JMT series, part 9-1 (note 34, mirror Urlinie)

n34: my note: The double treatment of the fourth ^5 to ^8 occurs also in Saint Saëns, Le Carnival des animaux, “Le cygne.”

The melody is distinguished by an expressive leap at the end of the first long phrase; the scale leads us to expect G, but we hear B instead. The original solo is for 'cello; the violin transcription of this phrase is as follows:

From this, I might read any of three plausible backgrounds for a traditional Schenkerian analysis. Version (a) acknowledges B as ^3; that returns (not shown) in the reprise and descends in the final cadence [I will show details in a moment]. Version (b) is the mirror Urlinie; it takes B as a cover tone and works out a longer descent/ascent pair over the course of the reprise. Version (c) is more radical: it assumes the octave line itself -- or even more broadly the motive of the slightly ornamented scale gesture -- as a first middleground, with the neighbor ^8^7^8 as the background. As with version (a), the ascent and close are concentrated in the final cadence.

Here are details of the three readings, using the 'cello solo part. At the bottom of the post is a chordal reduction of the entire piece, again using tones from the violin part.

The reading from ^3 is clear enough. The registrally correct G4 in the leading-tone third line has to be inferred from the sounding G3.

 The reading of particular interest here -- the mirror Urlinie -- is not really all that much more complicated. In the unfolded third of the opening melody, the lower note is considered primary this time. The descent/ascent pair are presented quite plainly across the space of the final phrase.

Finally, the reading with ^8-^7-^8 and a middleground ascending octave line. The background neighbor-note figure creates a very simple tonal frame. The middleground octave line provides a motivic parallel to the ascending eighth-note line in the melody (see the boxed notes -- these of course also occur in the third bar of the opening melody).

For reference a chordal reduction. The design is a small ternary form: A = 1-8; B = 9-17; A' = 18 to the end. The harmony moves from I to iii in the A-section, then by sequence eventually reaching v or V. The reprise works out a broadly cadential progression.

The other piece mentioned in note 34 as having a mirror Urlinie -- a Telemann aria -- will be examined in tomorrow's post.