Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Binary Form: Study and Analysis

The structures used for much of today's music have been around since pre-tonal times. They are architectural structures such as AAA, ABA (ternary), ABACAB and the old verse/chorus.

The forms that developed during the tonal era were not architectural but were based on tonality and modulation. They weren't forms as much as an approach to composition. Sonata form is not a form. It is a principle that dominated the classical era in works from symphonies, to overtures, to symphonic poems to operatic arias.

It gained this dominance because of its flexibility and freedom from form.

The most popular forms in the Baroque period are binary, ritornello and the da capo ternary forms. In the classical period they combined to form the sonata. The sonata principle grew out of binary form but ritornello form, which underlies concertos, developed into the sonata rondo and the da capo ternary form was also frequently used for some sonata movements.

This thread is about binary form, which, at its core is two parts, each repeated. There are several types of binary form but the one that interests us is the one that led to the sonata and which follows the key scheme where the first part begins in the tonic key and modulates to the dominant (or the relative major for a minor key piece) and the second part moves from there and finishes in tonic (or tonic major).

Hoping to learn lessons from our previous excursions into daunting challenges I want to start with something not too difficult - Bach's Six Little Preludes, BWV 933-938.

Here's a link to the score: 6 Little Preludes

And to some performances: Landowska(Harpsichord), Koopman(Harpsichord) or Seeman(Piano)

There are other performances of the individual preludes that might be worth checking out.
_____________________________________________

Starting with the first piece in C major, and looking only at the accidentals and the last chord of each half I get a diagram of the piece as follows:

||: C major : G major :|||: G major : A minor : F major : C major :||

The G major is indicated by the F#'s appearing in M5-8.
In the second half the G# (M10) suggests A minor (the Bb in M11 is chromatic and is natural again in M12). M12 could be E minor. M13 is briefly F major and then we're in C again to the end.

Make a diagram of the other 5 pieces, or if you're new to this, just No. 4 in D major, and look only at the persistent accidentals.

Yes, new to this so starting with no. 4 and only to first repeat to make sure I'm getting.

D Major | A Major | D Major | A Major

See a G# in m5-m7 to indicate switch to A major. See a G natural in M9 to indicate back to D major. See a C natural in m11 but sharp again in m12, so I am not putting too much weight in this just yet. Then we start seeing G# again in m14 to suggest back in A major.

Needed to go back to older Bach thread and look up minor scales, but don't think needed just yet.

Is this on track ?

I get:-

D major : A major : G major : B minor : A major.

I think I may be reading too many of the accidentals though.

That's pretty much it. I'd have overlooked the early foray into A major because there's no cadence to establish the key but there's no doubt he modulates through it.

For now, that's all we need. Raw data.

I totally missed the A # in m13. So will say we switched back to A Major in m12 or m13.

My confidence though is extremely shaky ...

Scratch that ... how could we be in A with an A# ... checking out the B minor now ...

The G# in M5-7 is persistent enough. It's cancelled in 9. The C natural in M11 is restored to C# in M12. The A# in the bass in M13 is cleared by the A natural in treble clef in the next bar. These are chromatic changes not persistent. Every G from M14 is sharped. That's persistence.

I would say the G# introduced in M5-7 is cleared by the natural in M9 without an intervening cadence. That's experience!

So just D major and then A major starting in M14 and ending at repeat ?

Jeff, I think Richard was saying you were correct in your original analysis. I just made mine way more complicated than it needs to be (story of my life ).

The addition of A# suggests the relative minor, B minor. Again, it isn't established by cadence. Bach is wandering around that area but he hasn't sat down yet. If he were trying to establish B minor I would expect to see all the A's sharped for a few bars. They flip from bar to bar.

I see M1-10 as the antecedent or question phase. The G# is natural by the end of bar 10. I wouldn't count it. M10-20 is the consequent or answer phase. I don't see it as groups of phrases. Just M1-10 and M10-20. Listen to it if you can't play it. See what you think.

I hear the distinction of m10-m20 as being answer / consequent, as you say. Would though, suggest M10-M16 as answer and M17-20 as the agreed conclusion? There seems to be another, shorter go around at m17-20.

As I listen I am focusing primarily on the bass line and these are the separations I notice.

I have written about the form of the Em Prelude - in a practical sense - in that thread because I think it is important for anyone coming to that thread wanting to work with the prelude. Ideally it would have been at the START of the thread, because if you see that there are two, almost identical, halves where the middle is different, it will make it much easier to understand.

link to Em thread with comment about its form

If you were playing this, Jeff, would you stop on the first beat of M17 the way you would on the first beat of M10? Either way the key of A major is 'established' by the cadence at M20.

(This should not be carved in stone or applied with all the force the legal system can muster but) Forget the bass line. That's a continuo part to the duet of voices in RH.

Have you started the second half?

Nope. I was still trying to learn this far. But don't think I'll be able to keep up with learning as we go. So will come back to learning later.

Will get cracking on second half ...

No, Jeff, let's learn as we go and get the first half sorted.

If M17-20 is read as another part in addition to the consequent, would it change the question of what key we were in?

A number of people in the ABF have expressed confusion about the other analysis threads. They have the impression that music and analysis are confusing. My hope is for THIS thread to start with more clarity and simplicity. Since we're looking at a specific form, maybe that will do the trick.

Binary form means that the music has two parts the repeat, which we can call A and B. There is an A part and a B part, and each feels relatively distinct and in its simplest from will end in a cadence. Depending in the music, there may be a I-V kind of cadence that tells you "we're pausing here, but we're not finished", or a V-I cadence that has a sense of completion since it ends on the tonic. Often the 2nd part will modulate into a related key such as the dominant key or the relative minor. In other words, a piece in C major can move to G major, or to A minor.

In the way it's taught, they give some simple prototypes or patterns. The simplest goes:
A A // B B
The first section is played twice, usually with a repeat sign, then the second section is played twice.

Getting fancier, you can have the same thing as above, but the composer gets creative, and adds variety to the second half so that it is longer.
A A // longer B, longer B

The third type changes the order, but we still have A and B. The first part (A) is played twice. Then in the second half, you have B and then it goes back to A.

A A // B A, B A.

------------------
These three kinds are called "symmetrical binary" (the A's & B's are the same length & similar), "asymmetrical binary" (because B is longer so the symmetry has gone), and "rounded binary" (dunno why, but it's the third kind.

Later on when we look at sonata form, we'll see that the idea of "rounded binary" has taken off in the sense of repeating things and going back to things. So if you get a feel for the last kind, it might help later for sonata form which is a tad fancier.

In my course they gave us some 40 small pieces to identify. The identifying part wasn't that useful, because what's the point of names. But starting to be able to ** identify ** sections, and noticing where they repeat, or their variations, has been helpful in all kinds of music since.

I'm not hearing this. It looks to me like the end of measure 10 falls during a run of 16th notes which seems a very odd place to change key. It all sounds like one cohesive thought to me. Any suggestions on how I can hear this more clearly?

Thanks for your post Keystring. Some useful information there.

Hi Carol, I see one phrase finishing on the first RH note, low F#, of M10 and the next one starting on the upper F#.
________________________

If someone says "It's a fine day today. Don't you think so?" Are they a) asking a question, b) making a statement and then asking a question or c) just making a statement about the weather?

For me they're asking if I agree that the weather is fine even though they state first that it is. It's all part of the one question for me.

I read M10-20 as one 'statement' all in the key of A. It doesn't start in A but it ends in A so it's in A.

If you read M10-16 as consequent and M17-20 as extra then it's two statements for you.

The consequent M10-M16 finishes in A so, for me, all of M10-16 is in A even though it doesn't actually start in A.

If M10-12 were one phrase and M10 were in D, M11 in B-flat and M12 in E, then that whole phrase, for me, is E.
If you think it modulates through Dand B-flat then it does.

I meant I was learning how to play it. If that's what I need to do, I've got an all nighter tonight to just get the first A.

I can't read this quick, but can keep up with the study, I think.



No ... I'm cool with A major in consequent m10 - m20.

Next section has my head spinning already. I see us starting out in G major, but then getting all messed up when I see the D# and C natural over and over. More analysis pending ...

Ah, yes, I see now.

Jeff, this is Bach. This is not an all nighter.

This is not an all weeker either.

It may not even be an all monther.

But it shouldn't be an all yearer!

This is how I learn Bach.
_________________________

Learn just the RH up to the first beat of bar X. Just as many notes as you can remember in about a minute.
Learn just the LH up to the same point.

Put the two hands together as slowly as it takes to get them right. Not close. Right. You might keep the hands separate a little longer if you're trying to solve a technical difficulty, e.g. M27-28, RH.

1) place the right fingers over the right keys
2) position the other fingers over the keys you'll be playing next
3) as you press each key with the right stroke at the right dynamic force, simultaneously prepare the next fingers over the next keys if they're not already there and look ahead to see what's happening after that. Keep the keys pressed, if they're not staccato until you're ready to play the next notes. Repeat.

The first few times may take two to four seconds per eighth note. Work it every day until you can play it without hesitation or stumble at about half speed or just fluently.

Work only as much as you can practise each day getting it right every time, a minimum of 7-10 times. If you play a wrong note do another 7-10 times right after that. Always finish with 7-10 correct plays. The time it takes to get it right, however long that is, is about 7 times faster than trying to fix it later.

I would start this at two bars at a time. Three may be possible, four might be pushing it.

When you get that unit right first time at the start of your practise, play it three or four times, instead of 7-10, then start work on the next unit. When you've got the second unit done, join them together as one chunk and start on the next unit.

Each day you play through as many measures as you 've joined up to about 10 at a time for this piece. 6 - 8 would be my norm for an invention/sinfonia and about 4 - 6 for a fugue.

Keep the chunks small until you can play the whole section without stumble or hesitation.

While you're working on 21-23, say, play 1-10 a couple of times, then 10-17, then 17-20 each day. This will prevent errors from creeping in.