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Wednesday, February 16, 2005

#7 menuet from french suite in e major.

the harpsichord is very painful instrument to listen to...
the first eight measures of the piece serve as the expository function, providing the main theme to the listener in this period. the first phrase (4th measure) ends in an authentic cadence in the key of e major, but the phrase that begins in measure 5 modulates to the dominant and ends in a PAC in measure 8. i would call this a contrasting period, because the last 4 measures are rhythmically but not tonally similar to the first 4 measures.
i think the argument can be made that the next 8 measures function as both developmental and transitional. while the melody in this next section is almost identical to the primary theme (it discusses themes previously introduced), it transitions back into the key of e maj. there is no cadence at the 4th measure of this section, but a half cadence ends these first 8 measures. this leads back into the melody first heard at the beginning of the piece. the initial expository theme is heard.

1 comment:

Jimbo said...

I agree with Adam. If you can't appreciate a good harpsichord, what can you like? Sheesh...Obviously you were too cool for school. On a serious note, I've been wondering about that developmental/transitional section too. What if we think of it from a different perspective...does this section act as a consequent to the previous??