Anti Hero Worship: The Emergence of The Byronic

Department of Music Theory, Jacobs School of Music, Indiana University
Anti-hero Worship: The Emergence of the “Byronic hero” Archetype in the Nineteenth
Century
Author(s): Cora Palfy
Source: Indiana Theory Review, Vol. 32, No. 1-2 (Spring/Fall 2016), pp. 161-198
Published by: Indiana University Press on behalf of the Department of Music Theory,
Jacobs School of Music, Indiana University
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Anti-hero Worship: he Emergence
of the “Byronic hero” Archetype in
the Nineteenth Century
Cora Palfy
Elon University
Introduction
he works of poet Lord Byron were a tour de force over the
T course of the nineteenth century—from the serial release of

Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage (1812–1818), ever-famous poetry
like Don Juan (1819), and his dramatic stage works, such as Manfred
(1817), Byron can be noted as one of the most highly inluential authors
and artists of his time.1 hough Byronic style and traits were adopted
by a variety of authors and poets throughout Europe, Byron’s inluence
stretched beyond the literary. Berlioz, Brahms, Schumann, Verdi, Tchai-
kovsky, Strauss, and other nineteenth-century composers also adopted
Byronic plots or narrative elements and incorporated them into musical
works.2 Aside from the polemical writing style and sensational authorial
persona that mark his work as distinct, Byron also introduced a unique
character type, the “Byronic hero.” his novel hero manipulated stan-
dard behaviors and plot outcomes associated with earlier conceptions
1
Jean-Paul Forster, “1814–1819: Shift of Focalization in Byron’s Narrative
Poems,” Byron Journal 19, no. 1 (1991): 80–89.
2
Robert Pascall, “‘hose Grand Heroics Acted as a Spell’: Aspects of
Byron’s Inluence on Music in Nineteenth-Century Europe,” Renaissance and
Modern Studies 32, no. 1 (1988): 128–35; Ruth Carpenter, “Childe Harold – ‘he
Soul and Source of Music’: Byron’s Inluence on Berlioz and His Harold in Italy
Symphony,” Byron Journal 30 (2002): 38–53; Susan Rutherford, “From Byron’s
he Corsair to Verdi’s Il Corsaro: Poetry Made Music,” Nineteenth-Century
Music Review 7, no. 2 (2010): 35–61.
Copyright © 2016 he Trustees of Indiana University. doi: 10.2979/inditheorevi.32.2.05
162 Indiana heory Review Vol. 32.1–2
of the “hero” archetype, creating an entirely new standard character that
revolutionized literature and art.3
he archetypical twists necessary to produce a Byronic hero pro-
vide a prime opportunity to investigate Byron’s inluence on musical
composition during the mid-nineteenth century. If the Byronic hero
was initially a manipulation of standard narrative expectations and
character types, how did composers adapt stock patterns and manip-
ulate listener expectations in order to communicate a musical Byronic
hero? his paper provides three case studies that demonstrate recurrent
patterns of topical troping in Byronic music. My analyses reveal that
pieces, such as Schumann’s Manfred Overture, Op. 115, Tchaikovsky’s
“Manfred” Symphony, Op. 58, I, and Berlioz’s Harold en Italie, Op. 16,
I all contain military and ombra topics, formal deformations, and obses-
sively reiterated thematic gestures. he coalescence of these elements
communicates the impression of the lovelorn, obsessive, and static
Byronic hero. he presence of these features calls into question the rep-
resentation and variety of musical heroes in the nineteenth century and
the way in which topics can be manipulated to convey nuanced, speciic
character types.
Heroism and its Adaptations in Music and Literature
he “hero” archetype has been present in literature since the ear-

liest mythologies. Psychoanalyst and ethnographer Joseph Campbell
has noted that hero mythology is a cultural universal and that heroic
journeys have been a part of these mythologies as symbolic representa-
tions of human psychological and biological development.4 Campbell’s
heroic “monomyth” articulates a common framework underlying the
hero’s journey—the hero undergoes a cycle of separation, initiation, and
return.5 Separation entails both the introduction of a hero and his depar-
ture from home, initiation includes the hero’s trials and tribulations, and
inally, the hero victoriously returns with transcendent, enlightened
knowledge.6 Campbell deines the hero thus, “he hero, therefore, is
the man or woman who has been able to battle past his personal and
3
Peter L. horslev, he Byronic Hero: Types and Prototypes (Minneapolis:
University of Minnesota Press, 1962).
4
Joseph Campbell, he Hero with a housand Faces, 3rd ed. (Novato: New
World Library, 2008), 1–2, 7.
5
Ibid., 23.
6
his monomyth and the later, more reined “Cosmogonic cycle”
has interesting parallels to the expected sonata form of the 18th- and early
Palfy, “Anti-hero Worship” 163
local historical limitations to the generally valid, normal human forms.”7
Campbell’s ideas of an individuated hero symbolically vanquishing the
troubles of his era correspond well with the prominent traits of the many
varieties of hero available in contemporary literature and ilm. Campbell’s
deinition of hero in the universal monomyth, however, leaves much
room for reinement and growth in these various genres.
he diverse varieties of hero extant today stem from an explosion
in and evolution of heroic literary types in the eighteenth century. Peter
horslev’s study on the Byronic hero surveys pre-Romantic and early
Romantic distinctions between distinct hero types, each of which feeds
into Byron’s later archetype.8 horslev details three eighteenth-century
hero types, the “Child of Nature, the Hero of Sensibility, and the Gothic
Villain” and four Romantic hero types, the “Noble Outlaw. . . the Faust-
igure, Cain and the Wandering Jew, and Satan-Prometheus.”9 Each of
these character types shares certain features, such as an understanding
of a higher moral,10 noble spirit or elevated social role, and the role
of accomplishing action or resolving conlicts throughout a plot. hese
peremptory heroic types laid the groundwork for the later Byronic hero.
his hero, which today might be referred to as an anti-hero, stands apart
from Campbell’s monomyth because of its distinctly diferent personal-
ity, behavior, and approach to conlict resolution. he irst instance of
a Byronic hero, Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, clearly lays out the traits
which deine all later instances of the Byronic hero.11 I have included
the three most demonstrative stanzas below:
V. For he through Sin’s long labyrinth had run,

Nor made atonement when he did amiss,
Had sighed to many, though he loved but one,
And that loved one, alas, could ne’er be his.
Ah, happy she! to ‘scape from him whose kiss
Had been pollution unto aught so chaste;
Who soon had left her charms for vulgar bliss,
And spoiled her goodly lands to gild his waste,
Nor calm domestic peace had ever deigned to taste.
19th-century; see Campbell, Hero with a housand Faces, 210. his connection
will be further elaborated in the section concerning form.
7
Ibid., 14.
8
horslev, Byronic Hero, 185.
9
Ibid., 21.
10
With the exception of the Gothic Villain.
11
Jerome McGann, “Hero with a housand Faces: he Rhetoric of
Byronism,” Studies in Romanticism 31, no. 3 (1992): 295.
VIII. Yet ofttimes in his maddest mirthful mood,
Strange pangs would lash along Childe Harold’s brow,
As if the memory of some deadly feud
Or disappointed passion lurked below:
But this none knew, nor haply cared to know;
For his was not that open, artless soul
hat feels relief by bidding sorrow low;
Nor sought he friend to counsel or condole,
Whate’er this grief mote be, which he could not control.
IX. And none did love him: though to hall and bower
He gathered revellers from far and near,
He knew them latterers of the festal hour;
he heartless parasites of present cheer.
Yea, none did love him—not his lemans dear—
But pomp and power alone are woman’s care,
And where these are light Eros inds a feere;
Maidens, like moths, are ever caught by glare,
And Mammon wins his way where seraphs might despair.12
he Byronic hero is characterized as a rebel who stands apart from soci-

ety and societal expectations, who is deeply jaded, morally superior, and
obsessed with lost love. Pascall notes, “Macaulay was one of the irst
to describe the archetypal Byronic hero, in a review of 1831: ‘a man
proud, moody, cynical, with deiance on his brow, and misery in his
heart, a scorner of his kind, implacable in revenge, yet capable of deep
and strong afection’.”13 Despite his unique features, the Byronic hero is
not dissociated from earlier heroes but is rather a continuation of them.
horslev states,
he characteristic Byronic hero. . .has borrowed characteristics from

the Gothic Villain, in his looks, his mysterious past, and his secret
sins; and he has retained characteristics from the Man of Feeling
in his tender sensibilities and in his undying idelity to the woman
he loves—but he is more than these: he is also a Romantic rebel.
he sins for which he accepts responsibility are not those of his
misdeeds which society considers most reprehensible. . . not only are
his sins his own, but his moral values are also his own; he chooses
his values in open deiance of the codes of society.14
12
George Gordon Byron, “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage,” (Project
Gutenberg, 2004). http://www.gutenberg.org/iles/5131/5131-h/5131-h.htm.
13
Quoted in Pascall, “‘hose Grand Heroics’,” 128.
14
horslev, Byronic Hero, 163–64. Both in terms of the character’s traits
and conception, the Byronic hero was a reactionary igure in the face of
horslev’s comment highlights that Byron explicitly manipulated cul-
tural stereotypes surrounding heroic action, plot development, and nar-
rative genre to produce his distinct anti-hero. he Byronic hero soon
appeared in a multitude of pan-European literary works, and a parallel
evolution of the Byronic hero-type can be traced in music as well.
Koi Agawu, Márta Grabócz , and Janice Dickensheets have also
discussed the heroic as a distinct topic in the nineteenth and twenti-
eth centuries. 15 Characterized often as the use of militaristic march or
fanfare gestures, the topics represent a sense of nobility and high social
status. Dickensheets explains,
An expansion of Ratner’s Military Style, this topic carries with it

strong Beethovenian associations. Used frequently to signify victory,
it is most often delivered in a powerful major key. Its fanfare igures
often encompass the entire orchestra and are frequently accompa-
nied by timpani and trumpet (recalling the long tradition of pairing
these two instruments) in an expansive show of heroism.16
It is Dickensheets’s speciic mention of Beethoven that allows space for

a more pointed deinition of a “heroic style.” he mention of composer-
speciicity lags that there is an interaction between compositional style
and efective topical use and that a composer’s history and mythology
can inluence the meaning of musical signiiers.17 By placing the heroic
preexisting literary character types. Byron was notorious for writing allegorical
poetry in response to current political and social situations, events in his own
life, and it is conjectured that many of his characters represent political igures
or people he knew personally and interacted with. hus, his work can be con-
sidered responsive to his immediate surroundings.
15
Koi Agawu, Music as Discourse: Semiotic Adventures in Romantic Music
(New York: Oxford University Press, 2008); Márta Grabócz, “he ‘Preludio’ of
the Four Orchestral Pieces Op. 12 by Béla Bartók: An Intertextual Analytical
Approach,” in Music Semiotics: a Network of Signiications in Honour and
Memory of Raymond Monelle, ed. Esti Sheinberg (Burlington, VT: Ashgate
Publishing, 2012), 115–28; Janice Dickensheets, “he Topical Vocabulary of
the Nineteenth Century,” Journal of Musicological Research 31, nos. 2–3 (2012):
97–137.
16
Dickensheets, “he Topical Vocabulary of the Nineteenth Century,”
Journal of Musicological Research 31, nos. 2–3 (2012): 118.
17
Incidentally, my inclusion of Grabócz’s analyses is not accidental: she
focuses speciically on deining the heroic elements of Bartók’s ouevre. Grabócz
winnows the broad heroic topic by situating it in relation to a particular com-
poser. hough there is not much scholarship linking Bartók with themes of
heroism, it is pertinent to note the connection is made by Grabócz.
topic in relation to a speciic compositional style and historical igure,
Grabócz and Dickensheets both imply that broad styles can become
further reined into identiiable, importable musical elements because
of a historical association with particular composers. It is the impor-
tation of musical elements that deines musical topoi, Danuta Mirka
posits,18 and it is through nineteenth-century composers’ importations
of a heroic topic speciically associated with Beethoven that we are able
to discern a diferentiated Byronic hero.
In his book, Beethoven Hero, Scott Burnham elaborates on the
connection between Beethoven and heroism. Burnham explains that
Beethoven’s continued status as an emotionally communicative com-
poser, and one with whom audiences “universally” identify, is due to
certain elements of his musical style rather than mere historical asso-
ciations.19 Burnham states,
I wish to stress Beethoven’s re-airmation of classical grammar, for

I am eager to avoid the simplistic conception of Beethoven as a
kind of musical Siegfried, he who smashes the toy forms of lesser
men while forging those of the future. I am suggesting instead that
Beethoven emphasizes the underlying aspects of classical style,
increases their gravity, and turns these forms into something like
mythological tropes, an operation from which they never recov-
ered.20
Burnham narrows the broad topical ield of heroism by tying it to the

speciic ways in which Beethoven employed form, keys, and thematic
material. With regards to the heroic use of form, Burnham asserts that
it is Beethoven’s use of an ebbing and lowing, wave-like formal struc-
ture that creates one of the most dynamic aspects of his heroic style.
Burnham further dramatizes the formal expectations of the classical
sonata, describing a narrative arc and action sequence that is quite simi-
lar to Campbell’s monomyth.21 hat the form carries with it expectations
of development and resolution is no surprise, as is Burnham’s assertion
that the closely related keys heavily relied upon in the eighteenth and
18
Danuta Mirka, introduction to he Oxford Handbook of Topic heory, ed.
Danuta Mirka (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014), 2.
19
Scott Burnham, Beethoven Hero (2000), xiv.
20
Ibid., 63.
21
“he combination of sustained intensity and ultimate closure aids the
prevailing intuition that a piece in the heroic style represents a self-generating
and self-consuming process, a dynamic microcosm.” Burnham, Beethoven
Hero, 62.
nineteenth centuries were “monumentalized” in Beethovenian works,
thereby creating a dramatized interplay between tonic and dominant.22
Dominant, as well as key ambiguity, represented an obstacle or an
“opponent” to be overcome, whether internal or external to the subjec-
tivity embodied in the work.
Subjectivity in a work is also a prominent element of Burnham’s
Beethoven hero—Mark Evan Bonds corroborates this idea, not-
ing, “he very idea of writing a symphony that relects the fate of a
central protagonist is clearly indebted to the ‘Eroica.’”23 hematic
elements function as actants within the sonata narrative, progress-
ing through formally expected battles and, in so doing, advancing the
heroic journey. he theme is characterized by its organic motivic unity
and coherence with the other musical material throughout. Further,
its omnipresence in each constituent part of motivic material lends a
coherence necessary to identify the thematic agent.24 Burnham speci-
ies that this theme must continue to develop, driving the narrative
along as it collects context and the fragmentary motivic material of its
musical heroic journey.
It is thus that Burnham establishes the “Ideal Hero” discernible
in Beethoven’s masterworks.25 But what does the establishment of this
musical ideal, with its speciic features, do for the listeners of the period
and, for that matter, encourage from other composers? he speciic ele-
ments, in addition to Dickensheets’s topical requirements, coalesce to
create a “heroic” style that was not only identiiable to listeners, but was
also imported and troped upon by later nineteenth-century composers
in order to reine the heroic type required for programmatic pieces. his
is because the “universal” hero that Burnham reads in Beethoven’s hird
and Fifth Symphonies come directly out of the formal and narrative
interpretations of A.B. Marx.
Marx developed a triadic view of musical history in which the

music of Beethoven formed the culminating stage, that of ‘ideal
music.’ Marx felt that Beethoven’s music had attained the ability
to portray deeply compelling ‘soul states’ as part of a fundamen-
tally dramatic narrative process. Music is thus enabled to give
22
Burnham, Beethoven Hero, 39.
23
Mark Evan Bonds, “Sinfonia Anti-Eroica: Berlioz’s Harold en Italie and
the Anxiety of Beethoven’s Inluence,” Journal of Musicology 10, no. 4 (1992):
424.
24
25
Ibid., 30, 111.
concrete expression to transcendent content, the ideal nature
of which Marx attempted to capture in his notion of the poetic
Idee.26
Marx was writing and, therefore, constructing the image of the

Beethovenian ideal in the mid-nineteenth century, when interest in the
Byronic Hero was most prevalent. he musical aspects of form, key,
theme, and topic identiied by Marx (and which feed into Burnham’s
construction of the Beethoven hero) were available as topical importa-
tions for Marx’s contemporaries, for whom classical ideas such as sonata
form27 and composer-speciic style28 were already topical elements.29
hat the Beethovenian ideal was being formed at this time was also cru-
cial because its conception coincided with the popularity of the musical
Byronic hero.30
Nineteenth-Century Music and the Byronic Hero Trope
he existing literature on the heroic archetype in music suggests

that it is not simply one factor that conveyed a musical hero but rather
a coalescence of several elements. he trope is made more complex by
the historical and afective connotations involved. As Danuta Mirka
states in the introduction to the Oxford Handbook of Topics, topics com-
mingle elements that produce associations with social situations, afects,
and listener expectations. She notes, “Melodic or accompanimental
igures are musical characteristics of topics insofar as they allow one
to recognize a style or genre; afects form part of topical signiication.
Rhetorical igures and harmonic schemata are unrelated to topics but
can combine with them into more or less stable amalgamates that are
26
27
his point will be revisited later, as it is contentious whether or not a
formal structure may or may not be a topic as they are generally deined.
28
One need only turn to Schumann’s Carnaval movements styled after
Paganini and Chopin to know this; however, Brahms was also interested in
ideas of historical accuracy and revival.
29
Jon W. Finson, “At the Interstice Between ‘Popular’ and ‘Classical’:
Schumann’s Poems of Queen Mary Stuart and European Sentimentality at
Midcentury,” in Rethinking Schumann, ed. Roe-Min Kok and Laura Tunbridge
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011): 80.
30
“he peak of Byron’s inluence on music was on the Romantic com-
posers, particularly Berlioz, Schumann, Liszt, Verdi, and Tchaikovsky between
1830–1890.” in Carpenter, “Childe Harold,” 38.
conventional in their own rights.”31 his proposition is suggestive and,
indeed, allows for a degree of freedom when thinking about how these
various elements, both musical and sociological, might recombine or be
reigured to become signiicant. Rather than a complete presentation
of the topic, in which all component parts are present and audible, we
might think instead of topics as possessing a synecdochical relationship
between component parts functioning on both the topical level and on
the level of the trope. he absence and presence of, on one level, difer-
ent elements of the topics, and, on a higher level, the various features of
each component part of the trope, afects the communication of mean-
ing. hus, subtle implications may be communicated by the mere pres-
ence or absence of certain topical features.
his part-whole relationship that I am suggesting becomes more
imperative in the nineteenth century, where the manipulation of old
tropes and formation of new ones is standard issue.32 Julian Horton
comments,
On the one hand, the eighteenth-century thesaurus [of topics] per-

sists, but in changed social circumstances, and this renders attempts
to read topical discourse as social commentary irreducibly complex.
For the generation of composers born in the irst two decades of
the nineteenth century, classical topics had themselves become his-
toricized, and were thus received less as markers of social meaning,
and more as conventions deining an emerging tradition. On the
other hand, nineteenth-century composers also devised fresh topics,
which as facets of a new style are conceptually opposed to topics
associated with the classical past.33
hrough the reinterpretation of historicized topics to suit contempo-

rary meaning and society, nineteenth-century composers efectively
repurposed ideas and created new networks of meaning. By incorporat-
ing component parts of older topical gestures into fresh conceptions,
nineteenth-century composers reassembled Frankensteinian topics
with entirely new communicative abilities.
It is within this new tradition of topical repurposing and recom-
bination that the Byronic Hero archetype was born. In reading the
31
Mirka, introduction, 2.
32
Agawu, Music as Discourse; Dickensheets, “Nineteenth-Century Topical
Analysis” and “Topical Vocabulary of the Nineteenth Century.”
33
Julian Horton, “Listening to Topics in the Nineteenth Century,” in
he Oxford Handbook of Topic heory, ed. Danuta Mirka (New York: Oxford
University Press, 2011), 643.
features of Schumann’s Manfred Overture, Berlioz’s Harold en Italie,
and Tchaikovsky’s “Manfred” Symphony against those that Burnham
and Marx use to characterize the “Beethoven hero,” it is apparent that
the Beethovenian ideal was not just a prominent theoretical concept.
he Beethoven hero provides a style-speciic set of musical features,
such as noble topoi, formal design, and thematic gesture, which can all
be imported and manipulated in order to convey a particular musical
meaning. Example 1 shows how these features are troped34 to commu-
nicate Byronic features in nineteenth-century music.
One should note that terms and topics that seem to be opposi-
tional occupy the diagram: noble topoi contrast markedly with the sin-
ister, and sonata form is juxtaposed against thematic gestural obsession
(a dichotomy which seems to preclude or upend the successful use of
sonata form). However, it is precisely within these juxtapositions that
the Byronic emerges: it is these very contrasts that deine the Byronic
hero. he trope formed by Example 1 subverts traditional Beethovenian
hero-types, rejecting outright many of the stock afective and struc-
tural sources—this reactive, volatile trope mirrors precisely the shifting
archetype characteristic of Byron’s work: the Byronic hero manifest in
music.
Example 1. he Byronic Hero trope
34
Robert Hatten, Musical Meaning in Beethoven: Markedness, Correlation,
and Interpretation (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994); Hatten,
Interpreting Musical Gestures, Topics, and Tropes: Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert
(Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 2004).
Noble and Military Topoi
he analyses will begin with the treatment of noble topoi, since

the extramusical and historical associations with functional music are
most directly tied to the heroic. Leonard Ratner notes that extramusical
and historical associations with functional music encouraged connec-
tions between military music and heroism in the eighteenth century.35
Ratner’s connection of military to an elevated social status is clear, but
the implications of heroism are not. Raymond Monelle posits that mili-
tary music, such as fanfare, dotted rhythms, and particular orchestration
(including brass and high woodwinds) was considered “heroic” since
the Middle Ages, when mounted battle was associated particularly with
chivalry, nobility, and high class rank.36 Due to its persistence in classical
literature, military topoi continued to signify the chivalrous heroic into
the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.37 It is standard for a Byronic
Hero to have a high social standing and position: Childe Harold’s hon-
oriic denotes a noble birth; Don Juan is a wealthy libertine; Manfred is
a noble, though his lineage is unspeciied.
As shown in Examples 2–5, the connotations of nobility are con-
veyed within Byronic works through the use of military topoi. Military
topics lend a sense of gravity and nobility; the extramusical associa-
tions imply that each Byronic hero is noble and proud. In the following
examples, we can see that militaristic music are popular topical gestures
within Byronic hero works.
hese topics convey a sense of nobility afectively. Both march and
fanfare (Examples 2–5) convey the moral and ethical side of nobility.
Monelle comments, “Intuitively, the signiication of this topic seems
euphoric, manly, heroic, adventurous, evocative of noble deeds and
35
“Military and hunt music was familiar throughout the eighteenth
century. Noble houses had their own court guards, parading to the fanfare of
trumpets accompanied by the tattoo of drums. . . fanfares and hunting sig-
nals were imitated by strings, woodwinds, and keyboard instruments.” Leonard
G. Ratner, Classic Music: Expression, Form and Style (New York: Schirmer
Books, 1985), 18.
36
Raymond Monelle, he Musical Topic: Hunt, Military and Pastoral
(Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2006), 142–43. In medieval Europe, it
was very expensive to breed and train horses solely for mounted battle. Owning
a horse generally meant using the horse for ield labor; these labor horses were
not the same horses used for battle. hus, it took a person of high class and
wealth to aford additional horses used to ight in mounted battle.
37
Ibid., 154.
Example 2. Schumann, Manfred Overture, mm. 78–81
reckless courage.”38 Monelle comments that the association with a

broader category of high ethical status became even further emphasized
in the nineteenth century. “he distortion of march and fanfare was
necessary in order to move away from a mere picturing of soldiers to an
invocation of the cultural theme. Signaling and marching are, then, less
in evidence than imaginative representation, moving from a generalized
vigor and optimism toward the theme of the warrior hero.”39 hough
military music is largely symbolic of the heroic from a moral perspec-
tive, it, too, hints at the idea of affluence. Monelle notes that in the late
eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, military uniforms were the
ultimate testament to the highly-paid status of soldiers.40
Sinister Topoi
One might notice, upon listening to Examples 2–5, that there is

something amiss in each excerpt: rather than being presented in the
normative major mode as prescribed by Dickensheets, each hunting or
38
Monelle, Musical Topic, 142.
39
Ibid., 169.
40
Ibid., 158.
Example 3a. Schumann, Manfred Overture, mm. 249–55
Example 3b. Schumann, Manfred Overture, mm. 256–63
military topic is presented in a darker, minor mode. his is, indeed, one
of the necessary marked topical twists that produces a Byronic Hero. he
hero is no longer a cheerful, victorious character but is rather associated
with darker forces, mysterious crimes, and the supernatural. Within the
irst movements of the Byronic Berlioz, Schumann, and Tchaikovsky
Example 4. Berlioz, Harold en Italie, I: mm. 258–65
pieces, heroic style topics are troped with ombra style throughout; the
pieces use nearly every component feature of the ombra style, which
both Wye J. Allenbrook and Clive McClelland deine as:
he musical elements of the ombra style here are purposeful unor-

thodoxies: a minor key. . . an antique chaconne bass and the pon-
derous dotted rhythms of an earlier style; chains of syncopations,
with no resolution provided to the rhythmic imbalance which they
provoke; frequent assertion of the Phrygian half step; sideslipping
chromatic progressions and a major place in the harmonic events
conceded to the Neapolitan sixth; a handful of disconnected “iller”
Example 5. Tchaikovsky, “Manfred” Symphony, I: mm. 289–91.
Fanfare material in the recapitulation/coda
igures. . . sudden sforzando shocks in an otherwise piano and muted

uneasiness. Figures are laid into the larger structure in chunks,
open-ended and repetitive rather than symmetrically rounded of
in the departure-return sequence of the dance. Yet all the ombra’s
unorthodoxies are embedded in a harmonic plan which is only
deceptively complex, and ensures the maximum local mystery and
indirection with the minimum sacriice of broad cadential muscle.41
41
Wye Jamison Allanbrook, Rhythmic Gesture in Mozart: Le Nozze Di
Figaro & Don Giovanni (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983), 197–98.
he trope of unmarked noble and marked ombra topics within this work
casts a dark shadow over the protagonist: no longer can we conceive of
him as the sunny, victorious Beethoven hero. he Byronic broods in the
shadows and meets a potentially darker fate.
Each excerpt (Examples 6–9) spotlights the chromatic descent
that saturates the sonic world of each of the three pieces under inves-
tigation. he chromatic descent also invades the melodic content, cast-
ing a shadow in even the higher register. In Example 9, the compound
melody in the Manfred Overture introduction is comprised of multiple
chromatic, descending lines. Each excerpt (and, more broadly, each
piece) also contains soft dynamics, sforzando gestures, and syncopated
chains (Examples 6 and 7).
While both Schumann and Tchaikovsky choose to imbue their
entire irst movements with ombra, Harold en Italie stands as the excep-
tion. Rather than following Harold through the entire course of the
piece, ombra is far more pronounced in later movements. However, the
introduction’s melodic counterpoint is composed almost entirely of
ombra-like material, seen in Example 10. P is later developed using the
ombra invocations from the introduction, seen in Example 11.
It may be noted that the layering of military/hunt and ombra, in
terms of speciic topical trope, are necessary and suicient to com-
municate a somewhat basic idea of the Byronic hero. If one looks at
later repertory (and repertory from more contemporary television and
ilm), it is this topical layering that most commonly conveys a Byronic
Hero type.42 However, in the nineteenth century, the concept of form
is also an important part of the topical landscape and, by extension, the
Byronic archetype.
The Byronic and Formal Structure
Considering form topical within the eighteenth and nineteenth

centuries is not a novel concept, and it is one that holds weight for
Liebhabers and Kenners of the time period. Elaine Sisman’s work suggests
42
Some later classical works that use this topical trope are Richard Strauss’s
Don Juan; Verdi’s Corsaire; Liszt’s Mazeppa; Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 10;
Liszt’s Dante Symphony, S. 109; movements of Liszt’s Années de Pélerinage;
Tchaikovsky’s Symphony 6 (Pathetique); and Puccini’s “Come una mosca pri-
gionera” and “Con onor muore” from Madama Butterly, Act III. It is interest-
ing that these examples span quite a bit of history and difering genres. Pieces
of the trope also show up in movies portraying a Byronic hero, most notably
the Christopher Nolan Batman trilogy (Hans Zimmer); V for Vendetta (Dario
Marianelli); and Sherlock Holmes (Hans Zimmer).
Example 6. Tchaikovsky, Manfred Symphony, I: mm. 145–55
Example 7. Berlioz, Harold en Italie, I: mm. 144–46
that form can, indeed, be topical due to the expectations associated with
formal sections. Writing about the formal structure of Mozart’s Jupiter
Symphony K. 551, she states, “We may consider the false retransition
and recapitulation-interlude to be ‘formal’ topics—topics of interior ref-
erence—rather than exterior topics, such as those derived from dance.”43
43
Elaine R. Sisman, Mozart, the “Jupiter” Symphony, No. 41 in C Major,
K. 551, Cambridge Music Handbooks (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1993), 52–53.
Example 8. Schumann, Manfred Overture, I: mm. 1–5. Ombra in the
woodwinds’ chorale-like texture
Example 9. Schumann, Manfred Overture, I: mm. 6–11
Form is further topic when it bears the stylistic traits of a particular

composer, such as the heroic associations with Beethoven.44 Indeed,
Sandra Pederson and other scholars draw a direct connection between
Eroica and later understandings of heroism as conveyed by sonata form.
She notes,
Lang’s, Einstein’s, and Whittall’s contentions that the genera-

tion after Beethoven was too neurotic, weak, immature, cow-
ardly, and feminine to write successful symphonies is elaborated
on in Nicholas Temperley’s New Grove Dictionary article on the
nineteenth-century symphony. Here we ind that Beethoven’s sym-
phonies, from the Eroica on, all depict a “moral” struggle from which
Beethoven, “the real hero,” emerges victorious. his victory is due to
“personal force of character,” and the “sheer force of personality.”45
44
We might also connect, for instance, the nocturne genre to Chopin.
45
Sanna Pederson, “On the Task of the Music Historian: he Myth of the
Symphony after Beethoven,” Repercussions 2, no. 2 (1993): 8.
Example 10. Berlioz, Harold en Italie, I: mm. 5–9 (Introduction)
Example 11. Berlioz, Harold en Italie, I: mm. 211–25 (Primary heme

in development)
It is pertinent, then, to consider form as associated with Beethoven a
“topic” to be added to the Byronic hero’s trope.
Form and theme play an integral role in conveying an anti-
hero archetype in Byronic musical works of the nineteenth century.
he pieces’ situation within their larger work structures (overtures
and irst movements) implies an expected sonata formal structure.
However, the movements analyzed did not conform to Burnham’s
Beethovenian heroic formal standards, despite their titular and topi-
cal associations with hero-types. hough the pieces do all share a
sonata-like form, each manipulates and deforms traditional sonata
form in both formal structure and key area. hese deviations are
intrinsically meaningful due to the formal expectations imported by
listeners of the time, and they have dramatic implications for the nar-
rative meaning of each work. Given that each piece has a distinctive
approach to the Byronic form, I will characterize each piece indi-
vidually using Hepokoski and Darcy’s sonata form methodology and
then synthesize my indings.
In certain respects, the formal structure of Schumann’s Manfred
Overture could be said to be an overt reference to Beethoven’s Eroica.
Manfred’s form mirrors the form of Eroica as described by Burnham: it
is in sonata form, has a merged slow introduction and exposition, intro-
duces the primary thematic material during the slow introduction, and
ends with a fused recapitulation and coda.46 his formal layout paral-
lels the energetic rhythmicity of Eroica—the merged introduction and
exposition provide a relaxed upbeat to the development’s climactic ten-
sion, which releases into the recapitulation and coda. he expectations
for classical sonata form should, therefore, be at play (in addition to the
Beethovenian associations with a heroic protagonist transcending his
sonata-form battle). However, Manfred’s sonata form contributes to a
vital characteristic that completes the picture of the Byronic hero: rebel-
lion again societal expectation. A simpliied schematic of the formal
layout is given in Example 12.
hough Manfred’s sonata form outwardly resembles Eroica,
there are many internal features that set the piece apart from its
Beethovenian predecessor. Schumann’s Manfred contains a three-key
exposition, which explores the key areas of E‫ ל‬minor (P, mm. 25–43),
F‫ מ‬minor (S1 and S1.2, mm. 52–61 and 62–67 respectively), and C‫מ‬
minor (S1.3, mm. 68–81). he prominent distance between these keys,
as well as the use of a multimodular second theme leading to the
46
Burnham, Beethoven Hero, 29–65.
Example 12. Schumann’s Manfred Overture, sonata schematic
exploration of three keys, seems to react directly to the idea of “monu-

mentalized” tonic and dominant structures that represent the victori-
ous Beethoven hero.
Indeed, it is this set of diicult tonal obstacles to be overcome
which play a role in the failed sonata form. As can be seen in the sche-
matic, while P and S modulate away from E‫ ל‬minor, initiating the
teleologically necessary tonal conlict, the closing theme (mm. 82–87)
returns to E‫ ל‬minor. Despite its return to the comfort of the initial key,
C does not reinforce full expositional closure before the development
enters in m. 88.
his return to the home key prompts an arsenal of questions: Does
this return to E‫ ל‬minor make redundant the development and reca-
pitulation of the sonata? Despite the resolution of the tonal problems
within S1, S2, and S3, there is a subversive element at play within this
return to E‫ ל‬minor. Example 12 shows the larger-scale functionality
of each key center within the exposition. Of note is the avoidance of
the expected III within S space; instead, F‫ מ‬minor fulills a iii func-
tion. From this perspective, S1.3 prolongs F‫ מ‬minor as v/iii, remaining
within the secondary key area. Indeed, this is strengthened when S1
returns, elaborating the prolongational key structure. Considered this
way, E‫ ל‬minor serves as both a reminder of the home key as well as vi
in F‫ מ‬minor, ostensibly launching the development by cadencing on the
deceptive vi.
Another perspective is that the return to E‫ ל‬minor reverses the
closural weight of the EEC achieved in m. 81. Considering the closing
zone this way marks the sonata form as deformed and failed, a hallmark
of the Byronic Hero archetype. his interpretation heightens the struc-
tural importance of the closing zone, which generally is an extrageneric
addition within sonata form structure. However, C’s melodic material
(Example 13) bears no resemblance to any previously-heard melodic
material, and its militaristic melody resounds when strongly juxtaposed
against S’s short modules. his interpretation requires a more local
hearing, where the sense of tonic changes rapidly between the S and
C sections.
he reversion to the home key also raises issues of narrative—
what does it mean for the home key to resurface? Both interpreta-
tions carry a strong narrative weight within a Byronic Hero context.
he larger-scale functional reading upends the expected sonata key-
trajectory, subverting conventional tonal patterns through its distant
key relationships and prolongational S-space. he double-meaning of
E‫ ל‬in the C section additionally creates a sense of tonal ambiguity—if
the closing zone is functioning as vi, does the recapitulation, indeed,
actually return to i? his sense of instability, even within moments that
should seem stable, reinforces the Byronic Hero narrative, wherein
the protagonist never feels at peace, never feels as though his journey
(or his repentance) is at an end. his long-term tonal ambiguity also
disrupts the feeling of ESC at the inish of the overture, implying a
sonata failure; despite the secure tonal closure in the inal measures,
there is still a nagging presence of the tonal problems introduced in
the exposition.
In my own hearing, the second interpretation is stronger. C’s pull
towards E‫ ל‬minor almost immediately erases the F‫ מ‬minor heralded
in S-space. In this interpretation, the failure of the sonata form looms
closer to the beginning; through a reversal to the home key, the EEC
is erased. he narrative implication from this progression again closely
aligns with the Byronic Hero—despite movement away from his prob-
lems (such as Harold’s journey away from his family and his lost love,
Manfred’s self-imposed exile, etc.), the horrors of his past still haunt
him. he Byronic Hero is unable to escape his troubled history, just as
we, the listener, are unable to escape from E‫ ל‬minor. Seen from this
light, the recapitulation is much darker—though it achieves ESC, it
is in a key which Manfred has tried and failed to escape and which
thwarts any attempt at redemption.
Tchaikovsky’s “Manfred” Symphony, Mvmt. I, shares many fea-
tures of the Manfred Overture and Eroica’s opening. his Type 1 sonata,
too, contains a thematically-related slow introduction and has mul-
timodular theme zones within the exposition. As can be seen in the
Example 13. he militaristic C section of Schumann’s Manfred
Overture, mm. 82–87
Example 14. Tchaikovsky’s “Manfred” Symphony, sonata schematic
schematic (Example 14), the exposition is divided into P (B minor,

mm. 82–110), S1.1 and S1.2 (D minor, mm. 111–70), and a multi-unit
lyrical Tertiary theme area in D Major (mm. 171–288). Each suc-
cessive D Major theme is directly connected to the initial statement
(Examples 15a, b, and c)—note the direct resemblance between TT1.2
to the violin line in mm. 179–80. TT1.3 also connects to TT1.1, but is
closely related to the violin II and viola inner voices in mm. 171–84.
hese connections create both variation and, incidentally, a sense of
stagnation within the third theme area—though sonata teleology dic-
tates that this material should rocket us towards an EEC, that closure
is never achieved in spite of each successive thematic module. Instead,
the themes dissolve into a short transitional passage to the recapitula-
tion section in m. 229.
he intensity and grandeur of Tchaikovsky’s exposition creates
a formal imbalance in the piece—a symmetrical imbalance between
exposition and recapitulation that needs to be corrected. Jonathan
Guez notes that Schubert similarly created intricate balances within
Example 15a. Tchaikovsky, Manfred Symphony, TT1.1: mm. 171–84
Example 15b. Tchaikovsky, Manfred Symphony, TT1.2: mm. 203–9
Example 15c. Tchaikovsky, Manfred Symphony, TT1.3: mm. 210–15
his sonata forms through processes of expansion and truncation in cor-

responding points within exposition and recapitulation. He states,
In my own work, I’ve begun to conceive of this behavior through

the visual metaphor of a pendulum, whose neutral resting posi-
tion denotes an exact symmetry of halves. he pendulum swings
outwards, as the initial interpolation or enlargement sunders the
immanent symmetry of the birotational form. he pendulum then
swings inwards, as a series of cuts begins to push toward a resto-
ration of balance; in extreme cases, the cuts may restore or even
eclipse the initially sundered balance.47
Tchaikovsky employs a similar strategy between the exposition and

recapitulation of Manfred ’s irst movement: rather than including a full
recapitulatory rotation, the truncated recapitulation only returns to P,
fusing it with coda-like material in mm. 289–338.48 Because of the tight
connection between the P and S, the recapitulation efectively liqui-
dates them into one thematic unit. However, the lyrical, romantic third
47
Jonathan Guez ,“Process and Symmetry in Schubert’s Expanded Type
I Sonatas” (paper presented at the annual conference of the Society for Music
heory, Milwakee, WI, November 6, 2014).
48
his situation is discussed in James Hepokoski and Warren Darcy,
Elements of Sonata heory: Norms, Types, and Deformations in the Late-Eighteenth-
Century Sonata (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), 232.
theme is expunged from the recapitulation. he sonata is failed because
it excludes both S, T, and also the ESC.
he narrative implications for this sonata design are great: there
are both larger social, as well as programmatic, implications speciic to
the symphony. Svetlana Klimova highlights the connection between
political and social unrest within Russian culture at the turn of the
twentieth century and a cultural attachment to Byron.
he fact and history of Tchaikovsky’s composition of the sym-

phony Manfred might be taken as a sign of this “ontological” inter-
est in Byron’s “metaphysical” dramas from the 1880s through the
1910s. he idea of the symphony was suggested to Tchaikovsky by
Mily Alexeyevich Balakirev. In his letter to Tchaikovsky, Balakirev
insists on the contemporaneity of the drama’s plot and talks about
the play’s “broken ideals” describing “the calamity of our time.” In
Tchaikovsky’s own thoughts about Byron’s drama the emphasis is
on the universal “tragedy of the struggle between our nothingness
and our aspiration to know the fatal questions of existence.”49
If we consider the Byronic hero’s narrative, perhaps it is too painful to

revisit the romantic ideas of the past (those lyrical tertiary themes). By
excluding the T zone, the Byronic obsession and loss of love is cemented
even more fully through the sonata teleology.
Finally, Berlioz’s Harold, too, has a unique sonata trajectory. From
the outset, the irst movement seems to toy with the idea of multi-
ple themes. he introduction contains not only the ombra-laden fugal
entries (shown in Example 10), but also a lyrical Adagio that returns
throughout later movements (Example16).
Example 16. Berlioz, Harold en Italie, Adagio theme: mm. 35–45
Upon irst hearing the piece, it is diicult not to hear the lyri-
cal Adagio as part of the exposition; the theme seems complete and is
49
Svetlana Klimova, “Russian Byronism at the Turn of the Twentieth
Century,” Byron Journal 38, no. 2 (2010): 164–65.
followed by sequential “transitional” material.50 It is not until the entry
of P (mm. 128–47) and its subsequent, exposition-like repeat that I
revised this hearing. Heard from this perspective, the introduction moves
through several characteristic zones before the sonata proper begins.51
hese comprise a twist on what might be considered normative: the
“minor fall” that sometimes accompanies the lyrical zone instead precedes
it, and a sequential push towards P follows the Adagio. he reordering of
these events is perhaps a wink at the formal structure of Childe Harold’s
Pilgrimage—indeed, Byron’s poem begins in medias res, after Harold has
already committed the unspeakable act from which he must escape.
Harold’s sonata proper is, in fact, the most “normative” of the three
selected examples. It has only two themes, and a full recapitulatory
rotation follows the development. On the surface, then, it may seem
as though Harold is closer in style to its Beethovenian roots. However,
Bonds forebodingly notes that “the ‘hero’ of the work is vanquished,”
and the work stands as an “anti-Eroica” statement.52 Bonds is, perhaps,
responding to the subtle deformations present within the exposition
and recapitulation—he alludes to Harold as responsive to Beethoven’s
symphonic legacy, noting that the structure references and manipulates
classical form explicitly.53
50
Bonds calls the Adagio the irst theme, however its placement within
the recapitulation follows what I have deined as the irst theme; see Bonds,
“Sinfonia Anti-Eroica.” If it is the case (and it may well be, since Harold’s formal
structure is obviously arguable) that the Adagio is the irst theme, I would then
argue that, much like the Tchaikovsky and the Schumann examples, Harold
indeed contains a thematic section with multiple units—P has two modules.
he warped recapitulatory rotation is even greater evidence of the failed reca-
pitulation because of the Adagio’s delayed entrance. In either interpretive case,
the sonata features of Harold uphold my indings, strengthening the case for a
Byronic trope.
51
Hepokoski and Darcy, Elements of Sonata heory, 297. Hepokoski and
Darcy note that the fall “presents an initially conident, positive, or serenely
pastoral, major-mode world shattered by a sudden shift into the minor-mode
negative (“lights-out”), perhaps also with supernatural, ombra evocations.”
Ibid., 301.
52
Bonds, “Sinfonia Anti-Eroica,” 424. his statement is powerful, and
draws a tight connection between Marx’s Ideal Hero, Beethoven, and Berlioz’s
conception of Childe Harold.
53
his claim is corroborated by homas Austenfeld, “‘But, Come, I’ll Set
Your Story to a Tune’: Berlioz’s Interpretation of Byron’s Childe Harold,” Keats-
Shelley Journal 39 (1990): 90.
he character and structure of the individual movements, the
curious nature of the soloist’s role, and the very choice of Byron’s
Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage as the programmatic basis for the work
can all be better understood when we consider Harold’s position
within the tradition of the symphony—and speciically, within the
tradition of the symphony after Beethoven. he very idea of writing
a symphony that relects the fate of a central protagonist is clearly
indebted to the “Eroica,” and there are numerous other allusions in
Harold to the Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Symphonies as well. Given
these references, Harold can in fact be interpreted as Berlioz’s most
concentrated response to Beethoven’s symphonic legacy.54
As can be seen in the provided schematic, Harold bears many similarities

to Schumann’s Manfred Overture. he exposition is deformed through
its use of distant key relationships: the primary theme is in G Major,
the secondary theme moves to F Major, the ‫ל‬VII, and undergoes two
subsequent subrotations in D Major and E‫ ל‬Major. he loundering S
does not achieve EEC and is instead closed by sequential transitions to
the development.
Example 17. Berlioz, Harold en Italie, I, sonata schematic
54
Bonds, “Sinfonia Anti-Eroica,” 424. Here again, we can see a compo-
sitional self-awareness that is feeding into Berlioz’s Byronic composition
post-Beethoven. Tunbridge comments, “he most prominent composers in
Germany during the 1850s—Berlioz, Liszt, Wagner, and Schumann—all liked
to be compared to Byron. Berlioz thought he bore a physical resemblance to
the poet and, in his youth, sought connections between their lives”; Tunbridge,
“Schumann as Manfred,” he Musical Quarterly 87, no. 3 (2004): 546.
hough the recapitulation does indeed reconcile S in the expected
G major, there is no ESC in the rotation. S is, instead, deferred by mul-
tiple sequential passages and, interrupted by the Adagio melody. At long
last, in mm. 449–59, S peeks through the bombastic texture (as though
an afterthought), but it is quickly lost in a sea of ombra and fanfare trop-
ing. We can thus categorize Harold’s irst movement as failed, despite
being the most “successful” of any of the selected works.
he overall narrative implied by these formal trends tightly weaves
together the connections between these three composers, Beethoven,
and Byron. While the louting of key areas is an important feature of
a manipulated hero type, I ind the prominence of failed recapitula-
tions the most meaningful when examining how these formal defor-
mations signify the Byronic Hero. he Byronic Hero is stuck, stagnant
and unable to resolve the problems from his past that haunt him (for
example, Harold lees from his lost love and debauched past; Manfred
is suspended in an interior psychological world, tormented by his trans-
gression against Astarte;55 the Giaour escapes the pain of lost love by
isolating himself in a monastery; and so on). If the teleological goal of
sonata form suggested by Hepokoski and Darcy is considered, these
failed sonata forms are similarly static, unable to resolve the problems
from their musical past. he overall form, therefore, provides an apt
representation of the Byronic hero.
Byronic Thematic Gestural Obsession
As a inal layer to the Byronic trope, I would like to note the way
in which theme is used throughout each of the three pieces. I include
thematic gesture because of more current research by Hatten, which
suggests that thematic material can also be troped.56 Hatten’s ideas
complement Sisman’s thoughts on sonata form as a topic: “proper”
sonata form need not be present in order for listeners to note a failure
to conform to standard expectations of that form. In all three of the
Byronic pieces analyzed, rather than develop themes, the composers
repeat them obsessively—in distinct contrast to Burnham’s observation
55
he relationship between Manfred and Astarte has traditionally been
understood as the illicit relationship between Byron and his half-sister, Augusta
Leigh.
56
Hatten, Musical Meaning in Beethoven, 202. A thematic gesture is deined
by Hatten as “marked by initial foregrounding and subsequent development”;
see Hatten, Interpreting Musical Gestures, Topics, and Tropes, 113.
that, in Beethovenian heroic works, themes should be developed and
varied throughout. hat Byronic themes (and their component motivic
parts) are obsessively repeated rather than varied creates a type of
unchanging, recognizable gesture throughout the work. hese gestures,
which directly contrast with the expectation of thematic development
within Beethovenian sonata form, augment the Byronic hero trope by
highlighting the stagnant, obsessive archetype.
Bonds notes that Berlioz’s Adagio theme is not only repeated
obsessively throughout the opening movement but also within the
entirety of Harold’s four movements. A similar trend can be observed in
Schumann’s and Tchaikovsky’s Byronic works. he thematic gestures in
both the Manfred Overture and Manfred Symphony also reach beyond
the irst movements and, like the Adagio theme, are repeated and
unchanged by the world around them. Laura Tunbridge draws atten-
tion to this in her analysis of Manfred: despite Manfred’s existence in
the world, he is unmoved by its vicissitudes and remains a solitary, static
character throughout the drama.57 his mirrors the nineteenth-century
obsession with introspection and is a prominent trait of the Byronic
Hero.
he reintroduction of themes, complete or fragmented, in all
three pieces quash any dynamism of key or formal area and are often
returned to after some progress away from minor mode or into a new
formal section. It has already been noted that Tchaikovsky’s third theme
is highly repetitive, existing in a network-like structure with T1.1 (see
Examples15a, b, and c). It is not just those themes that are repetitive,
though—there is also a stagnation of themes between introductory
material, P, and S in the “Manfred” Symphony (Example 18). Further,
the initial falling motive (shown in the viola line in Example 19 above) is
used in the retransition to the truncated recapitulation/coda. In a clever
slip, the buoyant, major-mode third theme returns to the dark, ombra-
inlected P motive. Schumann’s second theme area demonstrates how
this thematic stagnation stymies the progress within the sonata form
structures (Example 20). he fanfare in mm. 122–39 (Example 21a) has
facilitated a move to a major key, away from the pervasive ombra topic.
57
“he scenery of Byron’s poem, however, is experienced through Manfred’s
eyes and his moribund view of the world. When, at sunrise, he stands alone on
the clifs of the Jungfrau to contemplate Nature’s beauty he inds it does not
move him. Such pessimistic solipsism precludes his sharing the experience; his
subjective vision prevents its theatrical presentation.” Tunbridge, “Schumann’s
Manfred in the Mental heatre,” Cambridge Opera Journal 15, no. 2 (2003): 164.
Example 18. he entry of P, intertwined with S-related
accompaniment in the trumpets (mm. 80–82). his S material returns
at m. 111 as a free-standing theme.
Example 19. Tchaikovsky, Manfred Symphony, mm. 280–88,

transition into the recapitulation/coda
Example 20. Schumann, Manfred Overture, mm. 52–67
Example 21a. Schumann, Manfred Overture, mm. 122–39
his instance within the development inally sounds a clear PAC in

D‫ ל‬Major, a point during the development which appears like a ray of
hope for the troubled Byronic Hero. However, directly after the double-
barline, the reemergence of S into the key of C‫ מ‬minor activates once
more the dark obsession with lost love and Manfred’s criminal past
(Example 21b). his pattern happens throughout each of the pieces
Example 21b. Schumann, Manfred Overture, mm. 122–39
analyzed and adds yet another formal and gestural feature to a Byronic
trope. hese narratively-charged thematic gestures directly correspond
to the Byronic character, who is unable to move past his dark past, lost
love, and personal failings.
It is pertinent to consider the implications of these formal viola-
tions and manipulations that appear so prevalently within these related
pieces. Each of the formal elements outlined contributes to a conscious
rejection of a sonata form-related expectation and, therefore, a cultural
expectation to which the hero responds. he rejection of cultural values
and rebellion against expectations is a distinctly Byronic trait and serves
to inish the nineteenth-century anti-hero trope.
Conclusion
he analyses presented demonstrate that topical use can extend

beyond simple melodic and rhythmic gestures to forms, styles, ideas,
and extramusical associations tied to particular works and composers.
Schumann, Berlioz, and Tchaikovsky did not simply know about or
understand the expected Beethovenian “Ideal Hero.” Rather, they toyed
with it, elaborated on the topic, and reined the musical Beethoven hero
to suit the needs of a novel literary hero. As topics have grown and
evolved through time, it is likely that many began with speciic ties
to composers and were broadened by their reined instancing within
pieces. Perhaps further exploration into musical topoi will uncover other
transformations similar to this one, where evolutions can be traced from
the eighteenth century through contemporary musical practice.
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Interpretation of Byron’s Childe Harold.” Keats-Shelley Journal 39 (1990):
83–94.
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Berlioz Website. 2014. http://www.hberlioz.com/Scores/sharold.htm.
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Anti Hero Worship: The Emergence of The Byronic

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Department of Music Theory, Jacobs School of Music, Indiana University

Indiana University Press, Department of Music Theory, Jacobs School of Music,

he works of poet Lord Byron were a tour de force over the

T course of the nineteenth century—from the serial release of

Heroism and its Adaptations in Music and Literature

he “hero” archetype has been present in literature since the ear-

V. For he through Sin’s long labyrinth had run,

he Byronic hero is characterized as a rebel who stands apart from soci-

he characteristic Byronic hero. . .has borrowed characteristics from

An expansion of Ratner’s Military Style, this topic carries with it

It is Dickensheets’s speciic mention of Beethoven that allows space for

I wish to stress Beethoven’s re-airmation of classical grammar, for

Burnham narrows the broad topical ield of heroism by tying it to the

Marx developed a triadic view of musical history in which the

Marx was writing and, therefore, constructing the image of the

Nineteenth-Century Music and the Byronic Hero Trope

he existing literature on the heroic archetype in music suggests

On the one hand, the eighteenth-century thesaurus [of topics] per-

hrough the reinterpretation of historicized topics to suit contempo-

Example 1. he Byronic Hero trope

he analyses will begin with the treatment of noble topoi, since

reckless courage.”38 Monelle comments that the association with a

One might notice, upon listening to Examples 2–5, that there is

Example 3b. Schumann, Manfred Overture, mm. 256–63

he musical elements of the ombra style here are purposeful unor-

igures. . . sudden sforzando shocks in an otherwise piano and muted

The Byronic and Formal Structure

Considering form topical within the eighteenth and nineteenth

Example 6. Tchaikovsky, Manfred Symphony, I: mm. 145–55

Example 7. Berlioz, Harold en Italie, I: mm. 144–46

Example 9. Schumann, Manfred Overture, I: mm. 6–11

Form is further topic when it bears the stylistic traits of a particular

Lang’s, Einstein’s, and Whittall’s contentions that the genera-

Example 11. Berlioz, Harold en Italie, I: mm. 211–25 (Primary heme

exploration of three keys, seems to react directly to the idea of “monu-

Example 14. Tchaikovsky’s “Manfred” Symphony, sonata schematic

schematic (Example 14), the exposition is divided into P (B minor,

Example 15b. Tchaikovsky, Manfred Symphony, TT1.2: mm. 203–9

his sonata forms through processes of expansion and truncation in cor-

In my own work, I’ve begun to conceive of this behavior through

Tchaikovsky employs a similar strategy between the exposition and

he fact and history of Tchaikovsky’s composition of the sym-

If we consider the Byronic hero’s narrative, perhaps it is too painful to

Example 16. Berlioz, Harold en Italie, Adagio theme: mm. 35–45

As can be seen in the provided schematic, Harold bears many similarities

Example 17. Berlioz, Harold en Italie, I, sonata schematic

Byronic Thematic Gestural Obsession

Example 19. Tchaikovsky, Manfred Symphony, mm. 280–88,

Example 21a. Schumann, Manfred Overture, mm. 122–39

his instance within the development inally sounds a clear PAC in

he analyses presented demonstrate that topical use can extend

Agawu, Koi. Music as Discourse: Semiotic Adventures in Romantic Music. New

———. Playing with Signs: A Semiotic Interpretation of Classic Music. Princeton,

Allanbrook, Wye Jamison. Rhythmic Gesture in Mozart: Le Nozze Di Figaro &

Austin, Michael. “Berlioz Music Scores: Harold in Italy (H 68).” he Hector

Bone, Drummond, ed. he Cambridge Companion to Byron. Cambridge:

Burnham, Scott. Beethoven Hero. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press,

Cohn, Richard. “Maximally Smooth Cycles, Hexatonic Systems, and the

Dickensheets, Janice. “Nineteenth-Century Topical Analysis: A Lexicon of

———. “he Topical Vocabulary of the Nineteenth Century.” Journal of

Forster, Jean-Paul. “1814–1819: Shift of Focalization in Byron’s Narrative

Gooley, Dana. “Warhorses: Liszt, Weber’s Konzertstück, and the Cult of

Guez, Jonathan. “Process and Symmetry in Schubert’s Expanded Birotational