Period

x fl_[Phrase al te ee of which embraces 2 Sections formed, in turn, of 2 Measures each. [The term motive for measure is to be rejected as misleading and unnece arily confusing, except in the qualified shape of measure motive] The punctuation of such a 76 FO musical sentence presents a striking analogy to that of the grammatical sentence from which its terminology is in part borrowed: Phrase 1 subject and predicate [comma], Phrase 2 limiting clause [semicolon], Phrase 3, further modification [comma], Phrase 4, second limiting clause and conclusion of sen. tence [period] ‘The exact symmetrical balance here observable, of 2+2, 4+4, and 8 + 8, though of very common occurrence, is not the general rule, and would engender wearisome monotony (especially in extended compositions) if regularly adhered to; the variety of changes caused by triple time, compound measures, the opposition of unequal phrases, the expansion or contraction of periods, etc., etc., is practically limitle , But in all the musical forms in which metrical, symmetry is observed, the simple period is, in one shape or another, the form-element or germ-cell, so to speak, on which the i construction is founded.