The Principle Of Extension


The other cause of modified phrase-dimension

is one of extreme importance, as touching upon the most vital process in

musical composition, namely, that of phrase-development.



Setting aside all critical discussion with reference to the question,

What is good music? and simply accepting those types of classic

composition universally acknowledged to be the best, as a defensible

standard (to say the least), w
find that such a page of music exhibits

the pursuit of some leading thought (melodic motive or phrase), with

precisely the same coherence and consistency, the same evidence of

determined aim, as is displayed in the creation of a forcible essay, a

masterly poem, an imposing architectural plan, or any other work of art

that betrays intelligence and a definite, fixed, purpose. This is no

more nor less than might be expected from the dominion of the law of

Unity.



The equally inflexible demands of Variety are satisfied by presenting

this self-same leading thought in ever new and changing aspects,--not

by exchanging the thought itself for a new one at each successive angle.

This latter faulty process would naturally lead to a conglomeration of

impressions, baffling comprehension and jeopardizing real enjoyment.



In a classic page of music we perceive that each successive unit grows,

more or less directly, out of those which go before; not so directly, or

with such narrow insistence as to produce the impression of sameness and

monotony, but with such consistency of design as to impart a unified

physiognomy to the whole. Hence, it will often be found that every

melodic figure, during a certain section (if not the whole) of a

composition, may be traced to one or another of the figures which

characterized the first phrase, or the first two or three phrases, of the

piece. This was emphasized by our reference, near the end of the first

chapter, to the 8th Song Without Words of Mendelssohn. If the student,

in analyzing the melody of that composition, will endeavor to penetrate

some of the clever disguises employed by the composer (for the sake of

Variety), he will find the whole piece reducible to a very few melodic

figures, announced at or near the beginning. See also No. 45 (C major),

No. 36, No. 26. Also Schumann, op. 68, No. 7, No. 8, No. 18, No. 23.

Also Beethoven, pianoforte sonata, op. 10, No. 2, last movement; op. 26,

last movement.



In musical composition this process is known as thematic development, and

it generally extends over the whole, or a greater part, of the piece.



Its operation on a smaller scale, with more limited reference to one

phrase alone, effects the development of the phrase by extension.



The process of extension or expansion, by means of which the phrase

usually assumes a somewhat irregular length, consists mainly in the

varied repetition of the figures or motives that it contains; and the

continuity of the whole, as extension of the one phrase, is maintained

by suppressing the cadence--suspending all cadential interruption--during

the lengthening process. For example:



These six measures result from a repetition (variated) of the third and

fourth measures of the original--regular--four-measure phrase. A cadence

is due in the fourth measure, but it is not permitted to assert itself;

and if it did, its cadential force would be neutralized by the entirely

obvious return to (repetition of) the motive just heard. Further:--





There is no cadence in the fourth measure,--the current of the melody

obliterates it and hurries on, voicing the last measure again and again

until it dies away in the tenth measure, where a cadence ends it. That

it should be the tenth measure is purely accidental; the number of

measures is of little account in the act of extension; here, it was

continued until a convenient place was found (with reference to chord and

key) for the cadence. Further:--



Measures 1, 2, 3 and 8 constitute the original regular four-measure

phrase.



The following regular phrase (to be found in the last movement of

Beethoven's pianoforte sonata, op. 28):--



is immediately followed by this lengthy and elaborate extension:--





The portion marked b is a complete repetition, with quaint variation,

of the original four-measure phrase, marked a in Ex. 42; c is a

repetition of the last figure (just one measure) of the phrase, with the

melodic parts inverted, or exchanged; d and e are a literal

repetition of the two preceding measures--(c) and c; f is another

recurrence of (c), with still another inversion of the melodies; g

repeats e an octave higher; and h is nothing more or less than a

curious repetition of g, in longer tones, and in reversed direction.

Distinct cadential interruption is carefully avoided after the original

phrase has been announced, that is, throughout Ex. 43,--which is the

significant proof (borne out by the manifest identity of the melodic

members) that these measures form part and parcel of the original phrase,

as extension or development of it, and not a new phrase. The total

length is sixteen measures, developed thus out of the original four.



For an exhaustive explanation of phrase-extension, with all the technical

details, the student is referred to my HOMOPHONIC FORMS, Chapter III.



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Another method of extending a phrase consists in prefacing a measure or

two of purely introductory material; it is, therefore, rather

anticipation than prolongation, and is composed most commonly of the

figure of the accompaniment, announced briefly before the actual

phrase-melody begins.



This is shown very clearly in the first measure of the 22d Song Without

Words; also in the first measure of No. 7, No. 31, No. 42, No. 40, and

others; the first two measures of No. 34, and No. 1; the first three

measures of No. 19, No. 26, and No. 37,--and needs no further

illustration. It emphasizes the necessity of vigilance in defining the

correct starting-point of the first phrase; for a mistake at the

beginning may interfere seriously with the locating of the cadences

(according to our fundamental four-measure rule). For instance, in No.

42 the cadences do not fall in the 4th, 8th, 12th measures--and so

on--but in the 5th, 9th, 13th, 17th, from the very beginning of the piece.



When the introductory passage is longer than three measures, it

probably constitutes a complete phrase by itself, with its own cadence;

in which case, of course, it must not be analyzed as extension. For

example, at the beginning of No. 29; still more apparently at the

beginning of No. 28, No. 41, and others.



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