(Caplin considers rounded binary essentially the same as small ternary. Among these are the period, small ternary, and small binary. Tight-knit themes are the subject of part 2. The second and third parts of the book hinge on the distinction between opposing kinds of musical organization, "tight-knit" and "loose." Here is Caplin's summary of the two: As drama spins out when characters interact, each affecting the others in untold ways, so does music unfold when phrases join in making themes, themes in making sections, and sections in making movements. On the other hand, even an ordinary sonata-form exposition has far more attributes. An ordinary antecedent phrase has relatively few attributes: it is composed of two groups of contrasting two-measure units and is marked at its end by a weak cadence. As a character has traits, so a group of measures has attributes. The word "role" is suggestive if we take it to mean something like the character an actor plays.
"When we listen to a Mozart piano sonata or a Haydn symphony, how do we know where we are from one moment to the next?" This question, posed on the dust jacket of this book, is answered in the intervening pages in two words: formal function.įormal function, introduced in the first of the book's four parts, concerns the role of a group of measures relative to the larger organization of a piece of music. Classical Form: A Theory of Formal Functions for the Instrumental Music of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven.
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