ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses certain aspects of phrase rhythm in the nocturnes and mazurkas of Chopin. A hypermeasure is purely a metrical unit; a phrase is a complete musical thought based, in tonal music, largely on harmonic and linear motion. Therefore a phrase will end with some sort of cadence. It will also include some definite linear motion, such as a linear progression or a large-scale neighbouring figure. A brief segment of music which forms a distinct group (usually on the basis of its rhythmic profile), but which is not a complete phrase in the sense defined above, is called a sub-phrase. Most phrases are divisible into two or more sub-phrases. Note that the concepts of phrase and sub-phrase closely parallel levels of grouping structure as described by Fred Lerdahl and Ray Jackendoff.
