Early Instrumental Forms

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Title:     Early Instrumental Forms
Author: Edward MacDowell [More Titles by MacDowell]

Referring to some newspaper reports which he knew to be without foundation, Bismarck once said, "Newspapers are simply a union of printer's ink and paper." Omitting the implied slur we might say the same of printed music and printed criticism; therefore, in considering printed music we must, first of all, remember that it is the letter of the law which kills. We must look deeper, and be able to translate sounds back into the emotions which caused them. There is no right or wrong way to give utterance to music. There is but one way, namely, through the living, vital expression of the content of the music; all else is not music but mere pleasure for the ear, a thing of the senses. For the time being we must see through the composer's eyes and hear through his ears. In other words, we must think in his language. The process of creating music is often, to a great extent, beyond the control of the composer, just as is the case with the novelist and his characters. The language through which musical thought is expressed, however, is a different thing, and it is this process of developing musical speech until it has become capable of saying for us that which, in our spoken language, must ever remain unsaid, that I shall try to make clear in our consideration of form in music.

Until the very end of the fifteenth century, music, so far as we know, had no language of its own, that is to say, it was not recognized as a medium for expressing thought or emotion. Josquin des Prés (born at Conde in the north of France in 1450, died 1521) was the first to attempt the expression of thought in sound. Luther, in rebelling against Rome, also overturned the music of the church in Germany. He incorporated many folk songs into the music of the Protestant church and discarded the old Gregorian chant (which was vague in rhythm, or, rather, wholly without rhythm), calling it asinine braying.

While Luther was paving the way for Bach by encouraging church music to be something more than merely the singing of certain melodies according to prescribed rules, in Italy (at the time of his death in 1546) the Council of Trent was already trying to decide upon a style of music proper for the church. The matter was definitely settled in 1562 or 1563 by the adoption of Palestrina's style.[13] Thus, while in Germany ecclesiastical music was being broadened and an opening offered for the development of the dramatic and emotional side of music, in Italy, on the contrary, the emotional style of music was being neglected and an absolutely serene style of what may be called "impersonal" music encouraged. Italy, however, soon had opera on which to fall back, and thus music in both countries developed rapidly, although on different lines.

In England, the budding school of English art, as exemplified by Purcell, was soon overwhelmed by the influence of Händel and the all-pervading school of Italian opera, which he brought with him.

In France, up to 1655, when Cardinal Mazarin sent to Italy for an opera troupe with the purpose of entertaining Anne of Austria (the widow of Louis XIII), there was practically no recognized music except that imported from other countries. Under Louis XI (d. 1483) Ockeghem, the Netherland contrapuntist, was the chief musician of the land.

The French pantomimes or masques, as they were sometimes called, can hardly be said to have represented a valuable gain to art, although their prevalence in France points directly to their having been the direct descendants of the old pantomime on one hand, and on the other, the direct ancestor of the French opera. For we read that already in 1581 (twenty years before Caccini's "Euridice" at Florence), a ballet entitled "Circe" was given on the occasion of the marriage of Margaret of Lorraine, the stepsister of Henry III. The music to it was written by Beaulieu and Salmon, two court musicians. There were ten bands of music in the cupola of the ballroom where the ballet was given. These bands included hautbois, cornets, trombones, violas de gamba, flutes, harps, lutes, flageolets. Besides all this, ten violin players in costume entered the scene in the first act, five from each side. Then a troupe of Tritons came swimming in, playing lutes, harps, flutes, one even having a kind of 'cello. When Jupiter makes his appearance, he is accompanied by forty musicians. The festivities on this occasion are said to have cost over five million francs. Musically, the ballet was no advance towards expressiveness in art. An air which accompanied "Circe's" entrance, may be cited as being the original of the well-known "Amaryllis," which is generally called Air Louis XV. Baltazarini calls it un son fort gai, nomme la clochette.

Music remained inert in France until 1650, when the Italians gained an ascendancy, which they retained until 1732, when Rameau's first opera "Hyppolyte et Aricie" was given in Paris. Rameau had already commenced his career by gaining great success as a harpsichord player and instrumental composer, mostly for the harpsichord. By his time, however, music, that is to say, secular music, was already becoming a new art, and the French merely improved upon what already existed.

Now this new art was first particularly evident in the dances of these different peoples. These dances gave the music form, and held it down to certain prescribed rhythms and duration. Little by little the emotions, the natural expression of which is music, could no longer be restricted to these dance forms and rhythms; and gradually the latter were modified by each daring innovator in turn. This "daring" of human beings, in breaking through the trammels of the dance in order to express what lay within their souls in the language that properly belonged to it, would seem almost ludicrous to us, were we not even to-day trying to get up courage to do the same thing. The modifications of dance forms led up to our sonata, symphony, and symphonic poem, as I hope to show. Opera was a thing apart, and, being untrammelled either by dance rhythms or church laws, developed gradually and normally. It cannot, however, be said to have developed side by side with purely instrumental music, for the latter is only just beginning to emancipate itself from its dance clothes and to come forth as a language for the expression of all that is divine in man. First we will consider the forms and rhythms of these dances, then the awakening of the idea of design in music, and its effect in modifying these forms and laying the foundation for the sonata of the nineteenth century.

The following shows the structure of the different dance forms up to about 1750.

 
OLD DANCE FORMS (1650-1750).
  [   :Motive-|-Motive--|-Motive-----|--|-Motive---|--|-Motive----|---]
  [2/4: 4 8 8 | 8. 16 4 | 8 8 8 8 | 4 4 | 4 8 8 | 4 4 | 8. 16 8 8 | 2 ]
  [   :------Phrase-----|----Phrase-----|---Phrase----|----Phrase-----]
  [A phrase may be three or four measures, and sections may be unequal]
  [   :-------------Section-------------|-----------Section-----------]
  [   :------------------------------Period---------------------------]

This period might be repeated or extended to sixteen measures and still remain a period.

 
  1. |--I P.-|--II P.-|       (II is generally longer than I)
  2. |---I---|---II---|--I--|
  3. |---I---|---II---|-III-| (generally III resembles I)
  4. |---I---|---II---|-III-|--I--|--II-| or |--I--|--II--|-III-|--I--|
  5. |---I---|---II---|-III-|--IV-|
  6. |---I---|---II---|-III-|--IV-|--I--|--II-|
  7. |---I---|---II---|--I--|-III-|--IV-|-III-|--I--|--II--|--I--|

In all these forms each period may be repeated.

Often the first, third, and fourth periods are repeated, leaving the second period as it is. This happens especially when the second period is longer than the first. In Nos. 2, 4, 6, 7, a few bars are often added at Fine as a coda.

ANALYSIS OF OLD DANCES

1. SARABANDE.--[3/2] [3/4] lento. Rhythm [3/2: 2 ^2. 4 | 2 2].
Form 1, sometimes Form 2. This is of Spanish origin (Saracen
dance), and is generally accompanied by variations called
partita or doubles.

2. MUSETTE (cornemusa or bagpipe).--[3/4] [2/4] allegretto.
Form 1. Always written over or under a pedal note, which is
generally sustained to the end. It generally forms the second
part (not period) to the gavotte.

3. GAVOTTE.--[4/4] allegro moderato.
Rhythm [4/4: 4 4 | 4 8 8 4 4] or [4 8 8 | 4 4 4 4].
Always commences on the third beat. Form 3 or 5.
When accompanied by a musette, the gavotte is always repeated.

4. BOURREE.--[C/2] allegro. Rhythm [C/2: 8 8 | 4 4 4 8 8].
Form 3 or 5. Generally faster than the gavotte, and commences
on the fourth beat.

5. RIGAUDON.--Similar to the bourrée, but slower.

6. LOURE.--Similar to the bourrée, but slower. (In French
the verb lourer means "to hold," which may have been a
characteristic of the loure bass).

7. TAMBOURIN.--[C/2] allegro. In form and rhythm like the
gavotte, but faster. Usually founded on a rhythmic pedal
note imitating a tambourine.

8. CORRENTE, COURANTE.--[3/4] allegretto.
Rhythm [3/4: 8 8 8 | 8 8 8 8 8 8] or [3/4: 8 | 8 8 8 8 8 8]
(does not usually commence on the beat). Form 1, sometimes
Form 2. The rhythm is usually uniform, a kind of perpetual
motion, though not in one voice.

9. MINUET.--[3/4] generally a little slower than moderato,
although in later minuets the tempo became allegretto.
Rhythm, generally, [3/4: >(4 | 4) 4 4 | 4 8 8 8 8] etc.
Old minuets often began on the first beat. Form 4; the third
and fourth periods being generally in a different mode from
the first and second periods, and called Trio or Minuet 2.
Minuets exist also without the Trio, and are in Form 1 or 2.

10. CHACONNE.--[3/4] moderato. Form undecided; has sometimes
even only one period, sometimes three or two. It is generally
accompanied by doubles or variations, and is invariably
written on a ground bass or basso ostinato. The rhythm is
often syncopated.

PASSACAILLE, [3/4], resembles a chaconne but is more stately.

11. WALTZ (old German).--[3/4] andante moderato. Generally
Form 6. Rhythm [3/4: 4. 8 8. 16 | 8 8 4 8 8] approximately.

12. MARCH.--[4/4] allegro moderato.
Rhythm [4/4: 8. 16 | 4 . 16 4 4 | 2. 3(8 8 8)] etc., or
[4 | 4 8. 16 4 4] etc. Form 6. Generally all the periods
are repeated and consist of eight measures each; third and
fourth periods change the key and rhythm.

13. ALLEMANDE.--[4/4] moderato. Rhythm generally uniform
sixteenth notes. Form 1.

14. PASSEPIED.--Quick minuet.

15. PAVANE, PADVANA, or PAVO (peacock).--[4/4] andante
moderato. Rhythm [4/4: 4 8. 16 4. 8 | 8 8 8 8 2]. Form 2 or 6.
Sometimes [2/4]; third and fourth periods in different keys.

16. GIGUE.--[2/4] [6/8] [3/4] [3/8] [9/8] [12/8] presto.
Rhythm generally uniform eighth notes. Forms 1 and 2.

17. POLONAISE.--[3/4]. Rhythm [3/4: 8 16 16 8 16 16 4] or
[16 16 8 16 16 8 4] allegro. Form 1, generally with short coda.

MODERN FORMS (1800).

1. MAZURKA.--[3/4] allegretto. Form 6.
Rhythm [3/4: 4 | 8. 16 4 4].

2. POLONAISE (also POLACCA).--[3/4] allegro maestoso.
Rhythm [3/4: 8. 16 8. 16 16 16 16 16] or [8 4 16 16 8 8].
The bass is generally [8 16 16 8 8 8 8]. Form 7.

3. BOLERO (CACHUCHA) (Spanish).--Like the polonaise but
livelier, and generally containing counter-rhythms in triplets.

4. HABANERA.--[2/4].
Rhythm [2/4: 8 8 16 8 16 | 8 8 16 8 16 | 8 8 3(8 8 8) | 8 8 4].
The characteristic element is the mixture of triplets and eighth
notes. Time, andante. Form undecided, generally No. 1. Very often
repeated with slight changes.

5. CZARDAS (Hungarian).--First part [C/2] (lassan, lento);
second part [2/4] (friska, presto and prestissimo).
For form and rhythm see Liszt's rhapsodies, Nos. 2, 4, and 6.

6. TARANTELLA.--Rhythm [6/8: 8 8 8 8 8 8 | 8 8 8 8 8 8] or
[8 8 8 8 8 8 | 4 8 4 8]. Time, molto allegro to prestissimo.
Forms 4 and 6, sometimes 7. In the Trio the movement is often
quieter although not necessarily slower. It almost invariably
has a Coda. The Finale is usually prestissimo.

7. SALTARELLO.--Similar to the tarantella, with the exception
of having more jumps (salti).

8. POLKA (about 1840).--[2/4] allegretto.
Rhythm [2/4: 8 8 4 | 8 16 16 4]. Form 6. Accent is on the
second beat. Cuban dances (sometimes called habaneros) are
often in polka form and rhythm, with the one exception of
the triplets peculiar to almost all Spanish music
[2/4: 8 8 >4 | 8 8 >4 | 16 8 16 >8 8 | 16 8 16 3(16 16 16) 8]

9. WALTZ.--[3/4]. Rhythm (bass) [3/4: >4 4 4 | >4 4 4].
Faster than the old waltz. Form 2 with a coda. Modern waltzes are
often written in sets, or many different waltzes joined together
by short modulations or codas, preceded by an introduction,
generally in one period, lento, and ending with a brilliant
coda containing reminiscences of the principal themes.

10. GALOP.--[2/4]. Rhythm [2/4: 16 16 16 16 8 8 | 8 8 8 8] or
[16 16 8 8 8 | 16 16 8 16 16 8]. Form 6. Time, presto.

11. MARCH.--Same as the old march, but modified in character
and movement according to its title--funeral march, military
march, cortege, festival march, etc. In funeral marches,
the third and fourth periods are generally in major.

The modernizing of dance forms has been undertaken by almost every writer from Scarlatti (d. 1757) down to our day. Scarlatti joined sections together with isolated measures, repeated sections and phrases before completing the period, and added short codas to periods indiscriminately. Since his time, everyone has added to or curtailed the accepted forms by putting two forms together; hence the fantaisie-mazurka, etc. Wagner represents the culminating point of the modern tendency to disregard forms which were interpreted differently by every composer, and which had their origin in dances.

The attempt to emancipate music from the dance commenced very early; in fact, most of the earliest secular music we know already shows the tendency towards programme music, for, from an emotional standpoint, secular music began at the very bottom of the ladder. It was made to express things at first, just as in learning any new language we naturally first acquire a vocabulary of nouns to express things we see, such as table, chair, etc., in the same way that in written language the symbols first take the shape of animals or other things they are meant to represent. This same characteristic naturally showed itself in music before the words for emotion came, the common, everyday nouns were sought for in this new language. The madrigals of Weelkes and their word painting show this, and the same occur in instrumental music, as in Byrd's "Carman's Whistle," one of the earliest English instrumental works contemporaneous to the madrigals of Morley and others. In France, many of the earliest clavichord pieces were of the programme type, and even in Germany, where instrumental music ran practically in the same groove with church music, the same tendency showed itself.

I have given the forms of most of the old dances, and also the elements of melodic structure (motive, phrase, etc.). I must, however, add the caution that this material is to be accepted in a general way, and as representing the rhythms and forms most frequently used. A French courante differed from the Italian, and certain dances were taken at different tempi in different countries. Poor, or at least careless construction, is often the cause of much confusion. Scarlatti, for instance, is especially loose in melodic structure.

It was only with Beethoven that the art of musical design showed anything like complete comprehension by the composer. Until then, with occasional almost haphazard successes, the art of pushing a thought to its logical conclusion was seemingly unknown. An emotional passage now and then would often betray deep feeling, but the thought would almost invariably be lost in the telling, for the simple reason that the musical sentences were put together almost at random, mere stress of momentary emotion being seemingly the only guiding influence. Bach stands alone; his sense of design was inherent, but, owing to the contrapuntal tendency of his time, his feeling for melodic design is often overshadowed, and even rendered impossible by the complex web of his music. With a number of melodies sounding together, their individual emotional development becomes necessarily difficult to emphasize.

Bach's art has something akin to that of Palestrina. They both stand alone in the history of the world, but the latter belongs to the Middle Ages. He is the direct descendant of Ambrose, Gregory, Notker, Tutilo, etc., the crowning monument of the Roman Church in music, and represents what may be termed unemotional music. His art was untouched by the strange, suggestive colours of modern harmony; it was pure, unemotional, and serene. One instinctively thinks of Bach, on the other hand, as a kind of musical reflection of Protestantism. His was not a secluded art which lifted its head high above the multitude; it was rather the palpable outpouring of a great heart. Bach also represents all the pent-up feeling which until then had longed in vain for utterance, and had there been any canvas for him to paint on (to use a poor simile), the result would have been still more marvellous. As it was, the material at his disposal was a poor set of dance forms, with the one exception of the fugue, the involved utterance of which precluded spontaneity and confined emotional design to very restricted limits. It is exactly as if Wagner had been obliged to put his thoughts in quadrille form with the possible alternative of some mathematical device of musical double bookkeeping. As it is, Bach's innovations were very considerable. In the first place, owing to the lack of the system of equal temperament, composers had been limited to the use of only two or three sharps and flats; in all the harpsichord music of the pre-Bach period we rarely find compositions in sharp keys beyond G, or flat keys beyond A[flat]. To be sure, Rameau, in France, began at the same time to see the necessity for equal temperament, but it was Bach who, by his forty-eight "Preludes and Fugues," written in all the keys, first settled the matter definitely.

In the fugue form itself, he made many innovations consisting mainly of the casting aside of formalism. With Bach a fugue consists of what is called the "exposition," that is to say, the enunciation of the theme (subject), its answer by another voice or part, recurrence of the subject in another part which, in turn, is again answered, and so on according to the number of voices or parts. After the exposition the fugue consists of a kind of free contrapuntal fantasy on the subject and its answer. By throwing aside the restraint of form Bach often gave his fugues an emotional significance in spite of the complexity of the material he worked with.

 

FOOTNOTE:

[13] Pier Luigi, born in Palestrina, near Rome.

 

NOTES:

All other text enclosed between square brackets represents or
describes the illustrations:

Pitches: [c, ... c ... a b c' (middle-C) d' e' ... c'' ... c''']

Round brackets: when around a single note these represent a note
in the extract which was bracketed or otherwise highlighted.
When around two or more notes, they represent a slur or beam.

Braces: surround simultaneous notes in a chord {a c' e'}

 
Accidentals:
[f++] = F double-sharp
[a+]  = A sharp
[c=]  = C natural
[e-]  = E flat
[d--] = D double-flat

In the main text, accidentals are written out in full, as [natural], A[flat], G[sharp]. One table uses [#] for

[sharp].

Accents and marcato: denoted by > and ^ before a note.

 
Time signatures: [4/4], [6/8], etc.
[C]  or [C/4] = C-shaped [4/4] time.
[C|] or [C/2] = C-shaped [2/2] time.
[O]  = A circle
[O.] = A circle with a dot in the center
[C.] = A broken circle (C-shaped) with a dot in the center
[G:] = Treble clef ([G8:] = Treble clef 8va bassa)
[F:] = Bass clef   ([F8:] = Bass clef 8va bassa)

Rhythms (A trailing . represents a dotted note):

  
[L]  = Longa
[B]  = Brevis
[S]  = Semibrevis
[1]  = Whole-note     (Semibreve)
[2]  = Half-note      (Minim)
[4]  = Quarter-note   (Crotchet)
[8]  = Eighth-note    (Quaver)
[16] = Sixteenth-note (Semiquaver)

Lyrics and Labels: words aligned with the notes begin [W: ...]

Breves and macrons, used to denote short and long stresses in poetry are denoted ' and '-' respectively.

[| = Bar (Bar line)
[< = Crescendo hairpin
[x = small cross
[\ = 45 degree downstroke
[/ = 45 degree upstroke
[/\ = large circumflex shape
[O| = a circle bisected by a vertical line protruding both ways
[Gamma] = The Greek capital gamma
[mid-dot] = a dot at the height of a hyphen
[over-dot] = a single dot over the following letter
[Over-slur] = a frown-shaped curved line
[Under-slur] = a smile-shaped curved line (breve)
[reverse-apostrophe] = the mirror image of a closing quote
[Upper Mordent] = an upper mordent: /\/\/ with thick downstrokes
[Crenellation] = horizontals, low, high, low, connected by verticals
[Podium] = [Crenellation] with the third horizontal at half-height
[Step] = horizontal, vertical, horizontal, vertical, ascending
[Turn] = a turn (~)

[Figure 01] = extract available as a MIDI file (figure01.mid).
[Illustration] = all other illustrations.

 
For example, here's a D minor scale set to words:
[G: d'   e'   (f' g') a'    b-'   (c+'' d'')]
[W: One, two, three,  four, five, six.      ]
And a simple rhythmic example:
[3/4: 4 4 8 8 | 8. 16 2] = [- - ' ' - ' -]

[The end]
Edward MacDowell's essay: Early Instrumental Forms

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