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Chopin Etude Op. 10 No. 3:

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I'm wondering about how to best analyze the final 3 measures.

This piece simply ends on the I chord over the final 3 measures.

Would this be considered a phrase even though it doesn't end with two different chords (cadence to end the phrase)?

Is it simply a phrase extension?

And is this ending considered an elision since the phrase ends on the first beat of the third bar of this phrase rather than the end of the second bar?

I'm hoping someone can give some insight about how to analyze this. Thanks in advance!

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  • I usually answer without looking up somewhere (sometimes without thinking ... so take always care!) but this time I've been not quite wrong. – Albrecht Hügli Mar 31 '19 at 9:23
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    I think maybe you're trying to read the harmony from the bass, which is a pedal for the last six bars. I'd see the 6/4 chord resolving to V in the following bar and then six bars of tonic pedal to settle it all down for a gentle ending. . – PeterJ Mar 31 '19 at 11:30
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These bars are similar to the “final group” like the ending of many sonatas, symphonies, solos, quartets (normally there are only final chords of quarter or eighth notes). Consider them as a rhythmic fermata. These bars don’t belong to a phrase. It’s up to the composer (or when there is notatet an eye or fermata on the last note it will be up to the interprete or the conductor) how long this last gesture of an ending (“dying”) piece will endure. (Notice the rallentando). Don’t think of formal apects considering these bars, the composer plays with the expections and the attention of the audience, sometimes redundant, sometimes surprising.

edit:

So this link says: Hugo Riemann calls this an "enlarged ending"

Stein, 1962: " Phrase is one of the most contradictory terms in music: apart from the fact that it can be used for two-bar as well as eight-bar (or even larger) units, it is often mistakenly used to subdivide several or individual phrases to call."

Misunderstandings can be avoided by recognizing that more than one phrases can be subphrases as a parent phrase (eg, a first [sub- phrase] works as its first half, and a second as its second half ). So musical phrases are something multi-dimensional. The musical dimensions 1.) of the intervention rhythm, 2.) of the functional rhythm (also: 'cadenzrhythmics') and 3.) of the rhythm stages are capable of 'closing' (cadence), ie according to Hugo Riemann 'Endungslängungen' (after one phase to remain unchanged) should mean: to give a final signal.

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phrase_(Musik)

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    There is a phrasing mark over the last bars. – Tim Mar 31 '19 at 7:47
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    ok, Tim ;) Stein, 1962: " Phrase is one of the most contradictory terms in music: apart from the fact that it can be used for two-bar as well as eight-bar (or even larger) units, it is often mistakenly used to subdivide several or individual phras. So musical phrases are something multi-dimensional. The musical dimensions 1.) of the intervention rhythm, 2.) of the functional rhythm (also: 'cadenzrhythmics') and 3.) of the rhythm stages are capable of 'closing' (cadence), ie according to Hugo Riemann 'Endungslängungen' (after one phase to remain unchanged) should mean: to give a final signal. – Albrecht Hügli Mar 31 '19 at 9:16
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Harmonically it's an extended final tonic chord. Melodically, the accompaniment figure continues, there's a final echo of one of the melodic cells that's been used throughout the piece. You could just about label it as a 'codetta' if you wanted to.

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    Good and short answer. I was also thinking about using the terms “echo” and a small “coda”. – Albrecht Hügli Mar 31 '19 at 19:26

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