Simple sentence
Caplin Ahead!
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The info on this page is either entirely based on or mostly based on the content published in caplin-2013 or caplin-1998. Caplin is considered to be responsible for reviving interest in the analysis of form in North American music theory.
While Caplin’s impact cannot be understated, it is worth understanding that his 1998 work (and his 2013 followup) are focused on Classical music: particularly the works of Haydn, Beethoven, and Mozart. It is important to not assume other styles of music (both preceding and following the classical era, or music in other parts of the world) follow these same conventions. Music theory is descriptive, not prescriptive, and so the theory you see describing what was common in the Classical era may not apply to anything else.
The “simple sentence” is the “ideal” or “model” version of the sentence theme type. It is an 8-measure structure consisting of a 4-bar presentation phrase followed by a 4-bar continuation phrase.
The presentation phrase is broken up into a 2-bar basic idea followed by a 2-bar repetition of the basic idea.
The continuation phrase is broken up into 2 bars of “melodic fragments” followed by a 2-bar cadential idea (i.e. a cadence) that concludes the theme.
The simple sentence is called as such because it really is as simple as it gets in terms of understanding the layout, structure, and other characteristics of the sentence. Of course, in actuality, there are many sentences that are not-so-simple. They will share many characteristics with the model version of the sentence, but these characteristics may appear in seemingly unexpected ways.
To create a generalization of the sentence theme type, it is vital to understand the functions of the sentence, and not just the structure.
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