Pecháček, 12 Laendler (1801)

František Martin Pecháček (1763-1816) was a Bohemian violinist, conductor, and composer who spent his professional career in Vienna, mainly as a conductor in the theaters. He was the father of the violin virtuoso Franz Xaver Pecháček.

A prolific composer, Pecháček senior wrote in all contemporary genres, including music for social dance. His 12 Ländler, written for an ensemble unusual in the waltz repertoire—2 clarinets, 2 horns, and bassoon—were published in 1801.

Like Beethoven's Ländler in WoO11 and WoO15, written about the same time, this set provides an excellent example of the Ländler in its traditional form—as distinct from the later keyboard Ländler of Schubert and many other composers in the 1820s, who strove to make the Ländler congenial and specific to the piano, using less common keys with chromatic twists and pianistic registral play, thus blurring the distinction between music for dance and music for recital. A characteristic that Pecháček's 12 Ländler do share with later Ländler is their repetitiousness, a marker of their primary role as music for dance, not for performance.

The texture is uniform throughout all twelve pieces, with the first clarinet leading, the second clarinet playing a parallel melodic part below, the horns providing consistent quarter-note motion with simple figures (though not often in the familiar oompah-oompah version), and the bassoon playing the bass line. I have gathered the parts for the first strain of number 5 into score as an example. Published parts were downloaded from IMSLP.

Though written for clarinet, the melodies are highly violinistic, another reflection of the historical traditions of the Ländler. As a result, the play of register and the marking out of fifth spaces are prominent features. Here is the first strain of n1:

The fifth C5-G5 is defined as the frame of the basic idea (bars 1-2), and a line descends from G5 in the varied basic idea (bars 3-4). In the consequent phrase, the line again descends toward ^3, which is not sounded but easily imagined (and in all likelihood was sometimes improvised). I have written about such "complex lines" here: link. The same third-line and its repetition with the "imagined" E4 occur in the same places in the second strain. This time, however, the upper voice confirms the highest register of bar 1—that is, C6—with what I call the "primitive" ascending Urlinie ^5-^7-^8. (I am not terribly proud of that label, btw, as it privileges line over interval frame, but I have used it for so long now that I may as well continue to do so.)

In n5, G5 dominates (so to speak) and the first strain expresses two complete rising lines in its two phrases. The second strain reuses the figure of n1, but the final bars are a little more complicated in that *three* lines are expressed: the incomplete ascending line, the third-line from G5 (as in n1), and a secondary third-line E4-D4-C4. The last pitch is imagined in the clarinet -- the complete third-line is played by the first horn.

n10: The basic linear figure in the second strain is that of n5, second strain, with the difference that the descent from ^5 is complete (albeit with an imagined ^1). The first strain, however, exaggerates the registral play to open a 13th from E4 to C6, then continue with the more compact B5-D5. In the consequent phrase we hear the final C5 and imagine (easily) the upper C6.

n9: The uppermost registral figure in n10, first strain, is anticipated in n9, where a simple neighbor figure, C6-B5-C6, dominates the first strain. The contrast is substantial with the second strain, which plods along in repeated short descending lines, and not surprisingly then puts out a ^3-^2-^1 frame overall.

In the context of this set, n12 is an anomaly: its first strain is in the relative minor (the second clarinet even plays G#, the only accidental in the entire set), but the second strain is equally firmly in C major. In the repertoire of Ländler and Deutscher Tanz, however, such pairings are not unusual, if also not common. Examples in Schubert include D145ns 5, 8; D365n22; and D779ns7, 22, 31. Here, as in some instances in Schubert, the second strain is essentially a transposed version of the first, with the important exception that the lower ^1 is missing in the final bar, replaced by the upper C6, so that the framing figure is the primitive Urlinie ^5-^7-^8.

JMT series, part 8 (note 33)

In note 33 for the 1987 JMT article, I mention the incomplete line ^5-^7-^8. A "textbook" example of this "primitive Urlinie" in tandem with a proto-background ^3/^5 may be found in the ninth number of Schubert's Ecossaisen, D781. See the circled notes in bar 1 -- the pairing is obvious through the first strain; I have traced the voices in the score as they trade positions in the second strain.

The “verlorener Bruder” Trio, D610 (a trio without a menuet), neatly frames ^5 in its basic idea and transposed repetition (bars 1-4), then focuses on movement upward to ^8 in the continuation. In the shortened reprise (the final four bars), there is a bit of a "lost soul" sort of posthorn touch, and the voices are firmly set against one another at the last -- see the boxed notes.

In note 33, I mentioned Schubert, Ländler, D. 681, nos. 1 & 2 (perhaps as ^5-(^8)-^7-^8). Unfortunately, I don't have easy access to these at present. It is perhaps worth noting that these pieces would be nos. 5 & 6 in the complete 12 Ländler, D. 681 (from 1815), but the first four have been lost.

Karl Michael Ziehrer, Der Himmel voll von Geig'n, part 2

In the third waltz of this unique set (unique because it uses rising figures or neighboring figures about ^8 in a consequential way in every part), we encounter a fairly simple melodic design: unfoldings now place ^5 and ^6 above (marked in the score), and thus ^5 is well positioned by register, by repetition, by motivic definition, to ascend to ^8 in the cadence (see the circled notes). In keeping with one style characteristic of the Laendler tradition, the second strain is an extended "yodeling" figure focused entirely on ^8-^7-^8.

The fourth waltz simplifies things even further and is the only one in the set where the first strain clearly uses a descending line -- each half of the double period is based on one. See the beam in bars 1-8; in 9-20 (antecedent-expanded continuation) it's obvious without annotation; in the further expansion of bars 21-28 I've put in a beam again. Note the clean "fall from the dominant" involving ^6 and ^7 in bar 27. The second strain is another yodeling theme on ^8.

The final waltz in its first strain is framed by a very well defined mirror Urlinie. A focal tone in the second strain is not so easy to decipher and thus the ending is not, either.

The coda, in a model established already by Lanner and Strauss, sr., in the late 1820s, strings together strains from several of the waltzes. The first is a minor-key version of the yodel in n4; that turns out to be an introduction reaching V -- the first system below. Then follows the entire first strain of n4 and a quick modulation -- the second system below. Next is n2, first strain and another quick modulation -- third system. And finally the first strain of n1, extended through a deceptive cadence -- see the sixth bar in the bottom system -- so that the final cadence offers ^7 and ^8, thus an overall ^8-^7-^8 figure at the background, as promised in yesterday's post.

The note sequences at the upper right of the example trace an upper line from the initial G5 and an inner line ("alto") from (D5) Eb5 [boxed in the second bar of the first system]. I offer these for sake of interest. In fact, I think rather little of "backgrounds" in recitatives, melodramas, potpourris, and similar genres or characteristic formal sections.

Wekerlin, Der Tanz

One final entry in what I suppose might be called the "international series." Wekerlin's Der Tanz (~1875), like the Alsatian Laendler (link to that post) is a set of waltzes for piano four-hands, and here again I have supplied the prima part along with just the left hand of the secunda part.

The first strain of n1 is in the manner of a musette-style trio, not a more typical lyrical or promenade opening. The play of ^7-^6 with ^6-^5, however, is certainly characteristic. (Examples of musette or hurdy-gurdy bass passages in the Schubert dances include D145ns9 & 10, D366n3, D734n15, D790ns5 & 7.)

Wekerlin, 3 Ländler (Valses Alsaciennes)

Jean-Baptiste Weckerlin (alt: Wekerlin) was a French-Alsatian composer (1821-1910) who was a student of Halévy at the Paris Conservatory and later became the Conservatory's librarian. Perhaps in part because of that activity, he became interested in historical and folk musics, notably publishing a volume of bergerettes (pastorales). He composed several operas and a number of songs.

The set of 3 Ländler (Valses Alsaciennes) for piano four-hands was published in 1874. The first strain of the first number is of interest here. I show the prima part with the bass only of the secunda part. The figure is a consistently descending line from C7 to G5 (circled notes), with a loop back at (b), so that we hear C6 sounded at both (a) and (c). The "primitive" ascending gesture in the cadence is a bit of a surprise turn, for its sudden move in the opposite direction, not because of the ^5-^7-^8 gesture.

Thinking of this a bit more abstractly, I think this could be heard as an inverted arch ^8-^7-^6-^5-^5-^7-^8 and have marked scale degrees accordingly in the score. The whole is a pleasant twist on the stereotypical rising figures and sudden "fall from the dominant" of the Viennese waltz.

Michael Pamer, Neue brillante Ländler, vol. 10 (1827), part 2

In yesterday's post, I looked at ns 5 & 6 in the first group of Ländler in volume 10 of Michael Pamer's Neue brillante Ländler. Like those two, n3 has a clearly formed rising line ^5-^6-^7-^8 in the first strain with upper-voice covering embellishments. Here, E6 suggests an open cadence with implied D6 in bar 8. In the second strain, however, the upper register becomes much stronger, the result being the balanced voices of the interval frame G5-D6. I don't hear a primitive rising line at the end, though you can see the notes in the score, because the lowest voice D5 has receded greatly in favor of the two higher voices.

In the first number of the group, neighbor notes move about G5 (circled). The violinistic broken figures are even more prominent in the second strain here than they were in n3 above.

In n4, a simple line rises in the first phrase -- at (a), but, uniquely among the twelve strains of the six Ländler in this group, the second phrase doesn't open with a literal repeat of bar 1. The upper voice in this case starts from D5 -- at (b) -- and descends to an open cadence with a strongly implied B4.

I'm not quite sure what to make of n2, which is why I have put it last. The second strain is obvious enough: boxed notes show thirds descending by step in each of the two phrases: D6-B5 to C6-A5 to B5-G5. I haven't shown the lower-octave doubling of this figure: B4-D5 at the beginning, C5-A4 in the seventh bar and G4 (with an implied B4) in the final bar. The first strain seems to separate its display opening flourish—open-string pizzicato and two high notes—from the descending stepwise figures that follow (see the lines charting these below the staff and then above).

Michael Pamer, Neue brillante Ländler, vol. 10 (1827), part 1

Michael Pamer was a band leader and skilled violinist who is widely acknowledged as a principal influence on the professional dance musicians of Schubert’s generation, in particular on Josef Lanner and Johann Strauss, sr., who effectively apprenticed under Pamer. Born in 1782, Pamer died in 1827, the year that the twelve volumes of his Neue brillante Ländler were published. The title page, below, is translated: New brilliant solo Ländler for the violin with ad libitum accompaniment of a second violin and bass, composed and presented for use in house balls by Michael Pamer, music-director of the Saale zur Schwan in the Rossau [district of Vienna]. The design of the volumes is distinctive: each has two sets of six Ländler in the same key, for which the same accompaniment is supplied, so that the six Ländler are much like variations of each other.

In the two parts of this post, we will look at the six Ländler in the first group of volume 10.

                                          

I am beginning at the end, with ns 5 & 6, because they have clear rising cadence figures. So does n3 (in part 2 of this post series), but the others have mostly open cadences without rising figures. Given the format Pamer has adopted, it is not surprising that ns 5 & 6 have very nearly the same underlying figures: a rising line with accented elements in the first phrase (beamed notes), repeated in the second phrase, and a "one-too-far" flourish that pushes the line up to ^3 (as B5) in bar 4 (circled notes). In n5, note that Pamer has inserted an embellishing flourish (circled C6 in bar3) that makes a nice covering connection to B5 in bar 4.

The second strains of the two numbers differ slightly in that n5 gives—if possible—even more attention to D5 and brings the line up in a quick run, as it did in the first strain, where n6 makes more of the upper register, unfolding D5 to D6 and generating a strong open cadence that implies in the last bar the B5 we heard literally a few bars earlier. The two lines are thus balanced, the cadence open, the lower voice a primitive rising line, ^5-^7-^8.

In Pamer's edition, the second violin and bass parts are placed at the bottom of a tall page, after all six Ländler in each group. I have assembled a score version of n5 below. This is just for reference, as I don't think it tells us anything new about the design or shapes of the violin melody.

Schubert and the Ländler, part 4

In this final installment of the Schubert series (examples from my PDF essay published on Texas Scholar Works (link)), we look at expressions of ^6 that lead to straightforward rising lines in cadences.

The final number of D 734, the Wiener-Damen Ländler (not Schubert's title—in fact, he specifically objected to it), opens as a ländler but closes more firmly; the second strain very probably would have been used as a promenade to end a session of dancing. At (a), ^6 is an 8th-note escape tone; at (b) ^6 is an accented neighbor note; at (c) an unaccented incomplete neighbor; at (d), the neighbor note opens the second strain, picking up on a motive from the first strain in the same way we saw yesterday in D 779n18; and at (e) the waltz ninth carries ^6 upward to a close on G5.

Much the same happens in D 769n1. The first phrase hangs on a neighbor note figure where ^6 is prominent as part of a rare inverted V9 chord (box).

In the second strain, ^6 is touched on briefly (circled), and the cadence then completes an ascent to ^8 (A5). Note that the first strain was quiet (mit Verschiebung means use the soft pedal) but the rise to the cadence is accompanied by a crescendo (and in performance possibly would have included an acceleration to the end).

In the final dance of D 779, the second strain is heavily preoccupied with ^6. The loud "promenade music" we saw in D 734n15 above features contrast between an upper register and lower register ^6. Repeated versions of ^6-^5 appear throughout till the rise to ^8 that continues and completes the initial fifth-octave gesture (see the arrow).

Finally, D 814n4, in Brahms’s 2-hand transcription of the 4-hand original, reuses the overall pattern of dynamics (from soft to loud), is based on a sharply rising motive (box), and closes with a very direct linear ascent to ^8 (arrow).

Schubert and the Ländler, part 3

This post continues yesterday's emphasis on rising shapes across entire strains, but without the wedge shapes we observed in ländler from D 145 and D 366.

D 814 is a set of four ländler for piano four-hands. A solo version of the first dance also exists (NB: this is by Schubert; Brahms transcribed the other dances in D 814). Here a small-scale ascent growing out of a ^5-^6 neighbor figure in the first strain is magnified considerably in the second strain.

A ninth leap can be a dramatic generating event on its own: see bar 5 in Valses sentimentales, D 799, n16. This one inspires other leaps, but the only return to scale degree ^6 comes as a neighbor note over I6/4 (see bar 14). This time Schubert takes the expressive leap to the highest note on the pianoforte, F7 (in bar 15).

As its dynamic markings and large chords suggest, D 779n16 is a German dance, not a ländler. By contrast, D 779, n18 is one of the simplest ländler in the set: the violinistic melody is not elaborate (at least in the first strain), and the bass-afterbeat pattern of the left hand follows the most stereotyped ländler bass I-I-V-V / I-I-V-I. Our point of interest will be the second strain, but in the first strain two nicely expressive (but, again, simple) instances of ^6 appear: an off-beat leap in bar 3 (circled) and a filling-out or thickening of ^4 in bar 7. The role of that ^4 is clearer in the lower system, where I have pulled out the longer and metrically accented pitches, which describe a double neighbor-note figure around ^3.

In the second strain of D 779, n18, Schubert repeats the figure of bar 7, then follows through with successive leaps that quickly reach C7!

Schubert and the Ländler, part 2

Here are two further examples of rising figures that take advantage of the highest register of Schubert's pianoforte.

In D145n11—still another waltz in Db major, a true V9 in bar 3 hints at the much more dramatic figure of the consequent phrase, where Bb6 is reached. As in the first strain of D 145n9, the implications of these rising figures are realized as a line in the cadence of the second strain, where ^6-^7-^8 is harmonized with the functional SDT progression.

 In D 366n2—this time the key is A major—the same play of octave registers in the antecedent-consequent pair is obvious. B5 and B6 are now ^2, rather than ^6, but the treatment of F# as ^6 in A major is also prominent: see the escape tone in bar 1 (circled) and the neighbor note in bar 4. Still, I would say that the accented pitches strongly emphasize a constrained figure consisting mostly of scale degrees ^1 and ^2—see the lower system in the example below. At the end of the strain, note the doubled octave (in Schenker terms, "coupling").

Schubert and the Ländler, part 1

This new series reproduces some of the examples from my PDF essay Scale degree ^6 in the 19th Century: Ländler and Waltzes from Schubert to Herbert: link. I have written about rising cadence gestures in music by Schubert many times, but that new essay cites the largest number of individual pieces, all of them called Ländler by the composer—or at least published under that label (see the introduction to the essay for more details).

The largest sampling of Schubert's earliest dances—from the period 1816 to 1821—appears in the two published collections, D 145 and D 365. It is worth remembering that Schubert was a skilled violinist, and his waltzes clearly show the strongly violinistic figures associated with the Ländler style. The unusual key of Db major, by the way, is easily explained as a “darkening” or expressive shading of the archetypical Ländler key of D major. In D 145, ns 4-12 are all in Db major. The large number of pieces in Ab major in D 365 and D 779 are accounted for in the same way: Ab as a shading of A major. (A few pieces from D779 were originally written for violin in A major.) D 145n4 may have been transposed down a half step from its "proper" violin key of D major, but there is no mistaking the source as the opening idea (bars 1-2) skates across the fingerboard from right to left.

Note that the very first figure is an expressive leap to an accented ^6, as 9 in V9. The string of similar accented and unaccented leaps that follow encourage a rising gesture in the cadence to the first strain. After such vigorous gestures, Schubert often creates a mirroring pattern in the cadence of the second strain, as he does here: a precipitous descent brings the melody down from the accented ^6 (as Bb6) to close on Db5. The wedge shape thus formed by the two strains is found in other ländler as well (as we will see below).

The voice leading that results from the several leaps is dense and not at all focused on a particular pitch.

Still it is easy to hear a connection between the first accented note, Bb5, its recurrence in bar 5 and a line completed in the cadence. To treat this formally in the Schenkerian manner, however, ^5s must be implied. I find this presence of ^6 with an absent ^5 to be particularly charming.

The ninth dance in D 145 is also in Db major. This time Bb6—the highest Bb on the pianoforte—opens the piece, and then is touched again in the cadence of the second strain. The effect is to draw our attention to the wedge shape, here with the motions dropping first, then rising, the reverse of n4.

Haydn, part 7b

While pulling out from a PDF file the score of Haydn's String Quartet op76n2, second movement, I noticed for the first time some interesting shapes in the trio of the menuet. In the first strain a pedal tonic eventually allows a frequently repeated ^1 (D5) to rise to ^5 (m. 47) and then an octave higher (A6 in m. 49), where it stays until the cadence while an inner voice moves down from ^3 (m. 49) to ^7 (m. 52 in the second violin; arrow).

These melodic shapes in the first strain set up the possibility of a rising cadence gesture in the reprise, and so it happens here, in the most direct example I've seen in the music of Haydn. Everything points to the conclusion that Haydn was just as familiar with the ländler style as were Mozart and Beethoven at around the same time.

Haydn, part 2

As the four-movement symphony model crystallized in the 1770s, the individual movements took on the familiar characteristics we associate with the late 18th century: the first movement an overture, the second an aria, the third a menuet, and the fourth a contredanse (after Leonard Ratner). Of these, the last was the least stable: only in the early to mid-1770s were the contredanses really danceable or recognizable to an audience as programmatic "portrayals" of the dance (I have written about this here: link; others who have written significantly about the two dance movements include Tilden Russell, Sarah Reichart, Wye Allanbrook, and Melanie Lowe). Apart from anomalies (such as fugal movements), by the 1780s finales as dance-finales are perhaps best characterized as overtures utilizing dance topics.

The menuet remained much closer to its dance model. Cast in virtually all instances as a dance with one trio, it was a miniature representation of the actual dance. As many writers have noted, however, the dance itself changed and the music changed with it. In the early part of the century, the menuet of the French court was a couple dance that was meant as a public display of skill and grace. After the death of Louis XIV, it gradually devolved into a perfunctory opening formality for the ball, where it was followed as soon as possible by the lively, very social intercourse of the contredanse, whose musics were almost always gavottes (duple) or jigs (triple).

In Germanophone areas, the formal menuet persisted, but it was joined by a hybrid type that was modeled on the region's "turning" dances (walzen = turning). Haydn was one of the first to exploit this opportunity, and it is no surprise, then, that the violinistic figures of the ländler should find their way into the symphony's third movement, including rising melodic gestures and cadences.

Yesterday we saw one instance of this in the menuet of Symphony no. 83 (1785). Today and in the following several days, we will explore the menuets of later symphonies. In Symphony no. 86 (composed in 1786), Haydn makes the rising gesture the main event, as the line connecting all three of the first strain's four-measure phrases shows (see below). Note that the steady progress from ^1 to ^5 (D5 to A5) is pushed "one step too far" to B5 before settling on A5 in the cadence. That bit of excessive energy has consequences in the reprise.

 As in the opening, the first two phrases of the reprise march upward from D5 to A5, then go through A#5 to B5 in the third phrase. This time, however, B5 drops to C#5-D5 for the cadence. The end result is a "circle" of sorts, from D5 back to itself, but by means of an octave's worth of a scale. This device of undercutting the rise from ^6 to ^7 is discussed in my JMT article and seems to be particularly characteristic of the later 18th century. To speculate: the conventions associated with the dominant Italian style (which we know better nowadays through research on the partimenti, evidence of methods of instruction) were so strong that Haydn felt an obligation to observe them in some situations, rather than take full advantage of the rising cadence gesture. In any case, the leap downward from a subdominant to the leading tone is very expressive in and of itself.

The coda that follows involves some play on the figures we have just heard. The humorous subversion of D5 through C5 (at the fermata) leads the line (fortissimo!) back down to ^5, but then the original cadence is repeated to end, now with a final flourish that gives us ^7 and ^8 in their "correct" register, as C#6 and D6.

Information on French dance practices after the death of Louis XIV came from Richard Semmens, The Bals Publics at The Paris Opera (1716-1763) (Pendragon Press, 2004).

I have published a new PDF essay on the Texas Scholar Works platform. The title is "Scale Degree ^6 in the 19th Century: Ländler and Waltzes from Schubert to Herbert." And here is the abstract:

Jeremy Day-O’Connell identifies three treatments of scale degree 6 in the major key through the nineteenth century: (1) classical ^6; (2) pastoral ^6; and (3) non-classical ^6. This essay makes further distinctions within these categories and documents them in the Ländler repertoire (roughly 1800-1850; especially Schubert) and in the waltz repertoire after 1850 (primarily the Strauss family). The final case study uses this information to explain some unusual dissonances in an operetta overture by Victor Herbert.

Other composers include Michael Pamer, Josef Lanner, Theodor Lachner, Czerny, Brahms, Fauré, and Debussy.

My publication page on Texas Scholar Works is: Neumeyer.