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Musical contexts form and structure7/1/2023 ![]() ![]() ![]() 4, leading into a melody whose contour resembles the one heard in m. ![]() Yet another short silence precedes the piano’s entrance with an arpeggiated chord in the latter half of m. 4, emphasized with a crescendo and the nasal timbre of am Steg. 3) with a gesture that echoes the one heard at the work’s opening, although now the roles of the piano and cello are reversed: the piano’s first note is a held F$$\sharp$$ 4 in the right hand supported by a three-note sonority in the left hand, which are together interrupted by the cello’s sudden upward flight in m. A shorter silence spanning only an eighth note follows, after which the piano enters (m. 2, the piano states the first melodic fragment of the piece, ending with an inquisitive ascending diminished fifth and followed immediately by its answer: a dramatic falling gesture of just over two octaves in the cello. First, the cello sounds a low F$$\sharp$$2: it swells softly out of the silence then backs away again before being interrupted by a delicate arpeggiated chord in the piano. 1, the opening measures of which are given in Example 1. To illustrate, imagine that you are listening attentively, perhaps for the first time, to Webern’s Three Little Pieces for Cello and Piano Op. The meaning of phrase becomes especially attenuated when it meets with a non-tonal system of composition. This is especially true in the context of post-tonal music analysis, where the concept of phrase is frequently invoked but left under-defined. But despite its prevalence, “phrase” is an alarmingly slippery concept, reluctant to be tied to any particular length or content. The concept of phrase looms large in theories of form and formal function. ![]() I would also like to thank the anonymous reviewers, Larry Zbikowski, Seth Brodsky, Jennifer Iverson, and Steve Rings for their guidance in the development of this project, and Jonathan Wild, Christoph Neidhöfer, and Robert Komaniecki for their comments on earlier drafts. Keywords and phrases: Form post-tonal formal function phrase listener-centered Suggested CitationĪcknowledgments: A version of this paper was presented at the annual meeting of Music Theory Midwest (2019) and I thank the attendees for their thoughtful comments. The theory of phrase presented here encourages an understanding of phrase as fundamentally relational and constantly mutable. In order to show how phrase structure in post-tonal music emerges through these formal affordances, the article analyzes in detail several passages from Edgard Varèse’s Density 21.5, Luigi Dallapiccola’s Dialoghi, and Anton Webern’s Three Little Pieces Op. The result of this approach is a view of musical form in which the listener and composer mutually construct the significant formal units of a musical work through their interactions, a perspective particularly well adapted to the challenges presented by post-tonal music. It contends that formal function is an emergent property of music through which a listener actively shapes musical organization in time. We adopt a spiral approach in the for the reinforcement of skills and knowledge for our students.This article adapts Classical notions of formal function for the purpose of proposing a listener-centered theory of phrase formation in post-tonal repertoires. Music also has the potential to develop extra-musical skills and dispositions, including critical and creative thinking skills, psychomotor skills, social awareness, and moral and cultural values, all of which contribute to the holistic development of a child.
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