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PHRASE ANALYSIS
SENTENCES AND PERIODS
To analyze phrase construction, we must attend to a range of parameters: cadence types, harmonic organization, rhythmic proportion, and melodic/motivic similarity or dissimilarity. This handout describes a number of
typical phrase formations in common use during the Classical period. Of course, not all phrases you encounter will fit neatly in the categories provided here. Some exceptions can be understood as purposeful deviations from the familiar schema; others are truly unclassifiable--hybrids or other anomalies. Nevertheless, in all
cases a good analysis begins with a thorough description of the musical procedures at hand.
SO WHAT IS A CADENCE?
A cadence is a melodic/harmonic/rhythmic formula that serves as the goal of a phrase. Cadences function
as musical punctuation, and can be divided broadly into conclusive and inconclusive. You must be able
to identify the following cadential types instantly and accurately, both by sight and by ear:
PLAGAL:
CONTRAPUNTAL:
Adapted from William Marvins Phrase Analysis: Sentences and Periods. Marvin himself writes: This handout borrows (and modifies) freely from
numerous sources, including: Brian Alegant, class handout; William Caplin, Classical Form; Warren Darcy, class handout; Douglas Green, Form in Tonal
Music; Steven Laitz, The Complete Musician; Alfred Lorenz, Das Geheimnis der Form bei Richard Wagner; William Rothstein, Phrase Rhythm in Tonal
Music; Arnold Schoenberg, Fundementals of Musical Composition. Marvin also credits ongoing conversations with members of the Music Theory
departments at Oberlin Conservatory of Music and The Eastman School of Music.
DECEPTIVE:
LINKING:
CADENCE EVASIONS/EXTENSIONS
Securing a cadence is not always a straightforward affair. Composers often create the expectation of a
cadence, only to deflect the music away from a stable tonic at the last moment. This tension-building procedure involves two reciprocal techniques:
CADENCE EVASION:
CADENTIAL EXTENSION:
Note that these evasion/extension techniques can occur anytime there is a would-be cadence in 18th- or
19th-century music. They need not occur in conjunction with the formal paradigms (period and sentence)
discussed below.
CADENTIAL REINFORCEMENT/REPETITION
It is also possible to expand the cadential zone after securing a strong root-position tonic. Often, composers
will follow a strong PAC with a series of short cadential progressions (or modules), that reinforce and
underscore the tonal/rhetorical closure. This is especially common at the ends of pieces or large sections of
pieces.
II. PERIODS
WHAT IS A PERIOD?
The period is a structure built of two phrases, the second of which (the consequent) completes processes
left open by the first (the antecedent). The consequent phrase will end with a more conclusive cadence than
that of the antecedent phrase. Following Laitz, we use a twofold classification that attends to melodic and
harmonic features:
MELODIC TYPES
Here we consider the thematic relatedness of the antecedent and consequent phrases:
PARALLEL:
The consequent phrase begins with the same material found at the
opening of the antecedent phrase, and it sounds like a re-beginning
(i.e., it uses the same scale degrees in the same key). We can represent this situation as aa'. This is the most common melodic type.
CONTRASTING:
Here the two phrases are based on different melodic material (ab).
Truly "contrasting" periods are relatively rare; more often, the
second theme is related to the first in some manner, by motivic
development, sequential repetition, (free) inversion, or some other
manner of derivation.
HARMONIC TYPES
Here we consider the overall harmonic design created by the two phrases together:
INTERRUPTED:
CONTINUOUS:
SECTIONAL:
PROGRESSIVE:
The consequent cadences in some key other than the tonic. (Majorkey periods will often modulate to the key of the dominant; minorkey ones will often modulate to the relative major.)
ASYMMETRICAL PERIODS
The prototypical period is a symmetrical or balanced structure, with antecedent and consequent being
similar or equal lengths. Often, however, composers will extend the consequent, creating an assymetrical
layout. This can be done through cadential evasion/extension (see above), or from expansion from within
the middle of the phrase.
DOUBLE PERIODS
The double period is usually a 16-measure structure, containing four phrases grouped in pairs as an antecedent group and a consequent group. Double periods are typically parallel, and each group may consist of
a sentence or a hybrid (see below). The design is typically symbolized: (ab) + (a'b') or (ab)+ (ac).
III. SENTENCES
WHAT IS A SENTENCE?
The sentence is one of the most common phrase structures of the Classical period. In contrast to the (usually)
balanced, symmetrical period, the sentence is assymetrical and forward-driving; it begins with short, disconnected statements and then builds momentum dynamically to arrive at its cadence.
The prototypical sentence is 8 measures long, and divides into units of 2+2+4 measures. The sentence
contains three formal/functional zones: the presentation, continuation, and cadence.
PRESENTATION:
A basic idea (usually two bars long) is stated and then repeated,
either exactly or with variation.
CONTINUATION:
An increase in forward momentum is created by one or more techniques: (a) fragmentation/development of the basic idea; (b)
increase in harmonic rhythm; (c) increase in surface figuration; (d)
harmonic/melodic sequences [not covered in TH101].
CADENCE:
the sentence concludes with a PAC, lAC, or HC. The cadential function is often built around a version of the harmonic paradigm I6 ii6
V (I). This progression is referred to as the Expanded Cadential
Progression (ECP).
The presentation is always clearly divided from what follows (sometimes, though not usually, by a true
cadence). The continuation and cadence can be distinct, or elide together. The latter case is sometimes
notated as continuationcadence.
Though the typical sentence is 8 bars long, we often these same proportions compressed into four bars or
stretched out over sixteen bars. However, we also find sentences expanded to greater lengths through
cadential evasion/extension (see above) and (less often) a simple repetition of the continuation/cadence
zones.
HYBRIDS
Now and then we find phrases that combine sentences and periods more literally. As mentioned above,
many phrases are difficult to categorize as either periods or sentences. But some of these seem to embody
elements of both, and are often called hybrids. One common hybrid type is the antecedent that proceeds
not to a consequent but to continuation-type rhetoric, in the manner of a sentence.