Double-Function Form
Encyclopedia
Double-function form is a musical construction
Musical form
The term musical form refers to the overall structure or plan of a piece of music, and it describes the layout of a composition as divided into sections...

 that allows for a collection of movements
Movement (music)
A movement is a self-contained part of a musical composition or musical form. While individual or selected movements from a composition are sometimes performed separately, a performance of the complete work requires all the movements to be performed in succession...

 to be viewed as elements of a single larger musical form
Musical form
The term musical form refers to the overall structure or plan of a piece of music, and it describes the layout of a composition as divided into sections...

. The most famous example of this is Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt ; ), was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher.Liszt became renowned in Europe during the nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age...

’s Piano Sonata
Piano Sonata (Liszt)
The Piano Sonata in B minor , S.178, is a musical composition for solo piano by Franz Liszt, published in 1854 with a dedication to Robert Schumann. It is often considered Liszt's greatest composition for solo piano. The piece has been often analyzed, particularly regarding issues of form.-...

 in B minor (1853). The sonata is composed as a single movement with about a half an hour’s duration. The piece introduces some themes at the very outset of the piece which are manipulated and recapitulated over twenty minutes later. Charles Rosen
Charles Rosen
Charles Rosen is an American pianist and author on music.-Life and career:In his youth he studied piano with Moriz Rosenthal. Rosenthal, born in 1862, had been a student of Franz Liszt...

 believes that the work as whole fulfils his criterion for a sonata form
Sonata form
Sonata form is a large-scale musical structure used widely since the middle of the 18th century . While it is typically used in the first movement of multi-movement pieces, it is sometimes used in subsequent movements as well—particularly the final movement...

. Moreover, within the one long sonata form, there exists a short sonata form, followed by a slow ternary
Ternary form
Ternary form, sometimes called song form, is a three-part musical form, usually schematicized as A-B-A. The first and third parts are musically identical, or very nearly so, while the second part in some way provides a contrast with them...

, followed by a scherzo
Scherzo
A scherzo is a piece of music, often a movement from a larger piece such as a symphony or a sonata. The scherzo's precise definition has varied over the years, but it often refers to a movement which replaces the minuet as the third movement in a four-movement work, such as a symphony, sonata, or...

 and fugue
Fugue
In music, a fugue is a compositional technique in two or more voices, built on a subject that is introduced at the beginning in imitation and recurs frequently in the course of the composition....

, followed by a finale. Thus, the single movement fulfills the standard of both a classical sonata form and a classical four movement piano sonata
Piano sonata
A piano sonata is a sonata written for a solo piano. Piano sonatas are usually written in three or four movements, although some piano sonatas have been written with a single movement , two movements , five or even more movements...

.

There are several other composers attributed to using double-function forms. It is largely accepted that Schubert’s Wanderer Fantasy
Wanderer Fantasy
The Fantasie in C major, Op. 15 , popularly known as the Wanderer Fantasy, is a four-movement fantasy for solo piano composed by Franz Schubert in November 1822. It is considered Schubert's most technically demanding composition for the piano...

 (1822) for piano is the first widely heard piece that demonstrates this form. Arnold Schoenberg
Arnold Schoenberg
Arnold Schoenberg was an Austrian composer, associated with the expressionist movement in German poetry and art, and leader of the Second Viennese School...

’s first Chamber Symphony is an example of a major work that fulfills the criterion of a double-function form (1906); this piece was modeled after Beethoven’s string quartet in C-sharp minor (#14)
String Quartet No. 14 (Beethoven)
The String Quartet No. 14 in C minor, Op. 131, by Ludwig van Beethoven was completed in 1826. About 40 minutes in length, it consists of seven movements to be played without a break, as follows:#Adagio ma non troppo e molto...

which consisted of seven connected movements, they however did not combine to create a clear larger form, thus, this was not a true example of double-function.

Sources

  • Saffle, Michael. “Liszt's sonata in B minor: another look at the 'double function' question.” JALS: the journal of the American Liszt Society, 11 (June 1982): 28-39.
  • Walker, Alan et al. "Liszt, Franz." Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. 20 Nov. 2009. 17. B minor Piano Sonata.
  • Winklhofr, Sharon. Liszt’s Sonata in B minor; A Study of Autograph Sources and Documents. Ann Arbor, MI. UMI Research Press 1980.
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