BM or BMus Bachelor of Music Form and Musical Analysis 4 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which cadence consists of a dominant seventh chord resolving to the tonic but in an unexpected voicing, with the third in the bass?
- Half cadence
- Deceptive cadence
- Imperfect authentic cadence (Correct answer)
- Plagal cadence
Correct answer: Imperfect authentic cadence
An imperfect authentic cadence moves from V to I but lacks the root in the soprano or bass of the tonic chord, or uses V7 instead of V, making it less conclusive.
Question 2: In 12-tone serial composition, the retrograde-inversion (RI) form of a row is obtained by:
- Reading the original row backwards
- Inverting all intervals then reading the result backwards (Correct answer)
- Transposing the row up a tritone
- Rotating the row so the last note becomes first
Correct answer: Inverting all intervals then reading the result backwards
The retrograde-inversion is created by first inverting all intervals of the prime row, then reading that inversion in reverse order.
Question 3: What term describes a passage where a theme or motive is imitated at successively shorter time intervals, creating overlapping entries?
- Augmentation
- Diminution
- Stretto (Correct answer)
- Hocket
Correct answer: Stretto
Stretto occurs when fugal entries of the subject overlap because each new entry begins before the previous one has finished.
Question 4: In sonata form, the term 'secondary theme group' refers to:
- Themes that appear only in the development section
- The thematic material presented in the secondary key area of the exposition (Correct answer)
- Any theme written in a minor mode
- Themes that appear exclusively in the coda
Correct answer: The thematic material presented in the secondary key area of the exposition
The secondary theme group comprises the themes presented in the secondary key (usually the dominant in major-key works) during the exposition.
Question 5: Which analytical symbol (♯iv°7 or viio7/V) identifies a fully diminished seventh chord that functions as a secondary leading-tone chord?
- Secondary dominant
- Secondary diminished seventh (Correct answer)
- Neapolitan seventh
- Augmented sixth
Correct answer: Secondary diminished seventh
A secondary diminished seventh chord (viio7/x) acts as a leading-tone chord to a chord other than the tonic, providing intensified harmonic motion.
Question 6: What formal type presents multiple poetic stanzas set to the same music, with no through-composed variation between verses?
- Through-composed form
- Strophic form (Correct answer)
- Modified strophic form
- Bar form
Correct answer: Strophic form
Strophic form repeats the same music for each new stanza of text, as found in folk songs and many hymns.
Question 7: In spectral analysis of musical form, the concept of 'formal functions' introduced by William Caplin categorizes formal regions as:
- Opening, middle, and closing (Correct answer)
- Antecedent, continuation, and consequent
- Introductory, medial, and cadential
- Tonic, dominant, and return
Correct answer: Opening, middle, and closing
Caplin's theory of formal functions classifies thematic regions into opening (presentation), middle (continuation), and closing (cadential) functions.
BM or BMus Bachelor of Music Form and Musical Analysis 4
Which cadence consists of a dominant seventh chord resolving to the tonic but in an unexpected voicing, with the third in the bass?