File posted 17 July 2006.

To provide additional examples of themes and small forms, I have reproduced and adapted a contredanse from a volume in a large collection of dances published in Paris by Louis Julien Clarchies and reproduced on the Library of Congress American Memory site, in the section "An American Ballroom Companion: Dance Instruction Manuals." For more information about the collection and the dance I used, see the bottom of this page.

Return to Caplin function tables.

List of examples:

1. Clarchies' original first strain with an analysis of formal functions after Caplin.
2. "strophic form" (= the first strain repeated ad hoc).
3. compound theme (16-bar period).
4. small binary.
5. small ternary.
6. "rondeau" (= Clarchies' original in three strains).

1. Clarchies' original first strain with an analysis of formal functions after Caplin. A hybrid theme, with antecedent and continuation.

2. "strophic form" (= the first strain repeated ad hoc). The simplest possible way to create a small form is by literal (or slightly varied) repetition. This has its uses in the context of social dancing.

3. compound theme (16-bar period). I altered the cadence in bar 8 to produce an 8-bar antecedent, then added an 8-bar consequent to complete the theme. (Writing a 16-bar sentence would have required more extensive alterations of the original strain.)

4. small binary.

5. small ternary.

6. "rondeau" (= Clarchies' original (three strains).

More information on Clarchies' collection:

Bibliographic information may be found at Clarchies.
The page for the dance "La Dorly" is: Receuil 28, no. 3: La Dorly. The 28th volume is the only one in the Library of Congress' collection that arranges its dances in the five-part sequence of the early nineteenth-century quadrille (or group dance for four couples); three such sets are formed by nos. 1-5, 6-10, and 11-15, respectively. By mid-century, the quadrille had expanded to six parts, but the third position (called "la poule") remained the same. All dances of the quadrille are contredanses in either of the traditional meters (2/4 or 6/8); the distinctions between the dances derive from the figures, not from the music.

Return to Caplin function tables.

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