MUSICAL MEMORY - online book

A System To Cultivate The Musical Memory For Musicians.

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	28	MUSICAL MEMORY.
	It should now be obvious how a clear intellectual grasp of the form of a piece, and of some of the more prominent devices, methods of construction and important modulations, will greatly assist us when memorizing it. 51.  (II) Harmonic Basis.—The greater portion of piano music is the presentation, in an elaborated form, of a more or less simple harmonic basis ; and our present purpose is to show how to discover this basis, which may be memorized as the foundation upon which to build the required elaborations. The form of the elaborations and the principles upon which they progress will be considered later. Our method of procedure will be to make two subdivisions: (1) Elaborations evolved from a single chord, and (2) Elaborations evolved from a progression of chords. 52.   Elaborations evolved from a Single Chord.—Perhaps of all recognized piano compositions, those of Mendelssohn exhibit this form of elaboration—that is, brilliant passages created out of simple chords, to the greatest extent. We have therefore chosen an example from the Sonata in G minor by Schumann, a composer whose methods are as a general rule more recondite. Ex 24.
	By comparing Ex. 24 with the harmonic framework as printed below (Exs. 24, a and b), we shall see that the whole passage is but an elaboration of the chord of the dimL.'shed 7th on F sharp, the fourth note in each group of semiquavers being an auxiliary note resolving on to the first note of the following group, and a clear recognition of all