The Appreciation of Music - Vol. 1 (of 3)

IV. HARMONY AS A PART OF DESIGN.

There remains to be considered the important factor of harmony, or arrangement of keys. This arrangement is shown in the diagram, Figure XXXVIII; but the principle involved is an important one, and the mere statement of Duality, Plurality and Unity hardly suffices to explain it. There seems to be no doubt that the subtle uses composers make of harmony are less intelligible to the average listener than are the uses of themes. A theme represents, as it were, a line, and since it is the tune that, for most listeners, constitutes the music the attention of the listeners is readily drawn to changes which materially affect it. Harmonic design, on the other hand—the setting of one key or series of keys against another—is often only dimly recognized, if at all, although it is of the greatest importance in all modern music. In sonata-form the harmonic plan (described above by the terms Duality, Plurality and Unity) adds an important element since it unifies the last section by stating both first and second theme in the same key. And in the middle, or development section, the freedom of harmonic progression—the multitude of keys—gives great variety and enables the composer freely to indulge his fancy.

In the present movement Bach chooses at times certain remote keys that impart to this section of the piece a charm of their own. The passage beginning on the second beat of measure 54 illustrates this: the four measures that follow are all in the remote key of F-flat major. (The reader should examine each of the modulations that occurs in the development section.) However unconscious of the charm of harmonic variety the average listener may be, he would surely be conscious of monotony were the piece all in one or even two keys. And since the tendency of the music of to-day is to exalt harmony at the expense of melody, it is desirable that the student should pay particular attention to these early phases of harmonic structure, so as to be able to appreciate this important element in modern music. In fact the whole progress of music since Haydn has been steadily onward towards a free use of the different keys, and as our ears have become accustomed to new combinations of chords, we have gradually come to feel the beauty that lies in glowing musical colors, and to accept them as a legitimate means of expression. In our chapters on Beethoven this phase of musical development will receive fuller attention.

V. SUMMARY.

In this movement of C. P. E. Bach, despite its many crudities, there is taken a long step toward the establishment of modern sonata-form. The main divisions of the form, exposition, development, and recapitulation, appear clearly; solid harmonic structure is attained by the sequence of duality, plurality, and unity; there are two contrasting themes, though the second is rudimentary; the general principle of development of themes through insistence on salient features is illustrated; and the whole movement is written in a style well suited to the piano, and emancipated from the influence of polyphony and of the short dance and song forms.

In the next chapter we shall see how Haydn and Mozart proceeded to build more elaborate structures on the foundation thus laid by C. P. E. Bach.

SUGGESTIONS FOR COLLATERAL READING.

Dickinson: "The Study of the History of Music," Chapter XIV. Grove: "Dictionary of Music," articles on "Bach, Philip Emanuel," "Sonata," "Form." C. H. H. Parry: "Evolution of the Art of Music," Chapters VII and IX (Appleton). "Oxford History of Music," Volume IV.