This paper addresses two questions about Bach’s periods. First, what are the features of this phrase structure in Bach’s hands? I will detail three small but noticeable respects in which it differs from the better-known archetype of the period from later in the century. Second, and perhaps more interestingly, when the first reprise is an eight-measure period, how does the form of the rest of the movement respond to this choice? I will lay out two strategies to which Bach frequently turns, situating them in broader formal norms for his binary movements.

Manuel Blasco de Nebra’s sonatas are remarkable for their persistent use of irregular phrase rhythm, employing two- and three-measure intrathematic units to form phrase lengths ranging from four to eleven measures. Notably, lengths of five, seven, nine, and eleven occur nearly as frequently as more conventional even-numbered lengths (Espinosa 2026, para. 3.8). In this paper, I argue that such irregular phrase construction is an intentional stylistic hallmark of the Seis Sonatas rather than a byproduct of haphazard composition. By examining six unpublished pastorelas by Blasco de Nebra, I demonstrate his varying treatment of phrase rhythm and hypermeter as they adapt to different generic constraints.

Each of the six pastorelas follows a three-movement adagio–pastorela–minuet structure. Both the adagio and pastorela movements generally utilize Type 2 sonata form (notwithstanding several structural departures from his published Seis Sonatas), while the minuets follow the small ternary design typical of the genre. Adhering to the requirements of dance rhythm, the minuets feature consistently paired measures. The pastorelas represent a compelling middle ground between the published sonatas and the minuets. These works incorporate many features of the broader pastorale tradition (originally a Christmas play depicting the Nativity) including 6/8 meter, pedal-tone openings, and melodies in parallel thirds and sixths. They exhibit a fairly regular hypermeter punctuated by strategic moments of irregularity.

Across each genre, Blasco de Nebra maintains several signatures of his personal style: profuse ornamentation, downward arpeggiation, intrathematic repetition, and an idiosyncratic approach to developmental material. This paper demonstrates that Blasco de Nebra employs a broad range of hypermetric practices across his repertoire, moving from the strictly regular minuets to the mixed pastorelas and the consistently irregular sonatas.

This presentation examines expanded phrase forms in instrumental music from the French Belle Époque (1871–1914), focusing on the expansion of continuation and cadential functions in sentences and hybrid phrases. In addition to discussing how French composers often adapted conventional schemata (Gjerdingen 2021, Rabinovitch 2023) to expand continuation phrases, I will also consider how composers used these expansions in the context of larger forms, including sonata forms.

The first part of the presentation examines the piano music of Gabriel Fauré. In works such as the Sixth Nocturne, Fauré juxtaposes regular eight-measure phrases with expanded versions of the same material to delineate significant formal junctures in the work's ABACA form. In later works such as the Fourth Impromptu, by contrast, Fauré’s phrases achieve a greatly expanded continuation function at the expense of a greatly diminished cadential function, to the point where they can be described as “contracadential,” following Huron’s (2006) description of Wagner.

The second part of the presentation examines how expanded continuations are similarly used to delineate formal sections in sonata-form works by Cécile Chaminade, César Franck, and Maurice Ravel. In the second movement of Franck's Violin Sonata, the ten-measure sentence that forms the primary theme is expanded to 22 measures when the theme returns in the "terminal development" section that ends the movement. In the first movement of Chaminade's Piano Sonata and in Ravel's "Ondine" (which Roy Howat has argued reflects "sonata form by stealth"), the primary-theme zone in the exposition is formed by three successive statements of an ever-expanding sentence form.

Recent theoretical scholarship on fin de siècle French music has focused mostly on harmony rather than form. If studies of harmony shed light on what happens in this music, studies of form can tell us where these interesting things happen. In examining the characteristic use of expanded continuations in instrumental music from the French Belle Époque, I aim to open a new angle of analytical inquiry into these inexhaustibly fascinating pieces.