VPMA93H3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: The New Grove Dictionary Of Music And Musicians, Frédéric Chopin, Claude Debussy
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VPMA93 Lecture 5 - Form
Form – “…the constructive or organizing element in music. Form might be defined simply as what forms
have in common, reflecting the fact that an organizing impulse is at the heart of any compositional
enterprise, from the most modest to the most ambitious.” –Oxford Music Online, article on “Form”.
Elements that help us recognize form:
1. Repetition:
A) Melodies
B) Motives
C) Textures
D) Harmonic structures
2. Closure:
A) Use of consonance and dissonance
B) Cadence
C) Melodic descent
•Consonance/dissonance and their relationship with melodic or tonal completion
•Repetition of melodies, motives, and textures.
•Cadences
•Changes in Texture
Consonance – an interval (two notes) that sounds resolved and stable
Dissonance – an interval that sounds unresolved and unstable
Antecedent, Consequent – two musical phrases, the second of which is a concluding response to or
resolution of the first
Closure – a sense of relative musical stability or finality
Harmony – the relationship of pitches as they sound simultaneously
Section – a group of phrases which are related in the listener’s mind by proximity or musical content.
Motive – a short fragment of melody or rhythm used in constructing a long section of music
Melody – a succession of pitches having a coherence similar to that found in a sentence in language.
Tonality – the organization of music around a central pitch, and the scale built on that pitch
Chord – three or more pitches sounding simultaneously
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