In common practice phrases are often four bars or measures long8 culminating in a more or less definite cadence.9 A phrase will end with a weaker or stronger cadence, depending on whether it is an antecedent phrase or a consequent phrase, the first or second half of a period.
However, the absolute span of the phrase (the term in today's use is coined by the German theorist Hugo Riemann10) is as contestable as its pendant in language, where there can be even one-word-phrases (like "Stop!" or "Hi!"). Thus no strict line can be drawn between the terms of the 'phrase', the 'motiv' or even the separate tone (as a one-tone-, one-chord- or one-noise-expression).
Thus, in views of Gestalt theory, the term of 'phrase' is rather enveloping any musical expression which is perceived as a consistent gestalt separate from others, however few or many beats, i. e. distinct musical events like tones, chords or noises, it may contain.
A phrase-group is "a group of three or more phrases linked together without the two-part feeling of a period", or "a pair of consecutive phrases in which the first is a repetition of the second or in which, for whatever reason, the antecedent-consequent relationship is absent".11
Phrase rhythm is the rhythmic aspect of phrase construction and the relationships between phrases, and "is not at all a cut-and-dried affair, but the very lifeblood of music and capable of infinite variety. Discovering a work's phrase rhythm is a gateway to its understanding and to effective performance." The term was popularized by William Rothstein's Phrase Rhythm in Tonal Music.12[non-primary source needed] Techniques include overlap, lead-in, extension, expansion, reinterpretation and elision.
A phrase member is one of the parts in a phrase separated into two by a pause or long note value, the second of which may repeat, sequence, or contrast with the first.13 A phrase segment "is a distinct portion of the phrase, but it is not a phrase either because it is not terminated by a cadence or because it seems too short to be relatively independent".14
Sources
Falk (1958), p. 11,[full citation needed] Larousse; cited in Nattiez 1990, p. [page needed]. /wiki/Wikipedia:Citing_sources#What_information_to_include ↩
1980 New Grove;[full citation needed] cited in Nattiez 1990, p. [page needed] /wiki/Wikipedia:Citing_sources#What_information_to_include ↩
Benward & Saker 2003, p. 89. - Benward, Bruce; Saker, Marilyn (2003). Music: In Theory and Practice. Vol. I (7th ed.). McGraw-Hill. ISBN 978-0-07-294262-0. ↩
1958 Encyclopédie Fasquelle;[full citation needed] cited in Nattiez 1990, p. [page needed]. /wiki/Wikipedia:Citing_sources#What_information_to_include ↩
White 1976, p. 34. - White, John D. (1976). The Analysis of Music. Prentice-Hall. ISBN 0-13-033233-X. ↩
Winold, Allen (1975). "Rhythm in Twentieth-Century Music",[page needed] Aspects of Twentieth-Century Music. Wittlich, Gary (ed.). Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall. ISBN 0-13-049346-5. /wiki/Wikipedia:Citing_sources ↩
Burkhart, Charles. "The Phrase Rhythm of Chopin's A-flat Major Mazurka, Op. 59, No. 2";[full citation needed] cited in Stein 2005, p. [page needed]. /wiki/Charles_Burkhart ↩
Larousse, Davie 1966, 19;[full citation needed] cited in Nattiez 1990, p. [page needed]. /wiki/Wikipedia:Citing_sources#What_information_to_include ↩
Larousse;[full citation needed] cited in Nattiez 1990, p. [page needed]. /wiki/Wikipedia:Citing_sources#What_information_to_include ↩
Hugo Riemann. System der musikalischen Rhythmik und Metrik (Leipzig, 1903)[page needed] /wiki/Hugo_Riemann ↩
White 1976, p. 46. - White, John D. (1976). The Analysis of Music. Prentice-Hall. ISBN 0-13-033233-X. ↩
Rothstein, William (1990). Phase Rhythm in Tonal Music. New York: Schirmer. p. [page needed]. ISBN 978-0-02-872191-0. 978-0-02-872191-0 ↩
Benward & Saker 2003, p. 113. - Benward, Bruce; Saker, Marilyn (2003). Music: In Theory and Practice. Vol. I (7th ed.). McGraw-Hill. ISBN 978-0-07-294262-0. ↩
Kostka & Payne 1995, p. 158 - Kostka, Stefan; Payne, Dorothy (1995). Tonal Harmony (3rd ed.). McGraw-Hill. ISBN 0073000566. ↩