New publication: Part 5 of the Mozart Form Functions Series

I have published a new essay on Texas Scholar Works. The title is Formal Functions in Menuets by Mozart, Part 5: More to Theoretical Issues: link. Here is the abstract.

This essay considers some theoretical questions raised at the end of Part 4 in this series. William Caplin’s theory of formal functions in Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven stipulates that themes are of two primary types (period, sentence) and several secondary types (“hybrids”). These need to be resorted in order to account for eighteenth-century practice more broadly, following from the results of the work in this series, Parts 1-4.

New publication: Part 4 of the Mozart Form Functions Series

I have just published a new essay on Texas Scholar Works: Formal Functions in Menuets by Mozart, Part 4: Older Contemporaries to1770. Link.

Here is the abstract:

This essay charts formal functions (after Caplin) in named menuets written during the second half of the eighteenth century. The repertoire includes menuets by Johann Stamitz, Johann Gottfried Müthel, Franz Joseph Haydn, Luigi Boccherini, Maddalena Laura Sirmen, and several other composers, as well as menuets in collections or compilations intended for performance, dancing, or pedagogy.

New publication: Part 3 of Form Functions in Mozart Menuets

I have just published a new essay on Texas Scholar Works: Formal Functions in Menuets by Mozart, Part 3: A Comparison with Johann Christian Bach. Link.

Here is the abstract:

This essay charts formal functions (after Caplin) in named menuets by Johann Christian Bach (1735-1782) and compares them with menuets by Mozart. Bach is notable for exploiting the “galant theme,” presumably because of its ability to emphasize melody and to maximize contrast, in accordance with aesthetic ideals of the galant style.

The repertoire includes, in chronological order, WC 49-54: Concertos, op. 1 (1763); WB 43-48: Trios (keyboard), op. 2 (1763 or earlier); WA 1-6: 6 Sonatas, op. 5 (1765); WB 2-7: Sonatas with violin, op. 10 ; WC 1-6: 6 Symphonies, op. 3 (1765); WC 55-60: Concertos, op. 7 (1770); WB 51-56: String quartets (1770); WB 57: Flute quartets (year?); WB 70-75: 6 Quintets, op. 11 (1772); WC 17b-18b: 3 Symphonies, op. 9 (1773); WZ_6 Trios (Bach, Abel, and Kammel) (1775-76); WC 62-67: Concertos, op. 13 (1777);WA 21: Sonata 2 pianos (1778); WB 10-15 Sonatas (c. 1780); WB 30-35: Trios (1780); WA 7-12: 6 Sonatas, op. 17 (c. 1780); WA 16-20: Sonatas, op. 18 (year?).

New publication: Part 2 of Form Functions in Mozart Menuets

I have just published Formal Functions in Menuets by Mozart, Part 2: Sonatas and Chamber Music on the Texas Scholar Works platform.

Here is the abstract:

Continuation of a study of formal functions (after Caplin) in named menuets by Mozart. A table of data and comprehensive musical examples cover the trios, string quartets, string quintets, quartets and quintets with other instrumentation, piano sonatas, and violin sonatas.

For both parts of the study, the principal results are:

(1) An older historical narrative is discredited, according to which 18th century composers used period themes but Beethoven turned toward sentences instead. The menuet designs are remarkably and consistently varied.
(2) The antecedent + continuation theme is so important to the menuet repertoire that I have named it the “galant theme.”
(3) A small but still significant number of presentation + consequent themes appear.
(4) The available theme categories do not account well for some features of an 8-bar theme’s second phrase. In particular, “continuation” is too broad to account for the difference between “development” (as in fragmentation or sequence) and “continuing melody” (as in a new basic idea).

New publication: Form functions in Mozart menuets, Part 1

I have just published Formal Functions in Menuets by Mozart, Part 1: Orchestral Works and Independent Sets on the Texas Scholar works platform: link.

Here is the abstract:

A study of formal functions (after Caplin) in named menuets by Mozart, the larger goal being to historicize more fully form-design practices in European music during the second half of the eighteenth century, especially emphasizing the importance of the “galant theme” or anticipation + continuation/contrast model. The essay includes a table of data along with comprehensive musical examples drawn from the orchestral compositions and from the independent sets of menuets, many of which are either orchestral or keyboard reductions of ensemble pieces.

New publication: Form functions in Bach menuets

I have just published Formal Functions in Menuets by Johann Sebastian Bach on the Texas Scholar works platform: link.

Here is the abstract:

The menuet entered into upper-class social dance, ballet, and opera no later than the 1660s, thanks largely to Jean Baptiste Lully. This essay charts formal functions (after Caplin) in named menuets  by Johann Sebastian Bach, with additional commentary on his contemporaries in Germanophone countries.

Menuet survey summary

A longer-term goal of the menuet survey—which still needs entries on J. C. Bach and Mozart—has been a large documentation essay to be published eventually, like others, on the Texas Scholar Works platform. At this mid-point in the series of posts (I plan to examine a large number of menuets by Mozart), a summary of the argument might be useful:

This essay historicizes hybrid themes (after Caplin) in terms of first strains in named menuets and (secondarily) first sections in instrumental movements clearly based on the menuet. The antecedent-continuation theme is renamed "galant theme," and—for the purpose of the dance—the list of eight-bar themes is reduced to four: period, sentence, galant theme, and presentation-consequent. This last I sometimes refer to as the "6+2 theme."

Bach menuet themes 3, sentences

Sentence
   French Suite No. 6 in E major
   Suite in Eb major for keyboard, BWV 819, II
Presentation + consequent
   Cello Suite No. 1 in G major, II
12-bar sentence
   Partita No. 5 in G major
   Brandenburg Concerto No. 1, I


Sentence
   French Suite No. 6 in E major. For such a benign little piece, this menuet is remarkably frustrating. Surely ideas (a), (b), and (c) are quite different from one another, and yet the common rhythm and the strictly repeated second-bar neighbor figure (with the bass) as surely draw a close connection between them. I have opted for sentence because the strain "feels" closer to that type—with its emphasis on connection and development—than to the antecedent+continuation, which tends to emphasize difference.

   Suite in Eb major for keyboard, BWV 819, II. A "textbook" sentence.

Presentation + consequent
   Cello Suite No. 1 in G major, II. The rare presentation + consequent theme is certainly closer to the sentence than the period, in the main because the effect of contrast or symmetrical return that we expect of the period is largely lost. Only the strength of the cadence in bar 4--as here--creates the necessary articulation.

12-bar sentence. A very motivically driven strain; the two-bar ideas are almost entirely suppressed. For Bach, a very odd piece in its overt galant cadence figures.

   Partita No. 5 in G major

   Brandenburg Concerto No. 1, I. Unlike the preceding, this one sharply and methodically maintains the traditional two-bar units of the menuet.

Bach menuet themes 2, periods

Reproduced from an earlier post, the periods among first strains of J. S. Bach's 28 named menuets:

   English Suite No. 4 in F major, II
   Partita No. 1 in Bb major, II
   Partita No. 4 in D major
   Brandenburg Concerto No. 1, II
   Suite in Eb major for keyboard, BWV 819, I
   Orchestral Suite No. 1 in C major, I
   Orchestral Suite No. 1 in C major, II
   Orchestral Suite No. 4 in D major, I
   Cello Suite No. 1 in G major, I
   Cello Suite No. 2 in D minor, I

   English Suite No. 4 in F major, II. This doesn't make for a "textbook" period (for that, see the two examples from the keyboard Partitas below), in that the melodic shape of bar 2 is altered in bar 6, but the rhythms are the same (if one ignores the ornaments. . .) and the underlying bass is largely the same, as D3-E3-F3 | G3-F3 in both cases.

   Partita No. 1 in Bb major, II. Strikingly similar to those French menuets that are identical in bars 4 and 8, but that a small flourish is added in bar 4, whereas the music stops dead in bar 8.

   Partita No. 4 in D major. The PAC in bar 4 is not unknown in earlier French menuets, but it is by no means common. Where it does appear, the strategy often is as in this instance: to make a pleasing contrast with a simple I-V HC in bars 7-8.

   Brandenburg Concerto No. 1, II. A transposed consequent. Note that bar 6 would be equivalent to bar 2 if the eighth notes were removed -- then C#5 as a half note goes to the quarter note D5.

   Suite in Eb major for keyboard, BWV 819, I. A less "obvious" period than most of the preceding. The consequent is again transposed, but not exactly; still, we can easily hear the shape of bars 5-6 as that of bars 1-2. What complicates the consequent is its invention-like motivic play: in bars 5-6 we hear the basic idea against the contrasting idea simultaneously, then in bar 7 the contrasting idea's motive is used in the right hand to approach the cadence.

   Orchestral Suite No. 1 in C major, I. From a somewhat overdone piano arrangement of the suite. I hear bar 5 as referencing bar 1 through the melody, but the bass is different, so that a reading of this theme as antecedent + continuation would perhaps be equally plausible.

   Orchestral Suite No. 1 in C major, II.  (Once again I apologize for the heterogeneous sources for the various Bach examples.) This trio is another instance of the PAC to end the antecedent, and this time I note that a PAC in bar 4 of an 8-bar theme remains highly unusual in music for social dance and more stylized music for concert alike throughout the remainder of the eighteenth century. I observe, btw, that the obvious galant solution for bar 4—a 6/4 5/3 over V—is even less likely than the PAC: in the 56 cadences (or phrase endings) of the 28 Bach menuets, first strain, only once does the HC embellished by 6/4 appear (that's in the keyboard Partita in G major).

The fragmentation in bars 5-7 beat 1 might lead to a different reading except that it is already present in the basic idea.

   Orchestral Suite No. 4 in D major, I. A simpler example than many of the recent ones above.

   Cello Suite No. 1 in G major, I. Similar to the preceding in the limited transposition to begin the consequent.

   Cello Suite No. 2 in D minor, I. Another unproblematic period form. Bach does manage to reverse the bass line while maintaining the basic idea: in the antecedent D3-C3-Bb2-A2, in the consequent D3-E3-F3 (Bb) G- A.

Bach menuet themes 1, antecedent + continuation

Antecedent + continuation
   French Suite No. 1 in D minor, I
   French Suite No. 2 in C minor
   French Suite No. 3 in B minor, II
   Suite in E major for Lute, BWV 1006a, I
   Orchestral Suite No. 4 in D major, II
   Orchestral Suite No. 2 in B minor
   Cello Suite No. 2 in D minor, II

   French Suite No. 1 in D minor, I. This example is striking in that both soprano and alto lines independently present complete antecedent + continuation forms. The alto, in fact, is a typical, simple menuet melody from beginning to end; it might easily have appeared in the collections of Pointel or Chédeville. Its continuation phrase is contrasting. The soprano sounds like an elaborating descant voice; its continuation phrase is developmental (note the fragmentation in bars 5-6).

   French Suite No. 2 in C minor.  An antecedent phrase whose four bars are packed full of motivic play is followed, ironically, by a continuation that contrasts rather than being noticeably developmental in the usual sense.

   French Suite No. 3 in B minor, II. An excellent example of the most radical of the antecedent + continuation varieties: here every two bar idea is different, not only in melodic shape but in rhythms.

   Suite in E major for Lute, BWV 1006a, I.  Similar to, but not quite so extreme, as the preceding,

   Orchestral Suite No. 4 in D major, II. This is a good moment to apologize for the heterogeneous sources for the various Bach examples. I used whatever I could find quickly, favoring the old Bach Gesellschaft edition but taking whatever came to hand as necessary. In the case of this orchestral suite, there was no piano solo reduction but I was able to collate the parts of a 4-hands version. In the first phrase, the contrasting idea is very clear even though the bass tries to contradict by repeating its bar 1 scale figure.

   Orchestral Suite No. 2 in B minor. This has a "classic" developmental continuation phrase.

   Cello Suite No. 2 in D minor, II.  Similar to the preceding in the strong rhythmic contrast between the ideas in the antecedent phrase and the fragmentation in the continuation.

Caveats to the preceding

I ended yesterday's post with this table (data on music discussed in this series so far):

After pointing out that this is not a comprehensive picture of menuet history from 1660 to 1730, I mentioned four points of interest. Here are caveats (additional comment) to each:

 (1) The antecedent + continuation theme is the only type other than the period to be found in every sample set, from Lully to Bach. 

The antecedent + continuation theme is not a monolithic type, as I noted in discussion of Fux's menuets. The "classical" version that emphasizes development in the continuation phrase is no more common in the historical era under examination here than is the type that privileges contrast. In their aural and expressive effects, these two types are nearly as distinct as the period and the sentence.

(2) Conversely, the sentence is entirely missing from the early sample sets and is weakly represented still in the later ones (with the exception of Fux). 

Although this generalization works for the repertoire here, it is not a good account of all the social dance and song musics before and including Bach. Sentences are common in music before 1660 (the usual boundary mark for Lully's introduction of the menuet into opera and ballet), as they are also in the collections of Praetorius (1612) and Playford (1651). I think it is fair to say that the sentence is rare in early menuets, and that its introduction into this genre is mostly a later 18th century phenomenon.

(3) Similarly, what Caplin calls "compound themes" are missing in the earlier sample sets but show up clearly in later ones (note 16-bar periods in Rameau, Chedéville, and Bach).

Although expanding themes to greater length is undoubtedly an important rationale for the compound themes, it might also be in part a notational device. Remember that the four-bar theme sounds identical to a period if you include its repeat -- and that four-bar themes were very common in the earlier 17th century. That is to say, a piece with a four-bar theme wasn't necessarily regarded by musicians as just a shorter piece than one with an eight-bar theme. Something similar may well have been true in the early 18th century, when the 16-bar themes begin to appear in some numbers: despite the repeat signs, musicians may also have thought of them as if they were written out variants of an 8-bar theme. (One of the mysteries of early notation in relation to practice is the central repeat sign: did it mark requirement or opportunity? By J. C. Bach's generation, at least, the modern habits seem to have been in place—see the graphic below—but if they were in fact secure in practice, why did Bach go to the trouble of writing out this instruction?) By the end of the 18th century, however, the 16-bar theme was often conceived of in terms of length, as more appropriate to a large instrumental work--the main theme of a concerto movement, for example--than to a small-scale dance. And in those circumstances, of course, there were typically no repeat signs (especially in overture-like symphony or concerto first movements).

Menuet series 2-8: Johann Sebastian Bach

"J.S. Bach’s 28 titled minuets occur in his keyboard partitas and suites, in chamber music for solo and accompanied violin, cello or flute, in three of the four orchestral suites, and in the Brandenburg Concerto no.1" (Little and Jenne, 1991; cited in Meredith Ellis Little, "Minuet," Oxford Music Online).

Here is my version of the list of 28:

1.-2. English Suite No. 4 in F major
3.-4. French Suite No. 1 in D minor
5. French Suite No. 2 in C minor
6.-7. French Suite No. 3 in B minor
8. French Suite No. 6 in E major
9.-10. Partita No. 1 in Bb major
11. Partita No. 4 in D major
12. Partita No. 5 in G major
13.-14. Brandenburg Concerto No. 1
15. Suite in A major for Violin, BWV 1025
16.-17. Suite in Eb major for keyboard, BWV 819
18.-19. Suite in E major for Lute, BWV 1006a
20.-21. Orchestral Suite No. 1 in C major
22.-23. Orchestral Suite No. 4 in D major
24. Orchestral Suite No. 2 in B minor
25.-26. Cello Suite No. 1 in G major
27.-28. Cello Suite No. 2 in D minor

Here are the formal functions in the first strains:

Antecedent + continuation: 7 + 1*
Period: 10
Sentence: 2
Presentation + consequent: 1
12-bar sentence: 2
16-bar period: 4
16-bar sentence: 1

And here is the list again by form function category:

Antecedent + continuation; n = 7
   French Suite No. 1 in D minor, I
   French Suite No. 2 in C minor
   French Suite No. 3 in B minor, II
   Suite in E major for Lute, BWV 1006a, I
   Orchestral Suite No. 4 in D major, II
   Orchestral Suite No. 2 in B minor
   Cello Suite No. 2 in D minor, II
Antecedent + continuation (but A = 36 bars!); n = 1
   Suite in A major for Violin, BWV 1025
Period; n = 10
   English Suite No. 4 in F major, II
   Partita No. 1 in Bb major, II
   Partita No. 4 in D major
   Brandenburg Concerto No. 1, II
   Suite in Eb major for keyboard, BWV 819, I
   Orchestral Suite No. 1 in C major, I
   Orchestral Suite No. 1 in C major, II
   Orchestral Suite No. 4 in D major, I
   Cello Suite No. 1 in G major, I
   Cello Suite No. 2 in D minor, I
Sentence; n = 2
   French Suite No. 6 in E major  
   Suite in Eb major for keyboard, BWV 819, II
Presentation + consequent; n = 1
   Cello Suite No. 1 in G major, II
12-bar sentence; n = 2
   Partita No. 5 in G major  
   Brandenburg Concerto No. 1, I
16-bar period; n = 4
   French Suite No. 1 in D minor, II
   French Suite No. 3 in B minor, I
   Partita No. 1 in Bb major, I
   Suite in E major for Lute, BWV 1006a, II
16-bar sentence; n = 1
   English Suite No. 4 in F major, I

 To establish some context for Bach's menuets, here is a table with data on music discussed in this series so far:

I cannot emphasize too strongly that this is not a comprehensive picture of menuet history from 1660 to 1730. It is more of a snapshot, but in it we can nevertheless see some things of interest. (1) The antecedent + continuation theme is the only type other than the period to be found in every sample set, from Lully to Bach. (2) Conversely, the sentence is entirely missing from the early sample sets and is weakly represented still in the later ones (with the exception of Fux). (3) Similarly, what Caplin calls "compound themes" are missing in the earlier sample sets but show up clearly in later ones (note 16-bar periods in Rameau, Chédeville, and Bach).

In subsequent posts, I will discuss individual menuets by Bach, organizing the posts in terms of formal functions, as above, rather than by source.

Menuet series 2-7: Fux

Johann Joseph Fux. I looked only to the keyboard works, on the assumption that operas and chamber music such as trio sonatas were unlikely to have examples. I found an independent set of 12 menuets as well as five menuets in the four keyboard suites, one of the latter also being in the set of 12. Thus, N = 16.

The results are definitely an outlier in this study of menuets from 1660 through the 18th century, in the very small number of periods relative to other forms, and in the relatively large number of sentences for menuets in any period, but certainly before 1760. But see my comments on individual pieces below.

period N = 1
antecedent + continuation N = 7
sentence N = 7
16-bar period N = 1

The only period, the rondeau theme in Suite IV, is close to many examples in my recent posts on Chédeville's Recueils and other, earlier menuets. Fux, however, does begin the change in melody in bar 7, not leaving the difference only to the final note.

The statistics given above, however, are clouded a bit by a particular feature that I have seen only occasionally in earlier pieces. Here are examples from the other menuets in the keyboard suites.

The antecedent+continuation theme, in principle, should have the greatest variety of ideas among all the possible eight-bar theme types: in its extreme form, a basic idea is followed by a contrasting idea and then by continuation consisting of a contrasting phrase (a new idea followed by still another shape in the cadence). In the second menuet from the first suite, however, Fux veers to the opposite extreme, where only the narrow confines of 8-10 seconds of music permit us to value contrast over relation in bars 3-4 (the obvious change of harmony helps). I am less comfortable with bars 5-6, which form a complete idea (not fragmentation) that could be heard as a variant of bars 1-2. 

I do believe that antecedent + continuation is the best reading, based on the historical context of the menuet repertoires from Lully onward till the menuet is caught, after the 1730s, in the contredanse's form-leveling influence, which favors the period for all dances. (The height of that influence on the menuet, specifically, was in the 1760s.) Nevertheless, in this menuet from Fux's first keyboard suite, we are, so to speak, at a formal-function crossroads. If I chose to hear bars 5-6 as a variant of the beginning, then the design would be a period. If I chose to hear bars 3-4 as a variant, then the design would be a sentence (if bars 5-6 initiate continuation) or the presentation-consequent hybrid (if bars 5-6 are also a variant of bars 1-2). Any one of the four (underlined) readings is possible. I favor antecedent + continuation, as I said, because of the historical context--but also because of my assertion that small changes count for more in such a small space as the usual first strain in music for social dance. 

I do find the simplicity of Fux's menuets in the keyboard suites a little surprising, more like menuets in the 1680s-1690s than the often highly stylized pieces written by others, such as J. S. Bach, in the 1710s and 1720s. Also, and unexpectedly perhaps, given the mythology that has arisen around Fux because of interpretations of the Gradus exercises, this menuet reminds us yet again of the fragility of our analyses when dance practices are taken into consideration. All it would take is an imaginative (or slightly bored) violinist, playing this strain for the third or fourth time, to turn bars 3-4 into a clearly contrasting idea by changing the rhythms so as not to repeat those of bars 1-2. Similarly for bars 5-6 or for bars 3-4 + 5-6. 

The first menuet is a case in point. I can hear bars 3-4 easily enough as a slightly elaborated transposed repetition of the basic idea, but--again on the small scale of the dance strain--I think contrast wins out. In this case there is no doubt about the continuation phrase, which is sharply different--but that raises the question of whether there should be a distinct theme type, antecedent+contrast. This point was made in several previous posts in this series.

The menuet from suite 3 dramatizes the relation of bars 3-4 to 5-6. There is no question about the status of the first phrase as a presentation, but the sequence spills over into the second phrase, the overall effect being 6 + 2, or sequence + cadence. In fact, although I have called it a sentence, I think that 6 + 2, or (basic idea--variant--variant)--cadence probably would be a better way to describe it.

As I said at the beginning, Fux's menuets are outliers in the general trend of the repertoire during his lifetime. What he does do is hew more closely than some to clarity of definition for the two-bar unit and therefore, paradoxically, he makes his menuets easily danceable. Yet another curiosity.

Menuet series 2-6b: Chédeville l'aîné

Here are a few examples to augment the information from yesterday's post. These four pieces are from the second suite (out of six) in the second volume (out of eight) in Chédeville's Receuils series from the early 1730s. This suite has the following numbers. Dance labels in brackets are my guesses -- they are not part of Chédeville's title.

1. Vaudeville   [gavotte]
2. Menuet
3. Depuis long tems  [rigaudon?]
4. Les Dieux vous ont donné   [menuet?]
5. Parcourez et la terre et londe   [gavotte]
6. Suivons l'Amour dans le bel age   [menuet?]
7. Je suis un bon Soldat  [bourée]
8. Vaudeville  [menuet?]
9. Vaudeville
10. Vous scavéz Climene  [menuet?]
11. La galopade    [gavotte]
12. Menuet

One of the most common of the simple period types, this varies little in the two phrases--eighth notes in bar 4 become a single held note in bar 8 (see circled notes). This is the first menuet in suite 2.

Again a common form: a strongly contrasting second phrase rather than "developmental" continuation. This is from suite 6 in book 2.

A classic sentence. This is the second menuet in suite 2.

A four-bar theme labeled with my term: a presentation phrase that acts formally as a theme. This is from suite 3 in book 2.

Finally, note the variety in the formal functions for the second strains, but all in clearly defined, "tight" designs.

Example 1 above: period
Example 2: 16-bar sentence
Example 3: 16-bar period?
Example 4: period

Menuet series 2-6: Chédeville l'aîné

Esprit Philippe Chédeville (1696 — 1762) was prominent among French professional musicians in the first half of the 18th century. He was an oboist in the Opéra, later in the King's court, and he became particularly known for his espousal of the musette, or French bagpipes.

In the early 1730s, he began publishing volumes of pieces for the musette, the Recueils de vaudevilles, menuets, contredanses et autres airs choisis pour la musette. (IMSLP link) There are eight volumes in all, with six suites in each, every suite being given four printed pages. The number of individual pieces varies from volume to volume, and I have not attempted a census, but the grand total is probably ~375.

About the motivation for this large undertaking, it appears to be both pedagogical and commercial.
Bruce Haynes' comments in his history of the oboe apply equally to the musette:

It was in this period that publishers discovered a lucrative amateur market. As a consequence, woodwind music generally became less technically demanding than in the previous period, and it was aimed at middle-of-the-road tastes. Some of this "tabloid" music was thus purposely mediocre, and not representative of the best the period had to offer.  (414)

A particularly enthusiastic audience for the musette was aristocratic amateurs following the popularity of the pastoral manner (a cultural phenomenon that was also partly responsible for the prominent place of the gavotte in French contredanses).

Note that Chédeville offered the volumes not just to musette players (see below). Note also that the melodies are supplied with a continuo bass (the basses are figured). In some of the subsequent volumes, the music is written in form of treble duets without bass.

Among the estimated  ~375 pieces in the eight volumes are 107 named menuets, the largest group of named pieces in the Recueils. As in other repertoires discussed recently in this blog, there are undoubtedly more menuets (perhaps as many as 40) but I have excluded them because they were given other titles. I should also note that the number of named gavottes is much smaller--perhaps no more than three dozen--but that, since gavottes were heavily favored as contredanses and contredanses were almost always given special titles--my guess (that is, without making an actual census) is that gavottes rival the menuets in total numbers.

For the named menuets, here is the data for formal functions in the first strain:

period                                 N =  64

antecedent + continuation N = 28

sentence                                 N  = 5

16-bar period                         N = 3

16-bar sentence                 N = 2

presentation-theme (6 bars) N = 2

antecedent theme (6 bars) N = 1

presentation theme (4 bars) N = 1

12-bar period                         N = 1

The obvious points to make are the strong representation of the antecedent + continuation theme and the very low number of sentences. 

Reference: Bruce Haynes, The Eloquent Oboe: A History of the Hautboy 1640-1760. Oxford University Press, 2001.

The 4 "C"s: on second phrases

In my PDF essay Dance and Dance Designs in 18th and Early 19th Century Music (link), I came to the following conclusions about first strains after a study of Beethoven menuets and German dances:

(1) the surprising variety of forms -- or, to put this negatively, the "stereotypical" period is by no means the most common type--although the "weak antecedent" [compound basic idea] plus consequent does appear, in fact more often than any other type--nor is the sentence so common as one might expect; 


(2) the large number of hybrid forms; 
 

(3) the weakness of the functional terminology at capturing a strong sense of contrast between bars 1-4 and 5-8 -- it is evident that the label "continuation" is too broad, but it is, on the other hand, difficult to think what might effectively distinguish a "contrasting phrase" from a continuation. Nevertheless, the idea of immediate and sharp contrast between phrases (and strains) is a particular feature of the waltz, one that is related to a similar tendency in later 18th-century menuets and that persists -- as a contrast of strains -- far into the waltz's later history.  (48)

The first of these has been the focus of posts on this blog over the past month or two. The second is obviously a corollary to the first. The third is the point of interest here. (Material in this post comes in part from my online essay Form Functions in Menuets by Beethoven and Others, 1770-1813:
A Contribution to the History of Design for Dance Musics: link.)

With the caveat that I make no claims about other genres than music for social dance, I have expanded terminology for the second phrase in an 8-bar theme from two items to four:

1. consequent, as in Caplin. This has two subclasses: literal repetition of bars 1-2 as 5-6, and transposed bars 1-2 as 5-6. The transposition is most often by step.
2. continuation, as in Caplin. This subsumes continuation-cadential and cadential as subclasses (which is in any case the way Caplin treats them: harmonically determined variants of the "classic" continuation phrase). For dance music, the two new classes of complement and contrast effectively reduce continuation to the "Op2n1" case (Caplin's first example for the sentence), where the motive of the opening is repeated but fragmented in bars 5-6. I have discarded continuation-cadential and cadential because they are harmonically determined, where I would claim that melodic features are more expressive and determinative in music for social dance (even in Schubert).
3. complement. Use "complement" or "complementary phrase." The most common case uses rhythms and/or melodic figures internal to the first phrase.
4. contrast. Use "contrast" or "contrasting phrase." Figures are pointedly different from anything in the first phrase.

The list assumes a continuum from a strong sense of repetition to a strong sense of contrast or difference. As always, many themes may accept labels easily, others may require interpretation. In the latter case, it is important to preserve the interpretation through comment (as Caplin routinely does), rather than simply apply the label and therefore threaten to conflate the clear and the ambiguous.

The justification for these additions—beyond taxonomic completeness or subtlety—is that dance pieces are miniatures, and qualities that we might give little attention to in the larger-scale environment of a small ternary or sonata movement acquire more importance in the close quarters of a 16 bar menuet or ecossaise. Dances in Mozart's or Schubert's generations were chains of such miniatures, tied together by the continuity of the dance itself, not by some sort of emergent unity of motive, tonality, or expression.

Here, without comment, are "classic" examples of each of the four types listed above.

Consequent (1): Mozart, 12 Menuets, K. 164 (1772), n1 trio

Consequent (2): Beethoven, 12 Menuets, WoO7 (1795), n11

Complement: Beethoven, 12 Menuets, WoO7 (1795), n12

Continuation: Mozart, K. 585, n6

Contrast: Beethoven, 12 Menuets, WoO7 (1795), n7

Lully and Playford

To provide some context for the two previous posts, in which I described the design of menuets from three Lully operas, here is a figure from my PDF essay on dance design (link). This is also Table 1 in my 2006 article on the contredanse and the finales of Haydn and Mozart sonatas and symphonies (link).

A tabulation of design for first strains of music in various editions of Playford's English Dancing Master (all editions after the first: Dancing Master). The first edition was published in 1651, the seventeenth (and last) in 1728.

What I call "4-bar themes" are similar to Lully's first strains that are really phrases, not themes in Caplin's sense. In Playford's first edition, these 4-bar themes predominate (see the second column in the table). Next in line are the sentence and the antecedent-continuation model, confirmation of the importance of both in 17th century music. In the later editions (see the third column), the obvious change is what we might call the rise of the period and a drop in the number of sentences.

Here is one example of a dance whose music starts with a "4-bar theme": Lady Cullen. "Theme" and "section" are the same, if one takes the repeat sign as a section demarcator, in the same way as in almost all later dances. If we include the repeat, then the resulting eight bars (that is, mm. 1-4 twice) are a period (though an awkward one in which the antecedent closes on the tonic). If we regard the entire piece (mm. 1 to 4 + 5 to 8) as a single theme, then it is antecedent-continuation. If we include all repeats (1 to 4 + 1 to 4 + 5 to 8 + 5 to 8), the result is a compound (16-measure) sentence.

"4-bar theme"; antecedent of an antecedent-continuation; (with repeat) period; presentation unit of a 16-measure sentence. Of course, the actual design of Lady Cullen when used for dancing will be this: if L stands for the music, then LLLLLLLL. . . as many times as needed for all to complete the figures (this is a long dance, where the length of the dance depends on the number of people dancing).

All this reminds us (1) that the formal function depends on the level one is considering; (2) that Caplin's model does have an unfortunate repetition of labels at 8-bar and 16-bar levels; (3) that in 17th century music there is a fluid relationship between phrase, section, and theme.

Three menuets from Armide

This continues from yesterday. Form descriptions of Lully menuets from the operas show the fluidity  (and uncertainty) of design analysis based on Caplin's model and terminology. We saw in the vocal and instrumental menuets from Atys and Proserpine that the design can appear to be simultaneously a small form and a prolonged theme, and that in the latter case an initial phrase is followed by two continuation phrases. The same things are true in one of the three named menuets from the prologue to  Armide (1686).

This is the second menuet in a pair. Note the three-bar basic idea and the overall design as a sentence. In section B, however, the first continuation is 8 bars, which seems quite unreasonable for a phrase, but I see no clear way to parse ideas within it. Perhaps Caplin's "continuation-like unit," used for looser form sections in later Viennese music, would be appropriate here. The second continuation, also, differs from the models in the earlier operas, in that it is a repeat of the first, not aa new phrase.



The first menuet in the pair also repeats the first continuation to form the second. Here an expansion of an underlying 4-bar phrase to six by means of sequences (see bars 19-21) is a plausible explanation and not unlike a design one might find in Haydn or even later composers. The overall design is antecedent-continuation and/or small binary.

 The third menuet is simpler: an antecedent with two contrasting ideas is followed by a six-bar continuation that ends with a perfect authentic cadence. This design is a simple, balanced binary form (with repetition of each part).

Mozart's menuets and Caplin's theme types, part 3

Ironically, perhaps, the presentation-consequent theme class shares an important characteristic with the sentence. The presentation-consequent theme shows a dogged adherence to one idea, which is heard three times, then followed by a cadence. Here is an example from K. 164, n5:

One might even decide that bars 5-6 are "varied" enough that the second phrase could be called a continuation and the whole a sentence. In my view, however, that would be a failure to recognize obvious things in the music that tell us "bar 5 is like bar 1--hear that?"

In K. 164, the trio to n6 is one of the periods that might have been read as a presentation-consequent theme:

Here the issue is clearly not bars 5-6, where bars 1-2 are literally repeated, in entirety. The issue is in bars 3-4, where the opening of the figure (bar 3) suggests "basic idea varied" and the end (bar 4) says "contrast." In general, I favor the effect of the opening, but in this case the strong contrast effected by a different direction for the parallel thirds in the accompaniment parts renders bar 5 a clear "return to the beginning" by contrast.

Here is a similar problem with a different result: K164n3, the trio:

Does bar 5 act like the opening of a consequent, rather than, as I have it, a continuation phrase? The "dogged adherence" to a figure would certainly suggest it, but what's lacking here is a sense of returning to the beginning, which a consequent must have. Here the sequence, going down by thirds (D-B-G in the melody), erases any sense of "starting over." If anything, this theme sounds like a six-measure phrase + a cadence.

Mozart, 6 Menuets, K. 164

The traditional narrative has the period theme dominating the Classical era (that is, European music roughly 1760-1820) but by the end of that time giving way to the sentence (Schoenberg's term): the preference for symmetry somehow turned to a preference for organic development. By now, we know well that this historical model misrepresents much of the music of this era. It certainly misrepresents music for dance.

My claim is that a variety of thematic types was typical of the 17th century and early 18th, as well, but gradually gave way to the symmetrical design of the period by the 1760s because of the popularity of the contredanse, which was based on music for the gavotte (duple time) and gigue (triple). Through most of the century, however, the menuet was prominent in maintaining one of the earlier theme types, the antecedent-continuation design (one of William Caplin's "hybrids"). The goal of my new research is to gain a better picture of just how thoroughly—and during which decades—this design was important.

Mozart provides a particularly good case study, as he was an avid dancer himself (and therefore knew intimately the requirements and changing fashions of dance), and he was also a prolific composer of music for dancing from an early age into the last year of his life, when he held a position as composer of dance music for the Imperial court.

The six orchestral menuets of K. 164 were composed in 1772. The scoring is for two violin parts and bass, augmented by trumpet and 2 oboes (or, sometimes, a solo flute). The designs for the first strain of each menuet and its trio are listed below.

• n1: sentence
• n1, trio: period 
• n2: sentence 
• n2, trio: sentence
• n3: period
• n3, trio: sentence
• n4: antecedent-continuation
• n4, trio: sentence
• n5: presentation-consequent
• n5, trio: sentence
• n6: sentence
• n6, trio: period

The two striking points are (1) the presence of a presentation-consequent hybrid, which Caplin regarded as too rare to even place among his set of hybrid themes; and (2) the prevalence of sentences: seven out of the twelve themes. So much for the narrative that says the sentence arises with Beethoven. In fact, it would seem to be just common sense that the sentence should be well suited to 18th century motive-driven Italianate models of composition and improvisation.

Here are the stats for K. 568, composed in 1788.

• n1: sentence
• n1, trio: period with transposed consequent
• n2: period with transposed consequent
• n2, trio: period
• n3: antecedent-continuation
• n3, trio: period
• n4: antecedent-continuation
• n4, trio: period
• n5: period
• n5, trio: period
• n6: sentence
• n6, trio: sentence* (with contrasting phrase)
• n7: antecedent-continuation
• n7, trio: period
• n8: antecedent-continuation
• n8, trio: period
• n9: sentence
• n9, trio: antecedent-continuation
• n10: antecedent-continuation
• n10, trio: period
• n11: antecedent-continuation
• n11, trio: sentence
• n12: antecedent-continuation
• n12, trio: period

Eleven of these themes are periods, only five are sentences, but eight are antecedent-continuation hybrids.

Here are the stats for K. 585, composed in 1789.

• n1: sentence
• n1, trio: period
• n2: sentence
• n2, trio: period
• n3: antecedent-continuation
• n3, trio: antecedent-continuation
• n4: antecedent-continuation
• n4, trio: antecedent-continuation or sentence with mirror variation of bi
• n5: period
• n5, trio: period
• n6: period
• n6, trio: period
• n7: antecedent-continuation
• n7, trio: sentence with continuous figure (motive)
• n8: period
• n8, trio: antecedent-continuation, but similar ci
• n9: period
• n9, trio: Period
• n10: sentence
• n10, trio: period
• n11: antecedent-continuation
• n11, trio: period
• n12: period
• n12, trio: period

For periods, n = 13; for sentences, n = 4; for antecedent-continuation hybrids, n = 7.

For the late menuets, then, periods do outnumber any other type, but constitute only about half of the total, with antecedent-continuation hybrids significantly represented and sentences by no means missing.

In the next post, I will discuss some examples of the antecedent-continuation hybrid from these three sets of menuets.