I am currently working on a large-scale project that traces ascending melodic gestures in the stage works of Jacques Offenbach, as well as some of his predecessors (mainly Adolphe Adam, Donizetti, and Hervé) and successors (Charles Lecocq, André Messager, possibly also Johann Strauss II). For this multi-part essay series, which is expected to run for a year or more, I will announce each part as it is published on Texas ScholarWorks. A few representative excerpts will probably be posted here as well.
The main goal for this blog going forward, however, is to return to my original conception of it: occasional posts on individual works as I find them and infrequent posts surveying mentions of the rising line in the music theory literature, in connection with or in response to my 1987 JMT article.
Some time ago now (in 2010, in fact) I wrote a series of posts (link to the first) and then gathered those as an essay (link) on Carl Schachter's two extended engagements with the ascending Urlinie. Nowhere else in the literature did my work on this topic merit so much attention, and I remain grateful to him for it, even if I completely disagree with his conclusions (or, really, with the grounds on which those conclusions were reached).
I have written previously about a few articles and books that mention the ascending Urlinie and/or analyses that utilize it (or specifically criticize it):
- Emily Ahrens Yates and Carl Schachter on Chopin, Op. 28n9 (link); (link)
- Michael Buchler, conference paper on Disney (link) and publications (link)
- Charles Burkhart, unpublished analysis of Couperin, Pieces de Clavecin, Ordre 5, "La Flore" (link)
- Suzannah Clark, critique of an analysis by Thomas Denny, from her Analyzing Schubert (link)
- Walter Everett, article on 19th-century songs (link); (link); (link)
- Henry Martin on Miles Davis's "Four" (link); comment by Mark McFarland and response by Martin (link)
- William Rothstein, in an article on implied notes, comment on the ascending Urlinie (link) and analysis of Beethoven, op. 119n7 (link)
- Heinrich Schenker, Bach Prelude in C Major, BWV 924 (and 924a) (link)
- Jeffrey Swinkin, analysis of Scriabin, Op. 11n13 (link)
- Naphtali Wagner on Sgt. Pepper (link)
- Channan Willner, essay on the polyphonic Ursatz (link)
- Jason Yust on Beethoven, Op. 22, III (link)
- Matthew Brown, Explaining Tonality (link)
