Concinnity: The Growth Principle of Classicism 

A Centennial Tribute to the Great Scholar 

Authors

  • Jan LaRue New York University Author

Keywords:

Classicism in music, concinnity, Classic module, harmonic rhythm, surface rhythm, phrase extension, textural activity, musical peaks

Abstract

The paper reprinted here was presented during professor Jan LaRue's visit in Israel in 1980. At that time, Professor LaRue also gave an intensive seminar on style analysis at Bar-Ilan University attended by many students and faculty. The paper presents ideas and terms introduced by Professor LaRue and is offered as a centennial tribute to this great scholar. It is reprinted here with permission of the LaRue Estate. 

The article discusses stylistic characteristics and compositional processes, which define Classicism in 18th-century music. While early Classic music may seem simple and uninteresting in comparison with Baroque pieces written during the same years, composers working during this period were actually experimenting with new and complex processes, which later came to define the Classic style. Three major innovations include: 
1) Expansion of the musical blocks; 
2) Creating long-term directionality; 
3) The development of concinnity, a conscious process of coordinating the musical elements of a piece so that they underline together significant places in the piece, thereby allotting them more power. 
By expansion, LaRue explains how quarter note modules may expand to half-measure modules, to full measures, and then to two measure grouping. This expansion of the rhythmic structure is new. 

Author Biography

  • Jan LaRue, New York University

    Professor Jan LaRue (31.7.1918-17.10.2004) was one of the most influential theorists and musicologists of the twentieth century. A Professor of Music at New York University, he is the author of Guidelines for Style Analysis (1970), and the expanded edition with Models for Style Analysis on a disc included with the main volume (ed. Marian Green LaRue, 2011). He is also the complier of A Catalogue of 18th Century Symphonies, Vol. I, Thematic Identifier (1988), which lists 16,558 works, demonstrating the overwhelming importance of the symphony in the 18th century. A collection of eight key articles appeared in the Journal of Musicology, Vol. 18, No. 2 (Spring 2001), pp. 219-373. LaRue believed in comprehensive style analysis, with consideration of Sound, Harmony, Melody, Rhythm, and Growth as an approach that could be applied to any style. 

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Published

2024-04-16

Issue

Vol. 14 (2017)

Section

Articles