This page was last edited on 16/01/06

Topics To Research

a] Pre-Classical Styles

• Style Galant (Gallant Style)
• Rococo
• Empfindsamer Stil (try Classical Music )

b] The Classical Style - The Enlightenment

• Sonata Form
• Fortepiano (See History of the Piano )
• C.P.E.Bach - Life, Works, Style and Influence (Try these links 1 | 2 | 3 )
• Cycle (circle) of Fifths
• Masculine/Feminine Cadences

Bibliography

• Grout - pp.447-464 (see also link 3 above)
• Cambridge Music Guide - pp.218-230
• Sonata Form - Charles Rosen
• Music in the Classic Period - Reinhard G. Pauly (Prentice Hall)

Questions

1. Precisely identify one example of each of the following:-
   • a dominant pedal of E flat major
   • a dominant pedal of B flat major
   • a standard cadential progression
   • a feminine cadence
   • an ascending sequence
   • an appoggiatura
   • A circle of fifths
   • Tierce da Picardie

2. Explain the signs at the following places.
   • Right hand Bar 1 ¹
   • Right hand Bar 41 ²

3. • Right hand Bar 1 ¹
   • Right hand Bar 41 ²

4. What elements identify this as a piece specifically for keyboard?

5. Described the stylistic features of the extract which suggest it to be an example of "galant" writing.

6. Analyse the thematic and tonal structure of this extract, showing C.P.E. Bach's use of motivic working.

 

Essay

Compare C.P.E. Bach's sonata extract with J.S.Bach's "Goldberg Variations" extract. What differences and similarities can you find between styles of the two composers?

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LAM 36: Württemberg Sonata No. 5 3rd Movement (1743)

5. Analyse the thematic and tonal structure of this extract, showing C.P.E. Bach's use of motivic working.

The 42 bars of LAM 36 can be divided into three sections. 1) 1 - 10 which is in E flat major, ending with an imperfect cadence. 2) 10 - 18 begins in E flat major, modulating to an imperfect cadence in the dominant, B flat by bar 18 (In fact it ends on V of V) 3) 18 - 42 Essentially in B flat major, though passing through C minor (25 - 26) and, sequentially, through D minor (27 - 28). G minor is visited before the dominant pedal in bars 32 - 40 and a perfect Ic-V-I cadence ends the section.

The opening material consists of a number of elements. The opening two-bar phrase (in the right hand) we can call ‘A’. The first, anacrustic, quaver of the phrase, plus the next two quavers, we might call motif ‘x’. Under the repeated pedal note in bars 2 - 6 there is a further two-bar idea ‘B’ which is also anacrustic.

‘A’ reappears in bars 10 - 11 although the intervals are stretched. Motif ‘x’ from idea ‘A’ is heard again in bars 36 - 39 in the right hand.

Idea ‘B’ is restated in the dominant from bars 19 - 24 although its rhythm and a little of its contour can be detected in the right hand part of bars 25 - 26 and in the sequence which follows. Much of the rest of the section consists of figurations rather than outright melodic development. The rising 4th of ‘x’ is evident in the left hand part (where it breaks up the pedal note) in bars 34 - 39; indeed the rising (an falling) interval gradually increases in size.

The impression given by this extract is that it is the exposition of a sonata movement with the 1st subject stated in the first section, and that section 2 is the transition to the dominant. However, there is not a new 2nd subject and the extract has more in common with a Binary movement.