Let us start, ladies and gentlemen.

We're going to pursue the issue of musical form today.

It's an important thing to talk about because it allows us to

follow a particular piece of music,

and we'll be--I am using this metaphor of a musical journey

and wanting to know where we are in music throughout the day

today.

Form is particularly important in all types of music--

popular music as well as classical music--

and we have this complex of material coming at us,

this sonic material.

And we try to make sense of it, and we say that it has a

particular form.

And we say it could have a particular structure even,

so we tend to use metaphors having to do with architecture

and things such as this.

What we are really doing here is taking all of this sonic

information that's coming into our brain and getting sorted,

and makes us want to dance around or clap or be sad or

happy, and make sense of it in terms

of a few rather simple patterns.

And musicians like to have forms because oftentimes it

tells them what they ought to do next and where--here--I'm here

but what ought to happen next?

Well, if you've got a tried and true musical form that other

musicians have used over the years,

you might be inclined to use it too because your know your

listener will be able to follow you.

Now the other day, I asked early on in the course

about the form in popular music, and I threw this out not really

knowing what the answer would be.

What's the most common form that one encounters when dealing

with pop songs?

And for the most part there was silence across the room,

but one student--I have tracked him down--

Frederick Evans, gave a very good answer--

really a better answer than I could have given.

So, clearly Frederick knew something about this idea of

what he I think referred to as "verse and chorus"

structure.

I might call it "strophe and refrain,"

but it's the same thing whether you have it in a Lied of Franz

Schubert or in a piece that I know nothing about.

And Frederick is going to show us--introduce us--to a piece

that I know nothing about.

I sent him an e-mail last night saying, "Frederick,

you gave a really good answer.

Why don't you pick a piece, come up and demonstrate

this?"

So this is Frederick Evans.

We're going--or excuse me.

Yeah, Frederick Evans.

He's going to come up here.

I'm told we have to give him a microphone and he is going to

introduce us to this particular piece.

Now you probably all know what this piece is.

How many of you have heard the piece we were just listening to?

Everybody knows it.

Who is the one person in the room that's never heard this

piece before--has no clue what's happening?

Moi. Okay?

So Frederick, tell me about this piece,

please.

Frederick Evans: All right.

This is a piece by 'N Sync--back when I was in fifth

grade-- and it's "Bye Bye

Bye," and the pattern that it follows is really the

archetype of a lot of popular songs.

It's half of the chorus or so when it starts and then there's

verse, chorus, verse,

chorus and then what I call the bridge,

which is like an emotional climax.

And then the last one is a really powerful chorus where

they just bring it home and then the music fades away.

Prof: Okay.

So it's this idea of changing text,

then coming back to familiar text and familiar music,

then changing, going back to the familiar new

text, and then coming back to the

familiar in terms of the chorus.

Is that a fair shake?

Frederick Evans: Yes, Sir.

Yes.

Prof: Okay.

So shall we play--what are we going to hear first?

Frederick Evans: So first you'll hear from

seconds twenty-four to forty.

This is an example of the verse where they have the beginning of

the plot and then you have the chorus at seconds--

about fifty-six--and that's where you get your repeating

idea, which is what the piece is

based on.

And then last but not least, you have the emotional buildup

where the background and the chord progression changes,

a little more solemnly, and then there's the last

chorus that just brings it home.

Prof: Okay.

Great.

Let's listen to the-yeah.

>

Okay.

Frederick Evans: Yep.

So that was the first verse and that's when they really get you

into what they're talking about.

>

Prof: What really interests me here is what

they're using is a baroque ostinato "Lament

bass" but that's-- we'll get on to that in another

week or so.

So that's--okay.

Now we'll go to the bridge, Frederick?

Frederick Evans: Yes.

There at the bridge is where they really sum up all their

emotions and they really just want to tell you what they're

building towards.

>

Prof: Okay.

That's wonderful.

Thank you, Frederick.

That's exactly what I wanted.

>

>

Okay.

How many want Craig to continue teaching this course and how

many want Frederick?

Let's hear it for Craig.

>

Let's hear it for Frederick.

>

I knew it.

Okay, but that's a good way of getting introduced to the idea

of musical form.

Let's talk about form now in classical music.

The forms are a little more difficult in classical music

because the music is more complex.

And before we launch into a discussion of these musical

forms, I want to talk about the distinction of genre in music

and form in music.

So we're going to go over to the board over here and you can

see that I've listed the standard classical genres.

What do we mean by genre in music?

Well, simply musical type.

So we've got this type called a symphony and this type of music

called a string quartet and concerto, and so on.

We could add other types: ballet, opera,

things such as that.

In the popular realm we've got genres too.

We've got--classical New Orleans jazz would be a genre.

Blues would be a genre.

Grunge rock would be another sort of genre.

A genre presupposes a particular performing force,

a particular length of pieces and even dress and mode of

behavior of the auditors--the listeners.

If we were going to listen to the genre of a symphony,

we would dress up one particular way,

go to Woolsey Hall and expect to be there from eight o'clock

until ten o'clock.

If you were going to hear the Rolling Stones play at

Toad's--where they do play occasionally--obviously one

would not come at eight o'clock.

One would come later, and one would dress in a

particular sort of way and one would behave,

presumably, in a different sort of way.

So that's what we mean by genre, a kind of general type of

music.

Now today we'll start to talk about form in music,

and what I need to say here is that each of these genres is

made up of a-- of movements,

and each of the movements is informed by a particular form.

So with the symphony we have four movements there:

fast, slow, then either a minuet or a

scherzo, and a final,

fast movement, and each of these movements can

be in one of the number of different forms and we'll talk

about what they are in just a moment.

So when we come to the string quartet, same sort of thing:

fast, slow, minuet, scherzo, fast.

Any one of those can be in a particular form.

Concerto, generally, as mentioned before,

has just three movements and sonata,

a piano sonata, something played on a piano,

or a violin sonata with violin and piano accompaniment--

they generally have just three movements: fast,

slow, fast.

Okay.

Let's talk about our forms now.

In classical music things go by very quickly and it's difficult

to kind of get a handle on it, and we, generally in life,

don't like to be lost.

We like to know where we are, we like to know what is

happening, and this is what form allows us to do.

So that if we're hearing a piece of music and all this

stuff is coming at us we want to make sense of it by knowing

approximately where we are.

Am I still toward the beginning?

Am I in the middle of this thing?

Am I getting anywhere near the end of it?

How should I respond at this particular point?

Well, if we have in mind what I've identified here,

we will be referring to as our six formal types,

and we can think of these as templates that,

when we're hearing a piece of music we make an educated

decision about which formal type is in play.

And then we drop down the model of this formal type,

or the template of this formal type,

and we sort of filter our listening experience through

this template, or through this model.

So here are our six models: ternary form,

sonata allegro form, theme and variations,

rondo, fugue, and ostinato.

And they developed at various times in the history of music.

Theme and variations is very old.

Sonata-allegro is a lot more recent.

Now of these, the ones that we'll be working

with today are ternary form and sonata-allegro form,

and sonata-allegro is the hardest, the most complex,

the most difficult of all of these forms.

It's so-called because it usually shows up in the first

movement of a sonata, concerto, string quartet,

symphony, so--and the first movements are

fast so that's why we have allegro out there,

and it most is associated with this idea of the sonata.

It didn't necessarily originate there.

It originated there and in the symphony,

but for historical reasons we call this sonata because of its

association with the sonata and the fact that it goes--

and the fact that it goes fast--sonata-allegro form.

So that in a symphony, usually your very first

movement will be in sonata-allegro form.

Your slow movement, well, that could be in theme

and variations; it could be in rondo;

it could be in ternary form.

Your minuet and scherzo is almost always in ternary form

and your last fast movement could be in sonata-allegro form.

It could also be in theme and variations;

could be in rondo; could be in fugue.

Sometimes it's even in ostinato form.

So you can see that these forms can show up and

control--regulate--what happens inside of each of these

movements.

Okay?

Are there questions about that?

Does that seem straightforward enough?

We have a big picture of genre here, movements within genre,

and then forms informing each of the movements.

Yes.

Student: Did you say that the ternary form is