this glossary has been placed

at the end of the book, it would be altogether feasible to discuss these
definitions at the very beginning of the course.

Associated with supplementary Anthology of Musical

this text is a

Forms containing material to be analyzed and paralleling the forms

in the text. Reference to compositions in A nthology of Musical Forms
(often abbreviated AMF for convenience)
is made by corresponding

arabic numeral; i.e., AMF,

No. 6 (meas. 1-16). Throughout the
text are numerous references to other musical examples which will
further broaden the foundation and understanding of the inquiring
student.

Techniques and procedures in analysis

For purposes of reference it is advisable that the measures in the
music assigned for analysis be numbered. The numbering should be-
gin with the first complete measure of music. In repetitions or first

and second endings, the numbering should continue in consecutive

order as illustrated below:

|1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8:||8| 9|
mm
In a song form with trio, the numbering should continue through the
trio, rather than calling the first measure of the trio measure 1.

Structural analysis will involve identification of melodic, harmonic,

and rhythmic units. Most
often it will be found advisable to identify
the larger units and proceed to progressively smaller units. In
first

—
homophonic compositions the type most frequently assigned in
elementary analysis —
the principal melody, usually in the uppermost
voice, will provide the clearest indication of form. The location and
identification of the cadence is an extremely important means of de-
fining structural units.

Basically, analysis involves identifying and relating likenesses on

the one hand and distinguishing differences on the other. Therefore,
neither description nor evaluation is the basis of the analysis, but
rather a grasp of relationships. One improves in analysis precisely as
one improves in performing —by and concentrated practice.
diligent
It is for this reason that several examples of each structural type
should be assigned. It is not unusual for a student to feel that just as
he is beginning to grasp a particular principle, a new precept is dis-
cussed and new material assigned. However, since in the elementary
phase each successive assignment in analysis automatically reviews
the preceding assignments, the student need not fear that he is actually
"leaving" a particular subject before he may have grasped it fully.
Introduction

Definitions and outlines of forms are actually a preparation and an

introduction which become meaningful only after analysis.

The number and difficulty of the examples to be analyzed will, ob-

viously, vary with the nature and length of a particular course, the
level at which it is taught, and its function in a particular curriculum.
Where a number of examples of a specific form are to be analyzed, it

is best that they be taken in the order of difficulty. Thus, in the case
of the three-part song form, examples from Mendelssohn's Songs
Without Words would be taken in the following order: No. 22, 35,
27, 30.

It should not be expected that every composition assigned for

analysis will necessarily conform in every detail to a given outline.
The outline of a pattern is presented to establish a norm as a frame
of reference. If an outline is considered in a general way, more com-
positions will be found to conform to it than if the outline is hedged
by limiting details which would exclude many otherwise valid ex-
amples. The more we particularize in regard to any form, the more
often we may have to explain certain features in a specific work as
"unusual" or "not found in a majority of cases." Nevertheless, it is
both possible and necessary to establish a norm which on the one
hand is not so generalized as to be useless, nor on the other hand so
restrictive as to exclude many compositions. It must be remembered
that the music is created first and that identification and classification
must necessarily follow. The student will maintain a necessary flexi-
bility if he remembers that the outline of a form is a guide, not a

rule. Variants of standard or traditional patterns may be expected, but

these are variants precisely because some norm has been established.
Further, the student should be aware that occasionally one encounters
forms which are subject to more than one interpretation.

Form and content are two aspects of a single identity. Therefore,

presentation and analysis will prove most meaningful if the objective
is not primarily a kind of musical dissection, but is rather a kind of
synthesis to which analysis is a necessary prelude. This can be ac-
complished if a given work is considered in relation to:

1. The specific form of which it is an example.

2. Any departure from, or modification of, the established pattern.
3. The style and aesthetics of the period in which it was composed.
4. The works and characteristic style of its composer.
5. Basic structural principles which are exemplified.

Aural as well as visual analysis is helpful. Even within such a short

unit as the eight-measure sentence the ear does not ordinarily under-
stand the form as the eye comprehends it. With directed practice,
however, the ear can become surprisingly proficient. If there is not that
XIV aural comprehension which identifies and classifies relationships with-
 Introduction

in awork or a movement, hearing becomes simply a series of detached

and episodic sensory experiences, and the work has little meaning
beyond this succession of direct physiological impressions.
It is true that the essence of a composition is not found in the
factual elements which are revealed by analysis, but it is equally true,
paradoxically enough, that it is only after we pass through the gate-
way of these factual elements that the essence of a work is revealed.
In the words of an ancient adage, "If you wish to understand the in-
visible, observe with care the visible."

XV