FORM IN MUSICAL CONSTRUCTION

Southland Times, Issue 24166, 1 July 1940, Page 9

FORM IN MUSICAL CONSTRUCTION

PRINCIPLES DEVELOPED BY COMPOSERS

In the second of a series of lecture recitals designed to assist music lovers in their understanding of music, Mi Charles Martin gave an address on form in music to the Music Section ot the University Association of Southland in the Women’s Club rooms on Saturday night. He illustrated his talk with a number of items which he played on the piano. Saying that it was necessary for better understanding and appreciation of music to know something about the composer and his period and the type of composition, Mr Martin said that the essentials of form could be explained fairly simply. All composers had followed certain principles which had been modified according to their period. The simplest forms had been used in the early days of the development of music, and in the sixteenth century the Belgian monastic school had developed the contraptunal style of music in which later Johann Sebastian Bach was to become the greatest exponent. For the greatest part music .was developed from the simple musical sentence of eight measures in length, generally known as a period. Extended into two or three periods according to definite principles of counter-measures and cadences the binary and ternary sentences had been developed and these, either regular or irregular in construction, were the basis of practically all music. Contrapuntal music had reached a high form of development in the fugue of which the best examples were composed by Bach in his two remarkable sets of 24 preludes and fugues. The classical form had been developed by the romanticists and had reached its apex in the music of Beethoven. Mr Martin explained the sonata form with the definite first movement construction of first and second subjects, development of ideas, return to the original form and coda. Slow movement, minuet and trio or scherzo and rondo or last movement forms were also explained. In the illustration of his talk, Mr Martin undertook the playing- of a large number of examples and he succeeded with simple explanations in directing attention to the essential features of the compositions. He was in his best form as a recitalist and gave a satisfying performance of the works. He played “Des Abends” from Schumann’s “Fantasiestucke,” Bach’s Preludes and Fugues in C Minor, C Sharp Major and B Flat Minor from Book I of “Tlie Well-Tempered Clavier, 1 ' movements from Beethoven’s piano sonatas opus 2 No. 3 and opus 7 and the complete “Waldstein” sonata opus 53, Chopin’s Berceuse, a Debussy “Arabesque,” a paraphrase by Schutt of a Strauss waltz and “Lotus Land,” by Cyril Scott.

In moving a vote of thanks which was carried by acclamation, Mr W. M Dobie said that by avoiding technicalities Mr Martin had made clear a great deal that puzzled many listeners to music and an understanding of these points would greatly assist in the appreciation and enjoyment of music.