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Episode 8 of the Art of Composing Podcast. In this episode, find out why you need to learn about musical form, and what exactly makes musical form so powerful. We also analyze the 1st Movement to Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 1.

What is in this episode:

• Learn about the different levels of musical form, and how they work together to create a feeling of temporality.
• We go over each section of the 1st movement to Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 1, talking about the techniques that are being used in each section.
• Learn how the Lord of the Rings is a great analogy for remembering Sonata Form.

Support the Podcast!

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Resources and Links Mentioned in this Episode:

• The Lord of the Rings: The Motion Picture Trilogy

Add any other supporting show notes.

Transcript

Welcome

Welcome to another episode of the art of composing podcast. Art of Composing is dedicated to unraveling the mysteries of musical composition, and then teaching them in ways that allow you to become the composer you want to be.

In this episode, we are going to learn all about musical form and how you can learn to compose by watching The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Before we get into that, let’s talk about learning composition for a second. If you are like most people that want to start learning composition, you probably don’t have a good idea about what you need to do, to actually get that done.

Learning composition is a tricky thing, because there are a lot of skills required in order to create even just a simple piece from scratch. Well, the Art of Composing Academy is exactly what you are looking for.

If you are a beginner or even an experienced composer, looking to brush up on the fundamentals, check out Music Composition 101. The course takes you from never having written anything on your own, to creating solid classical pieces.

You can check it out at academy.artofcomposing.com

Featured Content

Musical form has always been an interesting subject to me. On the surface, form seems like it is a road map, that you as a composer can follow to create pieces that sound a specific way. And this is true, on the surface.

But as you start to peel away these surface elements, you’ll find that studying form is much deeper. And that is what we are going to talk about in this episode.

I like to always start things off with a definition, and this is my personal definition, which I’ve created over studying form for the last few years:

Musical Form is an emergent feature of music that happens over time when you combine the separate elements of melody, harmony, rhythm, tempo and texture.

Let’s take a minute to break down this definition, and pull out some important points. That way I know we are on solid ground as I start to explain the different kinds of musical form.

First, Musical Form is an emergent feature of music that happens over time.

Part of the mystery of musical form, is why it creates certain feelings in people. In particular feelings of time or temporality.

If you think about a piece of music that is done well, there is usually some point in the music where you identify a beginning. A feeling that the music is just starting and that there is more to come.

There are certain features in the music that lead you to this conclusion. What’s cool is that if you were to listen to a piece of music that follows the traditional expectations of form, and you started that piece in the middle, there would be features that make it sound like the middle, and not just a different beginning. Let’s listen to an example.

Even though we are just starting this piece, it still feels like its in the middle somewhere. Something about it, doesn’t feel like an opening, and it certainly doesn’t feel like it brings closure.

You see, this emergent feature, the feeling of temporality, is where the true power of musical form comes from. And it is this that we are trying to master. Temporality is the state of existing or having some relationship with time. Musical form gives us the syntax to express music in time.

Let’s continue on with the definition:

When you combine the separate elements of melody, harmony, rhythm, tempo and texture.

I think because most people don’t quite get into the nitty gritty details of what makes form works, most people are satisfied with knowing the labels for formal sections. For instance, in a small ternary form piece, you label the different sections with the letters A – B – and then A with an apostrophe, which stands for A prime.

The problem is that there is a lot of meaning and ambiguity wrapped up in those labels.

Remember for is emergent, and that emergence comes from how the things like melody, harmony, rhythm, tempo, and texture, come together to create these feelings of temporality.

Knowing that a theme has an opening exposition, a contrasting middle, and a recapitulation is great – but you need to know what the difference between an exposition and a main theme is. Or what kind of harmony you normally find in a contrasting middle. You need to understand the effect a sequential progression has, and why you won’t normally find it in an exposition that uses a period. And ultimately, you need to understand how all of these techniques effect the listener. When you do understand these, your ability to craft your piece is greatly enhanced.

So to repeat the definition one more time.

Musical Form is an emergent feature of music that happens over time when you combine the separate elements of melody, harmony, rhythm, tempo and texture.

Now, I like to think of form happening on several different levels simultaneously.

There is form that happens on the small scale level. This includes elements like motives, ideas, phrases, cadences, and loosening techniques. This level is known as intrathematic. The prefix intra means inside, so think of this as what is happening inside your themes.

The next level happens on a medium sized scale. This is how those themes, that you create on the intrathematic level interact with each other to create larger forms, like sonata form, minuet/trio, concerto and so on. It consists of things like main themes, subordinate themes, transitions, developmental sections and so on. This level is called interthematic. You can remember this because the prefix inter means between.

The last level is large scale form. And is concerned with cyclic coherence, and beyond. This level has to do with how the different large forms, like sonata, large ternary, sonata without development, rondo, minuet/trio and so on, all work together to create a coherent single work, and possibly even how multiple works, create a coherent style.

Now, I won’t be able to cover all of the different types of large form in this episode, as it would take too long. Instead, we are going to just look at sonata form a little bit.

So let’s dive into an actual piece of music, to get a better understanding of the levels. We are going to do this using one of my favorite pieces for teaching form, the first movement to Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 1. This piece is also the basis for my new upcoming course, Music Composition 201: Sonata Form.

Now most people think that musical form is about the sections. A lot of times you’ll hear something like this. Sonata Form is a full movement piece that has an exposition, development, and recapitulation. The exposition has a main theme, transition, and subordinate theme. The development develops the material from the exposition, and the recapitulation brings it back in tonic key.

This is great, but it doesn’t tell you much about what those sections are actually doing, and how they contribute to the feeling of time in a piece.

So let’s listen to the opening theme of Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 1.

This theme is very famous and is used in all sorts of textbooks as the quintessential classical sentence. The reason is, because it is known as a very tight-knit theme.

Basically, a theme is a unit consisting of a conventional set of initiating, medial and ending intrathematic functions and closes with a cadence.

This sound very technical, but effectively, it is a section of music, that you can consider complete, but that also forms a part of a larger work. A theme is built off of a standard set of expected features, that create the sense of beginning, middle, and end. And a theme ends with a cadence in order to confirm the key.

Tight-knit basically means a conventional theme – kind of like textbook version. This doesn’t mean there isn’t a lot of though and depth that go into tight-knit themes. There is. But they are accomplishing something specific.

A theme like this, is basically setting the course for the rest of the movement.

Beethoven starts with this opening idea.

This is a very memorable idea and strong idea. It is one of the reasons why the main theme has the feeling of a beginning. Compare that with the example we heard earlier, which was much looser and unconventional.

Throughout the main theme, there are certain features that lead us to the conclusion that this is the beginning. For instance, the harmony is very clear and stated succinctly.

Beethoven goes from a i to a V65 back to a i, then to a viiº6, and then straight into a half-cadence.

This accomplishes several things.

First, there is not doubt what key we are in – F minor. Beethoven firmly establishes this through the back and forth between the tonic and the dominant, and then confirms it with a half-cadence.

Next, he also establishes the characteristic thematic idea for the entire movement, the rising F minor triad – which is known as a Mannheim Rocket.

This basic idea is heard in many different ways throughout the movement, including in a major version

Also in an inverted version.

You can hear why we call it the characteristic material of a piece.

From here, Beethoven quickly decides to take us on a trip.
He does this through what is called a transition.

A transition is a special kind of section, that destabilizes the solid foundation that was set up by the main theme, in order for the subordinate theme to take over and establish a new key.

You can hear in this example, that Beethoven is taking his original idea, called the basic idea, and the changing it just a little. He then leads into a section where he has sequential harmony.

Now I haven’t talked much about harmony at this point, and that is basically because harmony is a very deep, and complicated subject that will really require it’s own episode.

But, we need to have a shared language to discuss this, so I will give a real quick overview. In a piece of music like this, you have whats called the home key, where you basically begin the piece. In this case, Beethoven has written this in F minor.

We already talked about how Beethoven firmly establishes and then confirms this key in the main theme.

But as we get to the transition, he begins to take us out of this world of F minor, so we are leaving our home. This is the concept of destabilizing the home key. At this point, all we really know is F minor. But as Beethoven introduces a harmonic sequence, we begin to modulate into the new key, the subordinate key, which in this case is A♭ major, although, this is obscured a little by have an F♭ in the melody, causing it to sound a little like A♭ minor. You can see just how much Beethoven is playing with the stability of the piece, and this is only bars 9-21.

From here, we move into the subordinate theme. The subordinate theme tends to be much looser in construction, meaning it doesn’t always follow the plan of the tight-knit conventional themes. This all goes into creating more instability and setting us up for the much less stable development section.

Think of loose themes, as unconventional themes. They are really just distortions or deformations of tight knit themes.

Now at this point, generally you would repeat the exposition, which Beethoven does, but for time sake, we’ll just keep on moving. That will bring us to the development section.

Before we get there, I am going to use another analogy. If you are a Lord of the Rings Fan, then think of it like this. If you are not a lord of the rings fan, hopefully you know enough about the story that this still makes sense.

Think of the main theme, as kind of like being in the Shire. You’re feeling good about sitting in a field of clovers, everything is as it should be.

That is, until Gandalf shows up. He is kind of like the transition. He sets things in motion that basically are going to be upsetting in the future, but you don’t really know that yet. He tells you, that you are responsible for some ring, but at this point, he is only asking you to go to Bree, so what could be the harm.

In Bree, things don’t seem that bad at first, but what you don’t realize is, there are some Nazgul waiting to kill you.

Luckily Strider shows up. He saves you, and eventually takes you to Rivendell.

In retrospect, Bree is sort of like the subordinate theme, a little looser, a slightly wilder bunch of people and there is a little danger.

At Rivendell, you meet with the council, and its confirmed this journey has to take place. This is kind of like confirming the subordinate key at the end of the exposition.

Well, the next section, the development is kind of like the impending journey to Mordor. There are twists and turns, major keys, minor keys, sequences, and usually lots of diminished chords.

Let’s hear Beethoven’s development.

Now there are a lot of things going on here to make it feel like you’re in the middle of a journey, and this is only an introduction, not a course, so I can’t cover them all.

Things like lots of modulations to other key areas, called development keys, or lots of sequences. Bringing back ideas from the main and subordinate themes, but not resolving them. More surface rhythm and increased rates of harmonic change. These all add up to the temporal feeling of “the middle”.

Basically you are creating turmoil.

To get back to the Lord of the Rings analogy. Think of of all the different places the journey will take them. The failed attempt to cross the Misty Mountains, Meeting the Balrog in the mines of Moria. Battling Saruman. Eventually you get to Mount Doom itself, and you climb up the sides of mount doom to drop the ring in the lava.

Its not a great place to be.

It is all this turmoil that will propel you through to the next section, which is called the recapitulation.

The recapitulation is the place where you resolve the open ends left by the exposition and development. You generally restate the main theme, and also very important, you bring back the subordinate theme in the home key. This helps to give closure and firmly establish the piece of in that original home key.

A lof of times there is some additions to the themes, and sometimes even a new theme like unit at the end, called a coda, but overall the exposition and the recapitulation are generally the same.

To round out our Lord of the Rings analogy, you get to Gondor, the Battle is over, and now you can return to the shire in piece. Sure, Saruman and Wormwood may have taken over the shire, and you have to lead a small revolt of Hobbits to take it back, but thats nothing you can’t handle, I mean, you just climbed Mount Doom and defeated Sauron.

By the end, everything is hunkey dorey.

Now obviously, there is a lot more going on under the surface, and unfortunately, that can’t really be covered in a podcast episode. For instance, how is Beethoven using his melody and accompaniment to create these feelings of time. Where does he thin out the texture and where does he thicken it up. What kinds of sequences does he use the most, and where are they used?

All of these take a lot of time and study to be able to use in your own composition, but what they are doing, is just as important as knowing how to do them. You may learn the techniques but you need to be able to apply them.

Once you can, then you get to the best part of musical form – the ability to distort the techniques. You see, the true power of form is that it has so many elements that come together to create it. That’s why it can work with any style or genre, or any kind of instrumentation you can throw at it. And it will allow you to play with the notions of time and how your listeners perceive your music.

Summary

So let’s go over what we learned in this episode:

Musical Form is an emergent feature of music that happens over time when you combine the separate elements of melody, harmony, rhythm, tempo and texture.

Because form emerges through all of these separate elements working together, you are able to play with the notions of time, by modifying them and distoring them.

A great way to learn these techniques is to study classical form, and in particular the Sonata Form.

A Sonata Form movement is made up of an exposition, which establishes the characteristic melodic-motivic material and the home key in the main theme, and then begins a journey of destablizing this through the transition, the subordinate theme, and the development.

In the recapitulation, we bring back the main theme and subordinate theme, but this time, all in the home key.

Finally, learning musical form, gives you the ability to create the feeling of temporality in any style, genre, or instrumentation you want, because the concepts are the same across the board.

Outro

Thanks again for listening to the art of composing podcast.

If you like the show, leave me a review in iTunes.

As usual you can find the show notes at artofcomposing.com/episode8.

Remember, if you want to learn about this and other topics, head on over to academy.artofcomposing.com. There you’ll find college level courses in music composition. Right now, we have our flagship course, Music Composition 101: The Fundamentals. The goal of this course, is to take away the mystery of composing music, and teach you the fundamental skills and techniques required to compose traditional classical music. And just as with form, these skills will transfer over into any kind of composing you do, whether you are a classical composer, singer-songwriter, film composer, or you have your own style not-yet defined.

Head on over to academy.artofcompsoing.com, that’s academy.artofcompsoing.com and check it out.

Until next time, remember – Nobody tosses a dwarf.