Listening Assignment 4
Texture, Color, Dynamics, and Form

Steve Saunders

The first eight examples provide practice in hearing various musical textures. Which of the following best describes each passage? (Review Todd, pp. 26-29)

            a. homophonic
            b. monophonic
            c. imitative polyphony
            d. nonimitative polyphony

Click here to see answers to examples I (a-h)

Example II is an entire movement: the last movement of Brahms's Piano Quartet in g minor, Op. 25--a movement that Brahms titled "Rondo alla Zingarese" (Rondo in Hungarian style). The example provides practice at listening to musical form. Brahms's title "Rondo" suggests a form where one section of music returns frequently, separating contrasting sections of music. A rondo, then, can be represented in letters by the scheme:

Brahms is a great deal more inventive than most composers, and develops a form that departs from the typical or "textbook" rondo in many respects.

Listen to the movement in its entirety. Then listen again, stopping and or scanning back as necessary. Try to follow the form of this movement; make yourself a sketch of the form. How many main musical ideas are there? When is there repetition? Is there any variation? Don't get bogged down in detail; try to focus on larger sections--those lasting approximately 20 seconds to 1 minute.

Finally, listen again to the Schumann song, "Ich grolle nicht" in preparation for the first exam. Think about the song again in terms of the elements we've discussed and read about in the last three classes: form, texture, tonality, mode, dynamics, repetition, variation, etc.

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