g waa ‘Musical Form: Dynamic vs. Static Edward Brookhart Music Educators Jounal, Vol. 51, No. 1. (Sep. ~ Oct., 1964), pp. 91-93+146-147. Stable URL: Music Educators Journal is currently published by MENC: The National Association for Music Education. ‘Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at hntp: wor jstor ong about terms himl. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained Dror permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the ISTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial ase. Please contact the publisher regarding any fusther use of this werk. Publisher contact information may be obtained at ‘igpiwsow jstor or joule. al Each copy of any part of a ISTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission, JSTOR is an mdapendent not-for-profit organization dedicated to and preserving a digital archive of scholarly journals. For ‘mote information segarding JSTOR, please contact suppost @jstor.org, itp /www,jstor-org Sat Jun 9 13:37:39 2007MUSICAL FORM: Dynamic us. Static i While knowledge of “classical” forms has its place in an individ- ual's musical education, the valu of this knowledge as a basis for a Detter understanding of musie is limited. The objective, analytical, static aspects of musical fern will prove to be of secondary impor- tance to the expressive, the psycho- logical, the dynamic features ‘One’ needs to look no. further than his own musical training, or that of his associates, to be aware of the Fact that in the past the study of musical form has: largely been ‘approached from the standpoint of the conventional, statie structural atterns which may, we were told, Be abstracted from all great music What has been true of most col: lege courses in “Form and Analy- sist has carried over to the junior high school general music class. However, this article is not in- tended as a condemnation of what thas been done in. general music classes, but rather it is an attempt to explain a more promising ap- proach to the understanding. of ‘musical form for junior high school students First, the meaning of the word “form” 4s applied to masie must be defined. Apel, in the Hareard Dic« tionary of ‘Muste, bas pointed ont that the term has sulfered from a great deal of ambiguity in usage. For clarification he suggests mak: ing a distinction between “Form in composition” and “the form of ' composition.” The former may be Tunderstood to include all of the theoretical and compositional prin- ciples of music, while the latter refers to the plan of construction, ie, sonata-allegro, rondo, varia: tion Although this distinetion is helpful it is. limited; for both phrases place the emphasis on the Mie (gambiae Ma a ah aut iat lS rae i i Saeed el tion for the semantic use of the iach Tn “Paradigms for a Definition of ia interaction of subject and object) n form is essential to the develop: ment of a more refined musical taste and is therefore an important part of any general music eurricn Jum, then We must ask several by Edward Brookhart questions. Is it more important to teach junior high students to be able to analyze musie for “static form” (as defined above), or is it ‘more important to help them to tunderstand "dynamic form” as they listen or perform? Or, are both of equal, importance for these. stu dents? How should the teacher ap- preach the development of con cepts of musical form? A clue to an answer for the first two of these questions is to be found in the following statement st Cassiver process of spcech the atta i Fogel td dlc re Roewen te spectator let to mer pine. tole We cannot weer) Sloe of art without to a certain degpe, Tepe snd secontrctog the crestce proces by wich ty come nto fang? It follows then that an under standing of musical form will be most meaningful when the. per former or listener begins to. grag the role of form Inthe coeatee rocess of the composer. What is Ferm to composer? I aif to assume that the composer who really knows his erat is not Wkely to be concerned with ereating some arbitrary, preconceived structural esign ikea sonata-allegro move- ment, a rondo, a fugue; with pour ing his ideas to some righ old Rather he will be concerned (per- haps only subconsciously) with anipulated to create the feeling Of tension and consequent release, with bow these pattems of tension Pres, BEd. 8 Nine! The ihacat ie gbetfarmery lostaner (Pein, REE prncton iver Pres 680 “Granted, the comraser who, setting ‘partis ky esha oc tatoo sridenee that the rest comtaser th telves'to become slaves to the words theyand repose may be developed to produce contiast, climax, balance, and unity within variety. In other words, the composer is more con- ceemed with dynamic form than ‘with static form. If the foregoing assumptions are valid then the aim of an intelligent Tistener should be to attempt to re-create in his own experience the ‘dynamic form as itis expressed by composer in his music. Our im- tnediate problem now becomes the determination of those factors in ‘nusie which cause us to experience feelings of tension and release, of climax, of contrast, and ow the jor high school student can be Ted to an awareness of these and their role in the creative process To a great extent the factors in musie which tend to produce feel- ings of tension in the experience of the listener are those features whose production requires moro physical energy on the part of the peHformer or whose comprehension zequires more mental effort on the ppart of the listener. A rise in the pitch of a vocal line requires a ter intensity of vocal effort— nce a feeling of increased ten- sion. Similarly, an increase in dynamic intensity or heavy accents produces tension because’ we sub- onsciously use more energy in their production, ‘The more com- plex melodie, harmonic, rhythmic, fr contrapuntal elements are, the more mental effort required on the part of the listener and thus the rater the feeling of tension. Psion and rele aro. alto closely related to the functions of tones; but more important still, our perception of balance and uni ina eompostion s dependent upon ness of these functions. An appre= ciation of the dynamic form of susie is therefore dependent upon one's ability to the signifi- ance of ones in otto, to be able to understand the relationship of ‘one tone, one chord, one rhythmic pattern to all others used by the ‘We mast hasten to ada that un- derstanding tonal motion i, of ‘course, a highly complex matter mite, The function of tones ot only varies from composition to compisition but may also, al fre: quently does, change within a single work. This serves to point up the rather obvious fact that the ‘dynamic form of each and every ‘musical composition is unig Consequently, the study of “classi call forms” oF structural diagrams which are, supposed to represent the “form” of large numbers of musical works in a variety of styles is of little value and is often mis- Jeading insofar as understanding the dynamic form of a particular composition is concerned. It should also be apparent that tonal function is closely related to the entire history of the devel- ‘opment of musical styles. In fact, it might even be said that the his- tory of musical styles is the history ‘of how tones function in. various contexts. Thus musical style and dynamic form are completely inter- dependent. IF the junior high school general muse stent ist develop capac ity to experience the dynamic form musi obviously he mist de- velop his aural awareness of musi- cal pitches and rhythms. This does rot mean just the ability to recog- nize particular tones or rhythms either isolated or in context (al- thongh this is part of it), but to perceive the relations of tones and thythms to each other according to their placement in a given con- text. The extent to which aural abil- ity of this sort ean be furthered in the seventh, eighth, or ninth grade depends, of course, upon the stu- dent's musical background in the first six grades, And yet, a lack of any background at all should not bbe an excuse for making no attempt to develop some awareness and un- derstanding of form in music. Consider for a moment two musi- cal examples for possible practical applications of the above concepts. Assume that your general music class is Tearning to sing “O Come, © Come, Immanuel.” What can ‘you tell these students or what ean ‘you help them to feel with regard to the form of this ancient plain- song? You can of course draw from them the fact that there are three stanzas, each followed by a refrain, and that we call this kind of structural pattern *strophic You can also help them to recog- nize the four eadences of the stanza and the two cadences of the refrain and thus to be aware of a musical structure of six phrases. But this is only a small part of the whole picture, and it is doubtful that it is the first part which shomld be Drought to their attention Consider at first only the melody (the harmony was of course added centuries after the melody was composed). You might begin by having the class hom through one complete stanza and refrain, ask- ing them to stagger their breathing so that a complete cessation of tone for a breath occurs only at the end of the stanza, prior to the re- frain. Singing the melody in this manner afew times. should help them to feel its forward motion or the tension which develops; tension which reaches « high point (cli max) in the first phrase of the re- frain and then is gradually relaxed to the end, ‘What causes this feeling of ten- sion? Several factors may be pointed out. * ‘The melody reaches its highest pitch at the beginning of the relrain. The melody does not arrive at pitch whieh produces a sense of finality at the end of the stanza, * The tonal center of both mel- ‘ody and harmony shifts from E at the beginning of the stanza and at the beginning of the refrain, ‘The use of longer note values at the beginning of the first phrase of the refrain gives sup- to this point as.a climax. ‘What in this melody gives us the feeling that it bas unity, and vari« ety within this unity? “Those aspects which unify are: * The pitches of the melody and their arrangement outline E as a tonal center at the begin- of the stanza and at the cend of the refra The motive b-a-c-b-a-g of the first phrase reappears’ in the fourth and fifth phrases * The last phrase is an exact repetition of phrase two. Vanity rests fom * The contrast of phrase three. * The pitch changes which make plrate four slightly diferent from phrase one, and when heard following phrase three gives the feeling of a shift to & tonal center of G. ‘The rhythmic and pitch changes which make phrase ‘Conmvven on Pace: 16Musical Form: Dynar vs. Stotic Continued from Page 93 five diferent from phrases one tnd four and also longer than any of the other phrases. (The Iengthening of this phrase al conéributes to its) climactic effect.) ‘These are only some of the as- pects of this melody, directly or indirectly related to its form, which might be discussed and aurally recognized by your students Consider now a second, longer ‘listening lesson. cen- ind the fourth movement ‘of Aaron Copland’s Symphony No. 3. ‘There are any number of pos- sible points of departure for intso- ‘ducing this work to your general iusie class. This, however, is not what concerns us here. Rather we are interested in what may be Drought out concerning the form of ‘the movement. Copland himself says that this movement resembles in its structure sonata-allegro form. Regardless of this, and even if your class has previously been intro duced to sonata-allegro structures, ies doubtfel dat you shold be: in by comparing the structure of is tooverent with that of a classical sonata-allogro_ pattern. “Assuming that your elass has dis- ceussed musical tension, unity, vari- ‘ety in some shorter, less complex compositions, it might be well to begin by describing briefly to the students the motives and’ themes ‘of the four main sections of the ‘movement and how these musical ideas are manipulated by the com poser. (Multiple copies of this description might be distributed to the students for them to follow during their first hearing of the work.) ‘On second hearing of this move- ‘ment® you might ask the students to tentatively identify the elimactic ‘points of each of the four main sec- tions of the movement; and to de- termine what devices the composer far ened to bring abont theee “Te is questionable that « work of thi erie of'ennlety sult Bo"prcented maxes, With caroful listening they should be able to note that the principal devices Copland has used {o create tension are complexity of texture (highly contrapuntal), ir- fegular rinthas, angular melodie Tines, and vertical dissonances. And since they have been provided with ‘description, it should be no prob- Jem for them to recognize some of the more important factors which contribute to unity and variety. The type of analysis suggested by the two proceding examples should not only contribute to a Detter understanding of the par- ticular compositions but, in the long fim, should. prove to have. more cany-over to the study of other ‘works than would a mere introdue- tion to sonata-allegro or other “classical forms.” tshould also be pointed out that hough these examples are given ith the general music class in mind, there is no reason why these ideas cannot and should not be applied to rehearsals of performing organizations orchestras, bands, choirs. The greater performance roficieney possessed by these stu- ents should make possible an even deeper understanding of the dy- ‘amie form of the music they play and sing. But at the same timo, if they aro not properly guided, their technical proficiency” may only stand in the way of developing a real sensitivity to the expressive ress of music. Music isa symbolic language by which man has tried to express certain feelings, emotions, and ideas which cannot be put into words, Ina sense the young stu- dent must approach music much the woukd te lenrsing of for eign language. Just asthe first words learned. ina foreign lan guage are translated into his native tongue, so too must we try to help im verbalize his early experiences with musical ideas. Then, just as he learns, with practice and ex tee, t0-“tinke in a foreign lane guage and begins to understand hose subtleties of meaning which cannot be translated, $0 to0 he twill learn to think in musical terms and begin to geasp certain ideas tnd fedlings sthich can only be expressed musically ‘euthor te Assistant Profesor of Masi atthe University of Teer, Austinhup:/www jstor.org LINKED CITATIONS - Page | of | - You have printed the following article ‘Musical Form: Dynamic vs. Static Edward Brookhart Music Educators Journal, Vol. $1, No. 1. (Sep. - Oet., 1964). pp. 91- Stable URL, This article references the following lmked citations. If you are trying to access articles from an off-campus location, you may be required to first logon via your library web site to access JSTOR. Please visit your library's website or contact a librarian to learn about options for remote access to JSTOR. [Footnotes] Style-Criticism Guido Adler: W. Oliver Strunk The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 20. Stable URL: tip inks jstor org sici2sici=0027-4631%281934049 (0. 2. (Apr., 1934), pp. 172-176. ¥43A2903C17243AS%3E2.0,CO%IB2-W NOTE: The reference numbering from the original has been mainiained in this citation list