Thread by @AntonPrince7

For today's #TheoryThursday, a few words from Arnold Schoenberg as a prelude to the discussion of Rondo form.
Schoenberg disputed the popular notion that the musical rondo is more than superficially an imitation of the poetic “rondeau” (i.e. a repeated refrain and couplets)

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He notes that, in the poetic form, the refrain underlines the common factor of juxtaposed elements, while in the musical form, the repeated section is the main idea—and intervening sections only subordinate digressions.

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The difference is thus, that the stanzas of the poetic “rondeau” develop the idea stated in the refrain, while the digressions from the refrain in the musical rondo serve as complements, to save the repetition of the refrain from the danger of becoming monotonous.

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Schoenberg goes on to outline twelve points on which the reader is to reflect if he is to desire to write a piece of music which can be (easily) comprehended by the listener.

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These points are a separate reflection on musical structure itself, not on the rondo form per se. I myself consider them rather useful to reflect on, as music often is supposed to be a communication between musician and listener (this is certainly the case for performers!)

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On the second page of this essay, another, more fundamental, principle of music is discussed, namely that “the element which functions as a unifying factor (the motive) can manifest its presence only through repetition”

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This echoes Bernstein‘s famed Norton Lectures in which he posited that variation cannot exist without the previously assumed principle of repetition;


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For today, this will be all, and next week I hope to release a description of the general outline of the rondo form and a few musical examples.

Happy Theorising!

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