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Development (music)
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<h2 id="methods-of-development">Methods of development</h2> <p>According to the <i><a href="/facts/Oxford_Companion_to_Music/6pvGfTWN">Oxford Companion to Music</a></i><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:2" href="#fn:2"><sup>2</sup></a> there are several ways of developing a theme. These include: </p> <ul><li>The division of a theme into parts, each of which can be developed in any of the above ways or recombined in a new way. Similarly, two or more themes can be developed in combination; in some cases, themes are composed with this possibility in mind.</li> <li>Alteration of pitch intervals while retaining the original rhythm.</li> <li>Rhythmic displacement, so that the metrical stress occurs at a different point in the otherwise unchanged theme.</li> <li><a href="/facts/Sequence_(music)/zMkjP3Ng">Sequence</a>, either diatonically within a key or through a succession of keys.</li></ul><p> The <a href="/facts/Scherzo/LIIVSupU">Scherzo</a> movement from <a href="/facts/Piano_Sonata_No._15_(Beethoven)/nTFL1m3B">Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 15</a> in D major, Op 28 (the "Pastoral" Sonata) shows a number of these processes at work on a small scale. <a href="/facts/Charles_Rosen/fEPpeaTd">Charles Rosen</a> (2002) marvels at the simplicity of the musical material: "The opening theme consists of nothing but four F sharps in descending octaves, followed by a light and simple I/ii/V7/I cadence with a quirky motif repeated four times."<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:3" href="#fn:3"><sup>3</sup></a> These opening eight bars provide all the material Beethoven needs to furnish his development, which takes place in bars 33-48:</p> <h3>The division of a theme into parts</h3><p> The falling octave in the first two bars and the repeated staccato chord in the left hand in bars 5-8 are the two fragments that Beethoven later develops:</p> <h3>Alteration of pitch intervals</h3><p> The somewhat bald falling octave idea in the first four bars is transformed in bars 33-36 into an elegant shape ending with an upward-curving semitone:</p> <h3>Rhythmic displacement</h3><p> In this movement, the repeated left hand chords in bar 5 are displaced so that in bar 33 onwards, they fall on the 2nd and 3rd beats:</p> <h3>Sequence and the development of two or more themes in combination</h3><p> In bars 33-48, the two fragments combine and the development goes through a <a href="/facts/Modulating_sequence/zMkjP3Ng">modulating sequence</a> that touches on a succession of keys; </p><p> The following outline demonstrates Beethoven’s strategic planning, which he applied on a larger scale in the development sections of some of his major works. The <a href="/facts/Bass_line/u1QJeCos">bass line</a> traces a decisive progression through a rising <a href="/facts/Chromatic_scale/ntfCjHK4">chromatic scale</a>:</p> <p>To quote Rosen again, writing à propos of this movement: "As Beethoven's contemporary, the painter <a href="/facts/John_Constable/lNB4cLsQ">John Constable</a>, said, making something out of nothing is the true work of the artist."<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:4" href="#fn:4"><sup>4</sup></a> </p> <h2 id="development-on-a-larger-scale">Development on a larger scale</h2><p> Not all development takes place in what is commonly known as the "development section" of a work. It can take place at any point in the musical argument. For instance, the “immensely energetic <a href="/facts/Sonata_form/xgVobu3o">sonata</a> movement”<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:5" href="#fn:5"><sup>5</sup></a> that forms the main body of the overture to <a href="/facts/Mozart/2X5fm67T">Mozart</a>’s Opera <i><a href="/facts/Don_Giovanni/KEYQX3bz">Don Giovanni</a></i> announces the following theme during the initial exposition. It consists of two contrasting phrases: “first determined, then soft and conspiratorial.”<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:6" href="#fn:6"><sup>6</sup></a></p> <p><a href="/facts/William_Mann_(critic)/9mg4Deov">William Mann</a> says “the first, insistent phrase [of the above] is very important. At once it is taken up <a href="/facts/Imitation_(music)/uwHuoAtK">imitatively</a> by various departments of the orchestra, and [starting in] A major, jumps through several related keys.”<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:7" href="#fn:7"><sup>7</sup></a> Each repetition of the descending phrase is subtly altered one note at a time, causing the music to pass from the key of A major, through A minor and thence via a chord of G7 to the remote key of C major, and thence back to A major.</p><p> The central section of the Overture (the part commonly known as the "development section") utilizes both phrases of the theme “in new juxtapositions and new tonalities,” <a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:8" href="#fn:8"><sup>8</sup></a> developing it through repetition in a <a href="/facts/Modulating_sequence/zMkjP3Ng">modulating sequence</a>. The steady plod of the bass line against the sequential repetitions of the “soft and conspiratorial”<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:9" href="#fn:9"><sup>9</sup></a> phrase outlines a <a href="/facts/Circle_of_fifths/0aE2lkVq">circle of fifths</a> chord progression:</p><p> Simultaneously, Mozart adds to the mix and continues to develop the <a href="/facts/Imitative_counterpoint/9yd8pKzN">imitative counterpoint</a> that grew out of the first phrase. In the words of Willam Mann, this development “unites both halves”<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:10" href="#fn:10"><sup>10</sup></a> of the theme. This is how this tightly woven texture pans out:</p> <h2 id="see-also">See also</h2> <ul><li><a href="/facts/Developing_variation/A5RWE0ss">Developing variation</a></li> <li><a href="/facts/Fugue/qpUgaHjW">Fugue § Development</a></li> <li><a href="/facts/Secondary_development/eI5Xb0dK">Secondary development</a></li> <li><a href="/facts/Sequence_(music)/zMkjP3Ng">Sequence (music)</a></li></ul> <h2 id="references">References</h2> <ol> <li id="fn:1"><p>Wennerstrom, Mary (1975). "Form in Twentieth-Century Music" (chap. 1), Aspects of Twentieth-Century Music. Wittlich, Gary (ed.). Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall. ISBN 0-13-049346-5. <a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" target="_blank">/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:2"><p>Temperley, N. (2002, p. 355) “Development” in Oxford Companion to Music. Oxford University Press. <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:3"><p>Rosen, C. (2002, p.161), Beethoven's Piano Sonatas, a Short Companion. Yale University Press. <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:4"><p>Rosen, C. (2002, p.162), Beethoven's Piano Sonatas, a Short Companion. Yale University Press. <a href="#fnref:4" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:5"><p>Mann, W. (1977, p. 462) the Operas of Mozart. London, Cassell. <a href="#fnref:5" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:6"><p>Mann, W. (1977, p. 462) the Operas of Mozart. London, Cassell. <a href="#fnref:6" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:7"><p>Mann, W. (1977, p. 462) the Operas of Mozart. London, Cassell. <a href="#fnref:7" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:8"><p>Taruskin, R. (2005, p.488) The Oxford History of Western Music, Volume 2 Music in the seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. Oxford University Press. <a href="#fnref:8" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:9"><p>Mann, W. (1977, p. 462) the Operas of Mozart. London, Cassell. <a href="#fnref:9" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:10"><p>Mann, W. (1977, p. 462) the Operas of Mozart. London, Cassell. <a href="#fnref:10" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> </ol>