A high proportion of what is heard on today's concert stages is music from the classical period, roughly dating from 1750-1820. It is hard to think of any other industry that relies so heavily on products that are over two hundred years old. Nevertheless, the influence of music from this period is enormous and becoming aware of the basic rhetoric and forms of Classical music can only help the dedicated listener to attain a better understanding of all music. The two most influential features of musc of this time are the classical phrase and classical forms.
This melody, by an anonymous composer, is an example of the second type of classical period. Again there are two halves that complement each other, a half close at the middle and a full close at the end. The difference is in the actual material within the period - the two parts do not parallel each other; we could diagram its units as: "abdc" or think of it as having a beginning, half-close, continuation and ending. Translating it into a word sentence we migt have: After happily scanning the shelves, they bought some butter. Ths melody also demonstrates how this notion of complementary phrases works on smaller and larger levels. If we break the melody into two halves: Part One and Part Two, and look at them individualy we can see that each half of the initial melody is comprised of two complentary parts. In larger scale classical works, such complentary parts are reflected on all levels of the composition. When you listen to classical music one thing to be aware of is these periods and how one period balances against another period. In the finest classical music the interplay of periods is reflected on larger and larger scales: one period can be symmetrical with another; those two taken together are symmetrical with the next two and so forth. This can also work down to smaller levels as well. Once we understand how the periods themselves can interact, one can begin to appreciate when a composer consciously subverts this paradigm. Composers are not so dull, however, and more often than not, this pervasive symmetry is illusory. Many times, the composer has subtly altered various portions of the phrase to deny the symmetry, yet preserve the overall form of the composition. |