Fragment of Schumann, Op.

68, No.

11.] It will be observed that the first (and also the third) of these phrases consists of two exactly similar two-measure motives.

This seems to lend some confirmation to the idea of a two-measure phrase; but the student is warned against deviating from his four-measure standard, upon such evidence as this.

Many instances will be found, like these, in which the impression of a complete phrase is not gained until the motive of two measures has been thus repeated; _the repetition is necessary_, in order to finish the sentence, and this proves that the two measures alone do not constitute the "complete idea" which we expect the phrase to represent.
The same regularity of dimension will usually be found in all kinds of dance music; in technical exercises (for instance, the etudes of Czerny and others); and in all music of a simple or popular character.
* * * * * * EXCEPTIONS .-- In its ordinary, normal condition the phrase is a musical sentence four measures in length.