Mark Richards

John Williams is perhaps best known for his film music themes, most of which are based on eight-bar models that divide into discernible halves of 4+4 bars, each half usually containing two short ideas of two bars each. Though this type of thematic structuring has been the norm for the majority of Hollywood film history, Williams’s themes include variation more frequently than is typical for Hollywood films. After dividing Williams' film scores into four style periods, this chapter demonstrates that these variation-based themes occur mainly in his second period (the mid 1970s through the early 1990s) when the association includes an element of fantasy. It is argued that this thematic structure, in which the initial idea is not merely repeated or contrasted with, but varied, is a musical expression of fantasy. In this way, Williams strengthens the bond between theme and association by translating a fundamental element of the association into strictly musical terms.

The harmonic progression of aFCG (Am–F–C–G) and its transpositions constitute one rotation of what I call Axis progressions, namely progressions that begin with one of these four chords and cycle through the others in order, hence the Axis-a,-F,-C, and-G, respectively. Of these four progressions, the a-form and C-form, and to a lesser extent, the F-form, have become staples of mainstream popular songs from the last decades of the twentieth century and the first decades of the twenty-first. The a-form is especially noteworthy for being both extremely widespread and tonally ambiguous, in that the perception of its tonality may waver between the major and Aeolian modes. Not only does the progression conflate aspects of the two modes, but it may also vary the degree to which those modes are expressed and their proportion within the progression, resulting in a vast array of possible tonal se$ings. This article posits that tonality in these se$ings depends primarily on the melodic content of the progression. A methodology for melodic analysis is then presented and applied to a number of examples of Axis-a (as well as some Axis-F) progressions, to demonstrate how diverse its se$ings can be.

The harmonic progression of aFCG (Am–F–C–G) and its transpositions constitute one rotation of what I call Axis progressions, namely progressions that begin with one of these four chords and cycle through the others in order, hence the Axis-a, -F, -C, and -G, respectively. Of these four progressions, the a-form and C-form, and to a lesser extent, the F-form, have become staples of mainstream popular songs from the last decades of the twentieth century and the first decades of the twenty-first. The a-form is especially noteworthy for being both extremely widespread and tonally ambiguous, in that the perception of its tonality may waver between the major and Aeolian modes. Not only does the progression conflate aspects of the two modes, but it may also vary the degree to which those modes are expressed and their proportion within the progression, resulting in a vast array of possible tonal settings. This article posits that tonality in these settings depends primarily on the melodic content of the progression. A methodology for melodic analysis is then presented and applied to a number of examples of Axis-a (as well as some Axis-F) progressions, to demonstrate how diverse its settings can be.

The phrase structure of film music themes remains virtually unexplored in scholarly literature. This article proposes an analytical system that expands and adapts Caplin 1998 in order to categorize the gamut of film music themes in some detail. This system is then applied to a cross-section of 482 themes from Oscar-nominated scores ranging from the early 1930s to the present day. In doing so, notable divisions appear around 1960 and 1990, times that coincide with trends that drastically affected the composition of film music in general.

The phrase structure of film music themes remains virtually unexplored in scholarly literature. This article proposes an analytical system that expands and adapts Caplin 1998 in order to categorize the gamut of film music themes in some detail. This system is then applied to a cross-section of 482 themes from Oscar-nominated scores ranging from the early 1930s to the present day. In doing so, notable divisions appear around 1960 and 1990, times that coincide with trends that drastically affected the composition of film music in general.

The point of recapitulation in a Classical sonata form is generally characterized by the 'double return' of the movement's opening theme (the thematic return) with tonic harmony (the tonal return). Since tonic harmony has usually not been emphasized for some time, its reappearance with the primary theme becomes a powerful means of articulating the form, one that cannot be effected by either return alone. Thus it is striking that, in Beethoven's sonata forms, one finds tonic harmony sounded immediately before the thematic return, a tactic that even extends to other similar forms such as sonata-rondo and rounded binary. What results in these cases is what I call an anticipated tonic, which draws the tonal return back into the preceding section. Although anticipated tonics may take several forms, they all serve to separate the tonal return from the thematic return and therefore to soften the articulation of 'the return'.

The continual evolution of Beethoven's musical style had a profound effect on his treatment of the medial caesura (MC), James Hepokoski and Warren Darcy's term for the break in texture that occurs in a sonata form before the secondary-theme zone. Over his career, Beethoven gradually preferred increasingly obscured MCs in his fast-tempo Type 3 sonatas. This article categorizes these MCs by their degree of obscurity and examines the techniques that contribute to their obscured state. It is argued that the increasing obscurity of these MCs is linked to Beethoven's larger stylistic migration towards a greater musical connectivity as time progresses.

Charged with the task of confirming the new key in the exposition and resolving to the home key in the recapitulation, the second theme group performs perhaps the defining actions of any sonata form. Although Classical works provide many instances of a clear beginning to this crucial part of the form, in a significant proportion of works the beginning of the second theme (ST) cannot be so easily discerned, especially in works from Beethoven’s middle and late periods. Consequently, debate continues to surround the issue, particularly in the work of James Hepokoski and Warren Darcy and that of William E. Caplin. The problem is that no matter how powerful a single rule may be, no rule by itself can identify all those locations which may be considered an ST beginning. For this reason I contend that there are several indications which contribute to its expression. One may therefore understand the initial ST of a movement to be a synthesis of musical signals which, taken together, allow a passage to be perceived as the first syntactically complete set of formal functions (at the very least, a beginning and end) which centres on the secondary key of the movement. Not all signals appear with every initial ST, nor are they necessarily in their clearest state when they do appear: an ST may still be expressed when some of the most familiar signals are considerably weakened or even absent. Consequently, STs have many possible degrees of expression, obviating the need to decide between all-or-nothing levels of expression in cases that seem to hover somewhere between the two. Moreover, this spectrum of possibilities allows us to understand how STs, and sometimes entire ST groups, may be engaged in a dynamic process which seeks to compensate for weaknesses in the ST’s expression, a phenomenon I call an ST process.

The question of form in the scherzo of Beethoven’s Op. 59, No. 1 has been of perennial interest to the scholarly community, and with good reason. The movement’s form is, to quote Joseph Kerman, sui generis: even though it shares features with traditional structures, especially sonata form, it resists any simple categorization. Scholars have therefore attempted to explain the movement’s structure either by viewing it as a sonata form with ad hoc characteristics or as a fusion of sonata form and scherzo-trio alternation. Regardless of their particular analyses, scholars invariably consider the movement’s form to be consistent from start to finish—and herein lies the problem. For if the form is instead understood in terms of Janet Schmalfeldt’s “process of becoming,” then many of the peculiarities of the movement begin to make more sense. In this regard, I argue that the scherzo begins as a sonata-rondo and ends as a sonata form, and contains a central section of becoming. The unique structure of the movement is brought about by the gradual transformation of its opening thematic material, a process that divides the movement into two halves. The first half searches for a satisfactory melody to begin the main theme, and the second discovers this melody at its outset, but withholds a statement in the tonic until the coda.

When it comes to the forms of tonal music, there is none more elaborate or varied than sonata form. It can therefore be difficult to introduce to undergraduate students, especially if has only a small number of classes in which to do so. And of the large sections of the form, the exposition is the most complex and requires the majority of time in these classes. The accepted approach to teaching sonata expositions is through their key scheme from the home key to the new key. But demonstrating this key scheme without a strong emphasis on cadences can lead to problems when students are asked to identify the sections of an exposition, since changes in key do not usually coincide with its main divisions. I therefore propose a system that may be added to the key scheme to alleviate some of the problems in teaching expositions. The system adapts the work of William E. Caplin to focus not just on the key and type of the cadences, but more importantly the order in which they may be deployed in an exposition. From my experience, such an approach helps students to better understand the harmonic functions of the exposition’s main sections.

Despite the ubiquity of sentence form in the classical repertoire, its great importance remains underappreciated in music scholarship. In this article, I widen the form’s definition by re-examining William E. Caplin’s three components of presentation, continuation, and cadential, and by offering a more flexible definition that minimally consists of a single basic idea and a continuation. This broad outline, which I call the sentential idea, is intended to emphasize the similarity of all such structures and to demonstrate that a sentence need not occur as a Schoenbergian theme, but may assume virtually any formal function within a movement.

In this paper, I challenge two basic principles regarding cadences in the classical style, as clarified by William E. Caplin. First, I argue that melody and texture contribute to the onset of cadential function. Secondly, I contend that themes may end not only with a half or authentic cadence, but also with a closural function, which provides a substitute for cadential function though a cadence-like progression. Moreover, I discuss how a theme may end with a cadence such that its melody and bass resolve at different times, a phenomenon I call a separated cadence.

While rock’s Aeolian progression has been described by Biamonte (2010), Everett (2009), and Moore (1992), among others, as residing in the Aeolian mode as bVI-bVII-i, its conflation with a major-mode interpretation of IV-V-vi and the tonal ambiguity that results have not been discussed in any great detail. Because rock generally lacks raised leading tones and regularly draws on several different modes, a single diatonic collection can be the source of multiple tonalities. Tonal ambiguity in the Aeolian progression particularly can arise in two ways: 1) when the progression or the phrase in which it occurs lacks an initial tonic harmony of either the major or Aeolian mode, and 2) when the surrounding passages waver between different tonal centers, usually major and Aeolian. When the progression entails such multimodal possibilities, the tonality is generally clarified through the melodic structure of the progression. More specifically, a particular mode is favored when notes of its tonic triad are emphasized by any of several means. In such situations, the progression encompasses aspects of more than one mode even when a single mode is heard to dominate. Thus, rather than view these ambiguous progressions entirely in one mode or another, such an approach aims to characterize their tonal fluidity in a way not easily captured by Roman numerals.

This paper attempts to demonstrate that, while rock’s harmonies themselves are often mere triads that are strung together into simple repeated loops, hearing tonality in the progressions they form can be an engaging, complicated, and fascinating affair.

While rock’s Aeolian progression has been described by Biamonte (2010), Everett (2009), and Moore (1992), among others, as residing in the Aeolian mode as bVI-bVII-i, its conflation with a major-mode interpretation of IV-V-vi and the tonal ambiguity that results have not been discussed in any great detail. Because rock generally lacks raised leading tones and regularly draws on several different modes, a single diatonic collection can be the source of multiple tonalities. Tonal ambiguity in the Aeolian progression particularly can arise in two ways: 1) when the progression or the phrase in which it occurs lacks an initial tonic harmony of either the major or Aeolian mode, and 2) when the surrounding passages waver between different tonal centers, usually major and Aeolian. When the progression entails such multimodal possibilities, the tonality is generally clarified through the melodic structure of the progression. More specifically, a particular mode is favored when notes of its tonic triad are emphasized by any of several means. In such situations, the progression encompasses aspects of more than one mode even when a single mode is heard to dominate. Thus, rather than view these ambiguous progressions entirely in one mode or another, such an approach aims to characterize their tonal fluidity in a way not easily captured by Roman numerals.

This paper attempts to demonstrate that, while rock’s harmonies themselves are often mere triads that are strung together into simple repeated loops, hearing tonality in the progressions they form can be an engaging, complicated, and fascinating affair.

How does rock harmony differ from that of the common practice? As several recent writings have shown, motions between individual chords-that is, functional behaviors-are often vastly different from that of the common practice. 1 Precisely how these and other harmonic differences coalesce to form surface-level progressions that depart from common-practice conventions, however, is a question that has been approached only peripherally. 2 With an emphasis on the classic-rock canon of the late 1960s through the 1980s, this article therefore investigates rock harmony from the larger perspective of the progression in an attempt to paint a more detailed picture of rock's idiosyncratic harmonic syntax. In particular, classifying triads as Tonic, Dominant, or Subdominant based largely on the similarity of their scale-degree content, or functional "kinship," reveals three central aspects of rock progressions. 3 First, they do not constrain the functional motion of their chords. In other words, unlike the TSDT paradigm of the common practice, the kinship functions of Subdominant and Dominant both move regularly to each other and to Tonic-functioned harmonies. Thus, there is no single kinship-functional paradigm that encompasses most rock progressions; rather, two paradigms appear more than any other: the authentic and plagal (described in more detail further below). Second, rock progressions that diverge from the common practice, which feature in the vast majority of songs, do so in two ways: by the ordering of the kinship functions into a form of the plagal paradigm, and/or by secondary triads that are unusual by common-practice norms, namely subtonic and mediant triads. Third, even when there appear secondary triads that are more typical by common-practice norms, namely submediant and supertonic triads, their behavior is often in opposition to those norms. This article will examine these elements of rock harmony in two parts. The first and larger part will establish a number of definitions necessary to parse progressions by their functional kinship. These include harmonic function, tonic perception, scale-degree assemblies, progressions, and types of progressions. The second part of the article will apply these definitions to a wide range of specific examples and generalizations in order to demonstrate how progressions in rock differ from those of the common practice. 1 See Nobile 2016, Quinn and White 2015, Doll 2007, and Stephenson 2002 (ch. 5). 2 Moore 2012 (71-79) views rock progressions as strongly modal, offering a flexible system for their analysis. Moore 1992 has also catalogued an extensive list of rock progressions by prominent root motions. Everett 2009 (214-301) offers a similarly-organized, comprehensive examination of rock progressions but, to categories based on root motions, he adds others based on contrapuntal motions, minor keys, modes, and chromaticism rather than by their distance from common-practice norms. De Clercq and Temperley 2011 provide a glimpse into some of rock's common "trigrams," which are three-chord successions that may occur across any perceptual boundaries rather than progressions that have a discernible beginning and end. And Biamonte 2010 is devoted to three rock-specific categories of harmonic progression: the double-plagal progression, the Aeolian progression, and modal scales thickened by harmonization in parallel triads. See also Biamonte 2012 for an extension of some of these ideas. 3 Following Harrison 1994, I capitalize the names of kinship functions (Tonic, Dominant, Subdominant) in order to distinguish them from specific triads with the same names, which remain uncapitalized.