The Song-form Or The Part-form


Almost every musical composition of

average (brief) dimensions, if designed with the serious purpose of

imparting a clear formal impression, will admit of division into either

two or three fairly distinct sections, or Parts, of approximately equal

length. The distinctness with which the points of separation are

marked, and the degree of independence of each of these two or three

larger sections, are determined almost
ntirely by the length of the

whole. And whether there be two or three such divisions depends to

some extent also upon the length of the piece, though chiefly upon the

specific structural idea to be embodied.



A composition that contains two such sections is called a Two-Part (or

bipartite, or binary) form; and one that contains three, a Three-part

(tripartite, or ternary) form.



Such rare exceptions to these structural arrangements as may be

encountered in musical literature, are limited to sentences that, on

one hand, are so brief as to require no radical division; and, on the

other, to compositions of very elaborate dimensions, extending beyond

this structural distinction; and, furthermore, to fantastic pieces in

which the intentional absence of classified formal disposition is

characteristic and essential.



The terms employed to denote this species (Song-form or Part-form)

do not signify that the music is necessarily to be a vocal composition

of that variety known as the Song; or that it is to consist of

several voices (for which the appellation parts is commonly used).

They indicate simply a certain grade,--not a specific variety,--of

form; an intermediate grade between the smallest class (like brief

hymn-tunes, for example), and the largest class (like complete

sonata-movements). An excellent {84} type of this grade of Form is

found in the Songs Without Words of Mendelssohn, the Mazurkas of

Chopin, and works of similar extent.



The word Part (written always with a capital in these lessons) denotes,

then, one of these larger sections. The design of the Part-forms was

so characteristic of the early German lied, and is so common in the

song of all eras, that the term Song-form seems a peculiarly

appropriate designation, irrespective of the vocal or instrumental

character of the composition.



The student will perceive that it is the smallest class of forms--the

Phrase-forms,--embracing the phrase, period and double-period, to which

the preceding chapters have been devoted. These are the designs which,

as a general rule, contain only one decisive perfect cadence, and

that at the end; and which, therefore, though interrupted by

semicadences, are continuous and coherent, because the semicadence

merely interrupts, and does not sever, the continuity of the sentence.

(This grade of forms might be called One-Part forms).



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