The Musician's Guide to Theory and Analysis
Home
Scores & Audio
Flash Cards
WebFacts
Search




WebFacts More WebFacts   
WebFacts 1
As we have seen in previous chapters, many Baroque pieces-such as Bach's C-Major Prelude or his fugues or inventions-do not feature clear four- or eight-measure phrases. Instead, they either follow a Fortspinnung (spinning-out) model or they feature phrases of irregular length. In chorales, for example, we can find two-, three-, four-, and five-measure phrases. Baroque dance movements, on the other hand, whether for concert performance or for actual dancing, conform to the regular four- or eight-measure pattern of the formalized dances of that time.

In the Classical period, the four- or eight-measure phrases of the Baroque dance became the standard, while "spinning-out" passages were reserved for specific places-such as transitions and development sections-in larger forms.