Theories of Form

So this week will focus on some aspects of form within the 18th/19th centuries. I’ll mainly be talking about aspects of sonata form, some theories of tonal music, and the topic of is it necessary to be a form “pro” to appreciate/love classical music. I might try to post some things on the side. I’ve been thinking of this idea of posting things that music majors seem to deal with. whenever this blog is over for class I’ll for sure make something of it

Sonata form for a long time was difficult to pinpoint. It was not an exact form as in the sense of something like a minuet and trio, but more so an expression of style that composers were using. This way of writing seemed to focus more on the melodic structures of various themes within the piece. Now, the main trouble with the 19th century description of sonata form is that brings an importance to the melodic interest of the piece that was not exactly held in the 18th century. Another trouble is that the sonata form is put into this orthodox box that pieces needed to be molded into. Again, sonata at the time wasn’t exactly a form, but a way of writing (like saying “write a piece in Jazz form”) that was eventually given rules and regulations by 19th century theorist.

Now comes a question of did 18th century musicians “heard” sonata form and was it similar to how we hear it today? I believe that they heard the form, but not in the same way that we analyze and hear it in this day and age. Similar to people listening to popular radio songs in the 21st century, musicians of the 18th century probably recognized similarities between the pieces that were composed. I would say the way the way they listen to sonata form was more casual/natural then we would. In our time, we listen to pieces that follow sonata form in a way that analyzes everything that occurs.

In Heinrich Schenker’s theory about tonal music, “the structure of every tonal work is a linear decent towards the tonic. This is interesting because it begins the talk about a type of cadential formula to composers pieces. With this thought, every note within a composition has a meaning and end goal outside of the beat that it happens to occur on. While this is not seen well when looking at single notes/measures of a piece, taking in the composition as a whole points to this pattern.

I feel as though there is this kind of “elitist” type attitude that one must be fully understanding of all the intricacies of classical music to appreciate it. I agree with this in some ways. It’s easy to write off certain genres of music without having at least a ground base of knowledge about it. Hip-hop, Heavy Metal Rock, Jazz. Without having an idea of what is exactly going on, then it is hard to determine what exactly is quantifying a particular song/piece as good or not.

The importance of motivic relationships in the classical era is that it is one of principle means of integration into Western music since the 15th century. This is further seen by the Classical era’s style of nature and simple music juxtaposed with the Baroque era’s style which is best described as fortspinnung ( German term conceived in 1915 to refer to a specific process of development of a musical motif. In this process, the motif is developed into an entire musical structure by using sequences, intervallic changes or simple repetitions. this gives the music a “spinning out” feeling until everything comes full circle) These short motifs not only generate melodies, they determine the entire color and feel of the piece.