Music Theory Midwest

1997 Eighth Annual Conference
Carleton Collge
16-18 May 1997 - Northfield, MN

MTMW 1997 Abstracts
Friday, 16 May 1997

Theoretical Issues (2:00-3:00)
Chair, Robert Gjerdingen, Northwestern University

  • "Quotation as Influence: An Application of Harold Bloom's Theory of Influence to the Music of Johannes Brahms."
    William Hussey, University of Texas

    In an attempt to bring new insight into the ways in which composers influence one another, music theorists, particularly Kevin Korsyn and Joseph Straus, have appropriated the literary theory of Harold Bloom in their research on musical influence. According to Bloom, strong individuals "misread" their predecessors to "clear imaginative space for themselves." Such individuals reinterpret their precursors' work in their own way by expanding upon or limiting aspects of the earlier piece in order to defend their works against influence and retain originality.
    Previous research on musical influence, including that done by Korsyn and Straus, has often examined compositions that use an earlier work as a structural model, but how would Bloom's theory be applied to those that use musical quotation? Bloom's theory focuses on how poets separate themselves from their precursors, but can poets (or composers) still maintain that separation when they make such an overt reference to a predecessor piece?
    The paper will include three analyses of quotations in works by Brahms using Bloom's theory of influence. The first involves the quotation of Chopin's Nocturne, op. 55, No. 1 in Brahms's Intermezzo, Op. 76, No. 7; the second analyzes a quotation from Beethoven's song cycle An die ferne Geliebte in the Adagio of Brahms's first piano concerto and the finale of his first piano trio; and the third explores the quotation from the Andante of Brahms's Second Piano Concerto in his own song Immer leiser wird mein Schlummer, op. 105, No. 2.

  • "The Musical Icon: Pattern, Perception, and Metaphor."
    Candace Brower, Northwestern University

    Semioticians have often described musical iconism as peripheral or problematic. They dismiss as trivial such references as the imitation of thunder and bird calls, and note that more metaphoric forms of iconism tend to suffer from unstable coding. To counter these problems, this paper will draw upon two theories that have recently emerged in the cognitive sciences. The first, proposed by Howard Margolis, suggests that all thinking consists of pattern matching. Perception begins with the selection of a pattern from memory to match an incoming stimulus, followed by checking for similarities and differences between the two patterns. This may in turn be followed by a search for a higherlevel pattern to account for their observed differences.
    The second theory, proposed by Mark Johnson, suggests that much of our thinking is metaphorical, and involves the mapping of patterns from one domain to another. The patterns that Johnson describes as most basic to our understanding are those that derive from the experience of our own bodies. According to Johnson, we learn about phenomena such as cause and effect, motion, force, energy, and balance through our own goaldirected actions. This understanding is captured in the form of image schemas, which are then mapped into more abstract domains. Music particularly lends itself to this sort of mapping, being on the one hand abstract, and on the other marked by changes of rate and intensity that translate easily into force and motion.
    These two theories provide the basis for the theory of iconic meaning to be presented here. It explains how musical patterns take on iconic meaning through their mapping onto three different types of stored patterns: (1) an image schema for goaldirected motion; (2) the abstract patterns that constitute musical style; and (3) patterns heard within a musical work. Analysis of Chopin's Prelude in A major will demonstrate how all three levels of pattern matching interact and define one another to produce sometimes quite precise musical meanings, yielding at the highest level a rudimentary plot structure.

    Analytical Approaches to the Music of Popular Culture (3:30-5:00)
    Chair, Justin London, Carleton College

  • "'Where's the Rest of Me?': Methods of Meaning in the Main Theme to Kings Row."
    Scott Murphy, Kansas University

    Erich Wolfgang Korngold's main theme to the 1942 melodrama Kings Row achieves a signifying state through two interrelated methods: (1) syntagmatic relationships with concurrent visual and narrative signifiers and adjacent musical themes within the score to Kings Row; and (2) paradigmatic relationships with other related musical ideas outside the score itself. In order to discover the relationships in the latter, the interpreter combines traditional analytical tools with certain theoretical codes particular to the subclasses to which the analyzed music belongs. In the case of the main theme to Kings Row, for example, the code of its middleground intervallic content places it among the subclass of other Korngold film music themes, particularly those signifying royalty or magnanimity. However, this paradigmatic signification contrasts with the smalltown, melodramatic syntagm that initially accompanies the main theme. What results is not a blatant juxtaposition but one method contributing to the theme's meaning. Other codes used by the Kings Row theme refer to certain gestures of the classic Hollywood score subclass, as well as devices particular to the postRomantic era of which Korngold was a clear descendant. By treating works of film music as creations within their own web of subclasses instead of imposing exterior analytical tools, film music scholars come one step closer to understanding how film music achieves meaning.

  • "Prolongation and Modal Mixture in Rock Music."
    Timothy Koozin, University of North Dakota.

    Modal structures are frequently encountered in modern popular music. The Mixolydian, Dorian, and Aeolian modes, together with the minor pentatonic mode--a Dorian/Aeolian subset--all have properties which can be related to the melodic inflections characteristic of blues style. Modal rock style derives from the verticalization of blues inflection. Modal sonorities permeate the bass line, resulting in linear/modal chords which control prolongations and shape formal design. A salient feature of this music is the absence of functional dominant harmony. This paper provides a context for understanding modal structures in rock style within the broader scope of traditional tonal theory. A focus on higherlevel repeated patterns in the study shows how chords which are contrapuntal in origin intensify the modal inflections characteristic of rock music.
    Through Schenker's broad view of tonality, modal rock style can be analyzed as representing but one type of mixture. This study focuses on representative pieces by Buddy Holly, Neil Young and Jimi Hendrix, showing how linear/modal chords sustain prolongation without the support of complete tonal Ursatz structures. A Schenkerian view of the tonal system and the analysis of structural levels shows how modal commixture contributes to the tonal structure and expressive power of rock music.

  • "It's the Top: Cole Porter's Mastery of the Fox-Trot Song."
    Michael Campbell, Western Illinois University.

    In his songs from the mid-thirties, Cole Porter imbued the foxtrot song with elegance and sophistication. Songs such as "Night And Day," "You're The Top," "Anything Goes," and "It's De-Lovely" capture the insouciance of the world portrayed onscreen by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in films such as The Gay Divorcée. The purpose of this presentation is to identify key elements of this elegance and sophistication through analysis of their rhythmic and melodic features.
    The presentation proceeds in three stages. A brief discussion of foxtrot rhythm and syncopated song before 1930 explores the ideas that the foxtrot is an AfricanAmerican reinterpretation of the march. The discussion of Porter's modifications of the foxtrot song focuses on Porter's expansion of melodic gesture and rhythmic depolarization. Porter rhythmic changes follow two quite different paths: one in which his melodies float over the beat, the other which metrical accents are attenuated and syncopations become more frequent but not as strong. Finally, analysis of excerpts from several recordings suggests how Porter's style was realized effectively--or ineffectively--in performance. Discussion proceeds from the observation that Porter has done the work for the performer: they require only a straightforward presentation of the melody and an idiomatic performance of the fox-trot accompaniment.

    Saturday, 17 May 1997

    Analysis of Wolf (9:00-10:00)

  • "Tonal Process and Text in Hugo Wolf's Das verlassene Maegdlein."
    Gordon Sly, Michigan State University

    Hugo Wolf's setting of Eduard Morike's Das verlassene Mägdlein is a remarkable example of the "extended tonality" that characterizes late-nineteenth-century compositional practice. While the song is clearly in A minor, its central section is controlled by a series of augmented triads that do not behave as dissonant sonorities normally do in tonal music. Nonetheless, analyses of the work invariably approach these augmented chords as unstable and transitory elements within the larger tonal context. The view presented in this paper proceeds from different basic assumptions. I will argue that these chords do not function normally in a tonal context because they are not essentially part of that context. Rather, Wolf creates a fundamental disjunction in the flow of the song's tonal process that reflects a similar disjunction in the poem.

  • "Alternate Backgrounds, or What [Can, Could, Should, Might (pick one)] the Ursatz Mean?"
    Elizabeth Sayrs, Ohio State University

    The application of Schenkerian theory to music of the late nineteenth century has produced mixed results at best. Many features of this music, such as "directional tonality," chromatic third relations, and the opposition between diatonic and chromatic tonality, do not mesh easily with Schenkerian theory. And yet, there are features of Schenkerian theory that can be quite illuminating for some of this music, including the Ursatz. This paper examines three songs by Hugo Wolf, each of which exemplifies at least one important trait of the Schenkerian Ursatz, but not the ideal Ursatz. These analyses provide the basis for a generalized view of the Ursatz, as well as a discussion of the meaning and use of an Ursatz in general.

    Historical Approaches to Analysis (10:45-11:45)

  • "The 'Harmonic Daring' of Anton Bruckner's Sixth Symphony (An Essay in Historical Musical Analysis)."
    Benjamin Korstvedt, University of Iowa.

    Although Anton Bruckner considered his Sixth Symphony his boldest, this estimation of the symphony has not been widely shared in this century. Indeed, many modern critics have found this symphony formally imperfect. If the first movement is analyzed in terms of modern paradigms of symphonic form, Bruckner is easily convicted on the old charge of "formlessness." This paper develops an analytic approach to the first movement of this symphony that avoids this anachronistic and simplistic conclusion. It explores how one trait noted in several early reviews--Bruckner's tonally unstable opening theme group--is the basis of the formal unfolding of the movement. The movement opens not with the presentation of a stable tonic key, but with a dissonant thematic complex, and Bruckner structured the movement around the incremental resolution of this initial tonal instability. The composer further clarified this formative tonal process by allying it with the thematic processes of exposition, restatement and variation. In so doing, Bruckner integrated thematic transformation, a compositional procedure associated with such progressive genres as the symphonic poem and the music drama, with the symphonic paradigm of largescale resolution of tonal tension.

  • "Changing Places: Four-hand Piano Transcription and the Construction of Genre."
    Thomas Christensen, University of Iowa.

    Among the vast quantity of piano duet music published in the nineteenth century, transcriptions form a significant part. Virtually every major symphonic, operatic, and chamber work was translated into multiple arrangements á quatre mains. The primary reason for this, of course, was to make accessible to amateurs musical literature that would otherwise not be heard in live performance with any frequency. Indeed, before the age of mechanical audio reproduction, it is fair to say that most musicians were familiar with orchestral literature filtered through the timbre of the fortepiano.
    In this paper, I want to consider some important social consequences of the transcription phenomenon with suggestive aesthetic implications. Specifically, by taking overtly "public" music of the concert hall and operatic stage into the domestic "space" of the bourgeois salon, what role did transcription play in shaping (and reshaping) music reception in the nineteenth century? To explore this question, I will draw upon a number of recent social and aesthetic theories related to the dichotomization of public and private "spheres" (Jurgen Habermas), aesthetic response (Carl Dahlhaus) and genre construal (Jeffrey Kallberg). Concomitant Biedermeier examples of the domesticization of "public" art such as mass lithography for the reproduction of master paintings) will also be considered. Music transcription can be shown to be one of the means by which the public learned to cultivate an "interiorized" response to orchestral music in the nineteenth century. It is in fact precisely the permeability of genre effected by transcription that is so compelling, and implicates the process in the wider transmutation of musical categories in the nineteenth century, as well as the eventual weakening of aesthetic boundaries separating musical "spaces."

    Poster Session (9:00-12:00)
    Chair, Claire Boge, Miami University of Ohio

  • "Introducing Diatonic Set Theory into the Music Theory Curriculum."
    Timothy Johnson, Mt. Holyoke College.

    This presentation focuses on the development of curricular material that describes mathematically-oriented properties of the diatonic system for use in introductory music theory courses. This curricular material focuses on recent scholarship in the area of diatonic set theory. As students begin to learn musical aspects and applications of diatonic music theory, they will simultaneously deal with the corresponding mathematical properties that describe aspects of and relationships within a diatonic set in a twelve-note universe. By exploring the mathematical principles behind the unique aspects of the diatonic set, students of music theory will better understand tonal relationships between the notes of the scale and the harmonic significance of these relationships. They will begin to understand not only which intervals and chords can be formed from the diatonic set but why these intervals and chords, and only these intervals and chords, can be formed. The curricular material based on maximally-even sets explores how different collections of notes may be distributed evenly among the 12-note chromatic collection and the 7-note diatonic collection to form many of the principal building blocks of introductory music theory. The material related to cardinality equals variety and structure implies multiplicity explores fundamental aspects of the relationships between combinations of notes in the diatonic collection based on the unique pattern of whole and half steps. The proposed presentation will describe these and other ideas in detail, provide samples of the curricular material developed, and explore pedagogical and mathematical issues relating to diatonic set theory and its use in introductory courses.

  • "Analytical Poetry in Pedagogical Practice."
    Claire Boge, Miami University of Ohio.

    Within the past few years, most notably marked by a 1992 Perspectives retrospective, there has been a resurgence of interest in the poetic works of Barkin, Boretz, and J.K. Randall--so much so that Open Space was created to publish reissues and anthologies of these authors' works. Most published material has focused on the nature of explanation in poetic works or on explaining the works themselves, but not on a more pragmatic challenge: what would happen if this type of explanation were to be integrated into a pedagogical context? This presentation proposes to explore how the poetic approach could be used in an undergraduate theory class, using the works of Elaine Barkin as the basis from which to work.
    Proposed in poster format, the presentation explores three basic ideas: how and in what context can poetic analysis be introduced; what student creations have resulted; and what are students' basic reactions to the approach and their experiments with it? Actual student projects, based on the probably-all-too-familiar Webern Opus 5/IV, are the featured part of the presentation.

  • "Difficulty Factors in the Perception of Melody by Skilled Listeners."
    Jeffrey Gillespie, Butler University.

    This project examines variables associated with the difficulty of perception of pitch material by skilled musicians. The study features two experiments which tested experienced musicians' ability to transcribe aurally-presented melodic material. Primary objectives were to test the perception skills of advanced listeners using challenging response tasks, to utilize a methodology that contains elements of flexibility on the part of the subjects, and to provide useful information for the aural-skills pedagogue.
    Experimental variables included stimulus features of range, contour, interval difficulty, tonal ambiguity, and nonadjacent step relations. An additional variable was response mode, which included transcribing stimuli by listing consecutive intervals and scaledegrees in Test 1, and using traditional musical notation in Test 2. Responses were scored using four systems: number of pitch errors (NPE), degree of pitch error (DPE), number of interval errors (NIE), and degree of interval error (DIE).
    Of the melodic features examined, contour, interval difficulty, and tonal ambiguity had significant effects on response accuracy. Regarding the response modes of Test 1 (interval response mode and scale response mode), subjects expressed no overwhelming preference for either mode. Data from the scoring methods indicate that in some cases, change of scoring method showed little difference in score, while in other cases, change of scoring method produced considerable variation in score.
    This paper will present highlights of the methodology and results, suggestions for future research, and ideas for application in the aural skills classroom.

  • "Telephones, Tugboats, and Thai Cuisine: Puzzle Cases for Music Theory."
    David Løberg Code, Western Michigan University.

    In her essay "The Dreariness of Aesthetics...", Margaret P. Battin could easily be speaking of music theory when she describes a discipline that "sometimes seems impenetrably arcane and stultifyingly dull." Much to the frustration of teacher and student alike, music theory, especially in the lower-level undergraduate curriculum, is often perceived as a dry and dreary collection of facts and mechanical routines with little connection to music and even less to any other life experience. Similarly, Battin's critique of aesthetics education is that it is "for the most part theory driven, not driven to theory." Her proposed remedy is to begin with specific puzzle cases about aesthetic objects which lead to a discovery and discussion of theoretical issues .
    Following this example, I have developed some case puzzles for use in the music theory classroom to aid comprehension, generate class discussions, and add some occasional humor. Some provide non-musical analogies to help explain theoretical topics or techniques, while others help develop insight into musical and aesthetic issues. Examples include:
    1. 'Downsize' the alphabet to just twelve letters, while trying to maintain maximum intelligibility for words in standard English.
    2. You have been hired as a script-writer for the television drama ER. How would you prepare for your new job?
    3. How would you cook an authentic Thai dinner?
    4. You need to get a message to Batman. (The Bat-Signal is broken.) What could you do?
    5. Rewrite the second verse of "Miss Suzy had a Tugboat" so that the tugboat doesn't go to hell.
  • "A View of Ear Training Pedagogy from the Student's Perspective."
    Mary Jo Lorek and Randall G. Pembrook, University of Missouri-Kansas City

    University ear-training faculty face many of the same dilemmas as their colleagues in applied music. Students vary widely in previous experience and may have developed ineffective, idiosyncratic techniques.
    The authors sought to determine the effectiveness of an individualized "applied music model" for ear-training students and their teacher by establishing bi-weekly, 15 minute one-on-one interactive sessions as an addendum to traditional classroom experiences. Because the authors expected students of varying abilities to generate differing views regarding techniques, strategies, and practice habits, individuals from three strata were included as part of the model. Participants included students already possessing strong aural skills, those typical of incoming freshmen music majors, and those whose skills were far below expectations. All oneonone sessions were recorded with the consent of the students and transcribed for further review. This allowed the instructor to evaluate the effectiveness of pedagogies in light of student comments and generate more indepth questions for subsequent interviews.
    Though the one-on-one technique was costly in teacher time, it provided an amazing amount of information which led to important changes in classroom ear training pedagogy. Partly as a result of these changes, "average" students seemed to improve their skills and become much more successful in the course. However, the skills of the students in the below average category remained low at the end of the term in spite of increased teacher time and attention. Students' successes and frustrations revealed through demonstrations and comments in individualized meetings will be discussed further in this session.

  • "Teaching Pitch Internalization."
    Edward Klonoski, Northern Illinois University

    Most music educators would agree that one of the primary goals of aural skills training is to develop in students the ability to recognize and understand musical relationships with "the mind's ear." That is, we strive to teach students to internalize pitch relationships; by internalize I mean the ability to imagine and understand musical relationships without singing, playing, or otherwise outwardly reproducing the pitches, whether these relationships are gleaned from reading a score, from external sound sources, or are recalled or newly created in an individual's mind. Yet most, if not all, of the strategies traditionally used to teach aural skills rely exclusively on external sound sources. This reflects the tacit assumption that students can be taught to internalize musical relationships through exercises and drills that utilize external sound sources.
    This paper will: (1) consider the validity of this assumption and examine some of the reasons why the use of external sound sources continues to occupy so prominent a position in aural skills instruction; (2) propose strategies for determining early on which students are likely to struggle with or fail to translate external sound sources into pitch internalization; (3) examine some commonlyused aural skills techniques that utilize external sound sources to teach internalization, including the use of CAI technology; and (4) suggest several approaches designed to teach internalization more directly, and which can be used in conjunction with traditional instructional techniques.
    Peter Schickele, Keynote Address (1:30-2:30)

    Analytical Approaches to Recent Music (2:45-3:45)
    Chair, Anne Marie deZeeuw, University of Louisville

  • "A Sense of Order at a Higher Level: the Influence of African Polyphony and Indonesian Gamelan on the Recent Music of Gyorgy Ligeti."
    Amy Bauer, University of Missouri-Kansas City.

    For over five decades, the contemporary Hungarian composer György Ligeti has fashioned a highly intelligent, idiosyncratic music inspired by a variety of influences. Most of those influences are bound up with a decidedly West European musical world view, but Ligeti's recent music incorporates influences from non-Western music and culture to a greater--and some would say, more successful--extent than any European composer of his generation. An admiration for subsaharan cyclic forms, Indonesian tone systems, and Latin American rhythmic structures is married to a culturally less specific appreciation for complex and non-tempered tunings, as a complement to the equal-tempered system. Ligeti's music never resorts to exotic paraphrase, but absorbs non-Western influences on form, tone-system, or intonation into a personal language and aesthetic, possible because his musical universe operates according to the same "laws."
    The clearest expression of how Ligeti has, in effect, discovered the music of the "other" within himself may be his Piano Etudes No. 7 and No. 8, written in 1988-89. Both the Seventh and the Eighth Etudes feature "illusory rhythms" and "new types of intonation (and of tonality)" that express Ligeti's professed goal of creating an unclean, "ideologically free style" that escapes the clichés of both Western tradition and the contemporary avantgarde. This fusion of rhythmic/temporal and tonal events forms a continuous line of development with Ligeti's own musical past, as shown in an excerpt from the Chamber Concerto (1969-70). The recent piano etudes illuminate the continuing fascination and beauty of African and Indonesian music, while enlarging our understanding of the European tradition.

  • "Untied and Interlocked: Compositional Processes in John Adams's Shaker Loops."
    Rebecca Jemian, Indiana University.

    This paper examines loops in the first two (of four) sections of Shaker Loops, "Shaking and Trembling" and "Hymning Slews." Adams' example of "loop" has two components: (1) melodic/thematic identity and (2) a set amount of time before a pattern repeats. Shaker Loops exists in two formats: the 1978 version is in modular form for sevenpart string ensemble and the 1982 revision for string orchestra purports to be "one of many possible" realizations of the modular score.
    The two versions of "Hymning Slews" are identical because it was not originally composed in modular form. In the opening of this ternary form, loops progress from simple statements of single elements to compound loops which combine multiple elements. But in the last twelve measures of "Hymning Slews," Adams constructs interlocking loops within each instrumental part. The two components of Adams' example of loops (thematic/melodic material and time interval between repetition) provide the key for unlocking the process of this movement.
    Three features of "Shaking and Trembling" are examined: (l ) the way thematic characteristics of loops define form; (2) how loops that are intertwined in the texture of the revised version can be untied through study of the original version; and (3) the fact that discrepancies between the two versions contradict Adams' claim that the 1982 version is a true realization of the original score.

    Scriabin and Ravel (4:15-5:15)
    Chair, Marianne Kielian-Gilbert, Indiana University

  • "Voice-leading Parsimony in the Music of Alexander Scriabin."
    Clifton Callender, University of Chicago

    Voiceleading parsimony is a term employed in recent work by Richard Cohn (1996) to describe situations in which every voice in a motion between two simultaneities is either retained as a common tone or moves incrementally, a half-step in chromatic space. This paper explores three relations of parsimonious voiceleading in Scriabin's nontonal music. The Pn-relation is a formalization of parsimonious voice-leading between chords for which there exists a one to one mapping, where n denotes the number of voices moving by half-step. P2-relations hold between any Teven-related Mystic chords (set-class 6-34), a common chord sequence in Scriabin's music. Split voice-leading which holds between a single pc and a dyad consisting of that pc's upper and lower neighbors, for example between {F} and {E,F#), is formalized as a split-relation. This relation employs a grouping based on registral proximity, and thus provides an alternative to the assumptions of one-to-one mapping of most theories of voice-leading. A Generalized Interval System of splitrelations is developed which demonstrates: (1) that T6-related acoustic collections (set-class 7-34), sister sonority of the Mystic chord, possess the potential for parsimonious voiceleading via splitrelations; and (2) an explicit means of describing the function of the acoustic collection as a mediating structure between whole-tone and octatonic collections. A generalized relation is developed which allows any instance of voice-leading parsimony to be decomposed into its constituent Pn- and splitrelations. Examples from Scriabin's Etude, op. 65, no. 3, demonstrate the inherent potential for parsimonious voiceleading of his preferred pitch structures, suggesting a relational network which obtains among them.

  • "Non-Diatonic Pitch Collections in the Piano Music of Maurice Ravel."
    Sigrun Heinzelmann, University of Massachusetts.

    This paper will explore the characteristics and functions of nondiatonic pitchcollections in Ravel's works for piano from the period between 1901 and 1908, including examples from Jeux d'eau (1901), Sonatine (1903-5), Miroirs (1904-5) and Gaspard de la Nuit (1908). Using tools drawn from Schenkerian analysis and posttonal theory, I will show how these collections operate on both foreground and middleground levels, and how their interactions with diatonic collections take on various rhetorical functions.
    The examples will demonstrate how (1) contrasts of sonorities of different collections create formal units, or are employed at areas of rhetorical significance (such as climaxes); (2) common subsets are used to provide temporal and structural links between diatonic and non-diatonic collections; (3) important motivic-thematic material is projected onto diatonic and nondiatonic referential pitch collections, which contributes to the motivicthematic coherence and unity in the works examined; and (4) how diatonic voice leading is linked with non-diatonic collections and subsets on the foreground level, and--vice versa--non-diatonic voice leading with diatonic surface events, resulting in interactions of these collections between different structural levels. These multiple interactions create an intricate network of relationships between diatonic and nondiatonic collections.
    I conclude that the non-diatonic pitch collections in the piano music of Maurice Ravel must be understood in the context of a tonal framework in order to determine their rhetorical and structural functions.

    Sunday, 18 May 1997

    Form (9:00-12:00)
    Chair, Brian Hyer, University of Wisconsin

  • "A Formal Dispute: Sonata Form and Brahms's Rhapsody in G Minor, Op. 79, No. 2."
    Christopher Thompson, University of Wisconsin

    Since the early nineteenth century, music critics have attempted to show that music possesses form. For many years, sonata form enjoyed a privileged status as the undisputed sine qua non of musical composition. By midcentury, however, sonata form ceased to be identified with compositional innovation and became rather old fashioned, largely overshadowed by the radically unsonatalike works of Liszt, Wagner, and other exponents of the "New German School." Because Brahms wrote more sonatas than perhaps any composer of his generation, the tendency persists to regard his music as conservative in form. Support for this view is typically based on the fact that Brahms himself had little to say in words regarding his approach to sonata-form composition. This paper, however, considers Brahms's Rhapsody in G Minor--a work thought to be in sonata form--to frustrate or problematize a prior musical tradition, namely, "textbook" sonata form.
    On a global level, Brahms's Rhapsody undermines the schematic representation of sonata form in spatial diagrams containing three discrete sections--exposition, development, recapitulation--whose function and position have already been specified. More locally, the Rhapsody subverts a number of specific harmonic conventions (e.g., the establishing of an initial tonic, and avoiding the tonic in the development) that figure prominently in textbook sonata-form accounts. Insofar as Brahms problematizes these sonataform conventions, he likewise compels us to re-examine long-standing prejudices toward musical form, inviting us to ponder the multiple meanings of his unique, purely musical, mode of discourse.

  • "Brahms and the Shifting Barline: Metric Displacement and Formal Process in the Trios with Wind Instruments."
    Peter Smith, Notre Dame

    Recent discussions of the technique called developing variation, and its exemplification in Brahms's music, often emphasize the role of metric irregularities in the composer's thematic processes. These analyses extend Schoenberg's insights by moving beyond metric issues on the phrase level, to consider the impact of Brahms's rhythmic invention on the larger dimensions of a piece. The present study explores motivic-metric process via analyses of passages from two Brahms works: the first movement of the Horn Trio, op. 40, and of the Clarinet Trio, op. 114. Both pieces raise metric issues at the outset; they adapt the technique of metric displacement, however, to the exigencies of different formal types: rondo in the case of op. 40, sonata form in the case of op. 114. In addition to highlighting the reciprocal relationship between each movement's overall form and the character of its metric processes, the analyses explore the following topics: the intimate bond that Brahms often forges between metric displacement and harmonic function; the interaction of metric shifts with the composer's Knüpftechnik; the role that rhythmic dissonance plays in creating extensive tonal delay; and a technique that I call motivic dissonance and resolution. I conclude with comments on the broader implications of my analyses, both for future Brahms research as well as for more general theoretical work on tonal rhythm.

  • "Inter-Movement Parody in Beethoven."
    Poundie Burstein, Mannes College/Hunter College

    In a number of Beethoven's compositions, the structural connections between the separate movements are so strong that one movement will seem to present a type of commentary on another. Often this interplay between movements takes the form of a parody. In such cases, one movement recalls and subverts an element of an earlier movement. Such intermovement parody is a significant facet of Beethoven's style.
    One example of such intermovement parody can be found Beethoven's Piano Trio op. 11, where the unusual key structure of the finale seems to "mock" a crucial harmonic feature of the first movement. Parody also appears in his Piano Sonata op. 10, No. 3, where the underlying structure of the first movement's development section returns in a contorted fashion within the final movement. Likewise, in the String Quintet op. 29, the finale satirically revisits a number of harmonic, rhythmic, and formal elements that were handled in a serious manner within the first movement. Examining the multimovement structure in these works not only reveals much about Beethoven's comedic skill, but also gives insight into the interaction of largescale organization and musical humor in general.

  • "A Faustian Narrative in Franz Liszt's B-minor Sonata."
    Minna Re Shin, McGill University

    I will examine Franz Liszt's B-minor Sonata by employing a narrative approach based on the conventional narrative paradigm of adventure and conquest attributed to sonata form (as exemplified by the struggle between the main and subordinate themes and the eventual and necessary subjugation of the subordinate theme). Many writers have endeavored to apply this particular narrative schema to various instrumental works of the Classic and Romantic periods in order to illuminate the form as well as the cultural practices of the times. The Bminor Sonata, however, deviates from the common model in two significant ways. First, it does not possess the traditional formal design of the Sonata but instead exhibits what Newman terms a "double-function form": it embodies both the formal and tonal principles of the one-movement sonata form with elements of the four-movement sonata cycle. Second, as suggested by Ott and other critics, the literary scenario of the first part of Goethe's Faust lurks behind the formal and tonal organization of the composition.
    In order to highlight and explain some key events in the Sonata, I shall modify the narrative paradigm of sonata form to incorporate these two factors and along the way raise issues involving the overall form and its relation to the construction of gender as well as the arousal and channeling of desire. This paper is divided into three main sections (1) the dramatic conflict within Faust himself between obeying the laws of Society and gratifying his own sexual desires; (2) Faust's sexual attraction to, and his involvement with, Marguerite; and (3) the damnation of Faust at the conclusion of the narrative. In these sections, I will focus on the manner in which Liszt projects the narrative plot in musical terms, with special emphasis on the use of five motives and their various transformations to represent the three principal characters.

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    David Loberg Code, School of Music, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI, 49008. E-mail: code@wmich.edu
     
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Revised: 21.Apr.1997