The Higher Aspects of Musical Form

Extract

It is with diffidence, born of knowledge, that I have ventured to take up the thorny subject of Musical Form, but my justification is a desire to contribute, in some degree, to a clearer apprehension than seems to exist at present concerning the principles which give form and design, force and influence. Music has ever reflected the spirit of its age, and at the present period nothing is sacred to the analyst and searcher after truth. Modern chemistry tells us that the word “opaque” has only a relative meaning, converts the air we breathe into a liquid, and presents us with a mysterious substance called “Radium” which contradicts our former estimation of Matter. Our voices are registered on wax cylinders, and the thunder-cloud is converted into a maid-of-all-work. Small, wonder, then, that in the midst of this physical “Götterdämmerung” composers should question the rules of their forbears, and claim the liberty and expansion of thought that is agitating all thinking minds. The question of Pilate, “What is truth?” has never been asked more earnestly by all classes than to-day, and the answer can only be found by seeking active causes, and those principles which produce, permeate, and sustain life in all its forms.