BM or BMus Bachelor of Music Musical Form and Analysis 4 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: What term describes the technique in a fugue where the subject is presented at shorter time intervals than originally, creating an overlapping, intensified texture?
- Augmentation
- Diminution
- Stretto (Correct answer)
- Inversion
Correct 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.
Question 2: In 20th-century music analysis, what term describes a collection of pitch classes defined by their intervallic content, used in post-tonal analysis?
- Mode
- Row
- Pitch-class set (Correct answer)
- Hexachord
Correct 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.
Question 3: What is the formal name for the structural unit in a Baroque concerto grosso where the full orchestra returns after solo passages?
- Tutti / Ritornello (Correct answer)
- Refrain
- Recapitulation
- Coda
Correct 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.
Question 4: Which analytical concept describes a chord that prolongs a structural harmony by embellishing it with neighboring or passing motion?
- Prolongation (Correct answer)
- Elision
- Interpolation
- Parenthetical insertion
Correct answer: Prolongation
Prolongation, a key concept in Schenkerian analysis, describes how a harmony is extended over musical time through subsidiary melodic and harmonic motion.
Question 5: In a multi-movement sonata cycle, which movement type is most commonly in the subdominant or relative key rather than the tonic?
- First movement
- Second (slow) movement (Correct answer)
- Third movement
- Fourth movement
Correct 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.
Question 6: What term describes the practice of ending a phrase or section on the dominant rather than the tonic, creating an open, expectant feeling?
- Plagal cadence
- Half cadence (imperfect cadence) (Correct answer)
- Deceptive cadence
- Evaded cadence
Correct 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.
Question 7: In analyzing Baroque two-part inventions, what term describes the technique where the melodic subject appears upside-down (intervals reversed)?
- Retrograde
- Augmentation
- Inversion (melodic) (Correct answer)
- Diminution
Correct 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.
BM or BMus Bachelor of Music Musical Form and Analysis 4
What term describes the technique in a fugue where the subject is presented at shorter time intervals than originally, creating an overlapping, intensified texture?