The technique has a complex history, having fallen into disuse in the Baroque and Classical eras, but steadily increasing in use during the nineteenth century.[1]
The Renaissancecyclic mass, which incorporates a usually well-known portion of plainsong as a cantus firmus in each of its sections, is an early use of this principle of unity in a multiple-section form.[2] Examples can also be found in late-sixteenth- and seventeenth-century instrumental music, for instance in the canzonas, sonatas, and suites by composers such as Samuel Scheidt, in which a ground bass may recur in each movement[3][1] When the movements are short enough and begin to be heard as a single entity rather than many, the boundaries begin to blur between cyclic form and variation form.[clarification needed]
Cyclic technique is not typically found in the instrumental music of the most famous composers from the Baroque and "high classical" eras, though it may still be found in the music of such figures as Luigi Boccherini and Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf.[3][4]
Although other composers were already using this technique, it is Beethoven's example that really popularised cyclic form for subsequent Romantic composers.[4] In Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, a large part of the scherzo movement is recalled to end the finale's development section and lead into the recapitulation; the Ninth Symphony's finale rapidly presents explicit reminiscences of the three preceding movements before discovering the idea that is to be its own principal theme; while both the Piano Sonata Op. 101 and Cello Sonata Op. 102 No. 2 similarly recall earlier movements before their finales.
Mid-century, Franz Liszt in works such as the B minor Piano Sonata (1853) did a lot to popularize the cyclic techniques of thematic transformation and double-function form established by Schubert and Berlioz. Liszt's sonata begins with a clear statement of several thematic units and each unit is extensively used and developed throughout the piece. By late in the century, cyclic form had become an extremely common principle of construction, most likely because the increasing length and complexity of multiple-movement works demanded a unifying method stronger than mere key relation.[citation needed] At the beginning of the twentieth century, Vincent d'Indy, a pupil of Franck, promoted the use of the term "cyclic" to describe the technique.[8]
The term is more debatable in cases where the resemblance is less clear, such as in the works of Beethoven, who used very basic fragments. Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 is an example of cyclic form in which a theme is used throughout the symphony, but with different orchestration. The "short-short-short-long" four-note motive is embedded in each movement.[citation needed]
Examples
Examples of cyclic works from the classical era and afterwards are:
Symphony No.41 in C major K.551: similarities in the principal rising dotted-rhythmic motifs of the first movement and the second movement; the dotted-rhythmic motif of the second movement develops into a theme that resembles one of the five themes of the finale; the minuet foreshadows the "C-D-F-E" motif of the finale
String Quartet No.18 in A major K. 464: different rhythmic motifs of the concept "long-short-short-short" of the first movement and second movement combined in the finale.
Vesperae solennes de Dominica K. 321: A setting of the Minor Doxology (Gloria Patri et Filio) concludes all movements, with a rhythmic similarity in "Gloria"
Vesperae solennes de confessore K. 339: A setting of the Minor Doxology (Gloria Patri et Filio) concludes all movements, with a rhythmic similarity in "Gloria"
Mass in C minor K.427: The soprano melody of Quoniam tu solus in measure 96 (F-E-D-C#-C-...) resembles that of Cum sanctu spiritu in measure 98 (G-F#-E-D#-D-...)
Piano Sextet: material from scherzo movement recalled in the finale
Octet: material from scherzo movement recalled in the finale, plus allusions to first and second movements
Piano Sonata in E, Op. 6: opening of first movement recalled at end of finale
String Quartet in A minor, Op. 13: introduction to first movement recalled at end of finale, first movement and second movement recalled during finale.
Symphony No. 3: The melody opening the first subject in the first movement is recalled in the codas of the first & fourth movements.
Clarinet Quintet: The melody opening the first movement is recalled just after the 5th variation in the fourth movement, but in the subdominant. The codas in the first & fourth movements are almost the same, except for how it finally closes (first movement closes with quiet B minor chords while fourth movement closes with a loud one and then a quiet one).
Má vlast, cycle of 6 symphonic poems: The opening from the first work Vyšehrad recalled in the second Vltava and the sixth works Blaník, shortly before the latter two end.
Symphony No. 4: "motto" of first movement recalled in the finale
Manfred Symphony: Material from the beginning of the first movement recalled halfway in the third movement. Material from the ending of the first movement used in the middle section of the second movement, and just before the organ sounds in the fourth movement.
Symphony No. 5: "motto" of first movement recalled in all later movements; first movement's first subject recalled in the finale
Piano Trio No. 1: Material opening the first movement recalled shortly before the finale ends. Material in the middle section from the third movement recalled halfway in the finale.
1 2 3 Taylor, Benedict (2011). "The Idea of Cyclic Form". Mendelssohn, Time and Memory: The Romantic Conception of Cyclic Form. Cambridge University Press. pp.6–51. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511794384.002. ISBN9780511794384.
↑ Webster, James. 1991. Haydn's 'Farewell' Symphony and the Idea of Classical Style: Through-Composition and Cyclic Integration in his Instrumental Music. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Proksch, Bryan. 2006. "Cyclic Integration in the Instrumental Music of Haydn and Mozart." Ph.D. Diss. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Rosen, Charles. 1995. The Romantic Generation. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
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): 28–39.
Tucker, G. M., and Roger Parker. 2002. "Cyclic Form". The Oxford Companion to Music, edited by Alison Latham. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.
Vande Moortele, Steven. 2009. Two-dimensional Sonata Form: Form and Cycle in Single-Movement Instrumental Works by Liszt, Strauss, Schoenberg, and Zemlinsky. Leuven: Leuven University Press.
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E-flat major is a major scale based on E♭, consisting of the pitches E♭, F, G, A♭, B♭, C, and D. Its key signature has three flats. Its relative minor is C minor, and its parallel minor is E♭ minor,.
G minor is a minor scale based on G, consisting of the pitches G, A, B♭, C, D, E♭, and F. Its key signature has two flats. Its relative major is B-flat major and its parallel major is G major.
D minor is a minor scale based on D, consisting of the pitches D, E, F, G, A, B♭, and C. Its key signature has one flat. Its relative major is F major and its parallel major is D major.
C-sharp minor is a minor scale based on C♯, with the pitches C♯, D♯, E, F♯, G♯, A, and B. Its key signature consists of four sharps.
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