DICTIONARY OF MUSIC - El Atril

FORM FORM 75
iiant, thereby indicating the division into two
sections ; and tliesecondhalf begins withpassages
"which have more freedom in tlie distribution of
tlieir roots, which constitutes its firstsection, and
ends with a quotation of the last bars or figures
of tlie first lialf, wliich constitutes its second
section. This will be best understood from an
example. The following is a very early specimen
of the dance tune called a * ' Branle or ' Brawl,'
lioui the ' Orchesographie ' of Thoinot Arbeau
(Laugres, 1589):—
111 this it will be observed that the first half
of tlie little tune is divided at («) by the strong
eniiihasis on the Dominant,* from which point
it returns to the Tonic, and so closes the first
half. The second half, commencing at (6), can
easily be perceived to have a freer harmonic
basis than either of the first sections, and so
leads the mind away from the Tonic and Dominant
centres in order that they may come in
fresh again for the conclusion ; and havingcarried
the figure on to an apparently disproportionate
length (which serves the excellent purpose of
bieaking the monotony of constant pairs of bars),
finally, at (c), resumes the little tailpiece of the
first half and thereby clenches the whole into
completeness. The manner in which tliis answers
tlie requirements of artistic construction is very
remarkable, and it will be found hereafter that
it does so throughout on a precisely similar
scheme, in miniature, to that of a 19th century
Symphony movement. It would be natural to
suppose that this was pure accident if there
were not other ancient examjiles of the same
form coming from the most opposite sources.
The above Branle is a French dance tune if we
;
turn from it and take the most famous German
Cliorale, ' '
Ein' feste Burg (1529), the principles
of its construction will be found to be identical.
It is so well known that it is needless to quote
it.' It will be sufficient to point out that the
first half of the tune ends at the conclusion of
the second line ; and of this half the first line
ends on the Dominant and the second on the
Tonic, jirecisely as in the Branle ; and it is then
repeated for the third and fourth lines. The
music to the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth
lines answers to the ])assage betw-een (b) and (c)
in the Branle, and like it presents a variety of
harmonic bases ; and to clench it all together
the mu.sic of the second line is quoted to conclude
with, precisely as is the little tailpiece of the
first half in the Branle. It is impossible not to
1 It la given In vol. i. p. 771.
feel the force of tliis as a point of musical form
when it is once I'ealised ; it has the elfect of
completeness fora short tune which is unrivalled.
If we turn to far other sources we shall find an
early English specimen in the well-known ' Since
first I saw your face' (1607), in wliich the
second and last line will again be found to be
identical, and the other points of the scheme to
conform in like manner. Even iu Italy, where
the value of form does not seem to have been
so readily appreciated as bj' Teutons, we find
a little Sinfonia for flutes in Giacomo Peri's
'
' Euridice (1600)— the first musical drama performed
in modern Eurojie—
-which at least has
the one important feature of repeating a little
characteristic figure of the cadence of the first
half to conclude the whole. It must not be supposed
that this form was by any means universal
so early as the middle of the 16th century—
time wdieii notions of harmony proper, as apart
from polyphony, were but dawning, and the
musical scales and keys as we now know them
were quite vague and unsettled. It is wondeitul
enough that there should be any examples of
Form at all in such a state of musical language ;
for Form as now recognised depends gi-eatly ujion
those two very elements of harmonic bases and
relation of keys ;
so that what was then done in
those deiiartments must have been done by instinct.
But by the middle of the 17th century
musical knowdedge in these respects w^as much
more nearly complete, and the scope of composers
proportionately widened. Accordingly we find
a greater freedom in the treatment of forms ;
but the outline of the same form on a larger
scale is found to predominate in the instrumental
works of the time, especially such as pass under
the names of dances ; though it is proliable that
those sets of them which were called 'Suites,'
or 'Sonatas,' or 'Ordres,' were rather purely
musical than tcrjisichorean. In the ecclesias-
tical Sonatas (Senate da Chiesa) the style still
continues fugal and polyphonic.
It would be impossilile to gi"\-e even a faint
idea of the number of examjiles of this form
wdiich are to be found in these dance-tune suites,
but it will be well to take some typical specimens
and indicate the jioints in wdiich they show
develojinient. In Corelli's Chamber Sonatas
there are many clear instances. Thus, in tlie
Giga of Sonata IV. of the ' Opera Quarta,' there
is the usual division into two halves. Of these
the first is again divided into two phrases, the
first phrase all in the Tonic key, D the second
;
then modulating to the key of the Dominant and
closing in it. The second half begins with a
sort of development of the figures of the first
]iart, then modulates to nearly related keys, and
after passing bade to the original key concludes
with a quotation of the last few bars of the
first half. In this scheme there are two points
of advance on the previous examples ; the first
part concludes in wdiat we will henceforward