‘Theory AND PRacTice Eprror David Carson Berry Reviews Eortor Wayne Petty EprroriAL Boaro Michae? Cherlin Judith Lochhead Wayne Petty Philip Ruprecht Joseph N. Straus Apvisory Boao Fred Lerdaht Robert D. Mortis Dorothy Payne Car! Schachter Wayne Slawson SunscewTions MANAGER Norman Carey ‘THe Muste Tueory Soctery oF New York STATE Boar oF Directors (2002-2003) David Gagné, President Mark Anson-Cartwright, Vice-President Poundie Burstein, Secretary ‘Timothy A. Johnson, Treasurer Wayne Alpern Matthew Bribitzer-Stull Jan Miyake Pamela Poulin Membership in the Music Theory Society of New York State includes a subscription to THEORY AND Practice, Annual dues are $24 ($12 for students or retired faculty, $30 for joint husband and wife membership). 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Editorial correspondence relating to vols. 28 and 29 should be addressed to: David Carson Berry, Editor ‘Theory AND PRACTICE College-Conservatory of Music University of Cincinnati P.O, Box 210003 Cincinnati, QH 45221-0003 Editorial correspondence for vol, 30 and afterward should be addressed to: Philip Stoecker, Editor ‘TavORY AND PRACTICE Oberlin Conservatory of Music 77 W. College Street ‘Oberlin, OH 44074 ‘TyizoRY AND PRACTICE uses ASA pitch designations (middle C = C4) Permission to reprint excerpts from the following wosks is gratefully acknowledged: ‘Alban Berg, Four Songs, op. 2, no. 4. Copyright © 1928, Schlesinger'sche Buch- u Musikhdl. Used by permission of Robert Lienau Musikverlag, Frankfur/Main (Germany), All Rights Reserved. Elliott Carte, In Sleep, In Thunder, Copyright © 1982, Hendon Music, Inc.. a Boosey sand Hawkes company, Used by permission Luigi Nono, Cort di Didone (© 1958, Mainz: Ars Viva Verlag: © renewed) and Sara dolce tacere (© 1960, Moinz: Ars Viva Verlag: © renewed). All rights reserved. Used by permission of European American Music Distributors LLC, sole U'S. and Canadian agent for Ars Viva Verlag/Schott Musik International, Mainz. ‘Aston Webern, Bagatelles for String Quartet, op. 9. Copyright © 1924, Universal Edition; © renewed. Al rights reserved. Used by permission of European American Music Distributors LLC, sole US. and Canadian agent for Universal Edition Permission by Osterreichische Musikzeitschrift. to translate Oswald Jonas’s article “Heinrich Schenker und grosse Interpreten,” is gratefully acknoxledged, ISSN #0741-6156 © 2004 by the Music Theory Society of New York StateTheory and Practice Journal of the Music Theory Society ‘of New York State VOLUME 28 2003 ARTICLES. ystems and the Parsimonious Interpretation of nic Progressions 1 Mark Sallmen ‘Motives and Motivic Paths in Anton Webern’s Six Bagatelles for String Quartet, Op. 9 29 Jeannie Guerrero Multidimensional Counterpoint and Social Subversion in Luigi Nono’s Choral Works 33 2005 MISNYS, Emerging Scholar Award Karl Braunschweig Expanded Dissonance in the Music of J.S. Bach ” John Rothgeb ‘A Sentence Omitted from the English Translation of Schenker’s Harmonielehre 15 (RE)TRANSITIONS A forum for translations, critical reprintings, and original publications of notable texts and archive materials. Oswald Jonas Heinrich Schenker and Great Performers ‘Translated with an Introduction by Alan Dodson 123REVIEW Edward D, Latham Britten's Musical Language, by Philip Ruprecht ERRATA Conrupuros 137 147 149Nonatonic Systems and the Parsimonious Interpretation of Dominant—Tonic Progressions Matthew Santa Jn mock late nineteenth-century music, harmonic progressions based on symmet- rical partitionings of the octave interact with those based on dominant-tonic parttionings. To explain such progressions, « growing number of theorists are turning to the theories of Hugo Riemann.' Though problematic far Schenkerian analysis, symmetrical partitionings of the octave respond well to neo-Riemannian transformations, which are governed by parsimonious voice leading rather than by archetypal fundamental-bass progressions.? Figure la shows a symmetrical partitioning of the octave recently explored by Richard Cohn (1996). The system is composed of three pairs of parallel major and minot triads; each “+” in Figure 1 designates a major triad, and each “-” designates a minor triad. The three chord roots represented in the system are each a major third apart, thus dividing the ‘octave symmetrically, Cohn refers to this particular partitioning of the octave as a hexatonic system becaisse the total pitch-class content of the system is transposi- tionally equivalent to the hexatonic collection, set class (014589], Cohn points out that this particular partitioning has a special property: its voice leading is maximally smooth, Cohn defines maximally smooth voice lead- ing as motions from one chord to another in which only one voice moves by semitone, while all of the others hold common tones, For each clockwise or coun- terclockwise move around the hexatanic system, only one semitonal displacement is required, while the other voices may hold common tones, as is shown in Figure Ib. Motions to nonadjacent chords within a system, though not maximally smooth, are still parsimonious in the general sense of the word. In motions that skip oa chord in the system, one common tone is maintained while the other two voices move by semitone; and in motions that skip two chords, all three voices move by semitone. AS was noted by Jack Douthett and Peter Steinbach (1998, 243), at present there is not a precise definition of voice-leading parsimony that is comnion to all theorists. Here, the voice leading between two chords will be described as parsimonious if the closest possible one-to-one voice leading from the fitst chord to the second produces no intervals larger than a whole step. Thus, the relationship between any two chords within a single hexatonic system is par- simonious. All voice leadings discussed in this article fit this broad definition of a‘TuoRY aND PRACTICE Figure 1. The hexatonie system (Cohn 1996). @ a # 2 Gs BE Be AYNonarontc Systems 3 parsimony, though the degree of parsimony of each voice leading will vary, and each will be measured and discussed in turn, Figure 2 shows the four transpositions of the hexatonic system, labeled fol- Jowing Cohn as Northern, Southern, Eastern, and Westem for heuristic purposes. ‘The four transpositions taken together comprise the twenty-four majot and minor triads. Complete statements of the hexatonic are not nearly as common as the complete sequential harmonic progressions by descending fifths or thirds that per- vvade the tonal repertoire, though they are occasionally found. For example, in the first movement of Brahms's Concerto for Violin and Cello, the music cycles com- pletely through the Northen hexatonic system (mm. 268-79); in the second movemtent of Beethoven's “Spring” Sonata for Violin and Piano, Op. 24, the music cycles completely through the Southern hexatonic system (mm. 37-52); and in the fourth movement of Haydn's Symphony No. 98, the music cycles com- pletely through the Eastern hexatonic system (mm. 153-90). However, partial statements of the hexatonic cycle abound in late nineteenth-century music, as do statements that do not move in any patterned way through the system, but in which the system serves as a kind of harmonic region. The hexatonic system as a harmonic region could be viewed as analogous 10 the diatonic triads in a major- mode piece with little or no chromaticism; however, this analogy fails to capture the sense of tonal hierarchy governing the progression of diatonic triads. In a hexatonic system, any triad could plausibly lead to any other triad, but in a major- ‘mode piece, only’the tonic triad has that degree of freedom—iee., there is a strong expectation for the dominant to move 10 the tonic, for the supertonic to move to the dominant, and so forth, This article will explore the nonatonic system, a variant of Cohn’s hexa- tonic system that replaces the hexatonic’s minor triads with dominant seventh chords. Including the dominant seventh chord in a theory of harmony might seem problematic at first, because of its larger size; one might imagine that the noble simplicity of a system based on groups of three elements each would be destroyed by any attempt to add larger groups to it. However, all four notes of the dominant seventh chord are not necessary in order for the harmony to carry both its defining tcitone and its root, which plays such an important part in establishin, function. The incomplete dominant seventh that omits the fifth is commonly found in the repertoire, and because it only requires three distinct pitch classes, it will be used here. Figure 3a provides a nonatonic system in a format similar to Cohn’s hexa- tonic system. The system in Figure 3a is called a nonatonic system because its total pitch-class content is transpositionally equivalent to the coruplement of the augmented triad, set class (01245689T], also known as the nonatonic collection. ‘Although the structure of the nonatonic cycle is isomorphic with that of the hexa- tonic system, the minor triads of the hexatonic are replaced with incomplete dominant sevenths in the nonatonic. Each “+” in Figure 3a designates a major triad, while each “7” designates a dominant seventh chord. In clockwise motions from chord to chord in the nonatonic system, each dominant seventh chord‘THEORY AND PRACTICE Figure 3. The nonatonie system. (a) ct Gr BT Be ‘Ae BT (b) A three-voice realization of the nonatonic cycle beginning on C+. a ae CH BT AM BT BF G7 G NB: The PVLS for each pair of adjacent chords in the nonatonic cycle is 0. (©) A fout-voice realization of the nonatonic cycle beginning on C+. E =e cH BT Ab OB? OE GT? C+ (B.CDAE}E.RG,A2.A} = pe content of nonatonic cycle’s three-voice realization {B5,FED} = pes added by fourth voice to complete aggregateNoxatowtc Systems 5 resolves to its own tonic; consequently, the three chard roots in the hexatonic sys- tem, which divide the octave symmetrically into major thirds, become tonicized in the parallel nonatonic system. Figure 3b shows the smoothest possible three-voice realization of the nona- tonic cycle beginning on C+. (The word “cycle” will be used herein to refer exclusively to a chain of clockwise or counterclockwise moves through a system.) In the three-voice realization, the voice-leading between adjacent chords in the nonatonic system results in two voices moving by semitone in contrary motion, while the third voice retains a common tone, as is shown in Figure 3b. What is particularly striking about the nonatonic cycle is that it reveals to us the duplicity of the voice-leading pattern connecting major triads and their respective dominant seventh chords: the same voice-leading pattern that takes a major triad to its own. dominant seventh chord (ie., a counter-clockwise move in the cycle) may also take it to a dominant seventh chord whose root is a minor third above the root of that triad (i.e., a clockwise move). Conversely, the same voice-leading pattern that takes a dominant seventh chord to its tonic (i.e, a clockwise move) also may take it to major triad whose root is a minor third below the root of that seventh-chord (ie., a counterclockwise move). It will be useful for this study to have a consistent way of measuring the degree of parsimony for each voice-leading that takes into account parsimonious voice-leading sums, abbreviated “PVLS,” as well as the number of voices mov- ing by half step and the number of voices moving by whole step.* The approach taken here is outlined in Figure 4. First, I define the PVLS function as follows: given chord X, composed of pitches x1, x2, ... xn, and chord Y, equal in cardi nality to chord X and composed of pitches yl, y2, .. . yn, and a parsimonious voice leading between them that maps x1 onto yi, x2 onto y2, ... xn onto yn, let int} be the ordered pitch interval from x1 to yl, let int2 be the ordered pitch inter- val from x2 to y2,... let inta be the ordered pitch interval from xn to yn, and let PVLS (X, Y) be a function that rerarss the absolute value of the sum total of intl, int2, ... int (Figure 4a). To complement this function, I group it with two other ‘measures of parsimony: the total number of voices that move by half step (abbre- viated “HS” in Figure 4b) and the total number of voices that move by whole step. (abbreviated “WS” in Figure 4b), and call the resulting three-place entry for a given voice leading its parsimony vector, abbreviated “PV” (Figure 4b) Figure 4c provides two examples to demonstrate how PV is derived. C+ onto Ab has a parsimony vector of 130. The first entry in its vector is its PVLS, the absolute value of the sum of ordered pitch intervals —1 (C onto C>),—1 (E onto Ep), and +1 G onto A); the second entry in its vector is 3 because three voices move by half step; the third entry in its vector is 0 because no voices move by whole step. The same measuring process also shows that C+ onto B7 has a parsi- mony vector of 021. The first entry in its vector is the absolute value of the sumt of ordered pitch intervals -1 (C onto B), -I (E onto Dé), and +2 (G onto A); the second entry in its vector is 2 because two voices move by half step; the third entry in its vector is 1 because one voice moves by whole step. ‘The PVLS for any chord pairing in a single nonatonic system is 0 because pairs of voices moving in contrary motion by semitone effectively cancel each6 ‘TaroRY AND PRACTICE other out, and because two voices descending by semitone and one voice ascend- ing by whole-step (e.g. C+ onto B7) effectively cancel each other out, However, while all chord pairings in a single nonatonic system project voice leadings with aPVLS of 0, the parsimony vectors are not all equivalent: some are 020 (e.g. C+ onto Es7, or C+ onto A>+), while some are 021 (e.g. C+ onto B7). Neverthciess, although the nonatonic system is not maximally smooth by Cofn’s definition, due to the PVLS consistency within the system, it communicates the same feeling of seamlessness that one experiences when listening to the hexatonic system. Figure 3c is divided into an upper staff that shows the three-voice realiza- tion of the nonatonic cycle beginning on C+, and a lower staff that adds a fourth voice to the realization; the added fourth voice completes each dominant seventh Figure 4. Parsimonious voice-leading sums and parsimony vectors. (a) Definition for Parsimonious Voice-Leading Sum (PVLS). Given chord X, composed of pitches x1. x2... xn, and chord Y, equal in to chord X and composed of pitches yl, y2,... yn, and a parsimonious voice leading between them that maps x1 onto yl, x2 onto y2, xn onto yn, let intl be the ordered pitch interval from x1 to yl. let int2 be the ordered pitch interval from x2 to y2, .. . let intn be the ordered pitch interval from x7 to yn. PLS (X,Y) =1 intl + int 2+... intr (b) Definition of Parsimony Vector (PV). Let HS (X, Y) be the total number of ordered pitch intervals moving by 1 or = in a voice leading that maps chord X onto chord Y, and let WS (X, ¥) be the total number of ordered pitch incervals moving by 2 or -2 in a voice leading that maps chord X onto chord Y PV (X,Y) = PVES (X.Y), HS (X, Y), WS (X,Y) (©) Two Examples of the Parsimony Vector Mapping of C+ onto Ab int 1 ==1 (C onto Cs), int 2= 1 (E onto £), int 3= +1 (G onto Ab) PVLS, (C+, A) =1-1 4-141 voices moving by half step = 3, voices moving by whole step = 0 PV (C+, Ab }= 130 ‘Mapping of C+ onto B7: int 1 ==1 (C onto B),int 2 = -1 (E onto D8), int 3 = +2 (G onto A) PVLS (C+, BT)=I-1+-142120 voices moving by half step = 2, voices moving by whole step = ! PV (C+, B7) =021NONATONIC SysTEMS, 7 chord by providing the fifth of the chord, The added voice moves by step through a whole-tone scale, and is thus relatively smooth, though by no means as smooth as the three-voice realization. Itis also worth noting that the addition of the fourth voice provides the three pitch classes missing in the three-voice realization of the cycle, thereby completing the aggregate and challenging the cycle’s nonatonic labeling; the pitch-class content of the nonatonic cycle’s three-voice realization in Figure 3b is (B,C,D>,E>,E,F.G,Ad,A}, while the fourth voice adds 8b, F#, and D, the fifths of the E57, B7, and G7 chords respectively. However, because the fourth voice is not essential to the voice leading of the cycle, the cycle will still be roferred to as nonatonic, even when realized in four voices Figure 5 shows the four transpositions of the nonatonic system. Following Cohn, these nonatonic systems will be interpreted as transformational pathways, and “T” here will be used to denote nonatonic transposition, an operation defined 48 one or more clockwise moves around a nonatonic system; specific nonatonic transpositions will include a subscript identifying the number of clockwise moves around the system.* For example, in the Northern system, T; would map C+ onto EST (PV=020), Ta would map C+ onto Ab (PV=020), T would map C+ onto B7 (PV=021), T, would map C+ onto E+ (PV=020), and Ts would map C+ onto G7 (PV=020), thus exhausting the possible nonatonic transpositions of the C-major triad; for any given harmony in a nonatonic system, there are only five possible nonatonic transpositions. Note that all but one of the possible nonatonic transpo- sitions involving a major triad project a voice-leading in whicis two voices move by semitone in contrary motion and one common tone is preserved, as is shown in Figure 6. The Jone exception is between T; transpositions—iee., those map- pings between major triads and the dominant seventh chords exactly opposite them in the system; they have no common tones, regardless of whether the dom- ‘nant seventh is complete or not. Because chords exactly opposite from one another in the system (ie., chords related by T3) have no common tones, they have a special relationship in the system; these chords will be referred to as nona- tonic poles (by analogy to the relationship between hexatonie poles defined in Cohn 1996). The relationship between nonatonic poles is analogous to the rela- tionship between V7 and bV/ in functional harmony. Figure 7 illustrates the nonatonic system as it appears in a song by Liszt, Figure 7a provides mm. 11-17 from Listt’s song “Das Veilchen.” The harmonic Progression in mm. 11-12 can be grasped easily enough through conventional Roman-numeral analysis, but the progression of tonicized major triads in mm. 13-17, Eb-G-B, suggests that the octave here is partitioned into major thirds. Because each of these major triads is tonicized by its dominant, this passage con- sequently yields a complete statement of the Western nonatonic system. Although the ordering of the harmonies does not result in a smooth clockwise or counter- clockwise progression through that system, because there are no transpositions (ie., moves between nonatonic poles), the maximally close voice-leading is iden- tical to that of the system—that is, between any two adjacent chords in this ‘passage, two Voices move in contrary motion by semitone and one voice holds a common tone (PV=020). Whereas the song as a whole relies more heavily on tra- ditional fundamestal-bass progressions, the nonatonic passage given here is‘THEORY AND PRACTICE Figure 5. The four nonatonic systems, ce or BT Northern EH ‘Abe BT Be De BHT Fe. a7 ET Ge Be Fe At D7 oe cr AL FT Southern HA Be ca Figure 6. Nonatonic transpositions of C major triad.Nowaroic SysTEMs 9 Figure 7. Liszt, “Das Veilchen,” mm. 11-17. (@) Music. (b) Parsimonious voice-leading graph of path through ‘Western nonatonic system in mm. 12-17. BT Re Gt OT G+ BH strally displaced common tones registrally displaced stepwise voice leading10 ‘TaBory AND PRACTICE repeated three times and thus accounts for twenty-one of the song’s sixty-seven, measures. Figure 7 shows the extent to which the maximally close voice leading of the nonaionic system is realized in pitch space on the surface of the music. This, ‘graph is reductive in that it shows only those voice-leading moves that match the pattern of the nonatonic system, and the rhythmic character of the passage has heen reduced to its first-species contrapuntal frame. | will refer to this kind of reduction as a parsimonious voice-leading graph. Although there are some simi- larities to a Schenkerian graph—notes (rom the musical surface are removed to reveal an underlying harmonic and melodic structure—the differences are far greater than those features held in common. The most important difference between Schenkerian and parsimonious voice-leading graphs is that a Schenkerian graph relates voice-leading events across multiple structural levels 20 a fundamental structure, but @ parsimonious graph does not presume that more than one structural level may be related to the underlying voice-leading pattern. ‘The dotted lines in this graph (and in the other Voice-leading graphis in this article) reflect common tones between chords that are registrally displaced, while the solid lines reflect octave displacements of what might have been realized as a stepwise voice-leading motion. The notes in parentheses are not literally present in the music, but ate nevertheless implied by the musical context. If voices are added or subtracted from the musical texture, no additional lines will be added unless the pitch class introduced by the added voice is not approached by step or ‘by common tone in some other voice. For instance, in Figure 7b, the high G of the Eht chord is considered an added voice because it is not approached by the Ab in the first chord; however, the G an octave lower is approached by the Ab and soa solid line will not be used. However, if a C were added as a top voice to the D7 harmony, a solid line would be used to connect the B of the previous chord to both the added high C and the C an octave below. Figure 8a shows the nonatonic system at work in a chordal reduction of Liszt’s Consolation No, 3.’ Figure 8b shows a parsimonious voice-leading graph of the prolonged harmonies in the piece. The bracketed groups of harmonies in the Figure 8a all share a common bass pitch that functions as a pedal and prolongs the chord indicated. The harmonic motions between these prolonged chords, exhibit a pattered progression through the Eastern nonatonic system: after the establishment of Db major in mm, 1-23, motions to nonatonic poles (T3 transpo- sitions; PV=021) and clockwise motions (Ty transpositions; PV=020) alternate until the music returns to the home key (compare Figure 8c to the Eastern system in Figure 5). A comparison of the chordal reduction of this pieve with its Riemannian voice-leading graph in Figure 8c illustrates that—although all of the voice-leading between the prolonged chords may not conform to the maximally close voice-leading models given in Figure 6—there are at least three voices con- necting any two adjacent profonged chords that do conform to these models in pitch space, the lone exception being the move from E to Gb between A+ and AbT, which is highlighted by the solid line. ‘The modal shifts from minor to major in mm, 26~32 and 35-40 suggest that the Eastern hexatonic system plays a role here as well: the progression of pro-Nonatonic SYSTEMS. i Figure 8. Liszt, Consolation No. 3. (a) Chordal reduction. (b) Parsimonious voice-leading graph of prolonged harmonies. —= es ae BP he fe ep ie longed triads in the piece is D+, F-, F+, A-, A+, Dbt, the first five of which rep- resent counterclockwise moves (Ts transpositions; PV=110) through the Eastern hhexatonie system. Such interactions between nonatonic and hexaionic systems are common in much Tate eineteenth-century music. Hexatonic and nonatonic sys- tems that share the same group of major triads will be defined here as parallel systems, and thus Consolation Ne. 3 can be said to exhibit a paraie\ relationship. Parallel relationships between hexatonic and nonatonic systems could also bbe conceptualized as a single expression of a larger system that T will eall the hybrid hexatonic/nonatonic system, hereafter referred to as simply the hybrid sys- tem. Figure 9a illustrates a hybrid system; the solid lines in each circle connect hexatonic poles and the dotted lines connect nonatonic poles. Figure 9b shows the12 THEORY AND PRACTICE smoothest possible three-voice realization of the hybrid cycle beginning on C+, while Figure 9c shows the smoothest possible four-voice realization of the hybrid cycle beginning on C+. The degree of voice-leading parsimony between major and minor triads in the hybrid system is of course the same as in the hexatonic, and the degree of voice-leading parsimony between major triads and dominant seventh chords is the same as in the onatonic. Put another Way, by skipping over dominant sevenths in the hybrid system, we are left with the hexatonic systen and consequently with a single semitonal displacement when moving clockwise or counterclockwise through the system, By skipping over minor triads in the hybrid system, we are left with the nonatonic system, and consequently with a pair of semitonal displacements in contrary motion when moving clockwise or counterclockwise through the system. However, one new relationship obtains in the marriage of parallel hexatonic and nonatonic systems: that between minor triads and dominant seventh chords. In three voices, two common tones are held between minor triads and dominaat sevenths adjacent in the system, while one voice moves by semitone (PV=110); in four voices, one voice still moves by semitone, and the added fourth voice moves by whole step as it did in the nonatonic (PV=111). Within the hexatonic ‘and nonatonic systems, there is a consistent degree of voice-leading parsimony between adjacent chords, but this is obviously mot the case for the hybrid system. Instead, if one realizes the progression in four voices and moves clockwise through the system, one will note a patterned increase of voice-leading activity. Starting from any major chord in the system, one Voice moves by step to carry the system to a minor triad (PV=110), two voices move by step to carry the system to dominant seventh chord (PV=I11), and three voices move by step (o discharge that dominant onto its tonic (PV=221). Figure 10 illustrates the four hybrid sys- tems, which together comprise the twenty-four major and minor triads and their respective dominant sevenths. ‘Although the two examples of nonatonic systems considered so far have been from the music of Liszt, other examples may be found in the music of Liszt's contemporaries, as well as in the music of composers as eatly as Beethoven. Figure 11 reproduces @ graph from Aldwell and Schachter (1989, 571) that pre ents a middleground view of mm, 67-109 from Beethoven's “Appassionat Sonata, Op. 57. One will note that in the passage from me. 67-87, the music moves clockwise through the Northers hybrid system, skipping only one station (C+) on its journey. Of course, there are many different ways of modeling hybrid systems such as those found in Liszt’s Consolation No. 3. One that is yet more inclusive incor- porates not only minor triads, but also the inversion of the incomplete dominant seventh chord, the T-type (046], which is interpreted here as an incomplete half- diminished seventh-chord (e.g, the simultancity D-A>-C is interpreted as D#7). 1 will call these extended hybrid systems hypernonatonic, because all of the chord roots of a given system form a single nonatonic collection. Figure 12 illustrates,Nowaronic Sysrems B Figure 9. The hybrid hexatonic/nonatonic system. (@ xnonatonie poles hexatonie poles, (b) A three-voice realization of the hybrid cycle beginning on C+. O19 ae CBT Abe Abe B7 e ag Ske ES gg EB G7 Ct (©) A four-voice realization of the hybrid cycle beginning on C+.4 ‘THEORY AND PRACTICE Figure 10. The four hybrid systems Northern Figure 11. Reproduction of Akiwell and Schachter (1987}, Figure 32-19; ‘a middleground view of mm. 67-109 from Beethoven's “Appassionata” Sonata,Nowaronic Systems is Figure 12. The four hypernonatonic systems, the four hypemonatonic systems. Each can be divided into an inner ring, the nona- tonic system that shares the same cardinal name (i.e. Northern, Southern, Eastern, Western), and an outer ring, the inversion of the inner ring that holds the perfect fifth of each consonant triad in the inner ring invariant, and aligns the consonant triads within the system according to this invariance. Figure 13 illustrates two complete journeys through the Norther hyper- rnonatonic system in the first movement of Schubert's A-Major Piano Sonata; the first passage is rim. 28-36 and the second is mm, 82-91." Figure 13a provides the ‘music to mm. 28-36, a sequential passage featuring nine of the twelve chords that form the Norther hypernonatonic system. Figure 13b provides a parsimonious voice-leading graph of the hypenonatonic chords in those measures, Note that while each of the cadential 6/4 chords in this passage is not functionally equiva- lent to the tonic chord that follows it, itis equivalent to that chord in terms of its pitch-class content, and consequently inhabits the same node as that chord in the Norther hypernonatonic system. Thus, the cadential 6/35 in this passage are as ‘much a part of that system as the tonic chords C+, Eb+, and Ab+. Figure 13¢ illus-16 ‘Theory AND PRACTICE Figure 13, Schubert, A-Major Piano Sonata, D. 959, 1 (a) mm. 28-36, = AFT cad) BT Wnaanar Ce 7 (6) Parsimonious voice-leading graph of mm. 28-36. PPT (cad!) GT C+ D*PGadt) BT AS AF T(ead) 7 Er PPT (ead GT Co (c) mm. 82-91‘NoNaTONIC SYSTEMS 7 trates mm. 82-91, where a journey through the same system takes place in a more contrapuntal setting that omits the half-diminished seventh chords from the sequence, To study the parsimony vectors of mappings within the hypemonatonic sys- tems, we must first redefine operations within the system more broadly. In the context of the hypernonatonie system, this study will redefine transpasition as one or more clockwise moves around the outer or inner ring of a system, and a trans position’s subscript will denote the number of clockwise moves around a given ring. Also, in the context of the hypemonatonic system, this study will redefine the parallel operation (P operation) as a motion from the outer ring of a system to its inner sing, or vice versa Figure 14 summarizes the PVs for all possible relationships within a given hypemonatonic system. Some aspects of this table of relations merit special atten- tion. First and foremost, the PVs for all pairs of chords in the outer ring of a system ae identical to the corresponding relationships in its inner ring: as with major triads, Ty, T, Ts, and Ts transpositions involving minor triads have a PV of 020; T; transpositions involving minor triads kave a PV of 021; and as with dom- inant seventh chords, T> transpositions involving half-diminished seventh chords have a PY af 002. This property allows the present study to define transposition inrespective of whether a given relationship is between chords in the outer ring or the inner ring. Second, the inversional relationship of the triads in the inner and ‘outer rings is mirrored in the PVs of the compound P operations (ie. P +7), P+ Tp, ete.): P-+T; on a major triad shares the same PV as P + Ts on a minor triad, P+ T; on a major triad shases the same PV as P+ T, on a minor triad, P+; on ‘a major triad shares the same PV as P +'Ts on a minor triad, P+ T, on a major triad shares the same PV as P +T; on a minor triad, and P + Ts on a major triad shares the same PV as P+ T; on a minor triad. The same holds true for the sev- enth chords in the innet asd outer rings: P+ T, on a dominant seventh chord shiares the same PV as P + Ts on a hali-timinished seventh chord, P + T2 on @ dominant seventh chord shares the same PV as P + T, on a half-diminished sev- centh chord. and so forth. Finally, there are two relationships within the hypernonatonic system that are not parsimonious in three voices (i.e, there is no possible voice leading that can map one chord onto another with only motions by half step or whole step): P + T> on a dominant seventh chord ane its inversion, P + Ty on a half-diminished seventh-chord (e.g., G7 onto E*7, or vice versa. However, as is noted in the table, the PV of the voice leading when realized in four voices is 220, as smooth as a voice leading between consecutive chords in a three-voice nonatonic cycle. While the hypernonatonic systems serve to highlight voice leadings that feature a pair of voices moving in contrary motion by semitone, they at the same time obscure the embedded hexatonic systems and the maximally smooth voice leadings that fuel them. Figure 15 presents one solution to this problem by includ- ing the 1 operations of the hexatonic within the hypemonatonic graph, as well as the hexatonic polar relations that are the hypernonatonic inversions of the L oper- ations. The L relations are represented on the graph as broken lines, and the hexatonic polar relations are represented as dotted lines.18 ‘THEORY AND PRACTICE Figure 14. Parsimony vectors (PVs) for chord types in hypernonatonic systems. Chord ation(s) PV ‘major trad Tuts Tnorty | 020 t ‘major triad Ty O21_| V-SVI (nonatonic poles) ‘ino ad Tite | ea} minor triad Ty Gi ‘dominant seventh Torts 20 ThorTs ‘002 dominant seventh a 021) Y-A¥E (nonatonie poles) 7 Torts 20 TyorTs on ai mp TIO pre major triad 1 inajor iad 130] hexatonic poles ‘major triad i) ‘major Iriad TIO Leittonwechse! major triad 10) minor tad TIO) parallel minor triad 0 minor triad T10_ | Leittonweehsel ‘minor triad im [minor iad 130_| hexatonic poles minor triad 11 | dominan/minor tonic 130) IIL) dominantminor tonic ‘dominant seventh NAS dominant seventh 1 ‘dominant seventh 130) dominant seventh 1107 7 130) ka 110 130) i} NA* ut ‘not parsimonious in 3 voices ; ia four voices, the PV és 220Nowaronic Systems 19 igure 15, The hypemnonatonic systems with hexatonic relationships highlighted. The hexatonic and nonatonic systems and their extensions effectively model music in which the octave is partitioned into chord roots a mijor-third ‘apart. However, the burgeoning research on neo-Riemannian theory has already ‘demonstrated that systems organized according to parsimonious voice leading can be equally effective in modeling music in which the octave is partitioned into chord roots @ minor-third apart, The R relation is the best known of the parsimo- ‘sious minor-third relations; therefore, it seems logical 10 attempt to combine the dominant-tonic voice leading featured in the nonatonic systems with the relative relationship of PIR cycles (called “OctaCycles” by Douhthett and Steinbach)? Figure 16 illustrates what I will call the three Ayperoctatontc systems, so ‘tamed because all of the chord roots of a given system form a single octatonic collection. T and ¥ aperations within hyperoctatonic systems will be defined exactly as they were in the hypemnonatonic systems: transposition is defined as ‘one or more clockwise moves around the outer or inner ring of a system, and a20 THEORY AND Practice Figure 16. The three hyperoctatoniec systems, transposition’s subscript denotes the number of clockwise moves around a given ring; the parallel operation is defined as a motion from the outer ring of a systertt to its inner ring, or vice-versa Figure 17a provides mm. 202-20 from the first movement of Schubert's Eb- Major Piano Trio, D. 929."° If one compares the lower left-hand hyperoctatonic system given in Figure 16 with the progression of dominant-tonic relationships annotated in Figure (7—F47, B+, B-, A7, D+, D-, C7, F+——one will observe that exactly half of the chords that comprise that system are present. Trying to under- stand how the measures of predominant material (mm. 207-08 and 215-16) fit within the context of parsimonious systems leads one to another interesting obser- vation: if one interprets the D in m, 207 as an appoggiatura embellishing the C4°7 in m. 208, and one similarly interprets che F in m. 215 as an appoggiatura embel- lishing the B*7 iam. 216, then one can understand the chord-to-chord progression as governed by the Western and Southern hypernonatonic systems, respectively, while the larger harmonic plan of the passage is governed by the hyperoctatonic. Although these could be understood ia terms of functional harmony, as supertonic chords within the contexts of B minor and D minor, respectively, there is an advantage to recognizing the hypernonatonic membership of the progressionsNowaronic Systems 21 Figure 17. Schubert, Eb-Major Piano Trio, D. 929, 1, mm. 202-20, (a) Music, (b) Strictly parsimonious three-voice realization of the same chord progression found in mm. 202-20, rr mB m0) OF A om eo PVs:020 110 020110 020«0.=SS— 0S OD NB: bracketed chord progressions have a PV of 020.2 ‘THEORY AND PRACTICE, Figure 18, Parsimony vectors (PVS) for chord types in hyperoctatonie systems. (not parsimonious in three voices) Chora Operations) PV _ PV ves) major ea T a (major rag an major ead NAY 2a ninjor iad tu Nat [022 major iad T 3) | — major rad 7 31 major iad 7. 02 [minor rad T, EM minor iad 7, a] | minor wiad a Nay | 11 minorsriad | _Ts nav [om minor rad ty NAY | 201 minor iad 1, 311 I minor iad 1 «20 dominant seventh 7 020 dominant seventh | __T NAY) 020 dominant seven [Ts 312 dominant seventh Te. Nat] 000 dominant seventh Ts NAP 231 dominant seventh T___[_NAY | 020 dominant seventy 1, 31 a 7 eee th NA* | 020 [mamas Ty NA [201 - T NA* 020 i 1, Nae | 2 Th | NA 20 _| a Th 3u OD th moo esNoNATONIC SYSTEMS 2B Figure 18 (continued). Chord Type __Operation( Py PVG ves major triad P im parallel ‘major wiad P+Ty 221 major iad Pet, 201 relative major triad Pet, Nat | 421 ‘major triad Pst, 512 ‘major twiad PaT, NAt | 1 ‘major iad Pet, 21 major triad Pat; Lio ‘minor triad P 10 parallel minor triad P+T 421 minortriad | _P+Ty a2 ‘minor triad Paty 33 ‘minor wiad Paty 42 ‘muinor triad Pet, 221 | minor triad P4+Ty 201 relative ‘minor wiad Pet | uw - Major Tri, D. 929.” Paper presented atthe annual meeting of Music Theory Midwest, Indianapolis, Indiana, ‘Simms, Bryan. 1975. “Choron, Fétis, and the Theory of Tonalité.” Journal of Music Theory 1911: 112-39. ‘Telesco, Paula, 2002. "Forward-Looking Retrospection: Enharmonicism in the Classical Era.” Journal of Musicology 19/2: 332-73. 3,Motives and Motivic Paths in Anton Webern’s Six Bagatelles for String Quartet, Op. 9! Mark Sallmen In a pair of lecture series entitled The Path fo Twelve-Tone Composition (1932) and The Path to the New Music (1933), Webem shows how twelve-tone serial ‘composition may be viewed as the natural continuation of a centuries-old musical tradition. The lectures forge this historical link by tracing two paths through music history. One path is “the development of the tonal field,” from its modal begin- rings, through major and minor tonalities, to the consistent use of the total chromatic. Itchronicles the sise and fall of tonal centricity and identifies harmonic phenomena such as open fifths, tertian sonerities, whole-tone scales, and the aggregate. The other path concerns “the presentation of ideas” of “tepetition.” It involves recurring “melodies” in Gregorian chant and German folk song, “themes” and “subjects” in Bach's polyphony, “motives” in Becthoven’s piano sonatas, “twelve-tone rows” in serial music, and sa forth. Webern summarizes: ‘These lectures are intended to show the path that has led to this [twelve-tone serial] ‘music, and to make clear that it had to have this natural outcome. Last time 1 ‘emphasized that this new music, the kind created by Schoenberg, is the direct result of only one thing—the development of the tonal field and its ever-increasing exploitation; bur that the other factor was also present, the presentation of ideas Repetition, All formal construction is built up on it all mosical forms are based on this principle .. . [FJrom this simple phenomenon, this idea of saying something twice, more ohes, as often as possible, in order to make oneself understood, the ‘most artful things developed, and if you like we Can jump to our own times: the basis of our twelve-note composition is that a certain Sequence of the twelve notes constantly returns: the principle of repetition.” To be sure, the two-path discussion achieves Webern's main objective, showing that twelve-tone music is the logical continuation of musical tradition But because Webern's discussions of the “tonal field” address unordered collec- tions and “musical ideas” refer to ordered phenomena, the lectures also suggest ‘an analytic approach that accounts for both types of relations. It therefore seems logical that Webern's own pre-serial works would be amenable to such an 2930 ‘THEORY AND PRACTICE approach. This is obviously true for pieces such as the third movement of the Five Movements for String Quartet, Op. 5. in which [014] and other set classes play a prominent structural role and in which several themes are clearly repeated and developed. But in many other works, including che Bagatelles that are the focus Of this study, there is 2 dearth of obvious thematic repetition, a situation upon which the composer has commented: “As we gradually gave up on tonality an idea occurred to us: ‘We don’t want to repeat, there must constanily be something new!" But does this meam that ordered pitch-class relationships are absent alto- getter? Or are they merely hidden? Certainly most recent accounts of pe structure in the Bagatelles focus on unordered relations, identifying order preserving rela- tions less frequently, indirectly, or in an ad foc manner, Perhaps the most emphatic view is expressed by Robert Morgan during a brief introduction to Bagatelle No. 4: “Linear consistency is achieved . .. through abstract unordered pitch cells... (T]he melodic parts are ‘athematic’ to the extent that they contain no readily recognizable recurring motives.” Richard Chrisman’s analysis tracks the unfolding of several levels of subsets, identifying set-class connections both within and between movements; and Allen Forte's comments on the Bagatell are part of a large-scale study of the pre-serial atonal pieces that facuses on mak- ing a case for pervasive octatonicism, primarily via unordered sets These studies have provided much iasight into the Bagatelles, but unordered pe relations need not predominate over order-preserving ones 10 such an extent. Instead, an approach can strike a more even balance between ordered and unoruered sets.° For example, Forte’s analysis of Example 1a’s passage identifies. two instances of set-class 4-7 {045}, which I have labeled HI and H2. The interpre- tation has the advantage of connecting this passage to others that feature this set class, “a tetrachord that is everywhere in Webern’s music."” but it glosses over the order-preserving nature of the relationship between H1 and H2, thereby missing ‘an opportunity to refine the analysis of this passage. That is, the ordered segment Ht = <£,A,G¢F> is followed by its Tsl transformation, H2 = .* This and other such order-preserving interpretations are attractive because they are available to anyone who can identify and relate short series of pe intervals— in this case, HI’s and its complement, H2’s <713>. One may hear the HUH? relation in Example 1a more vividly after listening to Example 1b, which highlights the pe correspondence by adjusting H2"s pitch-spare layout, rhythm, and texture to conform to that of H1. Pitch layout strongly supports the pe rela- tionship: in fact, if the A%s were one octave lower, H2 would be a precise pitch-space inversion of HI. Itis true of course that other surface features do not support the pe correspondence. For example, H2 articulates a quicker rhythm and a thicker texture than does H1. Moreover, the rest between G# and F suggests a division that conflicty with the H1/H2 segmentation. But itis precisely the com- plex and puzzling musical surface—so characteristic of the Bagatelles and other ‘works of this period —that makes the straightforward, ordered relationship Vital to a coherent listening of the passage This essay develops many such interpretations, using the term motive to denote an ordered set of pes. Motives that are related by retrograde (R), transpo-Monves anp Mortvic Paras a Enample 1. Bagatelle No, 2: m. 1. (2) Shor score () Rytm and pttspace yo ered ieee er, Baste or Sting Quart op 9 Copp 6 92, Une ion: enone Al ahs seed ‘ley pean fEtcpsn Arms Mus Dero LLC send Cann se Uns Eton, sition (T,}, and/or inversion (I) are said to belong to the samte motive class and are given the same letter label, a8 with HI and H2. Ordered sets of motives that con- tain multiple members of one or mote motive classes, such as , are called motivic paths. Within these general definitions, tremendous variety is pos- sible. First, some paths treat the ensemble as a whole (as in ) while others trace individual instrumental lines. Second, some paths account for each pe ima passage. But most skip over pes in which case the passage is interpreted either as an embellishment of a more straightforward underlying framework, or as the result of two or more paths each of which may leave out pes but which as a group account for the entire passage. i may initially seem that interpretations that skip over pes would be less attractive and more difficult to foltex, but this is not nec- essarily the case, especially if features of the musical surface suggest connecting the non-adjacent pcs and/or reinforce the pe cortespondence. Third, since motives are ordered sets, ideal realizations unfold one pc at atime. This is usually the case, but sometimes a pe will linger past the onset of the next, creating overlap, and in a few cases pcs actually enter simultaneously. But these situations cause only minimal disraption, especially for twelve-tone adherents who are familiar with the occasional concurrence of adjacent pcs in twelve-tone rows. And finally, while the vast majority of motivic interpretations are paths (ordered sets of motives), in a few cases motives develop simultaneously and therefore do not form paths per se; nonetheless, by considering the relative unfolding of the motives we can track them as a coherent unit. The consideration of Bagatelle No. 4 in its entirety and of excerpts from No. 1 and No, 3 demonstrates a wide range of possibilities in these and other analytic dimensions. Bagatelle No, 4 ‘The Violin-I line of Example 2 articulates a motivic path involving three R/T,/I- related motives, shown on the example." 11 unfolds leisurely—over most of the piece, in fact—providing a way to relate the isolated gestures to the later, more substantial melody, J2 and J3 are closely connected due ‘6 their two- ype oxerlap (B-F) and matching pitch-interval layouts (<#4,-1,-6> and <-6,2 ‘Tupory anp Practice Example 2. Bagatelle No. 4: the motivie path. weet Ro —~ ___=Ctést—s. Ua Cori ES re vp ——— » & itr, Baas fo Sting Quart 8 Copp © 124, Usveal in © ed Al i eed Us tt of Bein tl bts LL! ke US yl Ceaen Spt Uae Bion. -1,#4>), The path’s final note provides closure because it completes a second statement of . That is, the touch-fourth harmonics begin with , repeat C immediately and then, after three intervening pitches, Ab (spelled as ‘Although the latter C and Ap are non-adjacent, they are connected in that each articulates the apex of a crescendo/diminuendo, ‘The second motive path, shown on Example 3a, involves ait four members of the quartet and makes use of a different motive class. K1 and K3 articulate pe intervals and K2 and K4 the complementary . Because of these R-symmetric interval series, two operations map each motive ‘onto each other one, At the beginning, KI maps onto K2 via Ts and RT). Pitch {ayout supports the RT» interpretation because K2 reverses the order and direction of KI’s pitch intervals (<+13,-5,-11> becomes <+11,+5,-13>}. Rhythmically, because KI unfolds in sixteenths and K? in dotted sixteenths, we can heat the lat- ter as a temporally-augmented version of the former, Measured in thirty-second- note units, their attack-point rhythms are <222> and <333>, respectively." Overall, the KI/K2 association is particularly strong because it involves both pitch-space and rhythmic correspondences.” Following up on this relationship, RT, which transforms K1 onto K2, also transforms K2 onto motive K3 = . In addition, the gradual slowing down started by KI's <222> and K2's <333> continues with K3's <444>. K3's, connection to K1 and K2 is subller because it articulates pitch interval +1 where K1 and K2 articulate +11 and +13, Furthermore, K3’s non-adjacent notes make it more difficult to pall from the texture and its <444> dusationai series is articulated in a subtler manner. I take K3 to hegin on the downbeat of m. 3, where the sustained G in violin If sounds alone. By focusing on K3 precisely at the release of K2’s last note we create a continuous and orderly progression from K2 to K3. Similarly, although E enters partway through m. 3, we can shift full attention to E on the downbeat of m. 4, because at chat point it is stated solo, ‘on a downbeat, at the apex of @ crescendo. Continuing the established pattern, motive Ka = is an RT transformation of K3. The transition from K3 to K4 is clear, not only because the final articulation of K3’s last note (E) is followed imntediately by the initial artic- lation of K4’s first note (F), but also because both notes are repeated many times. Nonetheless, K4 continues the trend toward freer motivic treatment.‘Morwves AND Morivic Paris “wed S1ANOU

and ,A>. Although F# and F are in different instruments, nearly two octaves apart, and first articulated more than a measure apart, several factors help to connect them. First, F# and F are each articulated on the second thirty-second- on of the eighth-note beat. Second, the intervening viola and violin gem carefully planned to span from immediately after the initial artic- ulation of Fé to immediately hefore the articulation of F. Third, since F8 continues past F's arrival, F$ and F sound alone together for more than an entire beat, The ‘other pe pair, {B),A}, appears on consecutive offbeats and is involved in a voice exchange between the viola and violin-I lines. The final aural clue that F#, F, Bb, and A should be grouped together is their simultaneous appearance in the penul- timate measure, the last time that al! four instrements play at the same time. Concerning rhythm, the precise continuation of the pattem established by KI and K2’s clearly articulated <222> and <333>, and K3’s more subtly articu- lated <444>, would be <555>. But K4 articulates <20,5,4>, the last two durations, of which are lengthened considerably by a ritardando. The most radical departure from the rhythmic pattern is K4’s initial duration of 20, which can be described as a composed-out fermata involving ostinati in the lower three instruments and the beginning of violin I's only protracted melody. The composed-out fermata contains the most complex polyrhythms of the piece and is the only extended pas- sage where aii four instruments are playing simultaneously. Overall, the motivic path extends from the composition’s second note to its penultimate one, creating a complete unit in three ways. First, it uses each pe at least once, Second, three-fold repetition of RT3 results in an overall transformation of RT, that is K4 = RT«(K1). The use of RTs in this piece is of historical interest because it foreshadows RT¢'s more systematic role in Webern’s twelve-tone serial music, such as in the RTy-invariant row of the ‘Symphonie, Op. 21. Third, the ordered set composed of the first note of each motive creates a large-scale member of the same motive class! That is, motive KS = is embedded within < <>. All inall, this motivic interpretation is gratifying, not only because it takes into account so many details of the piece’s pitches, rhythms, and dynam- ies, but also because it corresponds closely to a view of motivic structure expressed by the composer. In reference to an excerpt from Schoenberg's Verklairte Nacht, Webern states: “At first, repetitions are literal and without gaps, like the links of chain, whereas later... repetitions [are] cartied out with ever- increasing freedom.”!® Yet, having a map of this motivic path is no substitute for taking the jour- ney. Example 3b depicts compressed into a single octave to facilitate vocal performance. Such an exercise—and this entire motivic interpre~ tation—could be useful to performers during the preparation of a performance of the piece, perhaps improving intonation and ensemble balance, and heightening awareness of certain dynamic and rhythmic details. Most importantly, it promotes 1a view of the piece that highlights the interaction of instrumental lines. Perform- ers must listen to one another Very carefully because itis their joint responsibilityMorives ano Morivic Pats 35 Example 4, Bagatelle No. the motivie path. ee A eee pS aegge TT = wo ee % Kony ete, Baguets for Suing Quiet op 8, Copii 194, vena Fon: © renee. Al) Hs sere ‘sed pensin fEuopse An Mine Debtors LLG se US. an Cans at Unit Eon, to lead the audience down the motivie path, sustaining dramatic interest and an overall sense of direction from beginning to end. This interpretation discourages thinking of the piece as a series of isolated, unrelated gestures, a view that might promote disjointed or even disinterested performances. Evample 4 identifies another motivic path based on motive-class K. Tt includes K3, which is familiar from the path, and motive Ke path can be heard as a tonally-closed unit because it begins and ends with Bo. We now add an ageregate-based interpretation of the movement, which takes its cue from the only passage in The Path to the New Music that refers specifically to the Bagatelles: In my sketchbook I wrote out the chromatic seale and crossed off the individual notes -. . The inner ear decided quite rightly that the [person] who wrote out the chromatic scale and crossed off individual notes was no foo! .... The most impor- tant thing i that each ‘un” of twelve notes marked a division within the piece, idea, ‘or theme." Example 5a’s presentation of Aggregate 1 omits pc repetition arising from the Bb/A oscillation and parenthesizes the superfluous B. Example Sb provides model of Aggregate I’s pitch structure, in which motives Ke and K2pq—exten- sions of KI and K2—aticulate complementary interval cycles (<17171> and ) and together complete the aggregate, These are complete cycles because further continuation results in repetition of the same string of pes. Example Se combines the consistent pitch layout of the model with the attack-point rhythm of the actual passage, allowing us to clearly highlight two aspects of the passage’s36 ‘THEORY AND PRACTICE Example 5. Bagatelle No. 4: Aggregate | (9) Asses Paes Rew Weber, Bagucllsfr Srag Queso. 9. Copytgt @ 1824, Le an: Orpen Al pi reser ‘Used by pts of Faropes Amsicin Muske Desdutts LLCs se US-and Cassin agen for Univeral Edition, rhythmic structure. First, not only do KI and K2 articulate series of repeating durations, but so do their extensions, so that overall Kleq and K2eq aticaiate <22288>' and <44333>, measured in thirty-second-note units. Second, the ‘model's note-against-note nature is camouflaged but not obliterated by this thyth- mic presentation; that is, pes that are simultaneous in the model appear adjacently in the music, as shown by diagonal lines on Example Sc. While rhythmic layout helps (© organize the motives, pitch-space realization tends to obscure them, because in the actual passage Klex and K2,,: articulate various, rather than con- sistent, pitch intervals. One can solidify the hearing of this interpretation by playing/singing/thinking through Examples 5b, 5c, Sa, and finally the actual excerpt (including the Ea/A oscitfation).!* ‘Aggregate 2 is a loose Ts re-composition of Aggregate 1. As illustrated in Example 6a, a nine-pe segment within Aggregate | recuts at Ty in Aggregate 2, in nearly the same order. Example 6b presents a subset of this relationship, L and its Ts counterpart L2 = , and identifies ee .Moves AND Monwvic Paris a7 Example 6. Bagatelle No. 4: Ts relations. MILA. ower EG (@) Comparing Aggregates 1 and 2 \ (ines connest Aumeetel: Bb Bb Tocelated pes) E ‘Agewais2: A (6),asubset ofthe ation in (2) descending contour pitch inervals = and-23 é — a =55 2 : J Beading conta, sixteen aac pit ration ‘cern, Rustler Sting Quant. op. 9. Copyah © 1924, Une tn: © retene. I ie eset ‘led ype of Europe Amenta Min Dato sl US an Cason agent Une Bon supporting musical features. (There is a mild ordering, anomaly here that mini- mally disguises the relationship; L1’s second and third pes enter simultaneously, while L2’s third and fourth do.) Example 6c identifies L1 and L2 within the full score. It is attractive to incorporate L1 and 12 into the path, not only because both articulate Ts, but also because L1 unfolds during K3w9’s pre- fixed Bo, and L2 during K6y's prefixed E! The result is very exciting —a straightforward interpretation that accounts for a huge portion of the movement: <{BoL.1},K3,(E,L2),K6>. Even though Aggregate 2's twelfth pc (Ab) enters two full measures before the end of the piece, itis preferable to hear the subsequent music as a continua- tion of Aggregate 2, because repeated notes and oscillations continue uninterrupted and other Tg relations with Aggregate 1 arise. For instance, K2ag and its Ty cousin J2jag = occur during the only dotted-six- teenth rhythms of the piece. Their embedding. in K2 and J2 points out a general connection between motive-classes J and K,, thereby further unifying the overall motivic interpretation of the movement. Finally, the last four notes of the piece ‘echo the starting notes of the instrumental lines at Ts, framing the entire move- ment, (See MI = and M2 = .)"° To summarize, the movement comprises several clear motivic paths, each ‘of which has benefits. elegantly accounts for the entire violin I Tine and Organizes violin I]. is attractive because it artic-‘THEORY AND PRACTICE won ss) ee ape E69 9717 MALI IN ‘nasa ‘pono oa Fase feat @ MSU) z a SuOHPIO YL, ff “ON aporeteg (PanunuoD) 9 a1durExs‘Monies anb Monwic Pars 39 Example 7, Bagatelle No. 4: harmonic relations. (a) Related chords (6) Near pitch-spacecorespandences—_(g) RT invariant chords (eaue Bex, be wo21 St tae Gl 34 "Wm deans “I ese teay i ims} (56) fore fox fon Tose won ong Re 10156) an ‘ete, Bags fr Sng Quiet op. 8. Copyh © 194, nie ion; © rnene. AL igh teed ‘sed pot of Earp Amercan Ml Decibels Us at Caras ag for Uae Bon, ‘Als Bar ou Snes of 2 20 4 Coprht © 1928 Scena hu as ity pein of le ns Mier. ia (eran) Al Rip et Ec ltr in Shp. n Tander: Coyeg D1, Hente Mane I Boy Sd Hes company. ‘sey peso ulates RT» three times (overall RT), a gradual motivie decelerando, and a large- scale version of K. Moreover, these paths interact in compelling ways with one another and with an aggregate-based account of the piece—K lex and K2.,. organ- ize Aggregate 1, and various other fragments highlight the T, relationship between Aggregates I and 2. By supplementing this motivic view with a few comments about harmonic structure, our appreciation for Webern's compositional genius deepens, because ‘we can sense the skill required to manage these multiple motivie paths within a strict harmonic framework. The movement features set-class repetition and abstract subset relationships involving {01356}, [01267), {QtS61, and [0167], as shown in Example 7, where several passages are verticalized and identified by ‘measure and beat. While these set-class relations are compelling enough, we can also track pe ordering in the pitch dimension to point out finer distinctions. Example 7a presents RYsLtelated ordered sets and , Example 7b identifies situations where the pitch-space ordering core spondences are near rather than exact. For instance, <(G),C3,F#,D,C> is a Ts transformation of except for the position of the parenthesized pe.” Example 7c identifies nested tritones in the RT,-invariant chord ¥>, Which further bolsters the case for the importance of (R)T in this piece and for this piece as a forerunner to the more systematic use of RTs in Webern’s later twelve-tone serial work. Itis also a harbinger of the RT,-invariant chords used by other twentieth-century masters.'* Bagatelle No. 1. Motives and motivic paths also yield rewarding interpretations of an excerpt from Bagatelle No. L. Within phrase 1, motivic relationships suggest pair-40 TroRy AND Practice. Example 8. Bagatelle No. 1: phrase J. (2) Motivi pairing of instrament iss amp (ADNAN Rt 3p Na Bit Sa > be 6) -Q1 Q2.Q3> andthe aperepte oa tgs + = {0123} segmentation dha produces an agers ‘eter, Sapte for Sting Que. 9, Cepyigh O 1824, Univeral aon: © ewe Al ich xe USI parmston sf ms Amertn Man Basho LC se US. an Canton get or Una Baton, \ ny Pea eerMonves axb Morivie Paris 41 ings of the instrumental lines; see Example 8a, Motives NI = and N2 = link the viola and violin II, and motives Pl = and P2 connect the cello and violin I. As a group, these motives account for ‘most of the phrase’s notes, including each of the lower three voices in their entirety. The task of attending to several motives simultaneously is somewhat simplified by studying the order in which they unfold. That is, excepting an ini- tial pc that is separated from the remainder of its motive by rests (N1’s E> and PI's D), motives in the same pair occur approximately at the same time (NI/N2 then later PLP2). But phrase 1 also suggests paths that do net require the following of several ‘motives at once. By including notes ftom different instrumental strata in the same motive we derive motives N3 = and Nd = . The unfolding of in a predictable and straightforward attack-point rhythm (eighths with one pair of sixteenths) provides a clear path from one downbeat to the next, as shown in Example 8b. The next interpretation retains some of the advantages of the previous two. Like the N/P description it accounts for twelve notes, a siz- able portion of the phrase, and like it relies on a single motive class and unfolds one motive at a time; see Example 8c. Motives Q1 = ,C#,C>, Q2.=, and Q3 = stretch from the beginning to the end of the phrase, missing only 2 few notes in between. (As in a previous example, the simultaneous entrance of one pe pair presents only a minimal disruption.) Moreover, since the path nearly completes the aggregate, it interacts in an excit- Example 9. Bagatelle No. 1: phrases | and 2. ‘Webern, Bustils fr tng Quant op 9, Copy ight © 1924, Unie en: © renee, ll is eed sity peat of Eup Amin Mise Bette LC lc US Caan pnt ot tne on42 ‘TuboRy AND Practice, ing way with Webern’s comments just cited. disregards G and con- siders Eb twice, once near the beginning of the phrase and once near the end. A slightly different parsing incorporates G, which helps to view the phrase in terms, of an (0123) aggregate partition.” Having studied phrase 1 on its own, we now compare it to phrase 2. First, +h instrumental line in phrase 2 refers to some aspect of phrase 1: the violin I line recalls the framing Eh, violin t's setciass (026] recolleets NI and N2 in the violin Il and viola lines, and each of the lower voices copy violin I's . Moreover, the ensemble as a whole creates a rhythmic rhyme by concluding each phrase with the same attack-point rhythm; see Examaple 9, But the melodic fragments perhaps most obviously connected to one another are the cello’s and the viola’s , each of which occurs near the end of a phrase and features a descending major second, crescendo-diminu endo dynamic, legato articulation marking, and dotted-quarter-then-eighth thythm, (Although F's dotted quarter is tied to a triplet quarter, itis sensible to shift more attention to cello’s F& precisely at the beginning of the dotted quarter because of the conclusion of viola’s ostinato.) In addition to this pair of surface instances, non-adjacent notes from different instruments articulate another veiled instance of each dyad. Since each dyad in the chain ends either precisely ot approximately as the next dyad begins, it is straightforward to follow the series of transformations that they articulate, Furthermore, several intervening notes enhance the pc and rhythmic correspondences. The dyads and their enhanced versions and are iso- lated and simplified in Example 10b. (To study these fragments in the context of the entire texture, consult the short score in Example 10.) Despite its advantages, the Ts path is quite sparse. After all, it skips over ‘more notes than it includes and therefore offers a relatively incomplete picture of the relationship between the phrases. Although differing phrase lengths preclude 2 precise one-to-one correspondence perforce, another interpretation offers a more complete view because it extends from the initial note of phrase 1 to the final note of phrase 2 and incorporates most notes in between. Under RTs, phrase V's VI = maps onto , a perfect match for phrase 2's V2 except for the order reversal of C8/D and the realization of <{E,F),A>,A> as a single chord, While slight order inconsisten- cies camouflage the interpretation, other musical features help to clarify it. Daring its first four beats, VI omits all pes articulated “off” the quarter-note beat in favor of those articulated “on” the beat, a meter-based approach to seg- mentation that makes VI easier to follow through the complex texture. V2 accounts for all of phrase 2’s notes except Bb on the downbeat of m, 4—the pas- sage’s only pizzicato note. Example 10¢ facilitates the comparison of VI and V2, and identifies further musical features that robustly support the pe relationship. The final interpretation finds « happy middleground between the straight- forward but sparse Te path and the extensive but complicated RTs reading. Motives WI = and W2 = herald the beginning of phrases 1 and 2 respectively. Their relationship is supported by identical pitch-interval series (<+11,-13>). The time between WI and W2 is filled with a crystal-clear‘Morives aND Morwvic Paras 3 Example 10. Bagatelle No. 1: phrases 1 and 2, multiple interpretations, ay Stor score SSS » © alsin ition Snipa ogra TADS) ‘dental pch-space layout o ‘Wetem,Bagull fer Sing Qua. 9 Copyright © 192, Unvenal Eton, © tenwed Al gis rr NEED) pas of apse Amica Mk Datars LLC le US and Catan ge fr Unica ain,44 ‘THBORY AND PRACTICE rmotivic repetition—motives X1 = and X2 = each artic- ulate pe intervals <281> and an eighth-quartereighth attack-point rhythm, Immediately following W2. motive W3 = creates tonal closure in to sways: articulates T,+T, overall T, and articulates an Reinvariant series of pitch intervals, <+l,-13,#16-13,+11>, that begins and ends on the same pe, C. The halving ofatack-point durations—from W's quar- ter notes, through W2's eighths, to W's sixteenths—creates a motivie accelerando that culminates with the violas dramatic, high, ong, solo C. The pil- ing of X3pap 0n top of W3 creates additional motivie intensity that seems appropriate for the climax of the passage. Example 10d provides a simplified presentation ofthe entire path -" We have considered four ways t0 relate phrases I and 2. The first relates individual instrumental lines to one another, and the other three establish motivic paths involving the cooperation of the entire ensemble. Of these three, two focus fn a single operator: Te in one case, and RT inthe other. The final interpretation makes use of a variety of operators, bu is particlarty vivid because rhythm sup- ports the pe correspondences.** Bagatelle No. 3. Motivic analysis aiso helps to organize the instrumental lines at the begin- ning of Bagatelle No. 3. The motivic material for the passage originates in the Viola Tine, motive Y ».An)D.G> on Example }J2. Other instrumental lines refer to various subsets of YP, which are identified by subscripted order Positions: ¥2}. = , Y1j.s = and Y1a.¢ = . First, the violin IL line articulates a large-scale reference to Y1j.3, motive ¥2;.5 = on Example 1b. Although Y2;. is composed of non-adjacent pitches, its piteh-space layout supports the relationship to ¥ 1 (<-1,+11>) and its extrac tion from the violin-Il line is straightforward: F is repeated six times, B is the ongest note of the line, Eb is the final one, and all three pitches are contour max- ima. The high registral placement also distinguistes it from the other instruments, Moreover, it is easy to connect E and E> because the intervening violin I notes afticulate a gradual shortening of durations and, along with a note borrowed from violin L, motive Y3,.s = . (Y3;.5 is precisely the transformation of Y1,.5 that holds the final two pes invariant, .) Violin II's durational shortening is accenttuated, not only by the ensemble’s accelerando marking, but also by the series of ever-quickening ascending minor ninths articulated by the interaction of violins I and I. The subsequent violin # and cello segments mimic the straight contour and pitch material of the violin II line’s conclusion (Example 1c), creating a unified motivic picture of the passage that involves all four instru- mental lines. Of coutse there are many other things to hear during this passage, such as motive Y43.¢ = , which is the cooperative effort of three instruments, interpofated between Y's final two pitches (Example 12a). Further, as we have seen in other movements, an aggregate-based interpretation provides a way 10 hear the opening (Example 12b). In addition, set-class relations provide harmonicMorives ano Morivic Paris, 45 Example 11, Bagatelle No. 3: mm. 1-4. (See Ziemiich Nessend i le Dama 3 te ary A () Msivie derivation of ot _ Ys vg 1 - wat as ts ‘quickening miaor inks () Motvi derivation of ln, Land ve ® ‘Wee, Bagaates For Sting Quart op 9, Coprght © 1924, sie ion: D renewed ll ihe eserved {ed by pete of Eup Amen Mos Dubos US. af Coma ap fr Unive Bao,46 ‘Theory AND Practic, Example 12, Bagatelle No. 3: mm. 1-4, further interpretation. (@) Another matvic connection Ye . vat vs 2 ith tg via, 2 a Ys : (oyna sep an . ———————— ——— ¥ & = = (0 Sets eats 1 tinal chord (046 on 0151 estoy copies a ae eee is forse) i, (057) (eee 1234739] (eomplement oFFOTSH “ise (0186) (oth sustained Gand Fs) ‘etn, Bagtls for Suing Quan, op 9, Coppi © 1924 Unite Bain: © renewed. Alig rer. USSHD poms et Earp mean Me Shuto Ce US aad ge ft Ute Eon, Nt (ee cop Ce ee |‘Motives ano Momivic Paras a consistency; all-interval tetrachords and {01256 are omnipresent and side-by- side (0157] mark the passage’s conclusion (Example 12c). Of passicular interest are the order-preserving Ts-related realizations of [01256], Z1 = and Z2 = ,C,E>.E>. Z1 and 22 wafold in tandem so that they may be heard as a series of [05]—realized as a perfect fourth in al cases but one—articulating ‘. Another interpretation of the Z1/Z2 passage points out the abstract complement relation between the instances of (0156] that frame the passage, and [01234789], which describes its total pe content. Overall, these set-class relations resonate with the main motive because Yl2.5 and Y13., articulate [04256 and [0156] respectively. Conclusion. ur approach to these complex pieces has relied on the simplest of pe phe- nomena: the pc interval. Repeating patterns of pc intervals define motives, and motives are concatenated into motivic paths. The straightforward nature of this aural strategy makes the effort tequired t0 follow a given path seem minimal com- pased to the resultant gratifying experience of Nearing these enigmatic pieces ‘unfolding in a logical and vivid manner. But the approach is not naive or irnited: instead it gives rise to tremendously varied paths that contrast with one another in ‘numerous ways. First, motives and paths vary in length; most motives identified in this essay contain approximately four pes, but in Bagatelle No. 1 motives U1-V4 each contain only two, and VI and V2 each contain eleven. Second, motivic paths range from two 10 nine motives in length, spanning at least a meas- ture and at most an entire movement. Third, most paths coasist ofa single motive ‘lass, but the final path in Bagatelle No. | features two, W and X. Fourth, some- times a motive class participates in one path, as in Bagatelle No. 1, while at other times a motive class connects multiple paths, asin Bagatelle No. 4's motive-class K. In addition, the number of simultaneous motivic paths varies. The analysis of the (primarily monophonic excerpt from Bagatelle No. 2 points out a single motivic path unfolding alone, but the remainder of the essay deals with poly- phonic textures that articulate multiple simultaneous paths. Finally, because surface features variously supporticonceal the pe relationships, some paths are easy to follow, some are more difficult, and some feature a variety of difficulty levels. (Recall for example, the path in Bagatelle No. 4, which js straightforward at first and becomes gradually more challenging as the piece progresses.) Moreover, while the analytic approach allows for the hearing of a single path through a given passage, several paths may be followed simultane- ‘ously, and unordered pe associations, rhythmic relations, and other features can also be joined with motivic readings to create interpretations of greater depth and difficulty, Overall, although this analytic epproach requires only recognizing and remembering patterns of pe intervals, itis far from being simplistic or superficial; rather, it produces many and varied motivic paths, whose complex interactions attempt to do justice to these intensely sophisticated compositions. It therefore seems that the answer to a question posed at the outset of the essay is clear: order-preserving pe relations are decidedly not absent from the48. TueoRy AND Practics Bagatelles. On the contrary, although often artfully hidden by the musical surface, ‘motives and motivic paths play a very important role and, along with a consider- ation of unordered sets, provide compelling coherent readings of pitch structure. This essay has focused primarily on the clarification of moment-to-moment continuities in these Bagatelles. But the interpretation of these independent pas- sages in tur facilitates comparison between the movements, thereby depicting the opus as a series of fascinatingly varied manifestations of a single composi- tional approach, This might well serve as a starting point for similar motivic analysis of Webern’s contemporaneous compositions, many of which also feature a paucity of obvious, surface thematic and motivic relations.”* This will allow us to compare and contrast motivic presentations in different works, and eventually to make general assertions about the role of order-preserving pe relations i Webern's middle-period atonal pieces Moreover, this approach saggests that the Bagatelles (and perhaps other works of this period) are more than merely beautiful, enigmatic curiosities in the context of Webern’s oeuvre. For example, compared to earlier atonal pieces, in which thematic repetitions are often apparent on the musical surface, the Bagatelles’ motives seem compellingly covert. And in light of the later practice of involving each note of a composition in some transformation of 2 single twelve-tone series, Op. 9°s motivic relations may appear fascinatingly untamed. ‘The move from less 10 greater systematization in Webern's approach to ordered pe reiations parallels his treatment of the aggregate. In the Bagatelles the articu- lation of the total chromatic is often camouflaged by pe repetition, whereas in the twelve-tone repertoire it is crystal clear and all-encompassing. Although ordered sets and aggregate completion both help to organize Op. 9, it was another decade before the two ideas became fused to produce twelve-tone rows subject to consis tent repetition—an affirmation of how carefully and deliberately Webern and his, colleagues proceeded atong the road to twelve-tone composition. Finally, and in an even larger context, the presence of numerous (Subtle) motivie associations suggests that Webern’s offhand comment—"We don’t want to repeat, there must constantly be something new!"—applies to the Bagatelles only i the shallowest sense. Instead, the music’s balancing of motivic and har- ‘monic relations conforms more closely to Webern's two-path view—-the sixteen-lecture account of “repetition” and the “evelopment of the tonal field,” Given this conformity, Op. 9 appears more clearly aligned with its musical pre- cursors and successors. Allin all, the Bagatelles appear not to mark a cul-de-sac in music history's motivic path, but a Wonderfully scenic detour. NOTES 1. T wish to thank Dora Hanninen for providing many feelpful comments on a draft of this essay, Ap earlier version of this essay was presented at the annual conference of the Music Theory Society of New York State in Binghamton, New York (2000).Morives anp Motivic Paris 49. Anton Webern, The Path 10 the New Music, ed. Willi Reich, trans. Leo Black (Vienna: Universal Edition, 1975), 22, 32. Both lecture series are published in this single volume. Fach series traces both paths (“tonal field” and “repetition”). Intended for rausic professionals, the 1932 lectures are more technical in nature than the ones given in 1933, which wese designed for a general audience. Webern, The Path, 55, The ensuing comments suggest that this was an attempt to bolster the case for twelve-tone composition by denigrating his earlier works: “Obviously this doesn’t work, it destroys compreteasibilty.” Then, perhaps regret- ting these harsh words, he back-pedals and clarifies: “At least it's impossible to ‘write long stretches of music in that way. Only after the formulation of the law [of twelve-note composition} tid it again become possible to write longer pieces.” Robert P. Morgan (ed,), Anthology of Twentieth-Century Music (New York: Norton, 1992), 178, ‘See Richard Chrisman, “Anton Webern's Six Bagatelles for String Quartet, Op. 9: ‘The Unfolding of Intervallic Successions,” Journal of Music Theory 2311 (1979), 81-122; and Aller, Forte, The Atonal Music of Anton Webern (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1998). Despite the heavy emphasis on unordered ‘sets, these sources indirectly/occasionally address ordered relations. im Chrismaa’s ‘work embedded set-class relations indirectly identify (partial) orderings. Sections of Forte’s analyses that afe primarily focused on octatonic design, form, and other special features often mention ordered pe phenomena in passing. See, for instance, the RT relation between and in Bagatelle No. 1 (174-45) and the RTo-telated and in Bagatelle No. 6 (203). ‘The book contains many sections that specifically address “motive,” however these Focus primarily on the structural role of individual pitches (or pes) and small unordered sets. For example, the analysis of Bagatelle No. 2 identifies eight recur- ring motivie fragments, seven of which are unordered pe dyads, Forte acknowledges that such motives “are distinct in nature from motives as we think of them in tonal music” (180). For an approach that mixes contour, set-class interpre- tations, and a few ordered pe relations, see the engaging analysis of Bagatelle No. 1 in Christopher Hasty, “Phease Formation in Post-Toval Music,” Journal of Music Theory 2811 (1984), 167-90, Several analyses of Webem's other atonal works make more frequent use of ordered sets: David Lewin, Musical Form and Transformation: Four Analytic tays (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993), 68-96, Elizabeth West Marvin and Robert W. Wason, “On Preparing Anton Webern's Early Songs for Performance: ACollaborator's Dialogue,” Theory and Practice 20 (1995), 91-124; Robert Wason, “A Pilch-Class Motive in Webern's George Lieder, Op. 3,” in Kathryn Bailey (¢d,), Webern Studies (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), 111-34; as well as Forte's analysis of “An Bachesranft” (The Atonal Music, 32.37).50. 10. nL. 12 1B ‘THEORY AND Practice Forte, The Atonal Music, 177. Forte's assertion is further supported by my analysis ‘of Bagatelle No, 4 below, which highlights a particular ordering of 47. ‘The book portrays the H1/H2 relation as a by-product ofthe interaction of octatonic hexachords (A,G8RB.FE,.C} and {E,G%EG,B.A#): “the counterpoint of the two ‘octatonic hexachonds produces successive forms of nonoctatonie 4-7." (emphasis added) (177). For a more detailed evaluation of Forte’s analysis of this piece, and Of the book in general. see Dave Headlam’s review of the book in Music Theory Spectrum 22/2 (2000), 246-57. Headlam’s discussion of Forte's analysis character- izes these 4-7s as “motivic” (252), lu it is not clear thatthe use ofthe term implies an order-preserving relationship. First, pes are enclosed in curly brackets, whici typically denote unordered sets in the analytic Jiterature, rather than with angled brackets, which enclose ordered sets, Also, later in the review the term “motivie” is used 10 characterize the relation of segmentation to surface: “The segmentations fare much closer to the surface...and are more “motivic’ in that sense” (254). This ‘meaning of the term makes sense in the convext of Headlam’s contrasting of HI/H2’s simple tetrachordal segmentation with the more complex hexachordal seginentation, which skips over several pes. I should emphasize thar T am not implying that Forte and Headlam have not noticed the order-presecving nature of the HI/H2 relationship, only that the analyses often do not clearly distinguish corder-preserving refationships from those that do not preserve order: The borrowing of Webern's term “path” draws an analogy between motivie paths, Which a listener can follow through (pant of) a piece, and Webern’s The Path ro the New Music, which traces conceptual paths throughout Western music history, For other recent examples of the path analogy see Philip Lambert, “Berg"s Patt co Twelve-Note Composition: Aggregate Construction and Association in the Chamber Concerto,” Murie Analysis 12/3 (1993), 321-42; and Janna asta, Forces, Containers, and Paths: The Role of Body-Derived Image Schemas in the Conceptualization of Music,” Journal of Music Theory 40/2 (1996), 217-43, Forte (in The Atomad Afusic, 189) idemtifies three instances of set-class 4-18 (0147}—the pair labeled J2 and J3, and one involving non-adjacent pes 1A.ED,CAb} A motive's attack-point rhythm isthe ordered series of durations measured from the attack of one note to the attack of the next ‘The simultaneous consideration of pe and durational intervals is formalized by direct-prextyct Generalized Interval Systems in David Lewin, Generalized Musical Imervals and Transformations (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1987), 37. Webern, The Path 31. Webern, The Path, 5115, Morives ano Momvic Paras 31 Elliott Antokolet’s persuasive account of Bagatelle No. 5 (in Twentieth-Century ‘Music (Upper Saddle River, NS: Prentice Hall, 1998}, 20-22) also involves simui- taneously-unfolding complementary interval cycles (<1> and ) For a different binary interpretation ofthe form based on aggregate conopletion see Forte, The Atonal Music, 185. ‘The set-class relationship between chords 5.3 and 6.) ¥ pointed out in Chrisman (“Intervallic Suevessions,” 106-07). While the RT invariance of Berg’s Lyrie Suite raw is well known, his use of such ‘chords has not been emphasized. By contrast, Elliott Carter's use of T-invariant, all-interval, twelve-tone chords has been well documented. See for example David Schiff, The Music of Eliott Carter, 2nd edn, (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1998); idem, “In Sleep, In Thunder: PSiott Carter's Portrait of Robert Lowell,” ‘Tempo 142 (1982), 2-9; Ciro Scotto, “Elliott Carter's Night Fantasies: The All- Interval Series as Registral Phenomenon,” paper presented at the smnual mecting of the Society for Music Theety (Oakland, CA, 1990); John Link, “The Composition of Elliott Carter's Night Fantasies,” Sonus 14/2 (1994), 67-89; and Andrew Mead, “Twelve-Tone Composition and the Music of Eniot Carter,” in Elizabeth West Marvin and Richard Hermann (eds.), Concert Music, Rock, and Jazz since 1945; Essays and Analytic Studies (Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press, 1995), (67-102. For @ general discussion of a-interval series consult Robert Morris and Daniel Starr, “The Structure of All-Interval Series,” Journal of Music Theory 18/2 (1974), 365-89, Other authors have noted the work's chromatic basis. See for example, Henti Pousseur, “Webern's Organic Chromaticism,” trans. Leo Black, Die Reihe 2, 2nd rev. edn. (1959), 51-60; and Harald Kaufmann, “Figur in. Weberns erster Bagatelle,” Veroffentiichungen des Institus fur Newe Musik und Musikerzeihung 6 (1967), 69-72. ‘Three other paths provide altemative ways to hear phrase 4, each supported by some features ofthe misical surface, Fist, despite the frequen switching between instrumental lines and the lrg pitch interval, itis easy to follow and is T transformation because they take into account nearly every note fromm. 1's CF tom. 2's Fb inclusive, The only’ pe omitted fom the interpre- tation is A, each stement of which coincides wit a higher pitch that i past ofthis path, Second, there isthe RT relationship between and , 4 path that includes four consecutive notes (fron three instruments) followed by four more unfolding in an eighth-not rhythm entirely in the violin T line (as Forte points out in The tonal Musi, 174-75). Finally, T-telated motives and <(Ab,A},B>E> unfold in clear progression of quarter. then eighth-note attack-point durations. This passage is s divers in is motive content fora least, two reasons. Fis, the prevalence of sporadic, brief gestures involving a variety of rhythms and complex note overiap, encourages the shifting of attention from one2 20. 21 2. 2. 24. 25, 26. ‘TieoRy AND PRACTICE instrument to one another, and since there are many ways to do this, no single seg- mentation asserts itself unequivocally. Second, the presence of four ways to transform onto allows these dyads to participate in four motive pairs: RTgl, Ty, RTs, and Ti relate N2/N3 and the motive pairs just mentioned, In addition to the T relation between phrases, there are hints of RTs within phrase 1: <{D,B5),Co/,{A,Ab}> and /. The return of unordered set {C4,D,E4) is discussed in Forte, The Atonal Music. 174. Extraordinarily enough, an alternative segmentation of the end of this path reveals a series of four members of the Same motive class: ,E> ) and is the lowest note of the piece so far. s is worth waiting for. Not only does it complete the relation- on ( Preliminacy study suggests that the motivie approach has applications beyond the Bagatelles. Consider for example the last of the Four Movements for Violin and Piano, Op. 7, No. 4, Where motive Hl = and its Tp transformation, H2 = . help to osganize the first phrase. Hi and H2 unfold ia & straightforward way in the violin line, with only two anomalies. First, the piano contributes the note A, but ths is sensible to pull from the texture because it is stated in a conspicuously low register as the violin sustains E. Second, the violin interpolates the note F between H2's final two notes. The Ts connection is further supported by the correspondence between the piano chord {,C#,Eb) that follows Hi and its Ty transformation (B,EXF} near the top of the piano chord that follows #2, (G.D.C.EAbB.ES). While many earlier pieces have clear surface thematic statements, Lam not suggest- ing that they do not also contain subtle relationships. In Op. $, No. 3 for instance, consider the cyclic fragments (m. 7) and (F#),B,D,G, Bb> (the initial pair [014] chords taken as a unit and ordered from low to high). Transformations of these fragments, and , are concatenated, rotated, and arifully hidden withthe initial canon at the fifth, Were this not ingenious enough, the canon's simultaneous dyads articulate interval- classes 1, 3, and 4—ic,, precisely those contained within each of the prevailing 1014) chores.2003 M.T.S.N.¥.S. Emerging Scholar Award Multidimensional Counterpoint and Social Subversion in Luigi Nono’s Choral Works Jeannie Guerrero ‘The political overtones of Luigi Nono’s works often resonate more loudly than his ‘music. One might be tempted to counteract the eclipse of masical issues by social issues through reversing the position—ie., discussing music to the exclusion of politics—but such a reversal might not be any more fruitful for the study of socially engaged artworks such as Nono’s. Rather than posit musical and social issues at opposite poles of a hypothetical spectrum, I shall attempt to present both side by side, as analogous realms that exhibit identifiably similar tendencies. in the same vein, I shall place Nono’s music in analogous but not opposite musical contexts. Even though this essay was originally presented in a conference session devoted to so-called avant-garde music composed after the Sevond World War, I will orient my discussion around sacred music composed before the Thirty Years War. Luigi Nono’s choral music contains counterpoint in a very conventional sense. Once exposed, the music's contrapuntal aspect forges a conspicuous link to older music as a whole, rather than making specific allusions to a handful of com- positions. Examining the choral pieces irom the vantage point of older music —that is, finding the old within the new, rather than simply the new within the new—reveals more about the music than examining it solely on the basis of its innovative techniques, that is, its use of the total or integral serialism associated with the Darmstadt Summer Courses. Thus, 1 shall focus on Nono’s contrapuntal techniques in both an old and a new sense, rather than on his serial techniques or any perceived deviation therefrom.! Figure 1 shows the first eight measures of Cori di Didone, a choral work completed by Nono in 1958. The text of the passage appears between the Soprano and alto parts in the score; Ihave added numerals in the score at various locations to delineate the order of choral entrances. Entrances often involve several per- formers at once, coalescing into pitch clusters that originate at C4 and radiate 3854. ‘THEORY AND Practice, Figure 1, Nono, Cori a Didone (1958), mm. 1-8, 3 4 dea wt jae if am ‘Copy 198K Msn Ar Mis Vera: © nen Alrighs eived. Ue by pum Burg Amc Muse me On Canad A serch a neo Mane weMULTIDIMENSIONAL COUNTERPOINT 55 Figure 1 (continued). 2 0m BO 2 death meses 3g dont = ao RIN. sparte0 2556 ‘THEORY AND PRACTICE symmetrically outward, 1 shall henceforth refer to the pitch clusters as nodes, Dashed lines in the score belong to Nono, and they connect phonemes of text into semantically comprehensible words. Not all phonemes are connected to words by lines; for instance, Node 2 hovers in the tenors without a tether to another node, However, Node 2°s"s” belongs to the word sera, which unfolds across Nodes $ through 10 The passage’s text setting fills the musical texture with various types of echoes. A relatively simple device, the duplication of textual components, gives birth to a broad spectrum of effects. For instance, the monosyllabic word a takes up three nodes (1, 3, and 4) rather than just one, producing aural effects of echo- ing and its opposite. Textual echoes can aid the listener in tracking the succession of nodes throughout the passage. I shall refer to the duplication of textual com- Ponents as text resonance and define it as the re-sounding of a syllable or its parts after it appears musically Sometimes a component precedes its syllable, such as at Node 2, which presents the "s” of sera before the first syllable appears in full at Node 7. In these cases, I refer to that duplication as presonance. Figure 2a sum- marizes the text presonance and resonance in the passage. As a general rule, resonance and resonance color nearly every syiable in the passage. Resonance and presonance do not confine themselves to the textual dimen- sion but extend also to pitch. However, it must be borne in mind that resonance cannot be distinguished from presonance in non-text dimensions without criteria, for diffesentiation that are analogous to those in textual semanties. For conven ience, then, I shall say that resonance only—without precluding presonance altogether—characterizes the behavior of pitch material in the passage. For instance, the lone C4 of Node I resonates in Nodes 3, 4, and 5. The three-pitch cluster in Node 6 resonates in Nodes 7, 9, and 30, The two-pitch cluster of Node 2, however, does not resonate. Figure 2b summarizes pitch-cluster resonance in the passage. The pitch-class notation in the diagram is used as shorthand for pitch content; C4 resonates in register, not at any other octave. Resonance occurs only for short periods of time, and pitch-clusters increase and decrease in density 10 form two wedge shapes. Resonance can be found in the realm of dynamics. The marking ppp-p of Node 3 resonates at Nodes 4 and 5, while the matking p-mf' of Node 6 resonates at Nodes 7, 9, and 10. Figure 2c summarizes resonance in dynamics for all eight iteasures. Dynamics mirror each other over the course of the entire passage and build two wedge shapes that resemble the wedges created by the increasing and decreasing cluster density in the pitch dimension Lastly, durations also exhibit resonance. I shall represent durations notated in the score as fractions in my diagrams. Denominators represent the number of parts dividing a single quarter note (4 for sixteenth notes, 5 for quintuplets, and So on up through 7), and numerators represent the number of notes applied to a divided quarter. In this system, Node 1 would be represented as the fraction 2/4, Node 3 as 9/5, and Node 4 as 2/6. Durations resonate throughout the passage, as shown by Figure 2d. Unlike other dimensions, the duration dimension features resonance for extensive lengths of time over several intervening nodes.MULTIDIMENSIONAL CoUNTERPOINT 37 In each of the four musical dimensions 1 have described, resonance creates, streams, which themselves build larger textures. Nodes 1 through 10 exhibit four distinct dimensional textures, given as Figures 3a through 3d. The figures show ‘only the performers involved in Nodes L through 10, and they show what each ‘vocal part bears in the separate dimensions, Circled nodes in the diagrams repre- sent nodes that generate new dimensional material within a passage. In most cases, but not all, those nodes also generate streams of resonance. In the text dimension, three nodes genetate material. They correspond to the three syllables of text that are needed to project the article-noun phrase, la sera. ‘The pitch dimension involves four generators, of which two also generate resonat- ing streams, The dynamics dimension has five generators, of which two generate streams. Lastly, the duration dimension exceeds all others with six generators, vwith four of them creating streams. Generators, as heads of resonating streams, do not correspond with each other actoss musical dimensions. In fact, for this very short excerpt (Nodes 1 through 10-—just two measures of music), a high degree of disparity occurs. Figure 4a shows the occurrence of generators only (the circled nodes in Figures 3a through 3d), not resonating nodes. As can be seen, a given node often gener- ates material in one dimension to the exclusion of others. For example, Nodes 7 and 10 generate new text material exclusively, while Nodes 5 and 9 generate dura- tion material only. ‘The oaths of generator-nodes create streams in themselves. If the changes brought about by generator-nodes are thought of in a manner similar to the way that changes in pitch create melodies, then we can perceive the generator paths as melodies or Voices—in a diffetent sense—that interact with each other in various ways. The difference is that each of the voices belongs to & separate dimension rather than to a separate performer. The interaction of generator-streams across multiple dimensions creates what I shall refer to as multidimensional counter: point ‘Thus far I have been implying «wo distinct but related things. First, pre- sonating and resonating phonemes of text become linked as contiguous streams despite the temporal space that divides them. This happens because semantic prin- ciples allow the listener to identify them as repetitive particles that should be united. 1 am suggesting that resonance in other dimensions mimics the cohesion exhibited by text resonance. Second, changes in textual material build contiguous streams of words and sentences, which the listener also binds together according to semantic principles. Streams in other dimensions also mimic this higher-level cobesion in the text dimension, For instance, melodie principles of contour and connectedness allow the listener to unify a succession of pitches into a larger whole. I prefer to invoke the concepts of melody and counterpoint in this regard because they suggest motion, but of a sort that Nono alters. In a conventional sense, melodies move metaphorically: that is, listeners attribute motion to changes incurred over time. In Nono’s music, changes over time very often cor- espond to spatial translocations; for example, a phaneme will literally relocate from one performer to another.‘TaEoRY AND PRACTICE 58 a To ee oo EET yoHed “az aunty, Tt ara 2uoPId Ip 140) JO $-) “ext Uf ZoUBUOSDS pur aouEUOSAId WAI. "eZ aUNBLin Figure 2c. Dynamics resonance in mm. 1-8 of Cori di Didone. 0 MULTIDIMENSIONAL, COUNTERPOINT 39 & aS 5 a ast z d cS “| 2 a ORtt 3 3 f 8 git 8 Pee ae = Rtttt ' 8 sak 3 te u ” tree PR. ae) ace oe é 8 sRttt ¢ g Stt Brttt toq ¢ 2 = Bos ttt se a rte boy oon EB oof treRr sf stete te ft 2 wt t htt . p | Be ra bere 2 Att t fSttt a ® & eo Bo tts ate a z 1118 tte +8 44% E % 18 48 4 te 8 48 7 as60 ‘THroRY AND Practice, Figure 3a. Text streams in mm. 1-2 of Cori di Didone. pant pmt Pmt pnt pant pant pnt pant pat Ppp-p Figure 36. Pitch-cluster streams in mm, 1-2 of Cori di Didone.‘Mutripnaexstonat, COUNTERPOINT Dynamics streams in ram. 1-2 of Cori di Didone. ISO : Figure 36. Duration streams in mm, 1-2 of Cori di Didone. 662 THEORY AND PRACTICE The diagrams show the relocation of material throughout the ensemble. ‘That is, the diagrams plot qualitative motion between acoustic sources, not guan- titative motion between points in pitch-space or even geometric space. Thus, my primary concern does not revolve so much around the distance, however concep- ‘wal, between acoustic sources as around the alignment between two or more paths, I do not focus so much on how far one generator travels to another, but to where it travels. A rudimentary example of where-based motion might be found in Andrea and Giovanni Gabrieli’s polychoral compositions. Conceived for Venice's Basilica di San Marco, these pieces set music into spatial motion between two choirs separated from each other by a large distance. In fact, the Gabrielis’ polychoral style seems to have greatly inspired Nono—a topic fo whiek T shall return later. With its web of traveling particles, multidimensional counterpoint creates innovative textures in a very conventional sense, Figure 4b renders Figure 42 iavo three dimensions. As can be seen, the fist hwo measures of Cori di Didone imme- diately create & texture of intertwined dimensional voices, departing from a three-dimensional or three-voice “unison” with the fourth voice entering later. Such an opening is not unlike the beginaing of a four-voice motet, in which a pitch unison evaives into a perfect consonance or a triad, Figures dc and dd show multidimensional counterpoint for the entire efght- measure passage of Figure 1. The diagrams stow that the unison very quickly becomes an intricately woven mesh of voices. Within that mesh, there are ana ogues to some conventional voice-leading behaviors, such as parallel motion between dimensions (represented as congruent paths in Figure Sa) and contrary motion between dimensions (represented as intersecting paths in Figure 5b). Figures 4c and 4d show that the passage concludes with two intersecting, paths that each culminate in four-dimensional coincidences. The conclusion here might, even resemibie the approach and resolution of an imperfect consonance to an octave at a cadence. Moreover, the cadence articulates the end of the first two textual verses, which form the first complete grammatical unit in the poem (La ‘sera si protanga I per un sospeso fuoco). Tracking multidimensional counterpoint thereby illuminates the passage’s underlying and rather normative phrase strue- ture, In addition to articulating phrase structures, multidimensional counterpoint produces regions of Variety on a small scale. On a large scale, the textures can determine the form of an entire work. Tite beginning of the 1960 choral work Sara dolce tacere is given in Figure 6a. Counterpoint within each of the four dimen- sions is shown in Figure 6b. In the diagrams, I have circled only tose nodes that generate resonating streams; cnmpletely unattached nodes are also generators, but they do not generate any streams. Again, pitch-class designations serve as place- holders for pitches resonating in register. In the duration dimension, 1 have used a system of reference durations that eases comparison of time-spans. In this system, a value of 60 corresponds to the time-span of a quarter note. An eighth note would get a value of 30, a single triplet a value of 20, a sixteenth note 15, and so on,“MULTIDIMENSIONAL. CouNTERPOINT. 63 Interestingly enough, the text dimension projects two separate regions of streams, severing the word callina from the first three words of the verse, Aniche tu sei. The two dashes in the diagram stand for the indication bocea chiusa ‘¢*mnouth closed”), a neutral textual color. I have reason to believe that the dash ia B1 belongs with the “0” of collina, while the dash in A2 belongs with the “a,” but rely on the pitch content at these nodes, which might not necessarily line up with text content. Streams connect all four words together in the other dimensions. Three pitches, marked as pc-, pe-6, and pc- in the figute, bridge the gap between mm. 2 and 3, which the text dimension had left open. Likewise, two durations (etarked as 100 and 90) make particularly strong connections across that Very gap. In the dynamics dimension, there are two candidates for presonance, marked by double- headed arrows. Occurring in close proximity to each other, the dynamics here mirror each other so that itis not entirely clear which one truly precedes the other. In the same fashion, the dynamics projected by the two circled nodes at the end of m. I mirror each other, perhaps as simultaneous presonators and resonators Because the same ar strongly felated dynamics markings appear at both the begin- ning and end of the excerpt, the dynamics dimension might feature a local ternary form. The dynamics joined together by extremely long arrows in the figure would comprise the A sections of the form. In any case, one dynamic bridges the gap projected by the text dimension (pp-mp, m. 2) The generator-paths for the passage appear as Figure 6c. Like the opening measures of Cori di Didone, the opening measures of Sara dolce tacere immedi- ately launch from a multidimensional coincidence into a complicated mesh of on-intersecting counterpoint. A four-dimensional coincidence at the first entrance seems to be achieved once more at the word tu, but thereaftes, all four dimensions fail to coalesce agzin. However, three dimensions occasionally meet, as at “co” of collina in m, 3, and at BI's “o” in m. 4. In al, the passage does not come to a cadence, which makes sense textually because the verse (Anche tu sei collina) continues grammatically on to several more textual verses. ‘A passage from the middle of Sara dolce tacere, sm. 38-44, appears in Figure 7a. Dimensional streams for the passage can be found in Figure Tb. The passage carves out a striking path within the second choir in all four dimensions ‘The text path commences at “si” of silencio and contisves until the penultimate ‘measure of the passage. The pitch stream (notated as pe-3 in the diagram but standing for Ex4) commences two nodes earlier, bt it continues for precisely the same length as the text stream. The duration stream (-C-D leads, with upper tenths D-E-E). In both passages. the expanded dissonance marks 2 transitional moment between ritornello statements and between different “key areas.” The actual voice leading of this expanded dissonance differs from the previous examples, and invites a brief explanation. See Figure 1, lower tight. This configuration, which combines the VII and V functions, has invited special attention 2s mentioned above); Schenker explains in Free Composition, §246: “VII belongs to V in the. sense of an auxiliary cadence,”"” This is what Bach has done here on the small scale of applied dominants. The passage is additionally remarkable in that Bach combines reaching-over with the expanded dissonance configuration. Interestingly, this sort of expanded dissonance configuration may play a motivic role in the piece. In addition to the two passages cited, Bach also incorporates an accelerated sequence of this figure (at the half-measure pace) at the end of the ‘movement, first in mm. 44-46 and then with violins exchanged (invertible coun- terpoint) in mm, 47-49, in both cases elaborating « 10-£0-10-10 series leading, to the tonic.” Next, let us consider more expanded versions of dissonance: three examples of prototype A over the span of a four-bar hypermeasure. Following eighteenth- century practice, these may include two-measure groups of “compound” measures." In Example 16, the voice-leading reduction of mm, 25-29 outlines the basic figure: 4 (F) initiates the figure over a diatonic Il, becomes dissonant as the bass ‘moves through the characteristic passing 6/4 (over the tonic note) towards the V;, and finally resolves (t0 Es) over tonic harmony (at the next hypermetric down- beat). Similar to the previous examples, it articulates an underlying 10-10 succession (through a surface 34-5-7-3). Another feature typical of Bach’s pto- cedure is present here: the use of 6 moving at the last moment to 5, which gives the surface effect of a leading-tone seventh chord moving into the dominant; and, at a deeper level, of the dominant ninth chord resolving prior to the harmonic res- olution,Sa SS SS SS aiExPanep DISSONANCE 101 More importantly, this expanded dissonance follows prototype A at the hypermetric level. It comprises an ordinary four-bar unit in line with the consis- tent hypermeter of the overall piece (which is experienced as a dance-like triple meter). The delayed resolution appears only on the next hypermetric downbeat— which happens to be the final hypermeasure of the piece. It thus fulfills the role of a dominant prolongation just prior to a final tonic resolution; in this sense, Within the context of the whole minuet, the resolution of the expanded dissonance provides as much closure as does the final bar. Additionally, while the expanded use of dissonance does not change the hypermeter or phrase length, it does achieve a subtle but marked effect by suspending the normal pace of harmonic motion (one- or two-meastre units) thus heightening the anticipation of the resumption of harmonic motion. I take 3 as the Kopfion here; 4 appears as a mid- dleground neighbor note, first as @ consonance supported by IV and then transformed into a dissonance during the given passage, and finally resolving back to 5 for the final cadential progression. In this sense, the entire second sec- tion of the form acts as a kind of middleground expanded dissonance (44-3 over TV-V-1), of the sort Schenker represents in the Free Composition sketches cited above. The passage of Example 17 differs from psevious ones in its overall har- ‘monic motion, beginning with tonic and moving towards the dominant. Here the expanded dissonance involves two tones in a kind of double expansion: { and 3 are initiated over I, proceed through a bass arpeggiation that outlines I in prepa- ration for the long dominant pedal point, and resolve to 7 and 2. The outer-voice counterpoint is 8-10 and 10-5, articulated with passing tones. This example is, :uich more diatonic than might be expected, in part because Bach chooses to pro- long the pre-dominant rather than tonicize the upcoming dominant. If we hear this passage in half-bar units (a compound #, in eighteenth-century terms), then it clearly follows prototype A at the level of the hypermeasure, resolving on tke stfong half-measure that begins in m. 4. The material that follows is further com- plicated by a skillful use of displacement—a kind of tonal syncopation. A similar passage appears With the entrance of the voice. ‘A final example of rhythmic prototype A is taken from the well-known ‘opening chorus of the St. Maithew Passion (Example 18).*" Here the expanded dissonance appears no less than four times and functions in part to articulate a thyme scheme in the text. All are of the type oriented towards the dominant, althoogh two actually appear in the “key” of the dominant (thus moving to its dominant). The first instance, in mm, 7-9 (not shown), appears as part of the instrumental introduction and prepares a long dominant pedal and definitive cadence. The second instance, in mm. 24-26 (shown), is used by Bach to set the important verb “klagen,” which marks the end of a text phrase just before the dra- matic exchange between choirs. The third instance, mm. 40-42 (not shown), is in .an internat instrumental interlude; and the fourth, mm. 80-82 (not shown), sets the verb “tragen,” thus closing the rhyme with the earlier passage. In the passage shown in Example 18, the soprano voice holds the prolonged dissonance, ¥, while the first violins dance around it with various diminutions; both nevertheless serve to prolong the dissonant tone E (i), which resolves eventually to D# as the bass102 mn, Aria “Mache dich,” mm, 2-4, score and reducti Example 17. St. Marthew Passio ‘Tuboky AND Practice104 ‘Tufory AND PRACTICE moves through the characteristic contour. In addition to the rhyme scheme con- necting the second and fourth instances, the first and fourth appearances (together with the phrases in which they appear) also help to frame the entite movement, the same basic passage occurring in each position. Now let us turn to examples of expanded dissonance of prototype B, which tends to appear (for reasons enumerated above) over the span of a four-bar met- ric unit—typically a hypermeasure within the piece.’ In contrast to those of prototype A, these involve a more complex interaction of tonal and rhythmic events, and thus more sophisticated techniques of phrase rhythm. Representative of this prototype, then, is the opening example from “Biute nur.” We saw already that the expanded dissonance extended the metric sense of the phrase, adding two additional measures to the overall phrase length (as com- pared to its model in the opening ritometio). We can understand additionally that it composes-out an underlying (0-10 succession (articulated as 34-5~7-3), part of a repeated harmonic motion towards cadential closure of the phrase, and that it follows prototype B, if we take the piece to be in a compound 4, This allows Bach to initiate another dominant preparation on the subsequent downbeat, signaling to the listener that this particular resolution is not part of the expected cadence of the phrase, which arrives later on both a metric and hypermetric downbeat Bach occasionally uses an even more extended version of this figure, where the bass arpeggiates an entire seventh chord (usually with passing bass tones) d ing the prolonged dissonance. (See the top of Figure 1.) In addition to the mixture of VIL and V and dominant ninths, this figure characteristically initiates from an octave consonance, giving an 8-10 outer-voice counterpoint (articulated as 1-3-5-7-3), In Example 19, Bach uses the figure in the typical manner as a way to heighten the dominant as it moves from pre-dominant to tonic. Here also the voice touches on a second voice-leading strand that includes the dominant ninth before returning to the main voice, which descends from B» to A. More characteristic of the recitative style, the bass arpeggiation is direct, without the harmonized pass- ing tones. Although such a passage need not follow a rhythmic prototype, Bach makes use of the phrase-defining aspects of prototype B, which we analogously designated as “phrase.” After a measure of introduction (ic., the Evangelist intro- ducing Fesus’s words), Bach sets a complete sentence of text as an eight-measure phrase (with a single harmonic motion I-IV-V-1, the final four measures of which comprise the expanded dissonance (IV-V-D. In this role—dramatizing the phrase as it nears its compietion—rhythmic prototype B obviously makes the most sense. ending the phrase with the resolution of the prolonged dissonance. In the context of Example 20, Bach leads the expanded dissonance from 1 over tonic harmony to an elaboration of V/V. Interestingly, the dominant ninth (DE) remains until the moment of resolution, thus implying a kind of double extended dissonance: along with the main outer-voice counterpoint of 1-3-5=7-3 is a secondary the underlying motion being 8-10. Although this sec- ondary strand usually resolves before the restimption of harmonic motion, here it ‘becomes more independent, standing along with the main line in a double disso-105 [EXPANDED DissONANCE gif agian RS a ge TTT ———— = —- === = Sa = -uosonpas pur 2103s ,"yoeuds pun s1ouomuE 4g, “aNTTENDEY “uaIssrg MayUDYY Ig °6) aIduEXA, Viaheg‘TaBoRY AND PRACTICEEXPANDED DissoNANce 107 nance figure, Additionally, the phrase rhythm here is complex. The expanded dis- sonance defines a four-bar unit (following prototype B), but a consistent four-bar hypermeter is not present in this piece (as t was in the minuet from French Suite No. 2). Instead, after two consecutive eight-bar phrases, Bach reinterprets m. 16 as the initiation of a new metric unit, which comprises the expanded dissonance as well as four additional measuces composing-out the dominant of the dominant (atypical harmonic pattem for a two-teprise form). Bach uses a similar passage at the end of the gigue (mm. 4-47), reinterpreting m. 44 as the initiation of the expanded dissonance, which is of course modified to conclude on the tonic triad (in the tonic “key”). The voice-leading reduction of the passage from Example 21 shows two expanded dissonant events: the first, the extension of C over A-G-F#-E-D§, and the temporary resolution 7-6 aver Dé; followed immediately by the second, the extension of E over D (the bass’s D being dissonant against the upper voices)-C2- C-B-A$ and resolving to D over B. The former shows our basic type, this ime ‘with passing tones for the whole bass motion. It initiates with TV and moves through VIL/V to I, although the trae resolution is elided and replaced on the downbeat by a dissonant 4/2. The subsequent expanded dissonance (E in the ‘upper voice) is less elaborate than the previous, the bass diminution descending only to a half-step below the dominant scale degree. Resolution of the V follows, although itis not literally part of the expanded dissonance. The tonic harmony is not the only thing elided between these two expanded dissonances: there is also a rhythmic elision of a whole measure through reinterpretation. Bach composes the first dissonance to define a four-measure unit, in which the resolution arrives in the fourth (weak) measure. But then he reinterprets that measure as the first of & ‘new metric unit, thus eliding a bar that would normally be expected. He further complicates matters by ‘srting the subsequent dissonance to define another four- measure unit, which also resolves in the fourth (weak) measure. And yet once ‘more, he reinterprets that final measure as the frst ofthe next (hypermetric unit. All of this appears after fourteen measures of consistent two- and four-bar hyper meter, and thus draws particular attention to the passage. In fact, Bach uses the expanded dissonances to achieve hypermetric definition, finding tonal means for playing with durational expectations within the metric hierarchy. Finally, the passage from the E-Major Violin Concesto (Example 22) com- bines various aspects of prototype B and illustrates other interesting features: additional bass diminution, additional shythmic expansion, and unustal treatment of simple dissonances. The crucial passage appears at the beginning of the mi dle section (a tonal digression) of the first movement. At m. 53, Bach abruptly ‘moves to the relative minor of C# and articulates a typical descending fourth in the bass, supporting passagework in the solo violin, Then, in m. 57, Bach artico- lates three successive expanded dissortances, where the prolonged tones appear in the upper register ofthe solo violin and the bass diminution follows a character- istic pattem. Significantly, two levels of reduction reveal that the pattern af bass diminution that appears in the first two iterations is repeated in the third at a slower thythmic pace, where it is embellished with extra tones of diminution, ascending “detours” consisting of upper-neighbor tones anid consonant skips. Thistapes See ey[EXPANDED DissoNANCE “vononpas pur 2109s “po-{¢ “WU ‘] “ZHOT AAAE “OUPIUOD UL1OIA JofeW-g “77 dure110 ‘Tawory AND Practice expansion thus transforms two bars into four, Where the final resolution in m, 64 falls on the fourth count of the prototype. Rhythmically, then, comparison of tie initial two with the third illustrates what Channan Willner has called an expanded basic pace The first two expanded dissonances appear therefore at a less expanded rhythmic level, withholding expansion of the kind we have just sur- veyed until the third, climactic instance. Interestingly, the expected resofutions of, the upper-Voice dissonances in the first two are suspended (as ordinary 4-3 sus- pensions) and then delayed until the next downbeat, which marks the beginning, of the next configuration. Bach thereby creates an overlapping effect that bridges the boundaries until the final resolution of the sequence in m. 64; this forges a larger sense of continuity, although the delayed resolutions of the 4-3 suspensions. will no doubt be noticed by the listener as local points of punctuation, Whatever effects emerge from the first two, however, are then superceded by the final expansion, Which Bach marks as the fing! resofution of the passage by bringing the upper voice through the characteristic 8-7 passing motion over the dominant to rest on 3 (G#-F4-£), although he cannot resist an extra 9-8 suspension on the measure of resolution, thereby continuing the momentum into the next passage. In its combination of features associated with expanded dissonance, this brief pas- sage has 2 remarkable effect on the listener. As we have seen, the expanded dissonance is an important compositional device and a favorite of JS. Bach, who used it regularly to heighten text expres- sion and to dramatize important musical events in his works. Treatises from the eighteenth century demonstrate a historical awareness of the device (although it isnot consistently categorized artiong the Various “licenses”, and reveal a signif- icant historical synthesis of counterpoint and thoroughbass. Enumerating the theoretical possibilities of the various configurations affords more insight into its compositional roles—i.e., its typical voice-feading and harmonic functions, Just as important, though, rhythmic prototypes can be seen to determine fundamen- ‘ally the compositional role each plays in context, The examples given in this, article have revealed that expanded dissonance can appear simply as prolonga- tion, yet can also play a highly sophisticated role in articulating a dynamic sense of phrase rhythm, While phrase-thythm norms are much less standardized in Bach’s music than in that of subsequent generations, Bach does use phrase-rhyth- mic devices in his music in subUe but important ways. The expanded dissonance is therefore more than just an interesting voice-leading configuration: it is an essential part of his pacing of events, his play of temporality, his attention to the listener's experience, NOTES 1, Heinrich Schenker, Counterpoint, ed. John Retheb, rans. John Rothgeb and Jurgen Thym (New York; Schirmer, 1987), I: 260-61.10, n. EXPANDED DISSONANCE. nh CPE, Bach, Essay on the True Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments, trans. William J. Mitchell (New York: Norton, 1949), 87; see aiso Wayne Petty, Compositional Techniques in the Keyboard Sonatas of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach: Reimagining the Foundations of a Musical Style (Ph-D. dissertation, Yale University, 1995), 28-29, “Von der Syncopationecatachrestica (Chapter 28, frst example), and “Von denen CConsonantiis impropris” (Chapter 32, final twa bars of final example), and “Von der Extension” (Chapter 36), example with fourpar basis, alt in’Christoph Bernhasd, Tractatus, reprinted in Die Kompositionslehre Heinrich Schitzens in der Fassung seines Schilers Christoph Berard (Leipzig: Bretkopf & Hartel, 1926). In the first case, the license of consecutive dissonances (lhe sevenih moving 10 a diminished fifth before resolving) can be thought of asa simple V8-" to armani ‘motion with added bass diminution (see reduction, a figure that would reappear in numerous later eighteenth-century treatise. In the Second case, Berhhard notes the apparent upward resolution of the diminished fifth; we would insespetit, of course, a an embellishment of an underlying descending resolution that arrives on the downbeat. The third case demonstrates a delayed resolution of ordinary weak-beat ‘passing motion; is expansion is temporal and volves 00 additional diminution Bach, Essay, 192-93, ‘This specific configuration also appears in treatises outside of the German tradi- sin; see Francesco Gasparini, The Practical Harmonise at the Harpsichord {1708}, trans, Frank S, Stillings (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1963), 53, Example 84, This enumeration of theoretical possiblities should not be taken as prescriptive, rather itis a conceptual framework derived from the following musical examples, and then positioned first as a context for understanding. 'n ather words, I offer it bhere forthe orientation of the reader, though logically it represents a set of concis- sions that result from this study of expanded dissonance. Schenker, Free Composition (trans. Emst Oster [New York: Schiemer, 1979)), §246:". produce the effect of a ninth, while it avoids the vertical form 9-8.” See also Fig, 64, | from Handel's D-minor Suite. ‘The passage ftom Free Composition appears to be a follow-up 10 the discussion of the same piece in Schenker’s well-known essay on improvisation from the first vol- ume of The Masterwork in Music, et, Wiliam Drabkin (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994) ‘Somewhat less directly related is Schenker's discussion of “expansions” in Free ‘Composition, §297; however, Fig. 148, 32-c does illustrate a type of configuration to be discussed below: Ab to G over a bass diminution of F-D>-B-C. ‘Schenker, Free Composition, $177 ‘Additional instances of foreground expanded dissonance can be found in C.PE. Bach's compositions; see Petty, “Compositional Techniques,” Example 7.7, mm.112 2, 4 is, 16 n. 18, 19, 20, ‘Taory ano Practice: 8-9 from the Sonata in A minor H30 (Wirtemberg 1), and Example 6.2, mm. 17-21 from the Sonatina in Bb major H295. Schenker, Free Composition, §286: “The metric unit of four measures does not necessarily require four lones as its content. A third-progression also can be the content of a 4-measure group . . ..” The term “metric prototype” appears ia Schenker’s discussion of expansion, Free Composition, §297, ‘Schenker, Free Composition, §288: “Unless there are shythmic demands tothe con- trary . . every metric scheme is capable of enclosing the cadence within itself in suc a way that the I appears in the final unaccented measure of the measure group ‘These terms sefer, of course, 10 Cart Schachter’s landmark articles that set the agenda for all subsequent phrase-rhythm studies: “Rhythm and Linear Analysis: A Preliminary Study.” Music Forum 4 (1976), 281-334; “Rhythm and Linear ‘Analysis; Durational Reduction,” Music Forum 5 (3980), 197-232; and “Raythim and Linear Analysis: Aspects of Meter.” Music Forum 6/1 (1987), 1-60. All three essays are reprinted in Carl Schachter, Unfoldings: Essays in Schenkerian Theory ‘and Analysis, ed, Joseph N, Straus (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999) A valuable discussion of phrase-thythm norms, including the noted paradox of a beginning-oriented metric hierarchy and an end-oriented tonal one, appears in William Rothstein, Phrase Rhythm in Tonal Music (New York: Schirmer, 1989), 28. An imposiant observacion, then, is that while there is no need for (i.e., no absolute rule that requites) a cadence {0 occur on an accented measure, it ean do so, in which case there is usually an overlap with the beginning of the subsequent phrase. ‘We must retain the quotation marks for both terms, for they clearly differ from stan- {dard definitions, In particular, the “phrase” type will often fulfil only part of a real phrase, if we define the latter as a complete tonal motion (after Rothstein, Phrase Rhythm, See also Free Composition, Figures 111 and 114, Se and Sd. A similar passage occurs in another well-known violin composition, the chaconne from the D-Minor Partita, in which the expanded dissonance moves towards the dominant and is adapted to the idiomatic triple meter (see the sixtieth variation of he four-bar segment, during the final pedal point) ‘The term zusammengesetzten Tackrarten (Kimnberger) is usually translated as compound meter,” though it obviously differs from the current usage; it refers (0 the combining of two measures of 2/4 into the barline notation of 4/4. See espe- Cially Floyd Grave, "Metrical Displacement and the Compound Measure in Bighteenth-Century Theory and Practice,” Theoria 1 (1985), 25-60. ‘Schenker's essay on this movement, in Der Tonwitle 10, tends to focus on Bach’s setting of the chorale and its characteristic motives.2, 2B, EXPANDED DisSONANCE 113 Less rhythmically expanded versions of this prototype do occasionally appear, as in the E-Major Violin Concerto (a different passage than the one above), which appears repeatedly throughout the moxement and which features an incomplete arpeggiation of the bass diminution, The basic pattem appears in tam, 41~42, ori- ented towards the dominant; the same pattern, articulated in the key of the dominant (ane otiented towards its dominant) appears in mm, 23-24, Both versions appear at analogous positions in the final allegro section, Kirnberger uses this litle piece as his model for “tossing off” a sonata; see William Newman, “Kimberger’s Method for Tossing off Sonatas,” Musical Quarterly 47 (1961), 517-25. Schenker provides foreground analysis in Free Composition, Fig. 87,4. ‘Schenker discusses reinterpretation in Free Composition, §298; see also Rothstein, Phrase Rhythm, 52-56, Bach cadences just as frequently on a hypermetric downbeat as on its final weak measure; the latter usually occurs in pieces with a consistent hypermeter, but the former also appears as an alternate way of establishing phrase rhythm. In any case, ‘We should not expect Bach’s phrase rhythm to be as consistent as that of later com- posers, especially in free forms such as the prelude. Nevertheless, small-scale events {such as our four-bar expanded dissonance) offer an effective means of defining local metric organization, particularly in pieces with no (consistent) over- all hypermeter. ‘See Charman Willner, “Sequential Expansion and Handetian Phrase Rhythm,” in Carl Schachter and Hledi Siege! (eds.), Schenker Studies 2 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), 192-221.M4 epee “TnEORY AND Practice,A Sentence Omitted from the English Translation of Schenker’s Harmonielehre John Rothgeb In §88 of his Harmonielehre, Schenker proposes the following example as part of a discourse on “The Physiognomy af Eree Composition Determined by the Scale- Steps”:! Example 1 He comments as follows, in the text pravided by the published translati Here we are dealing with a cantus firmus, overarched by two contrapuntal voices. One of these voices proceeds in half-notes, the other in quarter-notes. Each one of them, considered in itself, goes a way which would be allowed even in strict com- position, although each on¢ of them brings dissonances as well as consonances, But the dissonances are formed by passing notes (the second half-note and the third ‘quarter-note, respectively). In so far as we consider each contrapuntal voice sepa- rately, the result of voice-leading is satisfactory. The situation changes as soon as ‘we examine all three voices in their conjunctions. From the point of view of strict composition, satisfactory voice-leading would require a full consonance at the upstroke, ie, at the second half-note or third quarter-note, respectively this being the most direct and natural postulate of three-past composition, We see, however, that in our example this postulate is disregarded. It is only the relation between ‘each individual voice and the cantus firmus that is emphasized here—so much s0 that the required threefoté conjunction cannot be reached. The example, therefore, us116 ‘THEORY AND PRACTICE probably exceeds the scope of strict composition and belongs ia the sphere of free composition, This translation renders the original German reasonably well (if rather freely) with only two exceptions. The first is relatively minor: in the third sen- fence, “in strict composition”® renders Schenker’s original “nach dem strengsten Satz” (with the adjective in the superlative inflection), Which is more accurately translated as “according to the strictest rule.” Before we turn to the second, more consequential, discrepancy between translation and original, we need to clear up an anomaly in Schenker’s own for- mulation. He provides no source for any “strictest rule” that would require “a full ‘consonance at the upstroke.” Indeed. in his own, later, presentation of the rules of tte combined-species counterpoint shown in Example 1,° Schenker himself states, to such tule, He first formulates (p. 187f) the “strict rule” (von der strengen -Ausgestaltung according to the section's title, which is then softened in the text to eine strengere Ausgestaltung, “a strictet rule,” meaning merely somewhat stricter than absolute leniency). This rule, however, demands only that if the upbeat (specifically at the third quarter) is dissonant, the two moving voices be conso- nant with each other; clearly, itis satisfied by the voice leading ia Example 1 (Bine minder strenge Ausgestattung, “a less strict rule,” permits on p. 188 a dis- sonant collision between the moving voices.) A “strictest rule” requiring a fully Consonant third quarter is of course a conceptual possibility. It is likely that Schenker did not find it necessary or desirable (0 intclude such a draconian stipu- fation in Kontrapunkt, since its observance would rule out any occurrence whatever of the most characteristic feature of the incorporated second-species voice, namely the dissonant passing tone. "Now fo the secoad discrepancy, which is the one of primary interest here. A sentence of the original—one that just precedes the last sentence quoted above—is omitted: So waltet denn bei aller Korrektheit Thus however correct, even by the selbst nach dem stengen Satz in der standards of strict counterpoint, the Fuhrung der einzelnen Kontrapunkte treatment of the added. individual doch wieder auch eine villige contrapuntal voices, a complete state Berichungsfosigkeit der letzteren of unrelatedness between the latter untereinander, nevertheless prevails. Oswald Jonas, editor of the English translation, was evidently puzzled by this sentence. A letter of September 1953, to Jonas from Emst Oster,® shows that Jonas had queried Oster about it on the occasion of sending the latter some chap- ters of the translation in preparation, Oster’s response is most interesting: Ich habe mir eben den Kopf wegen Ihave just racked my brain about Beispiel 163, Seite 204, zerbrochen, Example 163, p. 204. It stems, inci Es stammt tbrigens von Fux, was dentally, from Fux, which should ‘man vielleicht erwahnen sollte, siche perhaps’ be mentioned (see Kontrapunkt II Seite 193 Jeizter Takt, Kontrapunkt Il, p. 193, last bar)‘A SENTENCE FROM SCHENKER'S HARMONIELEHRE Zuerst erschien mir, was Schenker S. 2045 sagt, villig unsinnig. Ich hatte mit auch irgendwann einmal 2 grosse Eragezeichen an den Rand gemacht Was mir so falsch erschien, war hhauptsichlich der Ausdruck “Volige Bezichungslosigkeit,” Seite 205 etwa Z- 12, Denn ich dactue mir: h und g auf dem 3, Viertel sind ja schliesslich onsonant untereinander, wie es die Regel verlangt. Aber muss man das Belspie nicht cher so werstehen, dass das 2. bis 4. Vierel in T.1 die Terz a-f, und die Mittelsimme a-c aus- drilckt? Ich glaube, man hort es eher <0. Darm ist aber die Sext hg aut dem 3. Viertel nur cine zufillige Konsonanz. In diesem Sinne schein[t] Sch, “Bezichungslosigkeit” gemeint zu haben, — Was et Z. 3 — 7 schreibt, ist wohl so zu verstehen, dass im allerstrengsten Satz alle 3 Stimmen konsonant sein miissten, da selbst das Konsonante Zusarmmen- tteffen der 2 Kontrapunkte auf dem 3. Viertel schon eine Prolongation ware eines dissonanten Durchgangs auf dem 3. Viertel, 2stimmiger Satz drinte Gattung. Mit anderen Worten: was hier moglich war, ist nicht so ohne Wweiteres mbglich, wenn es sich um 2 Kontrapunkte handelt, die beide dissonieren. — Wenn Schenker Weiter unten, 2. Drittel der Seit schreibt: “dissonanten Beziehungen,” so bezieht sich das auf den Freien Satz, und irgendwelche gedachten Fille. — In dem von Dir erwihnten Beispiel: Kontrap. If, S. 195, T. 2, Jiegt es mM. nach genau so wie in ‘dem Anderen: Auf dem 3. Viertel sind zwar 2 dissonante Durchgangstone, ie unvereinander konsonieren; es ist aber richtiger, die 2wei Terzen fa und f-d 7u horen, also nicht die Konsonanz ‘Wenn Du meiner Meinung bist, wire es vielleicht gut, noch eine Kleine ‘Anmerkung zu machen, etwa so: At first what Schenker says on pp. 204/5 appeared to me completely nonsensical, | had once even drawn two large question-marks in the mat- tain. What seemed so wrong to me ‘was primarily the expression “wllige Beziehungslosigkeit,” p. 205 ap- ‘proximately fine 12. For, I thought, b and g on the third quarter are after all, consonant with each other, as the rule requires. Bot shouldn't one rather understand the example in such a way that the 2nd to 4th quarter in bar 1 expressed the third a-f, and the inner voice ac? I believe one hears it rather tus, But then the sixth b-g on the 3d quarter is only a fortuitous eon- sonance. Sch. seems to have meant “'Bezichungslosigkeit” in this sense. ‘What he writes in lines 3-7 is praba- bly to be understood as meaning that ‘according to the very strictest rule all 3 voices would have to be consonant, Sinee even the consonant encounter of the 2 counterpoints at the third quar- ter would already be prolongation fa dissonant passing tone on the 34 quarter, 2-voice counterpoint of the third species. In other words: what was possible here isnot automatically possible when two counterpoints are involved both of which dissonate, ‘When Schenker writes further on, 2nd. third of the page, “dissonanten Bezichungen,”” that pertains 10 free composition, and any arbitrarily posited cases. — In the example you mentioned: Kontrap. Il, p. 195, bar 2, the situation isin my opinion exactly the same asin the other one: on the 30 ‘quarter there are indeed 2 dissonant passing tones, which are consonant with each other; it is more correct, however, to hear the two thirds a and fd, thus not the consonance. If you are of my opinion, it would perhaps be good 10 add a small foot- rote, Something like this: 718 ‘Tueory AND Pracrice, “Schenker meant to say that the upper “Schenker meant to say thatthe upper count. expresses the tit a-f and the count. expresses the third a-f and the Tower one a-c. Heard in this way, the lower one a-c. Heard in this way, the consonant sixth b-g on the third consonant sixth b-g on the third quar- quarter appears to be purely acci- ter appears to be purely accidental, dental, These (wo tones ate unrelated These two tones are unrelated to each to cach other.” Oder so. other.” Or so. But Jonas obviously was no of Oster’s opinion: far from adding an explanatory footnote, he simply omitted the sentence he considered problematic. It seems reasonable to assume as an explanation that he did not accept the “com- plete unrelatedness” of the two passing tones. Possibly he felt chat an observation he had made in (934—in Das Wesen des musikatischen Kunstwerks about a cer- tain combined-species formation—applied to this case as Well. The formation in question is reproduced as Example 2. Example 2. f= a oS He comments: “There arises here the very peculiar effect that the relation- ship of the two upper voices, the half notes, penetrates more conspicuously’ into the foreground than does the cefation of middle voice to lower voice. The disso- rant passing tone is So strong that it virtually forces the middle voice into its domain.” Perhaps Jonas felt that in Example 1 (and related cases) as well, the conso- znant relation of the upper voices penetrated so conspicuously into the foreground as to outweigh the dissonant relationship to the cantus firmus. Although this claim is entirely convincing with regard to Example 2, it is less so with regard 0 Example |. There are two critical differences between the cases. First, the inner voice in Example 1 is itself dissonant at the upbeat; and second, Example 1 involves quarter notes as well as half notes, with the passing motion of the quar- ter-note voice completed within the scope of a single cantus-firmus tone. These two circumstances support Oster’s interpretation, ‘A principle that seems applicable here is formulated by Schenker as fol- lows: “any closed melodic line weakens the vertical chords [that accompsny it] with respect to their meanings as individuals in the same measure that the melodic Tine itself effects the composing out of a particular chord in the horizontal direc- tion.” I believe Schenker would endorse a generalization of his melodische Linie (melodic line) to melodische Einheit (melodic unity; the succession f-a-g-F of the quarter-note voice would certainly constitute such a unit, as would the third a-e delineated by the half-note voice. Ax a result of these units the sixth g/b at theA SENTENCE FROM SCHENKER'S HARMONIELEHRE 19 third quarter clearly represents an incipient “vertical chord” of the type “weak- ened” by the “composing out of a particular chord in the horizontal direction.” Indeed, the quarter-note voice in Example 1 negotiates a prolongation of the sin- ale note f, 80 that the voice leading af the example as a whole reduces to the pure second-species formation in Example 3, where no consonant sixth occurs in the upbeat. Example 3, notes —— Alll of this granted, it may be objected that “unrelatedness” is too strong. ‘There is a relation, it could be argued, merely by Virtue of the fact that the voices form an interval, and beyond that a consonant interval. If moreover that conso- nance arose through observance of the “stricter rule,” then it could wot be said to be entirely accidental or fortuitous. Schenker himself provides some support for this position when he writes, in his introductory remarks for “Bridges to Free Composition,” of “a polyphonic passing event sich as arises for the first time in the context of combinations of species, and . . . how these passing events, rooted in fundamental laws, tend even in the combined species toward an independent setting ....""" Schenker’s ascription of “unrelatedness” is probably a manifestation of his ‘well-known tendency to speak in hyperbole—a tendency encountered, for exam- ple, in his denizh of any validity whatever to the concept of “double counterpoint at the tenth or twelfth” (Free Composition, 78), his repeated insistence on the fic- titiousness of conventional formal terms, his allegation of “complete lack of any technique in today’s composition” (Counterpoint I, 27), etc. Strictly speaking, the hyperbole overstates Schenker’s case; but at the same time it makes a point: there is more subtlety here than appears at frst glance. ‘The relation of b~g is not nonexistent, but itis subordinate (0 the composed- ‘ou Satervals f-a and a-c. The composing out is supported here by an explicit cantus-fimmus tone aginst which the two passing tones are each dissonant; in free composition, the support would be provided by a scale degree in relation to which the passing tones would be dissonant. Although the consonance of b and g is patently audible, itis strangely unsatisfactory: itis unable to conceal the dissonant condition of each of its constitient tones—in particular, unable to hide the fact that the g is a relatively accented passing tone and is thus dissonant in a more important sense; it is a “fraudulent” consonance, and as such it does take on a quality of fortuity, as though it were “of no importance.”120 THEORY AND PRACTICE All of this, however, does not quite clear up a remaining problem, For after observing, in the last sentence of the extract quoted at the beginning of this arti cle, that the counterpoint in Example 1 “probably exceeds the scope of strict composition and belongs in the sphere of free composition,” Schenker continues as follows:'? Denn {freier Satz] begnigt sich, For [free composition), by substitu indem er an Stelle des Cantus firmus” ing for the cantus-finmas tone a root tones einen Grundion oder eine Stufe oF 2 scaie degree, contents itself in setzt, auch wieder nur mi¢ der tum only with the well-founded rela- begriindetea Beziehung jeder ein- tionship of each individual voice to zelnen Stimme zum Grundton oder the root or scale degree, without con- zur Stufe, ohne sich um die dissonant- cerning itself about the dissonant fen Beviehungen der Kontrapunkte relationships of the counterpoints untereinander ca kimmern. among themselves, This, however, cannot be the reason for assigning Example 1 to the realm of free composition, for the relationship of the counterpoints among themselves, in that formation is not a dissonant one, The text thus remains, to a small extent, intrinsically and irremediably anomalous. The anomaly, however, fies not in the sentence omitted from the translation, but rather in the ones that immediately fol low it ‘What is needed for a full explication of the omitted sentence is a cestaia qualification of the assertion of “untelatedness.” Exactly the right one is provided by Oster in his suggested footnote: “heard in this way, the consonant sixth b-g on the third quarter appears #o de purely accidental...” (emphasis added). That is, even if the consonance of the two counterpoints with each other was in fact required by a rule, the effect is one of coincidence, When Oster concludes, “these two tones are unrelated to each other,” he reassumes the perspective that is ulti- mately prevalent in determining the effect of such a voice leading—namely, that of the whate. NOTES 1. Heinrich Schenker, Harmonielehre (Vienna: Universal Edition, 1906), 206. 2. Heinriet Schenker, Harmony, ed. Oswald Jonas, trans. Elisabeth Mann Borgese (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1954), 159f. 3. In most later translations of Schenker’s works, strenger Sate has been rendered as “strioe counterpoint” rather than “strict composition.” Although Satz in this com- struction is composition in the etymological sense of “punting together,” itis not ‘composition in the sense in which itis in the construction freier Satz. This distinc tion, however, is not important to the issues under discussion here.19. ul A SENTENCE FROM SCHENKER'S HARMONIELEHRE 121 r, literally, “the strictest setting,” ic, that which conforms to the strictest rule or Formulation. To be consistent, in what follows I shall use “rule” where Schenker writes Sarz or Ausgestaltung in this sense, Heinrich Schenker, Kontrapunkr II (Vienna: Universal Faition, 1922), 186-95. Oswald Jonas Memorial Collection, Box 39, Fokies 199. Oster’s orthography (excepting line-breaks) has been preserved. This continuation is discussed below. ‘Oswald Jonas, An Introduction to the Theory of Heinrich Schenker: The Nature of the Musical Work of Art, trans. and ed. John Rothgeb (New York: Longman, 1982), 61 Heinrich Schenker, Counterpoint II, ed. John Rothgeb, trans. John Rothgeb and Jurgen Thym (New York: Schirmer, 1987; pt. Ann Arbor: Musicalia Press, 2001), 16, ‘The quarter-note voice obviously composes-out the chord of F, which however ‘ust yield to that of A in the second bar; since the half-note voice’s third a-e belongs to both chords, its persistence as a unit is unchallenged, Schenker, Counterpoint Il, 176. The aligned translation is my own,122 ‘THEORY AND Pracrice“Heinrich Schenker and Great Performers” by Oswald Jonas: Translator’s Introduction Alan Dodson Oswald Jonas (1897-1978) was a leading figure in the dissemination of Schenkerian theory and analysis. Jonas studied with Schenker intensively between 1915 and 1922, and he is well known as author of the first textbook on Schenkerian analysis, and editor of both the postwar edition of Der freie Satz and the first English translation of a treatise by Schenker, Harmony.' Equally impor- tant were his teaching activities, which included positions in Berlin, Chicago, Vienna, and Riverside (California). Between his Berlin post (1930-34) and his departure for the United States (1938), Jonas helped found a Schenket Institute in ‘Viewna and, with Felix Salzer, co-edited Der Dreiklang, a Schenker-otiented jour- nal? “Heinrich Schenker und grosse Interpreten,” the article transtated here, Was published while Jonas was teaching in Vienna in 1964-65. The article offers an engaging account of Schenker’s association with ten illustrious musicians between the 1890s and the 1930s, enlivened with quotations from bis, concert reviews and from previously unpublished materials in Schenker’s Nachlass, a substantial portion of which Jonas had recently acquired from Erwin Ratz, to ‘whom it had been entrusted by Schenker’s widow. Tn the article, we lear of the support Schenker received from Johannes Brahms, Ferruccio Busoni, and Eugen w Albert near the beginning of his career; and of his assessment of the Dutch baritone Johannes Messchaert, with whom he toured as an accompanist. We are also made privy to his thoughts on five instru- mentalists, some of whose names are still well known, Excerpts from various unpublished writings reflect Schenker’s interest in subjective dimensions of per- formance, including Messchaert’s “intellectual-spiritual presence,” Karl Straube’s ability to listen “to the soul of his instrament as though with a diving rod of genius,” and Pablo Casals’s engagement in a “cycle of intellectual-spiritwal clea cand technique.” These refreshingly creative musings contrast sharply with the sstern-sounding instructions for performers that are included in many of Schenker’s analytical writings. 123124 Tubory aNd PRACTICE Roughly the second half of the article is devoted to Schenker’s relationship with conductor Wilhelm Furtwingler, Jonas provides details om their first infor- mal meeting and their subsequent working relationship, as well as Schenker’s, opinions about Furtwiingler’s concerts. He then gives two examples that detnon- strate some ways a performance might be informed by @ Schenkerian analysis ‘one supported mainly by an anecdote involving a Furtwingler rehearsal, the other by a quotation from Der freie Satz. The article closes by quoting a letter in which Furtwangler expressed unqualified agreement with Schenker’s manner of, celating to Beethoven and other master composers, Jonas states that the overarching purpose of the article is to free Schenker’s theory from “the stigma that has been imposed uport it"? Aithough he is address- ing a postwar German-speaking readership, Jonas does not identify the fervently nationalistic and anti-democratic rhetoric that permeates Schenker’s writings of the 1920s and "30s as a factor contributing to the stigma he mentions. Instead, he suggests that it stems solely from the mistaken view that Schenker was prone to excessive abstraction. Jonas refutes the latter claim effectively, but instead of con- fronting the more sensitive issue of Sctteaker’s politically charged rhetoric, he simply acts as though it doesn’t exist—a strategy that calls to mind his approach, to editing Der freie Satz.* Jonas also fails to mention the essay on Schenker in Furtwingler’s Ton und Wort, an anthology of writings published widely after the conductor's death in 1954.” Although Furtweingler, like Jonas, is silent on the question of Schenker's political views, he clearly falls far short of giving the sort of blanket endorsement suggested in the letter cited by Jonas. It is tempting to attribute this change to Furlwingler’s experiences in the Third Reich and in the denazification hearings he endured only months before writing the essay." Although he praises Schenker’s intellect highly, Furtwingler expresses deep reservations about the direction his ‘work took in the 1920s and °30s. For instance, he claims that Schenker developed the Urlinie concept in a state of “extraordinary isolation and loneliness, which ‘must have made him feel like a lone voice crying out in the wilderness,” and that, in developing the final form of his theory, Schenker may have “let himself get cz ried away with his yearning for the absolute.” Ironically, Furtwangler also complains that Schenker’s voice-leading analyses tend (0 “lose their way in too much abstraction”"—precisely the point that Jonas is arguing against! Notwithstanding the merits of Jonas’s aim and the intrinsic interest of the evidence he provides, his account of Schenker clearly falls short of attaining the sort of critical balance evident in more recent German-language scholarship on Schenker.” Jt may well be the case, then, that Jonas’s article will prove useful not only to readers interested in exploring unfamiliar aspects of the relationship between Schenkerian analysis and performance, but also to those curious aout the posthumous disseraination and reception of Schenker’s work in the German- speaking world, As for the translation, as Jonas avoids technical terms throughout the acti- cle, the vocabulsry poses few problems. In German there are many synonyms corresponding to the words “perform” and “performer,” but (with only one excep- tion) I have not distinguished among these in the translation. I decided to transtacegeistig as “intellectual-spiritual, ‘Scunqe® AND GREAT PERFORMERS 1s an admittedly cumbersome Jocution, in order to capture something of the richness of its meaning. I have corrected a number of errors in Jonas’s direct quotations, following the consultation of primary sources and authoritative secondary sources, as indicated in the endnotes. Editorial nates are placed in square brackets; corrections and formatting changes to Jonas’s own references are made without comment NOTES Oswald Jonas, Das Wesen des musikalischen Kunstwerkes: Einfidurung in die Lzhre Heinrich Schenkers (Vienna, 1934; rev. Vienna, 1972), trans, John Rothgeb as Introduction to the Theory of Henrich Schenker: The Nature of the Musical Work ‘of Art (New York: Longman, 1982); Schenker, Der freie Sarz (1935), 2nd edn,, ed. Oxwaid Jonas (Vienna: Universal, 1956); idem, Harmonielehre (Stuttgart: Cotta, 1906), trans. Elisabeth Mann Borgese as Harmony, ed. Oswald Jonas (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1954), Evelyn Fink, “Analyse nach Schenker an Wiener Musiklehranstalten. Ein Beitrag zr Schenker-Rezeption in Wien,” in Evelyn Fink (ed.), Rebel! und Visiondi: Heinrich Schenker in Wien (Vienna: Verlag Lafite, 2003), 1834. For further biog raphical details on Jonas, see Ramona H. Matthews, “Oswald Jonas,” in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd edn. (Lagdon: Macmillan, 2000); and Irene Seheier Scott, “Oswald Jonas (1897-1978)” in Jonas, Introduction, Xi, ‘Oswald Jonas, “Heinrich Schenker und grosse Inxpreten,” Osterreichische Musik- zeitschrift 19 (1964), 584-89, ‘These quotations are from Jonas, “Schenker und grosse Interpreten,” $85-86 (pp. 129-30 in the translation. Jonas, “Schenker und grosse Imterpretet,.” 584 (p. 127 in the translation). Sonas omitted numerous passages in which Schenker voices his political views, most (but not all) of which are restored in “Appendix 4” ofthe 1979 English trans- lation. See Schenker, Der freie Satz, 2nd edn., «8, Oswald Jonas. (Vienna: Universal, 1956) ed and trans. as Free Composition (Der free Sate) by Exmst Oster (New York: Longman, 1972), avi, xvii, 158-62, Wilhelm Furtwiingler, “Heinrich Schenker: Ein zeitgemisses Problem (1947)," it ‘Ton und Won: Anfsitce und Vortrige, 1918-1954 (1954), 6th edn. (Wiesbaden: Brockhaus, 1955), 198-204. See Sam H. Shirakawa, The Devil's Music Master: The Controversial Life and Career of Wilhelm Furtwéingler (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992). Funwangler, “Heinrich Schenker,” 200-01. My translation126 10, 1. ‘Tieory AND PRACTICE, Furtwangler, “Heinrich Schenker,” 201, My translation. ‘See especially Hfeftmut Federhofer, Akkord und Stimmfithrung in den musikali- chen Systemen von Hugo Riemann, Ernst Kurth und Heinrich Schenker (Vienna: Verlag der Osterreicheschen Akademie der Wissenscheften, 1981); and Martin Eybl, Ideologie umd Methode: Zum ideengeschichilichen Kontext von Schenkers ‘Musilaheorie (Tutzing: Schneider, 1995).Heinrich Schenker and Great Performers Oswald Jonas Translated by Alan Dodson In attempting to describe the position of Heinrich Schenker within the musical world, one encounters many difficulties. Around the turn of the twentieth century, he was well known 8 a composer, pianist, critic, conductor, and essayist. He was nearly forty years old when, in 1906, he came to the fore as a theorist through his Harmonielehre; from that time on, he saw it as his life's work to dedicate himself to ascertaining and presenting the basic laws of the musical work of art. He him- self never wanted to be regarded merely as a theorist—for this reason, he even initially published the Harmonielehre anonymously as “von einem Kiinstler” (by an artist) and thereby indicated his profession. And later, when a devoted disciple ‘once referred to him in a lecture 2s a “philosopher of art,” Schenker objected to this description on the grounds that he wished above all to be judged as a musi- cian! Ts it not curious, then, that merely because his fundamental discoveries became known in the context af the terms “Urlinie” and “Ursatz,” this man and his theory were accused of abstraction and speculation and marginalized for a ong time as a result?" It is surely not possible that this acknowledged and very sound musicianship should not also have infused his theoretical endeavors, espe- cially since they were, in fact, built above all upon the fathoming of the asterworks. So itis high time that Schenker’s theory be freed from the stigma that has been imposed upon it. This is the purpose of our—for the moment still modest— essay.? This can best be done by demonstrating the influence that Schenker’s theory and its insights could and should have on practicing musicians, and by demonstrating that they already have had sch an influence to an exceptional degree. For, to emphasize the point once again, the theory is wot the fruit of theo- retical speculation (a notion that came overnight, so to speak) but rather is, in the end, the result of practical experience spanning many years, in which pure musi- cal instinct played no less a part than strictly rational thought processes. First of all, Schenker’s acquaintance with the most eminent musicians of his time should be mentioned, as should the high esteem in which they held him, He came to Vienna in his youth and soon attracted the attention of Johannes Brahms through his playing, his compositions, and his carefully thought-out ar techni- 27128 ‘TreoRy AND Practice cally justified reviews and essays, The two most distinguished pianists around the turn of the century, Eugen d’Albert and Ferruccio Busoni, were among his clos- est friends. Both played his compositions in their concerts, Busoni successfully recommended Sctienker’s Fancasie to the publisher Breitkopf & Hartel, and the Harmonielehre was actually published by Cotta upon the strong recommendation of d’ Albert D’Albert often directed requests to Schenker concerning the taking over of advanced piano students. Further, the greatest singer of his time, Johannes Messchaert, went on concert tours with Schenker, All of those factors signified artistic experience at the highest level, which later had (o find its expression in theoretical thought! ‘Messchaert’s attention was drawn to Schenker through his concert reviews in Die Zeit—critiques the like of which, with their great display of objectivity and poetic enthusiasm, that highly renowned singer had probably scarcely encoun- tered elsewhere, Here are two excerpts from such reviews: ‘The first Lieder recital of Mr. Johannes Messchaert on February 5 heightened our anistic pleasure to the highest degree. The great artist, who is the greatest singer in terms of determination and ability, and who perhaps stands second (his rivals only in terms of vocal quality, is distinguished through the very unusual jntellectual- spiritual presence (Geistesgegenwart) of his art, On the wings of the poetic idea and the melody itself, this presence penetrates to the deepest essence of even the ‘most singular word and the most singular sound without spoiling the overarching character of the whole idea and the whole melody. This beautiful omnipresence (lgegenwart) of his ar, 0 to speak, surely rests on robust, fortuitous natural tal- eis and, what is more, on the complete and deliberate training of his vocal organ ‘What Messchaert shows more than any other singer is the natural inner capacity to center the place where the poet first begins to create his poem, and where the com- poser first begins to form his music. He attends to the sentiment of both the poet land the composer. even before it is ultimately manifested in definite words and music, and upon this fundamental source of ereatisity he kimseif creates his own ant! And many years later, in 1923, in the time of the “Urlinie,” he commemorates the recently deceased singer and his art with the following exalted words: In the performance of Schubert's “Meeresstille” ("Silence of the Sea”), Messchaert achieved the appropriate effect by spinning out the tones so peacefufy that they sounded like harbingers of sifence, not like tones emanating from the breast of a ‘human being. Only when he sang the word “ungeheuere™ (“immense”) did his sound, its swelling barely noticeable, venture into an “ungeheuere Weite” (immense expanse”); but he immediately pulled back so as to make the silence remaip frightening and believable in the end.” ‘And this was supposed to represent the Way an “abstractly” thinking masician hears? ‘Schenker writes the following profound and informative reflections on two other great performers—the organist Karl Straube and the violinist JosephScHENKER AND GREAT PERFORMERS 129 Joachim, whom he often heard play-—in his unpublished (reatise “Die Kunst des Vortrags” (“The Art of Performance ‘The main characteristic of [Stravbe’s} artistic manner consists of his familiarity with the most hidden scerets ofthe instrument. However, by this 1 da uot mean that sort of familiarity for which the public is always eager to praise mote or less any pianist or violinist. Rather, it has to do with a vast sum of new technical possibili- tles that can be found only by an artist who listens attentively to the soul of his instrument as though with a diving rod of genius. But itis this tense relationship 10 the instrument—and this alone is the important matter—that in fact opens a path {or him into the innermost essence of the composition, even in places where his rational mind alone would find no such path, ‘So it was, for example, in the case of Joachim, who without doubt represents the strongest artist of the group. His awn compositions, letters, and other documents Pertaining to his life very clearly show that he was not able to understand a com- position by Beethoven quite as clearly as could a Mendelssohn or a Brahms. On the Other hand, fre was nevertheless capable of performing Beethoven's works so con- summately that it would never have occurred to Mendelssohn or Brahms to do better. But how was that possible? The secret can be explained 2s follows: we must first of all become familiar with the seemingly surprising idea that a Beethoven, though himself nota violinist, knows the soul of the instrument even better than the majority of violinists. Most violinists would never expect to elicit from their instru ‘ment effects like those that Beethoven invented, But does not the possibility of the invention of new effects demonstrate that these effects were latently hidden in the instrument? Now among rezreative artists one is occasionally found who, like the creative masters, similarly reaches the place where the soul of the instrument resides, so it is possible that this soul guides the rendering just as it previously Buided the composition, In the deepest depths, the two even meet each other, the Work of genius and the performance of genius,* ‘And, one might also add, the hearing and understanding of genius, just as it #as in the case of Schenker!” In patentheses it should be mentioned that Straube (who, incidentally, recommended Schenker as an insteuctor at the Munich Academy in 1920) once noted that the source of his organ playing was to be found in his, ‘acquaintance with Joachim’s violin playing and bowing technique. In Schenker's diaries—-about $000 pages" in the possession of this article’s author—we find, besides sketches of all sorts, also descriptions of concerts. They are incredibly vivid and give a picture of Schenker's ideas on “performance” (“Vortrag”™). Thus, for example: ‘Then by J.S, Bach the Concerto in D Minor for wo violins (Ysaye and Rosé). What ‘difference in the handling of the instrument between Ysave and Rosé. The former is blessed with al finesse in the freedom of the bow, dynamics, and rhythm, while the latter is weighed down by the dark and duit power of school-pedantry, ungainly and monotonous, without color or joy, like a hamessed workhorse... Tt must be self-evident that Ysaje'’s free rendering, as exaggerated as it may sometimes seem, is better suited to Bach's style than is the empty playing of the lifeless Rosé—after all, life calls for lifet The fact that, despite this, the world prefers to imagine a"cla sical” musician as a colorless and boring individual who is supposedly alfictes130 THEORY aND PRACTICE with a balance in the soul (and als9 in art) as others ae afflicted with an illness, can be attributed to never-ending stupidity: and because of this the public finds Rosé's rendering “more classical” than Ysaye’s!!® ‘And on the playing of che greatest living instrumentalist, Pablo Casals, whose playing today is, to be sure, accused by only an insignificant minority of misconceiving the true “Bach style” (see above), Schenker reports the following: Casals concer: Haydn Concerto, Bach Solo Suite in G Major—Schumann Concerto, An unusually strong instinct for synthesis, born perhaps owt of an incom- parable sensibility forthe instrument, I have a netion itis so: Casals senses beauty in the combining of a greater unity; and because at the same time he senses the technicat means whereby to express this beauty, he succeeds in fully realizing the idea, and he suddenly finds himself in possession of a new technique that again shows him the way to new beauties—a cycle of intellectual-spirtual idea and tech- nigue that, once j1 has begun, continues unceasingly. His sense for synthesis is unconsciously expressed mainly in the fact that he clearly finds points of tight (Licktpunkte), easily moving to them and leaving them just as easily, in order to progress to new points of light. This cenders his playing transparent, eloquent, and, ever in the case of multivoiced textures, keeps it fre from noisy effects that would otherwise be inevitable.” A performer who greeted Scttenker’s ideas enthusiastically and also sought to use them éo benefit his practical work was Wilhelm Furtwéngler, who died in 1954, Schenker’s idea of “Urlinie and Ursatz,” which denotes aothing else but a knowledge of the meaning of the minutest details and also of large-scale coher- ence, must have appeared as a valuable help and guide to the conductor, who strove for the careful working out of the individual elements without losing the coherence of the whole, Furthermore, just as it proved useful to Schenker in the formation of his theory to have een able to gain fruitful insight into the creative process of the masters from his own early creative work and to have become familiar with the woes of creation, so to speak, through his own practical expeti- ence, so t00 was Furtwiingler able to gain more insight into the fabric of the musical masterwork chrough his compositional endeavors—and he struggled wntil his fast days with an inner conflict between composer and conduetor!—and so he must have welcomed every corroboration, every reinforcement, and every revela- tion from a competent source. In addition to that, there was the manner of Furtwagler’s first encounter with Schenker’s name—as the author ofthe extraus- tive book on the supreme work (das Nonplusulira-Werk) of the orchestral literature, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony (1912)!"* Schenker also immediately noted the unusual talent of the conductor in the latter’s first concert, which he attended, even though he did not agree with everything uncritcaily. From the journal, 4 November 1919: ‘The Furtwiingler concert: Egmont music with [Ludwig] Willner, disturbed by tong, bowings of the violinists before a sforzando, through which the tempi more easily became cumbersome, Beethoven's Fifth Symphony—performed in very well- roundedly consistent form; the gestures of the conductor were now apt, often‘SCHENKER AND GREAT PERFORMERS 131 expressively communicative in surprisingly fortuitous ways, especially in the case of the passage in C major in the Scherzo, so that in general the leading of the ‘orchestra left nothing at all to be desired . . The last movement was very good overall and in its details, There is no doubt that the young conductor is superior to ‘Weingartner, Nikisch, and Strauss, so that the only thing that remains to be regret- ted is that he has not penetrated still more deeply into the compesition.'* A personal meeting came about at the request of Furtwangler, who asked the head of the household in which he was a guest to invite Schenker as well, because he wanted to make his acquaintance. Schenker’s diary reports on this encounter; among other things, Furtwiingler told Schenker how he came into pos- session of the Ninth Symphony monograph at the time of his post in Lilbeck and was so fascinated that he wanted to follow up on the further development of Schenker’s ideas in his publications.!® But an intimate analytical discussion came only in the next year, when Furtwiingler conducted the Ninth Symphony in Vienna, The journal from 28 April 1920 reports on the performance: Certainly a singular performance, but it still did not exhaust the ultimate and most profound features of the work; ... the variations were too dense in the case of the violins, and in much the same way Furtwiingler appears in general not yet to have {gotten to the bottom of the secret that a longer crescendo is not to be carried out through an getual increase in force fom note to note, but rather through a change in speed, combined with pressure af the point of asival The discussion must in any case have made a deep and lasting impression on Furtwiingler. A consequence of it was a lasting contact, and from that point on Furtwiingler never neglected to call on Schenker during his sojourns in Vienna and to seek advice on the performance of works he was preparing to conduct. The fact that this first practical meeting must have been of decisive influence emerges from the recently published letters from Furtwangler to Ludwig Curtius from 14 September and 21 December 1920." And by 23 June 1920, Furtwiingler had already asked Straube to intervene on behalf of Schenker with Hausegges, who ‘was at that time the director of the Munich Academy (see above). Waller Riezler also speaks, in his contribution to Wilkelm Furtwdngler im Unteil seiner Zeit, about how fascinated Furtwangler was by the “rigor and deliberation with which Schenker investigates the organic law of the construction of a symphonic compo- sition. . . It is said that, as far as possible, Furtwingler went through all the classical works that he performed with Schenker beforehand.” ‘Afier all these remarks, which have been more or less general in nature (for it cannot be otherwise in an introductory essay), two examples should finally be presented, especially since they are bound up with a purely personal experience Of the author. They are of a concrete nature and will give an initial insight into Schenker's gift for grasping musical connections. (The examples are taken from Schenker’s last work, Free Composition, Figure 119, Nos. 8 and 15). In Example 1 ({ror Beethoven’s “Pastoral” Symphony, first movement), the enlargement of the neighbor-note motion D6-C6 and of the fifth-descent to G5, ending with the trill, compels a suggestive and associative connection between the main theme and the recapitulation. In Example 2 (Brahms, Fourth132 ‘TuBory ano Practice Example 1. go ml Sa teense Symphony, second movement) the melodic elaboration in the case of ¢), the diminution, is obviously derived from a) and b). It might also be mentioned in passing that Example 2a, b, and c, with their initial pitches E-G# arpeggiation of the E major triad In 1934, the author was present at a rehearsal in which Furtwiingler was working on the Pastoral Symphony; Furtwiingler lingered for quite an unusually Tong time at one place (see Example } above}—the high D, its descent to the C and G. Again and again it did not come to his satisfaction, nor was it convincingly expressed. The author tumed to a friend who was also present with the remark that ‘one could clearly perceive the influence of Schenker in this effort. A short time thereafter, the author visited Schenker in Vienna. The conversation came t0 Furtwangler—thereupon Schenker remarked that a few weeks previously Burtwingler had been with him in Vienna and that he had discussed with him some features (Ziige"") in the Pastoral Symphony and had drawn his attention especially to that passage. Around the same time he also aroused Furtwingler’s astonishment with the presentation of the coherence in the Brahms Symphony (Example 2). But, it must be added, what other conductor of a similar reputation and in a similar position would have let himself be not only served but also instructed! On the performance of the passage by Brahms, Schenker writes the follow- ing in Free Composition: 'B, result in an‘SCHENKER AND GREAT PERFORMERS 133, ‘Once the musician has made the perception of such relationships an integral part of hhis musical thought, he will know how to restore the synthesis to them, [Example 2c], for instance, makes an entirely different effect when it is performed as a repe fition and when it is performed as, something new, which the diminution in measures 8. easily tempts one to do.” Finally, a part of a letter from Furtwaingler to Schenker from summer 1932 should be published here for the first time (the letter is with a large sequence of other letters from Furtwiingler to Schenker in the possession of the author): | must confess that no evidence of the approval of my work can please me so much, ‘0 matter where it may come from, a8 can yours, for you are the one man who, like hardly anyone else today, knows about the veritable greatness of the masters, of a Beethoven et al.—the one man with whom | know myself to be in agreement on the manner of relating to precisely these great masters (asin so many other matters that result from this): Noes would like to thank Raleigh Whitinger, Professor of German at the University of Alberta, for providing helpful feedback on a draft of the tsanslation, 1, Tronically, these same factors may have contributed to the growing acceptance of ‘Schenkerian theory in North America during the decades immediately following the Second World War. See William Rothstein, “The Americanization of Heingich Schenker.” In Theory Only 9/1 (1986), 5-17; rpt. with minor revisions in. Hedi Siegel (ed.), Schenker Studies (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990), 193-203] 2. [The task of completing a more extensive documentary study on Schenker’s ass0- ciation with the musical world of his day was taken up by Jonas's student Hellmut Federhofer in "Rezichungen 2u Kiinstlern, Gelehrten und Musikschriftstellera,” in Heinrich Schenker: Nach Tagebiichern und Briefen in der Oswald Jonas Memorial Collection (Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 1985), 48-218.) 3. [Schenker, Fantasie, Op. 2, revised for publication by FW, Hohne (Leipzig: Breitkopf & Harel, 1898), This work is discussed in Patrick Miller, “The Published Music of Heinsich Schenker: An Historical-Archival Introduction,” Journal of Musicological Research 10 (1991), 181-84] 4. The letters of d’Albert and Busoni as well as the correspondence withthe publisher are in the possession of the author of the article. [These letters are now in the ‘Oswald Jonas Memorial Collection at the University of California, Riverside, box 9, folders £.6 and £27.) 5. Schenker, “Drittes Konzert der Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Wien—Iules Massenet, Mystére Eve—Liederabend Johannes Messchaen, Julius Réntgen,” Die Zeit 6 (1896), 113. [Reprinted in Hellmut Federhofer (ed.), Heinrich Schenker als4 ‘THEORY AND PRACTICE Essayist und Kritther: Gesammelte Aufsitze, Rezensionen und Kleinere Berichte ‘aus den Jahren 189{~ 1901(Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 1999), 318.] Schenker, “Liederabend Johannes Messchaent , Julius Réintgen—Sechstes und siebentes philharmonisches Koncert,” Die Zeit 6 (February and March, 1896), 15897. [Reprinted in Federhofer (ed.), Essayist und Kritiker, 323-34.) Schenker, "Vermischtes,” Der Tonwille 6 (1922), 41. [For further information on this singer, whose fame has not persisted, see Franziska Martienssen, Johannes Messchaert: Ein Beitrag zum Berstindnis echter Gesangskunst (Berlin: B. Behrs Verlag, 1914.7 Publication in preparation. (After numerous delays, Schenker’s performance trea tise was published as The Art af Performance, ed. Heribert Esser, trans. Irene Schreier Scott (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000). The passage quoted here ’ not included in the published version; however, a typescript copy ofits source ‘can be found in the Eenst Oster Collection atthe New York Public Library, fle 13, item 8, pp. 89-98 (91), available on microfiim.] [For perspectives on the relationship between Schenker’s theory and the concept of genius, see Ian Bent, “Heinrich Schenker ¢ le missione del genio Germanico,” ‘tans, Claudio Annibaldi, Rivista Haliana di Masicologia 26 (1991), 3-34; and Martin Eybl, "Genie und Hereschaft: Grundzlige eines autoritiren Weltbilds,” in Tdeologie ud Methode: Zun ideengeschichtlichen Kontext von Schenkers ‘Musiktheorie (Tutzing: Hans Schneider, 1995), 11-29] (The diaries actually consist of about 4000 mostly single-sided manuscript leaves. See “Introduction” and "fa, Manuscript Diaries of Heinrich Schenker,” in Robert Lang and JoAn Kunselman, Heinrich Schenker, Oswald Jonas, Moriz Violin: A Checklist of Manuscripts and Other Papers in the Oswald Jonas Memorial Collection (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994). Accessible online at the following URL: (accessed 14 July 2004),} [Of al the German words for “performance,” this one—which can also mean “lec “reading,” of “recital”—perhaps most clearly suggests communication rather than execution or display. This word appears in the title of Schenker’s performance Lease cited above), which may be why Jonas highlights the word here by pucting it in quotation marks.| ‘Schenker, dary entry, 28 Fehruary 1909, [Schenker’s diaries are now contained in Section fof the Oswald Jonas Memorial Collection, Special Collections Library, University of California, Riverside. The passage quoted here is transcribed, along with further remarks on Rosé from Schenker’s diaries, in Federhofer, Briefen und Tagebiichern, 248-9.) Ibid, 12 March 1926. (Transcribed, along with further entries an Casals, in Federhofer, Tagebiichern und Briefen, 226-27.| Schenker, Beethoven Neunte Symphonie: Eine Darstellung des musikalischen Inbales und fortlaufender Beriicksichtigung auch des Vortrages und der Literatar1s. 2, 23, ‘SCHENKER AND GREAT PERFORMERS 438 (Vienna, 1912), trans, John Rothgeb as Beethoven's Ninth Symphony: A Portrayal of ls Musical Content, wish Running Commentary on Performance and Literature ‘as Well (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993),) ‘Schenker, diary entry, 4 November 1919. [Transcribed in Federhofer, Tagebuichern und Briefen, (09. Diary enities and letters pertaining 0 Furwangler occupy neatly thirty pages in Fedeshofer's biography. [See Federhofer, Tagebiichern und Briefen, 107-08. Furtwiingler’s first major con- ducting appointment was in Lilbeck, where he was in charge of both the opera and the orchestra's subscription concerts from 1911-15.) Schenker, diary entry, 28 April 1920. [Partially transcribed in Fedeshofer, Briefen lund Tagebiichern, 112.1 Wilhelm Futwangher, Briefe: Mir vier Bildnissen und einem Handschrift- Faksimile, 3d edn., ed. Frank Thiess (Wiesbaden: F. A. Brockhaus, 1965), 54-57. Furtwaingler, Briefe, 53-54, Walter Riezler, “Wilhelm Furwanglers Geistige Welt: Gedanken zum Problem des .” in Wilhelm Furtwdngler im Urteit seiner Zeit, ed. Martin Harlimann (Ziirich: Atlantis-Verlag, 1955), 53-93 [85] [Given Sonas’s etended readership, I doubt that he is using this term in is techni- cal sense here] Schenker, Der freie Satz, 2nd edn. ed. Oswald Jonas (Vienna: Universal, 1956), 4256, p. 156. [The translation ofthis passage is taken largely from the one given in Schenker, Free Composition (Der fei Satz, rans. and ed. Ernst Oster (New York: Longman, 1979), §254, p. 100.) [This leer is now in the Oswald Jonas Memorial Collection, box 11, folder f.16 “The Letter was not dated by Furtwangler, and judging from annotations in pencil on its first page, Jonas tater revised his dating estimate from August 1932 to November 1919 on the basis of evidence from Schenket’s diary. 1 would like to thank the staff of the Special Collections Library at the University of California, Riverside for providing me with a copy of this letter.)136 ‘THEORY AND PRACTICE hace op ctneae teReview Britten's Musical Language, by Philip Ruprecht. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001 Reviewed by Edward D. Latham “Britten's Strategic Use of Tonslity” ‘In Britten's Musical Language, a recent addition to Arnold Whittall’s Music in the Twentieth Century series, Phitip Rupprecht has created an expansive survey of the major dramatic vocal works (from Peter Grimes ta Death in Venice) that is both ambitious in scope and firmly grounded in a readily apparent understanding of the \iterary and musical forces engaged in those works. Whittall and the editorial staff at Cambridge are 10 be commended for producing a book whose clean layout, generous abundance of musical illustrations, and paucity of typographical and ‘grammatical errors (the present reviewer found only one) allow the reader t0 focus on Rupprecht’s rich and nuanced interpretations without distraction. The author himself is to be commended for producing a book whose broadly interdis- ciplinary agenda and discussion of issues relevant to performers, scholars, and ‘opera-goers alike, involving not only the tonal and thematic structures of the ‘works considered but also the motivations and psychological profiles of the char- acters that inhabit them, mark it as an important contribution to opera studies in general and Britten studies in particular. By choosing to focus on the dramatic vocal works, Rupprecht has chosen to highlight Britten's exceptional gift for creating what he calls “composite musi- cal utterance—a bringing forth of words and music meaningfully and vividly, as one” (1). His eponymous use of the term “musical language” invokes the tradi- tional metaphor of music as language only to move beyond it and suggest a more literally symbiotic relationship between the two mediums, one whose product “ anything but metaphorical, for its powers of communication depend on the mate- rial presence of words” (1). He is carefull to note, however, that he intends not to “overturn the argument [regarding the differing roles of words and music] out- right—by denying the role of verbal signification, or by ignoring music's potertial for ‘emotional’ significance—but instead to reframe the discussion in 137138 ‘TaeORY AND Practice, terms that do not isolate questions of semantic reference from the other factors that make up the speech event” (14). In addition to focusing on thematic manipulation and recurrence—the area ‘of compositional design to which the notion of “utterance” is most readily appli- cable—Rupprecht also discusses large-scale key relations in Britten's operas. Throughout the book, he refers to what I will cal! Britten’s “strategic” use of tonality, though he does nor make explicit mention of the technique as such. ‘The definition of tonality in Britten’s work, and how that definition changes from Peter Grimes (1945) to Death in Venice (1976), is an issue that he avoids almost entirely, however, and one that merits some further consideration. After a brief summary and critique of each of the chapters of Britten's Musical Language, 1 will discuss Rupprecht’s modus operandi in general and offer some brief com- ments on a complementary analytical approach that, if combined with Rupprecht’s utterance-based analysis of thematic manipulation 2t ehe foreground, tht yield further analytical results. In his introduction (Chapter 1), Ruprecht fleshes out his concept of the fused musico-linguistic “utterance” by drawing on the writings of linguistic philosophers and literary critics such as J.L. Austin, Mikhail Bakbtin, Ferdinand de Saussure, and Roman Jakobson. He demonstrates the flexibility of using the utterance as a basis for analysis, applicable to both texted and non-texted musical passages, and also frames it as a social construction whose meaning and effect depend in large part on its context. The elegant conceptual simplicity of the utter- ance, and its reliance upon linguistics for its theoretical underpinnings, recall Robert Hatten’s appropriation of “markedness” for his work on Beethoven.’ However, unlike Hatten, who focuses on instrumental music, Ruprecht is prima rily interested in exploring the ways in which “the leitmotives that thread their way through Britten’s operas articulate a musical discourse operating in the zaps between actual singing” (14). This discourse, he argues, is established by “a thet- orie of exchange benween vocal and instrumental utterances, over the entire span of a work” (11), an exchange (familiar to students of Wagner) that guarantees the possibility of semantic reference even in the absence of the original text. His sub- sequent interest in identifying “voices” of various kinds also suggests Edward T. Cone and Carolyn Abbate as additional, more immediate influences Rupprecht tacitly acknowledges in citations throughout the book ‘When considering the book as a whole, the reader occasionally has the impression that the introductory chapter might have been added ex post facto, in an attempt to situate within a broader theoretical framework the various critical and analytical observations contained in the subsequent close readings. Rupprecht’s “utterance types” (8-9), for example, which resemble the musical topoi discussed by Leonard Ratner, Kofi Agawu, and others, are not given much. emphasis in the analytical chapters, where the need for such categories is obviated by the presence of other, more specific semantic referents (such as a theme's affil- iation with a particular character, event, or textual phrase) Nonetheless, Chapter I provides a lucid and engaging introduction to the musical “utterance,” a concept that proves to be a powerful tool for revealing the psychological complexity char- acteristic of Briten’s interpretations of George Crabbe, Herman Melville, Henry James, and Thomas Mann,Review 139 Turning to Peter Grimes in Chapter 2, Rupprecht borrows again from J.L. Austin, discussing “illocutionary forces” in the opera that “govern how speakers jmerpret one another in a social setting” (33). Though he notes that these forces ‘can be categorized into five main types of speech acts—assertives, directives, commissives, expressives, and declarations (37)—Rupprecht is primarily inter- ested in interpreting utterances as forceful actions, capable, for example, of wounding those to Whom they are addressed. In the case of Peter Grimes, the utterances of Peter's name by the Borough become, for Ruprecht, a form of “hate speech” (52) that subordinates Grimes, a case study in “the ‘mechanics’ of oppression” (35). Here and throughout the book, Rupprecht acknowledges the possibility of reading such interpretations biographically (that is, with regard to Britten's expe riences as a closeted gay man and pacifist in mid-century Britain), citing in particular the work of Philip Brett and Clifford Hindley.’ One of the virtues of Britten's Musical Language, however, is its continuous refusal to draw such nar- rowly reductive one-to-one correlations, and Ruprecht focuses instead on the appropriation of Peter's “Prayer theme” by the chorus as 4 form of oppression foxt court. In focusing almost exclusively on the Borough's music, however, Rupprecht misses an opportunity to draw larger tonal connections between the three acts of the opera. He rightly identifies Bp major as the key confirmed both by the half cadence at R17 (as Ellen cries “We've failed!”) and the perfect authen- tic cadence that closes the Prayer theme; but his subsequent analysis of act 1, scene I a8 a prolongation of B> minor/B> major (53, fig. 2.3) neglects the strong Eb-major opening of that scene.’ Ellen's aria (“Nothing to tell me, nothing to say?") establishes Eb major as the home key of the scene, contextualizing the sub- sequent shift to Bb major as a modulation to the key of the dominant. Emphasizing Eb major as the home key of act Il, Scene | creates the possi- bility of linking that scene to Peter’s assertion of E+ major in the Prologue’s courtroom scene, a moment Rupprecht correctly identifies as a “negation” of the court's opening Bb-major tonic (41).* The two scenes are linked through their con- nection to Peter's apprentices: in the Prologue, Peter is wying to prove his {innocence in the death of the first apprentice, while in the opening of act Il, Ellen is trying to establish a relationship with the second apprentice. In a similar man- ner, the B-minor/B-major prolongation in act Ml, scene 1, adroitly identified by Ruprecht as a “dramatic parallelism’ (53, fig. 2.3) to the Bp-minor section dis- cussed above, could be read as the dominant of E major, the key of Peter and Ellen's Prologue duet (“Peter! Peter, come away"). I will return to both of these tonic-dominant relationships in my conclusion. Although he occasionally invokes concepts from Schenkerian theory (Chapter 2), transformational theory (Chapter 3), pitch-class set theory (Chapters 4 and 5), and twelve-tone theory (Chapter 6), Rupprecht’s primary analytical interest, as noted above, is in Britten’s appcopriation af Wagnerian leitmotivic technique. In his discussion of Peter Grimes, Rupprecht’s focus on a single leit- motive (the Prayer theme) occasionally leads to interpretive distortions. His notion that the Borough's appropriation of the Prayer theme implicates Grisnes in his own “sentencing” (51), for example, suggests that the theme belonged to