Customer Reviews

Practical Approach to the Study of Form in Music

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With Spencer and Temko's focused approach to musical analysis, this intimidating discipline is made interesting and accessible. It does require knowledge of music theory, but even those students who regard theory as anathema can be put at ease within the first twenty pages of this succinct book.

The magic formula (which is an expansion of Jan La Rue's "musical parameters" view of analysis) is found in a chart of what are called musical "phenomena". "Observations" would have done as nicely, since the student is asked simply to state what he sees or hears in a score, using a three letter code. For example, a change in dynamics from loud to soft, signalling perhaps a new theme or key is marked IN THE SCORE with "dyn". This orderly process, indicated above the score in tabular fashion, allows the student to use the composer's own indications to assist in finding those defining points in the myriad of notes which, taken as a whole, can be overwhelming to a college junior. This makes analysis obvious and (in the words of my students) fun.

I use an anthology with this, plus the students' own scores. Later in the course, we meet in the music library, selecting unknown scores to analyze for form, period, and composer, using the same 3-letter codes. Recommended.

While I applaud the analysis method, based on Jan la Rue's "Five Parameters of Music" (here expanded to nine phenomena), this text poses several problems for the standard college classroom. An anthology is mandatory, though no one anthology seems to work with it. The analysis method itself yields a very densely marked score, with code observations which are more confusing than helpful. As to the standard terminology regarding binary, ternary, and compound forms, the wording is off-putting, requiring a good bit of translation from the professor. While form is a difficult bird for some, I was willing to take time to translate and go the extra mile. I also made use of the examples in the text at the keyboard. I have a doctorate in performance. Heaven help a clarinetist-professor.Very difficult excertps.Three years and out it goes.

I am From India. Here we don't have colleges or real good teachers to teach western music theory. Form in music is so important in the study of western music. I honestly feel this book lays a real good foundation in learning the form in music, before studying any other book and also it is a good book for self study.

Three important factors, which are Structural Phenomena, Structural units and Structural Function, are presented in a wonderful way. I believe these three aspects are so important for analysing the form of a piece of music. After completing this book (with all the exercises completed) I took up reading Douglas Green's and Wallace Barry's form in music. I really felt that I have already been given a good foundation in the study of form in music by Peter Spencer and Peter M Temko.
So it was. for me, very easy to go to the next level of studying the form in music (Wallace Barry's Form in music). I suggest to all, who want to study the form in music, to study this book and to work all the exercises given in this book before reading other books on form in form in music.

If you want to learn about forms and modulations, and aren't really concerned about anything else then this book is great. Concise, accurate and well organized. If you don't think that form is more important than content, or if you're looking for an in depth discussion of how musical forms operate (instead of just descriptions) then this book misses the point entierly. Prepare for tedious and ultimately misguided generalizations. Music is much more interesting than this.