Marion Bauer, The Linnet

From March 2026: A post with information and links to galleries of simple ascending lines and to other essays of mine published on the Texas Scholarworks platform: link.

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Marion Bauer, "The Linnet is tuning her flute" (1915). In the beginning, full exploitation of the pastoral ^6. See the long-note pattern in the voice, the ^5-^6-^8 that is then echoed and filled out in the subsequent ascending cadence. The song is brief: this is the first verse of two, where the second has the same music. 

It really is quite remarkable how often one finds a "diversion" from ^7 in the ascent or, of course far more often, from ^2 in the descent, going back at least to the clichéd cadences of the mid- and later 18th century.

Strauss, Die Fledermaus n14, Act III, "Spiel' ich . . ."

In one of the subplots (if we can dignify them with that term), Rosalinde's maid Adele aspires to be a professional singer and actress. During the evening party, she comes to believe that Frank (the warden disguised as a marquis) can help her. The following morning (we are now in Act III), she and her sister show up at the jail. In n14, the couplets "Spiel' ich die Unschuld vom Lande," Adele presses her point. Musically, she shows off a variety of styles within a compact form. 

A1   8 bars        — for the naïf from the countryside, a 6/8 tune like a contredanse gigue, one of the types that had become identified as French folk song by the later 19th century.
A2   8 bars with 4-bar extension  (on V)
B1   8 bars closes on tonic -- the second from section
B2   12 bars coda, repeats 4 bar phrase of A1 

C    8 bars    meno mosso in 3/4   — leads to a bit of a waltz at the end. Adele makes the point of her varied skills.
2 bars transition 

D1  8 bars  Tempo di marcia    -- "Spiel' ich eine Königin"  (for the queen, a regal march)
1 bar intro
D2  8 bars
D2   repeat with Ida and Frank 

C   reprise
repeat 2 bars transition 

E1   10 bars 2/4 Allegretto grazioso.  "Spiel ich 'ne Dame von Paris" (for the lady of Paris, a 2/4 grazioso--these have their source in the 18th century contredanse-gavotte and remain a staple as late as film music underscore in the 1940s)
E2    8 bars
F      12 bars
E2’   9 bars; with cadence to tonic

The music of interest to us here is in sections D and E/F. The 8-bar consequent of D finishes with a descending but open cadence. The focal tone is ^5 (as D5); in the cadence this moves to ^4 (C5) and one then imagines ^3 (B4). (So, an unfolded third C5-A4 to the third G4-[B4]).

In the repeat of the consequent--with added sound effects from Ida (Adele's sister) and Frank--Adele takes the focal tone ^5 up to ^7 and ^8 (F#5-G5) in the cadence:

In the analogous place in the E theme (specifically, the repeat of it that closes the aria), the focal tone is again ^5 (D5), the singer takes it up through D#5 to E5 over the cadential ii6, then substitutes ^5 for ^7, while the orchestra provides the ^7:

Strauss, Die Fledermaus n5, Act I Finale, "Mein schönes, grosses Vogelhaus"

The final two scenes of Act I involve a farewell kiss that Alfred manages to extract from Rosalinde and Alfred's departure, which is initiated by the warden Frank ("Nein, nein, ich zweifle gar nicht mehr") but whose principal tune is his "Mein schönes, grosses Vogelhaus," a comic march:

Eventually all three characters sing the tune together and then close with a 6/8-time coda, whose tune is:

This is repeated, with an elaborate and forceful cadence at the end of which Rosalinde finds her way to a high C:

Here is the line she follows from ^3 (E5) to ^8 (C6), in course of which ^5 substitutes for the scalar ^7, presumably to give even more dramatic weight to the final high note.