DICTIONARY OF MUSIC - El Atril

FORM FORM 73
G-i time, but possesses no special characteristics.
An example of tliis dance may be found in J. S.
Bach's suite for orchestra in G major. The
following quotation of the opening bars of a
forlana of the 17th century is from ¥. L. Schubert's
Die Tmizmiisik.
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FORM. The means by which unity and proportion
are arrived at iu musical works are the
relative distriliution of keys and harmonic bases
on the one hand, and of ' subjects ' or figures or
melodies on the other ; and this distribution is
called the Fonii of the work. The order of
distribution varies greatly witli the conditions.
Music set to ])0etry with a ' ' burden to each
verse would naturally adopt the form of repeating
the same melody to each recurrence of the
burden ; and when the words implied similar
circumstances and feelings would adopt repetition
of similar or allied phrases. In dramatic works
the order of distribution must vary with the
development of tlie emotional crises, and in such
cases will be rather a distribution of culminations
and gradations ofintensityofpassion and emotion,
than the more obvious one of key and figure ;
though, if the relation between important figures
of melody and the special circumstances to wliich
they are appended be observed, the notion of
form as defined by subjects will still continue to
be perceptible. Analogously, in music which is
supposed to represent some story or idea, such as
is now known by the name of Programme Music,
the form must be developed with the view of interpreting
that programme truly and consistently.
Such music may be com[tared iu this to the work
of a painter who trusts rather to the stirring
nature of his subject than to the perfection of its
composition to engage and delight the beholders,
while in a portrait or picture of less vivid interest
the element of composition, following generally
and easily recognised principles, would be of vital
importance. Similarly in ]>rogramme music the
comjioser may choose to follow the established
so-called classical models, but it can liardly be
doubted that a genius deeply impregnated with
the spirit of his subject would seek to create a
form of his own which should be more in consonance
with the spirit of his progi-amme—even
as Beethoven did without progTamme, expressing
some marvellous inner workings of his emotions,
in the first movement of the Sonata in E, op. 1 09.
But even with Beethoven, in the case of music
without either programme or words to explain
its purpose, such irregularity is rare. It is here
especially that the nature and ea]iacity of the
minds of the auilitors play an important part.
Their attention has to be retained for a space
of time, sometimes by no means insignificant ;
and connection has to be established for them
without the aid of words or other accessories
between jiarts of the movement wdiich ajipear at
considerable distance from each other, and tlie
wdiole must be so contrived that the impression
upon the most cultivated heai'cr shall be one of
unity and consistency. In such a case Form will
inevitably [ilay an important part, becoming more
and more complex and interesting in proportion
to thedevelopiment of readiness of comprehension
in the auditors. The adopition of a form which
is quite beyond the intellectual standard of those
ftir whom it is intended is a waste of valuable
work ;
but a perfect adaptation of it to their
highest standard is both the only means of leading
them on to still higher things, and the only
starting-point for further progi'csa. From this
it wdll be seen that in musical works which are
connected with words or progTamme— whether
choruses, songs, arias, or ballads, etc.—Form is
dependent on the words ; and such works, as far
as they are reducible to any definable system,
are reducible only to the simplest, and such as
admits of infinite latitude of variation within its
limits. But in instrumental nmsio there has
been a steady and pierceptible growth of certain
fundamental principles by a })rocess that is
wonderfully like evolution, from the simplest
couplings of rejieated ideas by a short link of
some sort, upt to the compilex but consistent
completeness of the great instrumental works of
Beethoven.
There can hardly be any doubt that the first
attempts at Form in music were essentially unconscious
and unpremeditated. Therefore if any
conformity be observed in the forms of early
music derived from various sources, it would
seem to indicate a sort of consensus of instinct on
the part of the composers w"hieh will be the true
starting-point of its jiosterior development. It
nuist be remarked by way of parenthesis that in
tlie early days of modern music—apart from the
ecclesiastical music of the Roman Church— the
instrumental and vocal orders were not nearly so
distinct as they are^ now, for the tendency to
strongly and clearly marked distinction in kind
is notoriously a matter of slow growth. Hence
examples may be drawn with perfect safety from
both kinds wherever they can be found.
The first basis of true Form, apart from the
balance of groups of rhythms, is essentially
repetition of some sort, and what is most vital
to the question is the manner of the repetition.
The simplest and most elementary kind is the
repetition of a phrase or bit of melody with a
short passage in the middle to connect the two
statements. As an early example of this form
may be taken an ancient German chorale, ' Jesus
Christus nnser Heiland, Der den Tod iiberwand '
(1536), which is as follows :