GOLDEN-MEAN FORM IN MUSIC

Abstract

The authorities on musical form who have recognized the similarity of the development of western music to that of organic growth (Prout, Parry and Hadow, for instance) did not apply this idea detail to musical examples. But as Golden-Mean form has been found to be the formal basis of practically all the first movements (in sonata-form) of Mozart's and of Beethoven's piano sonatas and string quartets, and of Beethoven's and Brahms's symphonies, the subject, thus revived, is one which invites discussion. The arts are essentially one, however individual their particular aspects may be; and in Art proportions measured according to Golden Section play a large role .1 As regards poetry the subject was dealt with an address to the Poetry Society I945; this paper is a synopsis of a complementary study. Golden-Mean form is often a highly organized structure, but may be found rising out of simpler forms. Some forms are too simple to show any trace whatever of it, as many simple binaries (examples: the first two movements of Martini's Sonata quoted by Hadow [' Sonata Form ', p. I9]); others are too complex, as many fugues, to show any trace of it (examples: the six charted fugues Higgs's ' Fugue '). It is therefore not a form of universal range, as Zeising (I854) thought, but limited music almost entirely to sonata form-though partially present some examples of other forms.