Musical Form and Analysis Flashcards
7 cards from real BM or BMus Bachelor of Music practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 7 Musical Form and Analysis flashcards as text
What term describes the technique in a fugue where the subject is presented at shorter time intervals than originally, creating an overlapping, intensified texture?
Answer: Stretto
Stretto occurs when fugue subject entries overlap, with each new entry beginning before the previous one has finished, creating increased rhythmic and harmonic tension.
In 20th-century music analysis, what term describes a collection of pitch classes defined by their intervallic content, used in post-tonal analysis?
Answer: Pitch-class set
Pitch-class set theory, developed by Allen Forte, categorizes groups of pitches by their interval content, enabling systematic analysis of atonal music.
What is the formal name for the structural unit in a Baroque concerto grosso where the full orchestra returns after solo passages?
Answer: Tutti / Ritornello
The ritornello (or tutti) is the recurring orchestral passage in a Baroque concerto grosso that frames and alternates with the solo episodes.
Which analytical concept describes a chord that prolongs a structural harmony by embellishing it with neighboring or passing motion?
Answer: Prolongation
Prolongation, a key concept in Schenkerian analysis, describes how a harmony is extended over musical time through subsidiary melodic and harmonic motion.
In a multi-movement sonata cycle, which movement type is most commonly in the subdominant or relative key rather than the tonic?
Answer: Second (slow) movement
The slow second movement is frequently in a contrasting key—often the subdominant, relative major/minor, or mediant—to provide tonal contrast before the return to the tonic in later movements.
What term describes the practice of ending a phrase or section on the dominant rather than the tonic, creating an open, expectant feeling?
Answer: Half cadence (imperfect cadence)
A half cadence (or imperfect cadence) ends on the dominant chord (V), leaving the phrase harmonically open and propelling forward motion.
In analyzing Baroque two-part inventions, what term describes the technique where the melodic subject appears upside-down (intervals reversed)?
Answer: Inversion (melodic)
Melodic inversion reverses the direction of each interval in a theme, so ascending intervals become descending and vice versa, creating a mirror image of the original.