A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Working-Out

by Hubert Parry

WORKING-OUT; (also called Free Fantasia; and Development; Durchführung). The central division of a movement in Binary form, such as commonly occupies the first place in a modern sonata or symphony. A movement of this kind is divisible into three portions. The first of these consists of the exposition of subjects, and the last of the final recapitulation of them, and the central one of free discussion of the figures they contain. Both first and last are made as definite as possible—the first, in order that the subjects may be clearly understood, and the balance and contrast between two distinct keys established; and the last to complete the cycle by summing up the subjects put forward in the first division, and to emphasize strongly the principal key of the movement. The second or central division of the movement is contrasted with both first and last by being made as indefinite as can be, consistently with some underlying principle of design, which is necessary to make abstract instrumental music intelligible. The complete and rounded statement of subjects is avoided, and so is any definite and prolonged settling down into keys; so that the mind is led on from point to point by constant change of phase and aspect in the figures, and by frequent steps of modulation. The division is called the 'working-out' or the 'development' portion, because the music is carried on by working out or developing the figures and phrases of the principal subjects, by reiterating and interlacing the parts of them which are most striking and characteristic, and subjecting them to variation, transformation, fugal treatment, and all the devices both technical and ideal of which the composer is master.

With regard to the form in which this part of the movement shall be put, the composer is left to a great extent to his own resources and judgement. The musical material employed is almost invariably derived from the subjects and figures of the first division of the movement, but they are sometimes so transfigured by ingenious treatment that they look quite like new. The contrast of character between the principal subjects and accessories is generally sufficient to supply plenty of variety, and in most cases both of the principal subjects are thoroughly discussed; but sometimes one subject preponderates over another in strong features of rhythm or melody; and as in such a case it is much more available for working effectively, it occasionally happens that a more tranquil or plain subject is altogether neglected in the 'working-out.'

The independent introduction of figures and subjects which did not appear in the first division of the movement (the so-called 'exposition'), is not strictly consistent with the principle of design upon which a Binary movement is founded. In Beethoven's works, which are the best models of a consistent and liberal treatment of Instrumental forms, it is only met with conspicuously and frequently in early works, such as the pianoforte Sonatas up to op. 14; and these obviously belong to a time when he had not so thorough a grip on the form as he obtained afterwards. Among his Symphonies the Eroica is the only striking exception; and in that great work the fact may be explained by the poetical undercurrent in his mind. Among his finest Trios and Quartets an instance is hardly to be found, and the same is the case with Mozart's best Quartetts and Symphonies.

The instances in which new features are introduced in company with figures of the first division of the movement are on a different footing, as their appearance does not then make any break in the development or working out of the principal ideas, which goes on simultaneously, and is for the time only enhanced by fresh by-play. A very happy instance is in the first movement of Beethoven's Symphony in B♭, where a figure of the first subject, after being toyed with for some time is made to serve as an accompaniment to a new and very noticeable phrase. In the following example, (a) is the tune of the first subject in its original form, (b) the passage in the working-out in which it serves as accompaniment to a new feature.

With regard to the harmonic or tonal structure of this part of the movement, composers' minds came to be exercised very early to find some way of infusing order into its apparently indefinite texture. As long as movements were very short it was sufficient merely to pass through a key which had been noticeably absent in the first part; and this object, combined with the traditions of the short dance forms, in which the elementary design of sonata movements was prefigured, to cause stress to be laid on the Subdominant key. But this was soon found to be insufficient to relieve the design of indefiniteness; and composers then hit upon the use of sequences as a way of making their progressions intelligible; and this device is afterwards met with very frequently in the 'working-out' in every variety of treatment, from the simple and obvious successions used by Corelli and Scarlatti, and other masters of the early Italian instrumental school, up to the examples of sequence piled on sequence, and spread in broad expanses with steps of several bars in length, such as are used by Beethoven, Schumann and Brahms.

In order to show how order may be infused into the apparently unrestricted freedom of this part of a movement, the working-out of the first movement of Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony may profitably be examined, as it is singularly clear and simple, both in the development and distribution of figures, and also in the plan upon which the harmonic and tonal successions are distributed.

There is not a single bar in it which is not clearly based upon some figure from the first half of the movement; but it happens that the superior opportunities for development offered by the first subject are so great that it alone serves as the basis of the whole division, the second subject being ignored.

From the melody of the subject five conspicuous figures are extracted for the purposes of development, (a) (b) (c) (d) (e) in the following quotation:—

The working-out begins with the reiteration of the first figure of all, as in Example 3;

and then two bars of the subject are given twice, as if to call the attention of the hearer to the matter to be discussed. The whole process in these eight bars is repeated exactly on other degrees of the scale, for the purposes of design, and this process ends with the figure (b), which thereupon becomes the centre of interest, and taking the form shown in Ex. 4, is launched

upon a career which lasts unchecked for thirtysix bars, embracing a long crescendo. The climax being reached, Beethoven, in a manner very characteristic of him, drops quickly from fortissimo to piano, in order to make another start in climbing to another fortissimo. But by way of guarding against the monotony of beginning again at once with the same materials, he introduces a short passage of more broken character with quicker changes of harmony, in which there is a witty bit of by-play founded on the latter part of the figure just before predominant (Ex. 5), and pointed allusions to the first subject.

Then the rhythmic figure (b) again asserts itself, and resumes its course for another thirty-six bars, matching the first thirty-six in distribution, but starting from another point in the scale, and making the one vital change of the harmony in the passage down a third instead of up a third; and the whole is followed by the same broken passage as before, but transposed. The reference to the subject with which this concludes is carried a step further to the figures (d) and (e), which from that time are continually used, in balanced groups of passages mounting thirds each time, till the end of the working-out, and always plainly. The following quotation will serve to illustrate the manner in which this part of the subject is worked, persisting through modulations, and even somewhat changing its character, without losing its identity (Ex. 6).

This constant use of the first subject through the whole of the working-out is a little uncommon, but it is made specially effective in this instance by the difference of character which subsists between the two phrases of the subject. In connection with this is to be noticed the nicety of management by which Beethoven avoids making the figure he had used at the latter part of the working-out come too soon and too obviously in the recapitulation. He not only interpolates a fresh passage on the Dominant between one phrase of the subject and another, but when the melody (d) (e) comes in again it is hidden away under an ornamental variation, so that its prominence is reduced to a minimum.

The harmonic structure of this working-out is as simple as the distribution of subject matter. Everything from beginning to end is reducible to balancing groups of passages of different lengths. To begin with, a passage of eight bars is divided into groups of four bars, representing C as tonic and dominant alternately, and this is directly answered by a similar set of eight bars divided also into fours and treating the root F in similar manner. This in its turn is followed by a long passage of forty bars, in which there is only one change of harmony. The first twelve bars are on B♭, and the next twenty-eight on D, and this in its turn is followed by a short passage of six bars, in which the harmony changes more quickly; making altogether forty-six bars of very definite design; and this is instantly followed by another forty-six bars starting from G, of exactly the same design saving the one very artistic change before alluded to namely, that the one change of harmony in the long passage devoted to the rhythmic figure (d) is down a third instead of up. These ninety-two bars are therefore exactly divisible into two groups of forty-six, which match exactly; and the remainder of the working-out (thirty-six bars) is made of a series of melodic sequences, rising thirds each time, with a short passage consisting of closer repetitions of concise figures to prepare the re-entry of the first subject after the principal key has been reached.

The exactness of these balancing portions will be best appreciated by a condensed scheme of the central ninety-two bars, which form the most conspicuous feature of this working-out. In the following example the second line represents the passage which follows immediately after that represented by the first.

Ex. 7.

A point of great interest in connection with working-out is the device of transforming figures and subjects by modification of intervals or rhythms, in such a way that they either take a new interest without losing their identity (as happens in the case of some of the figures used in the working-out of the Pastoral Symphony), or else are by decrees divested of such identity as they had, and merged in some other subject. Beethoven was the first great master who developed this device to any degree of importance; it became with him quite a marked feature of instrumental music, and has been used by every notable composer since his time. In connection especially with working-out, it is used sometimes to enhance the interest of a figure which is much used in development; and sometimes, and with importance, to dovetail one section of the movement into another, by causing a subject, or a figure extracted to form a subject, and change [App. p.817 "read or a figure extracted from a subject, to change, etc."] by degrees till it takes the form of part of the subject of another. A most notable instance is the dovetailing of the 'working-out' to the 'recapitulation' in the first movement of Beethoven's Sonata, Op. 91, in E minor. An ornamental passage put over a part of a subject with a phrase quoted in the working-out ends as at (a) Ex. 8, which has at first sight no ostensible connection with the principal subject. But in order to make the continuity of the movement as close as possible, and also of course to introduce a feature of interest, Beethoven makes this figure pass through five modifications, and then come out as the first phrase of the subject in recapitulation. The changes are as follows, (a) being the end of the ornamental passage, (b) (c) (d) and (e) its successive modifications, and (f) the beginning of the recapitulation of this principal subject. The device is enhanced in this case by the echoes of imitation; and by the dying away of the old figure in a constant diminuendo, and its bursting out with renewed vigour as the impulsive first subject.

Ex. 8.

The actual process of working-out is not confined to the one position of the central division in a Binary movement; it is frequently used also in the Coda, which occasionally is of larger proportions and more full of interest than the actual working-out—as in the first movement of Beethoven's Sonata in E♭, Op. 81a. A working-out also occurs in many rondos, occupying the place of one of the episodes, in a central position similar to that which it occupies in a Binary movement.

In many overtures which are theoretically in Binary form, the working out is almost entirely suppressed, and a mere short passage of modulation is interposed in its place between the exposition of the subjects and their recapitulation.

[ C. H. H. P. ]