I ran my eyes over the black and white heading at the top of my handout for the fifth time. “Rounded Binary Form. Rounded Binary Form,” I repeated in my head, “For heaven’s sake, will you pay attention?” I sighed heavily and reveled in the feeling of deep breathing as our class answered each question with pinpoint accuracy (the true mark of an effective education).
“If you’ll turn in your books to page 65,” said our teacher in his heavy Bristol accent. As I fished around for the huge Anthology for Musical Analysis, I found myself wondering what in the world I had forgotten to do. I wracked my brain as we all pawed through various sonatas and airs in an attempt to find some sort of form to the jumbled black dots with their black scarves flowing back to the next dot in line… and in the middle of the Schumann my memory righted itself and I knew precisely what was missing in this picture. I forgot to do my German Diction assignment. To the Bat Cave! … or perhaps the basement of the library, whichever comes first.
I didn’t know you were taking German Diction! A Rounded Binary Form, I presume, would be something like eyes, or knees? I like the idea of notes wearing scarves.
Well, at least it wasn’t a phenominally weighted assignment; in any case, you did well, though.
Aw, I hate it when that happens!
Anyway, music can be a lot like poetry…trying to find the form in what appears to be words (or in music’s case, notes) arranged randomly on a page.
peace.
Man, I hate it when that happens. I’ve found that if you think about what you’re forgetting to do, you’ll get worked up. I, however, tend to just let things go. That way there’s no disappointment. Anyway, hope you got it done in time!