Did you look at the links with explanations I posted? According to those articles, it should be in Rounded Binary, no?
Hello Anacrusis,
Thank you for your questions. I am just a student of music (as a side hobby). The OP’s question and your questions deserve further explanation from what I originally provided.
1) Did you look at the links with explanations I posted?
Answer: No - I did not look at your posted links with explanations until now.
2) Your final question - According to those articles, it should be in Rounded Binary, no? Answer:
A) If you are studying from “Charles Rosen, Sonata Forms, 1988”, it looks like K209 is in
Rounded Binary form. EDIT: Actually, I'm not sure that Rosen says this*.
B) If you are studying from “Leon Stein, Structure and Style – The study of musical forms”, K209 is in
Binary form – NOT rounded binary form.
C) If you are looking ONLY at the 2 links that you provide, K 209 is BOTH
Rounded Binary AND Binary in form.
See discussion below.I will say this about Stein’s book – his writing is concise and precise - almost as if I’m reading a math text. Also, he does a fantastic job in putting everything into historical context.
*BTW – I just ordered Charles Rosen, Sonata Forms, 1988 from Amazon.
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Additional discussion: Your links are from the Merriam-Webster dictionary – America’s most trusted dictionary. Here are the definitions of rounded binary and binary forms as shown in your link.
rounded binary form
a two-part musical form in which the first part modulates to the dominant or relative major and the second part returns to the tonic and recapitulates all or most of the opening section entirely in the tonic
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When the opening section of the three-phrase form has a strong cadence on V, it is generally classified as rounded binary form.
—Charles Rosen, Sonata Forms, 1988
binary form
a two-part musical form in which the first part modulates to the dominant or relative minor and the second returns to the tonic
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In binary form, the opening melody returns in a key other than the tonic or does not return at all.
—John A. Rice, Antonio Salieri and Viennese Opera, 1998
According to these definitions, K 209 is BOTH rounded binary and binary in form. K209 is in BINARY form since it is in a two-part musical form in which the first part modulates to the dominant and the second returns to the tonic AND the opening melody of K209 returns in a key other than the tonic - K209 has the opening melody return in the dominant at the beginning of the B section.
The following must be considered when trying to answer the question of the form of Scarlatti K209:Music is not an exact science like Mathematics. When math discuses the "mean value theorem", for example, there are no differences of opinions of what the mean value theorem is. Sure, there is Lagrange's Mean Value Theorem and Cauchy's Mean Value Theorem, for example. But in this case the Mean Value Theorem of Cauchy is just a generalization of Lagrange's Mean Value Theorem.
Unlike mathematics, in music there are often ambiguous or different and conflicting definitions of various terms!!Leon Stein says in the introduction of his “Structure and Style – The study of musical forms”:“Ambiguity and lack of uniformity in terminology have always been problems in analysis. For that reason, [only] the most generally accepted terms are used [in my book]; those which might be equivocal or obscure have been rejected, and personal or singular nomenclature has been avoided.” It should be noted that for this reason (I am assuming), the term “rounded binary” form does not even appear in Stein’s book. Instead, Stein uses the term “incipient three-part song form”, which generally is a 16-measure unit. Stein’s definition of incipient three-part song form matches very closely the definition of “rounded binary form” found in my music theory text “Tonal Harmony with an introduction to 20th century music” by Kostka, Payne and Almen – 7th edition. Examples include the 2 that I mention in my first post as well as the Finale of Beethoven Sonata Op. 7 measures 1 to 16 and the Andante of Beethoven Sonata Op 14, No. 2 measures 1-16. Also included in this is Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” theme from his 9th symphony. So, we are looking at very small forms here when talking about rounded binary form.
Also, let’s look at the Wikipedia article on Binary form.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_formSimple vs. rounded [Binary Form]
"Oh, Susannah": example of rounded binary form.
Occasionally, the B section will end with a "return" of the opening material from the A section. This is referred to as rounded binary, and is labeled as ABA′. In rounded binary, the beginning of the B section is sometimes referred to as the "bridge", and will usually conclude with a half cadence in the original key. Rounded binary is not to be confused with ternary form, also labeled ABA—the difference being that, in ternary form, the B section contrasts completely with the A material as in, for example, a minuet and trio. Another important difference between the rounded and ternary form is that in rounded binary, when the "A" section returns, it will typically contain only half of the full "A" section, whereas ternary form will end with the full "A" section.
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Rounded vs. incipient or small ternary
As noted above, there is some disagreement about the use of the term rounded binary. The disagreements concern two issues: whether the names rounded binary, incipient ternary, or small ternary is more appropriate to describe the form; and how much of the A section must return at the end of the B section to be considered rounded.
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Putting these ideas together, if the material between the A section and the return of the thematic material does not stand alone (a digression) and only a part of the A section returns, we do not have a ternary form, and may have a rounded binary,
though not all theorist would accept this terminology (and there is some overlap here with the notion of balanced binary -- see above). If we have a digression, but also have the entire A section returning, then it might be called either rounded binary or incipient ternary (meaning, "approaching ternary"), depending on the theorist. If the intermediate material stands on its own as a self-sufficient section, then we have small ternary (in such cases, the entire A section usually returns).
Topic: Scarlatti K.209 !