(Ger.).
Originally, a musical setting or the act of polyphonic composition; under the influence of the grammar of spoken language, it has come to mean theme, period and especially movement (of a sonata, suite etc.), as well as style and texture.
The most general definition, ‘musical setting’, is based on the derivation of Satz from setzen, ‘to set’, which appeared in musical writings in the 16th and 17th centuries in the forms absetzen, ‘to put into tablature’, and aussetzen, ‘to realize figures in a bass part’. Satz, or Tonsatz, first appeared in the 18th century, when it referred to a musical setting or the technique used therein. J.G. Walther (Musicalisches Lexikon, 1732) defined Thema as ‘ein Satz zu einer Fuge, oder andern Ausarbeitung’, thus making Satz equivalent to theme. H.C. Koch (Musikalisches Lexikon, 1802) gave four definitions, expanding its meaning while preserving the old notion of musical setting: (1) ‘that single element of a piece of music which, in and of itself, expresses a complete thought’ – Koch noted both the larger division of a section of a piece into Hauptsatz (or Thema) and Nebensätze (main theme and subsidiary themes) and the smaller division of a theme into Absatz and Schlusssatz (the modern notion of a period as the sum of two phrases, the first of which arrives at an imperfect cadence, the second of which completes the musical thought); (2) ‘the connection of several individual elements in a main part of the whole’, i.e. the modern concept of ‘theme group’; (3) movement, i.e. an independent section of a cyclic composition; and (4) ‘the grammatical construction of a piece of music’, i.e. harmony and counterpoint.
Related to the last of these definitions is the idea of Satzlehre or Setzkunst. For Koch, Setzkunst and Komposition were synonyms. Later, Satzlehre is distinguished from Kompositionslehre in that it teaches one not to compose but merely to understand and be familiar with those occurrences which are typical features of polyphonic music.
By itself and in compounds Satz takes on several other musical meanings, such as contrapuntal pattern (e.g. Dezimensatz, ‘parallel 10ths’), texture (e.g. Klaviersatz) and style (e.g. Kantilenensatz versus Chansonsatz); one also encounters the terms Fingersatz, ‘fingering’, and (Instrumenten-)satz, ‘consort’.
Arnold Schoenberg was the first to define and explain the concept of Satz (‘sentence’) in positive terms as the antithesis of the period, and as one whose structure is essentially motivic in nature. He viewed sections of motivic comprehension and contrast, the former facilitating repetition, the latter serving the need for change, as the basic constituents of a logical concept of form that takes into account the psychological mechanisms governing the reception of music.
According to Schoenberg's model both the sentence and period begin with an exposition of a section of basic motifs in a two-bar phrase. Which of the two forms it develops into is determined by the course of the following phrase (bars 3–4). In the sentence it consists of an immediate repetition (e.g. literal repetition, sequence, inversion, etc.) or a slight variation of the first phrase, whereas in the period contrasting (i.e. more drastically altered) forms of the basic motifs occur at this point to ensure variety. In the period the consequent (bars 5–8 of the model) is therefore fundamentally a repetition of the antecedent with the motifs and harmonies correspondingly changed at the cadence, and often also in the bars leading up to it, to suit the function of the consequent as syntactic consolidation. Schoenberg considered the sentence ‘a higher form of construction’ than the period because he viewed its technique of ‘liquidation’ (reduction) of the characteristic features of the motifs in the following, more lengthy contrasting section (bars 5–8) as a type of development. For him cadences are generated motivically, and the harmonies and length of phrases are of only secondary importance in both the sentence and the period; the type of cadence and the proportions of the constituent sections are variable.
The first eight bars of the first movement of Beethoven's Piano Sonata in F minor, op.2 no.1, represent the prototype of a sentence; both phrases of a period can be constructed along the lines of a sentence, as shown in the opening eight bars of the first movement of Mozart's Piano Sonata in A major, K331.
See also Analysis, §II, 2.
E. Ratz: Einführung in die musikalische Formenlehre (Vienna, 1951, 3/1973)
A. Schoenberg: Fundamentals of Musical Composition, ed. G. Strang and L. Stein (London, 1967) [written 1937–48]
W.E. Caplin: ‘Funktionale Komponenten im achttaktigen Satz’, Musiktheorie, i (1986), 239–60
I. Pfingsten: ‘ Ökonomie der musikalischen Mittel in der formalen Gestaltung bei Mozart und Beethoven’, ibid., 217–37
I. Pfingsten: ‘ “Die erste Kunstform”: Anmerkungen zur klassischen Periode’,Musica, xliv (1990), 225–30
WILLIAM DRABKIN/INGEBORG PFINGSTEN