Beethoven Center

Beethoven Thesaurus

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BBD a10040547
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MT Music terms
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May be used as a subdivision to terms in the Works List (WL) hierarchy
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Method of form analysis used by Arnold Schoenberg. "Schoenberg saw form as implying comprehensibility in two dimensions: as subdivision, which enables the mind to grasp the whole through units; and as logic and coherence, without which such units remain disconnected. It was on questions of coherence that Schoenberg was at his most original. He adhered to the 19th-century view of music as organic. Construction thus begins with the motif, the motif must by its nature be repeated, repetition requires variation. He thus explored rhythmic, intervallic, harmonic and melodic means of variation, subdividing each systematically, the considered variation by addition of ancillary notes and the connecting of different motif forms. All this is demonstrated with analytical examples. In the course of his exposition he supplied the analyst with a valuable set of working definitions for terms such as 'motif,' phrase,' 'antecedent' and 'consequent,' 'period,' 'sentence' and 'section.' Among the melodic concepts that he introduced was that of 'liquidation,' whereby a unit gradually loses its characteristic features until only a residue remains." (New Grove)
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