The Analysis of Musical Form

Book excerpt: For courses on the analysis of musical form, with an emphasis on western music from 1700 to the present, in the standard Music Theory curriculum. The Analysis of Musical Form emphasizes aural comprehension, incorporates recent analytic methodologies, and addresses musical form as both process and design. James Mathes wrote this book due to a lack of textbooks written in the past dozen years on musical form.The relatively few texts on the market do not address recent scholarship or methodology, do not address phrase rhythm and formal processes in a systematic or thorough manner, and omit discussion of vocal forms and developments in post-tonal music of the 20th century. There is also a lack of emphasis on aural comprehension of musical forms. Separate chapters on vocal forms and 20th-century music, inclusion of recent developments in analytic methodology with suggested readings, and aural exercises, and accompanying CDs address these problems.