JMT series, part 5b (notes 29 & 30)

The second post on notes 29 & 30:

n30: ^5-^6-(^5)^7-^8: Winterreise, no. 2, “Die Wetterfahne.” No comment in the note.  The piano opens a large space of a compound fifth in the introduction ("geschwind, unruhig"), but the voice constrains its opening phrase by sequence, so that a line rises from ^3 to ^5 (beamed).

The sudden turn to the parallel major in the verse cadence is sarcastic, as his former lover "ist eine reiche Braut" ["a rich bride'].

The final cadence of the song amps up the cry of despair with a strong sequence but odd chord progression -- first system below -- then drops back into the "reiche Braut" figure to end. In the 1987 article I enclosed the second ^5 in parentheses, and have repeated that below, but nowadays I am more inclined to accept the "primitive rising line" and so would probably read the ending as ^5  (^#6 ^5)  ^#7  ^8.

JMT series, part 5a (notes 29 & 30)

In previous posts for this series I looked at pieces mentioned in my 1987 JMT article, note 28. Here are notes 29 and 30, on Urlinie variants.

n29: ^5-^6-(^8)-^7-^8 model or one of its variants:

Haydn, String Quartet, op. 76, no. 2, II. I have written at length about this piece here: link to post.

Handel, Jephtha, aria “Waft her angels.” Comment in the note: "orchestra in the framing ritornello, not the voice." The voice does participate -- see (d) in the example below -- and rising figures are certainly strong throughout, but in the abstract Schenkerian terms, all these are affect, "text painting," and the like, not structural. Nowadays I'm not so sure "structural" is enough.

The closing cadence in A. The strong ascent at (a) is derived from the opening ritornello, (c), but the closing cadence is a descending formula, at (b).

After the voice finishes, the orchestra doesn't give up on the rising line, managing it twice in just four bars.

Note n30: ^5-^6-(^5)-^7-^8.

Schubert, Drei deutsche Tänze, D973n2. In 1987, I was trying to avoid the primitive Urlinie (^5-^7-^8), but now I think it would work just as well -- mechanically, at least. I prefer the reading that emphasizes ^6 because of the expressive attention given to that note and its supporting harmony.

In tomorrow's post: Winterreise, no. 2, “Die Wetterfahne.”

New essay: 17th century German and Austrian music

I have published a new essay on Texas Scholar Works: Seventeenth-Century Germany and Austria: Ascending Cadence Gestures. Link.

Here is the abstract:

The seventeenth century in Europe was a particularly rich time for experimentation in musical performance, improvisation, and composition. This essay, meant as an addendum to Ascending Cadence Gestures: A Historical Survey from the 16th to the Early 19th Century (published on Texas Scholar Works, July 2016), documents and analyzes characteristic instances of rising cadential lines in music by composers active in Germanophone countries—and, as it happens, particularly in the cities of Hamburg in the north and Vienna in the south.

Among the composers whose work is discussed are Johann Caspar Kerll, Johann Heinrich Schmelzer, Johann Rosenmüller, Georg Muffat, and Georg Böhm.