20 Form

I. Form in tonal music is articulated by tonal factors, cadence types and placement, motivic relationships, and
sometimes by aspects of texture and color.

II. Typical formal procedures based on counterpoint:

A. Cantus firmus is a procedure in which a pre-existing melody is heard in relatively long tones, around
which the other voices move in faster values. Most chorale preludes are of this type.

B. Basso ostinato (ground bass) is a variation technique based on a repeating melodic pattern, usually heard
in the lowest voice. The pattern is four, eight, or sixteen measures long, is usually in triple meter, in the
minor mode, and moves between the tonic and dominant notes. Passacaglia and chaconne are two com-
mon variation forms using ostinato.

C. A fugue is an extended imitative work based on one theme (subject). The first section consists of an expo-
sition, with alternating entrances of the subject and the answer or response (the subject stated at the dom-
inant level). Statements of the subject and answer may be separated by brief linking passages (codettas).
There may or may not be a consistent countertheme (countersubject) heard with the subject. Following
the exposition, the fugue alternates episodes (developmental sections, usually sequential and modulatory,
based on motivic material from the subject) and middle entries of the subject and/or answer in a variety
of keys. The subject usually returns in the tonic key near the end. A double fugue has two subjects, which
are exposed either together at the beginning or in two separate expositions and combined later.

D. An invention is a relatively short imitative piece based on a single melodic idea. As with the fugue, imita-
tive statements of the principal motive alternate with episodic passages based on the motive.

III. Binary form.

A. In simple binary form, A B, or A A, or || : A : || || : B : ||, the two sections may be roughly equal in length
or the second section may be longer. The first section may modulate to a closely related key, such as the
dominant or relative, and therefore is open-ended, and the second remodulates to the tonic.

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 B. In rounded binary form, A B A or || : A : || || : B A: ||, the first section often modulates to the dominant or
relative, and the B section remodulates to tonic. The initial A section is therefore open-ended, and the
final A section is complete (closed-ended). The B section typically develops material from the A section
and either prolongs the V or ends with a half cadence. The B section is never an independent thematic
unit, or closed-ended, as it is in ternary forms. The two sections may be proportionally balanced, espe-
cially in those situations where B is only a single phrase and where only a single phrase of the initial A
recurs in the second section. It is typical, however, to expand the second section by extending the B sec-
tion and bringing back the entire initial A section, but with the harmonic progression altered to remain
in the tonic key.

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C. Bar form is || : A : || B. The B section is often as long as, or longer than, the repeated A section.

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 IV. In most three-part (ternary) forms the sections are roughly equal in length and independent (closed-ended
and self-contained). The B section is usually in a closely related key.

Schumann

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V. In compound ternary form, each of the three sections usually consists of a rounded binary form. In the
following example, the “Da Capo” instruction provides the final A section.

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