Perception of the ternary arch-form in Western concert music: evidence from college music education

This study focuses on listeners’ form perception as they encounter Western concert music. The general aim was to investigate college music students’ form perception as they listen to five long-range concert works of different styles, all analyzed by the author as having an overall ternary ABA’ arch-form. Five groups of college music students (N=126) listened respectively to five ternary arch-form compositions by Chopin, Mussorgsky, Tchaikovsky, Bartók and Schönberg. Each group was required to identify the musical form of one test-piece and convey responses both through written notes and self-invented notations. Significant differences were found between the five test-pieces in the percentage of participants who confirmed the ternary form analysis and participants who interpreted the form as binary. Also, significant differences were found in (i) five cue-parameters contributing to form detection: tempo, timbre, pitch, articulation and mood; (ii) in emotional and metaphoric responses evoked by the music; and (iii) in the use of colour in visual representations of musical form. A significant association between auditory/ternary perception and graphic/ternary designs was found in works by Chopin, Mussorgsky and Bartók. Results bear implications for the teaching and learning of structural listening in Western concert music.