Subject (music)

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In music, a subject is a material, usually a recognizable melody, in which part or all of the composition is based. In a form other than fuga, this can be known as theme .

Video Subject (music)

Characteristics

Subjects can be understood as a complete musical expression in themselves, separate from the work found (Drabkin 2001). Unlike the idea or motive, the subject is usually a complete phrase or period (Dunsby 2002). The EncyclopÃÆ' Â © die Fasquelle defines the theme (subject) as "[a] ny elements, motifs or small pieces of music that have given rise to some variation thus becoming the theme" (Michel & 1958-68 ).

The thematic changes and processes are often structurally important, and theorists such as Rudolph Reti have created analysis from a purely thematic perspective (Reti 1951; Reti 1967). Fred Lerdahl describes thematic relations as "associational" and thus beyond the scope of generative-based generative theory analysis (Lerdahl 2001, 5).

Maps Subject (music)

In various types of music

Music based on a theme is called monothematic , while music is based on some themes called polythematic . Most fugues are monothematic and most forms of sonata are polythematic (Randel 2002, 429). In the exposition of a fugue, the main theme (usually called subject ) is announced successively in every sound - sometimes in a transferable form.

In some compositions, the main subject is announced and then the second melody, sometimes called the countersubject or secondary theme , may occur. When one part of the exposition of the sonata-shape movement consists of several themes or other materials, which are determined by the function and (usually) their tone of voice, not just based on melodic characteristics alone, the term theme group subject groups ) are sometimes used (Rushton 2001; Benward and Saker 2009, 136).

Music without a subject/theme, or without recognizable, repetitive, and growing subject and themes, called athematic . Examples include pre-taped or early atonal works of Arnold Schoenberg, Anton Webern, Alban Berg, and Alois HÃÆ'¡ba. Schoenberg once said that, "drunk by the enthusiasm of having freed music from the shackles of the tone of voice, I have been thinking of finding freedom of expression further.In fact, I believe that now music can leave motivational and coherent and understandable traits, "(Schoenberg 1975, 88). Examples by Schoenberg include Erwartung . Examples in the composer's work then include Polyphonie X and Structure I by Pierre Boulez, Sonata for Two Pianos by Karel Goeyvaerts, and Punkte by Karlheinz Stockhausen ( Grondines 2000).

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Countersubject

In a fugue, when the first sound has finished the subject, and the second sound plays the answer, the first sound is usually continued by playing a new theme called countersubject . The countersubject usually contrasts with the subject phrase form/answer.

In a fugue, a countersubject is a "continuation of the counter in the sound beginning with the subject", occurs to the answer (Benward and Saker 2009, 2:50). It is not usually considered an important feature of fugue, but (Walker 2001).

The typical fuga opening resembles the following (Benward and Saker 2009, 2:50):

  soprano voice:   Answer    Alto Sound:   Subject  Countersubject    

Since a countersubject can be used both above and below the answer, countersubjects can usually be reversed, all five perfectly flipped to the fourth perfect position requiring resolution (Benward and Saker 2009, 2:51).

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See also

• Attacco
• Cell
• Numbers
• Composition formula
• Leitmotif
• Thematic transformation

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References

• Music in Theory and Practice , 8th ed., vol. 2. Boston: McGraw-Hill. ISBN: 978-0-07-310188-0.
• Drabkin, William (2001). "Theme". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians , second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Publisher Macmillan.
• Dunsby, Jonathan (2002). "Theme". The Oxford Companion to Music , edited by Alison Latham. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN: 0-19-866212-2.
• Grondines, Pierre (2000). "Une nouvelle grammaire musicale: prà © é © mices et premiers essais"/"A New Musical Grammar: Principles and Initial Experiments". La Scena Musicale 6, no. 3 (November).
• Lerdahl, Fred (1992). "Cognitive Constraints on Compositional Systems". Review of Contemporary Music 6, no. 2: 97-121.
• Lerdahl, Fred (2001). Tonal Pitch Room . Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN: 978-0-19-517829-6.
• Michel, FranÃÆ'§ois (ed). (1958-61). EncyclopÃÆ' Â © die de la musique , 3 vols. Paris: Fasquelle. (Cited in Nattiez 1990.)
• Nattiez, Jean-Jacques (1990). Music and Discourse: Towards Music Semiology , translated by Caroline Abbate [from Musicologie gÃÆ'  © n rale et sà © é miologie , 1987]. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBNÃ, 0-691-09136-6 (fabric); ISBNÃ, 0-691-02714-5.
• Randel, Don Michael (ed.) (1999). Music Dictionary and Concorde Harvard Musician . Cambridge, Massachusetts: Belknap Press. ISBN 0-674-00978-9.
• Reti, Rudolph (1951). Thematic Process in Music . London: Faber and Faber; New York: Macmillan Co. Reprinted, London: Faber and Faber, 1961, Westport, CT: Greenwoid Press, 1978. ISBNÃ, 0-8371-9875-5.
• Reti, Rudolph (1967). Thematic Patterns in Sonatas Beethoven , edited by Deryck Cooke. London: Faber and Faber; New York: Macmillan Co. Reprinted, New York: Da Capo Press, 1992. ISBNÃ, 0-306-79714-3.
• Rushton, Julia (2001). "Subject Group". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians , second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Publisher Macmillan.
• Schoenberg, Arnold (1975). "My Evolution". In Style and Ideas: Selected Writings from Arnold Schoenberg , edited by Leonard Stein, translated by Leo Black, 88. London: Faber and Faber. ISBN: 0-571-09722-7.
• Walker, Paul M. 2001. "Countersubject". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians , second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Publisher Macmillan.

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