[Listening extract, audio available. See printed QP for questions.] (a) Describe one way a typical Romantic melody differs from a Classical melody in phrase...

(a) One way a typical Romantic melody differs from a Classical melody in phrase structure [1]

Any one of the following:

• Romantic melodies tend to be longer with more irregular phrase lengths, rather than the regular, balanced four-bar or eight-bar phrases that characterise Classical music. A Romantic phrase might extend to five, six or seven bars, creating a sense of freedom and unpredictability
• Romantic melodies use wider intervals and a greater pitch range, leaping across large distances to heighten emotional expression, whereas Classical melodies tend to move in stepwise motion or small intervals
• Romantic melodies are more chromatic and unpredictable in their direction, using notes outside the home key to add colour and surprise, whereas Classical melodies stay largely within the diatonic scale

(b) One technique Romantic composers used to make melodies more emotionally expressive [1]

Any one of the following:

• Use of a wide dynamic range within the melody, with the performer shaping each phrase through subtle changes in volume to bring out its emotional content
• Extensive ornamentation and embellishment, adding turns, trills and grace notes that decorate the melody and give it a personal, improvisatory quality
• Use of tempo flexibility (rubato) to linger on expressive notes and push forward through less important ones, giving the melody a speaking quality
• Use of wide leaps to create moments of dramatic intensity, where the melody suddenly jumps to a high or low note for emotional effect