New publication on polkas

I have published the essay Ascending Cadence Gestures, A New Historical Survey, Part 4b: 1780-1860, Polkas on the Texas ScholarWorks platform. Here is the link: polka essay.

Here is the abstract:

This is Part 4b of a multi-part essay gathering compositions with ascending lines and cadence gestures in European and European-influenced music. The repertoire here is polkas published in Europe or the United States between 1840 and 1861. Composers include, among others, Barili, D’Albert, Dodworth, Dressler, Grieg, Grobe, Lumbye, Rziha, Smetana, Johann Strauss, jr., Johann Strauss, sr., Valentini, Viereck, and Zawadzki. An appendix lists polkas mentioned in other publications of mine. A separate file contains data on form design in fifteen published polkas.

Part 4a is the general essay for the time period 1780-1860 -- it will be published at a later date.

Post no. 301 and a (slight) change of focus

For most of the history of this blog, I have produced a series of posts on a single topic, then gathered those posts into an essay published on the Texas ScholarWorks platform (link).

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)

JMT series, re-orientation

I apologize that the chronology of the JMT series has become rather complicated. Here is an attempt to straighten things out, using dates of publication for the posts. All dates are in 2017.

15 May (link): The introduction to the series listed the compositions discussed, with musical examples, in the main text of my 1987 Journal of Music Theory article, "The Ascending Urlinie," along with those pieces named in the notes.

16 May (link): The second post added to the list those compositions analyzed by others but only mentioned in the main text of the article. Among those was one composition that merited further discussion: J. S. Bach, Prelude in C Major, BWV 924. In the same post, I reproduced the score and collated it with its variant BWV 924a.

Part 3: BWV 924 & 924a
19 May (link), 20 May (link): Continued discussion of .J. S. Bach, Prelude in C Major, BWV 924 and the variant BWV 924a.  Additional posts: 2 September (link), 3 September (link).

Part 4: simple rising lines
7 June (link): This post (finally) begins discussion of pieces from the notes. Note 28 concerns simple rising lines. Other posts in this series: 8 June (link), 27 June (link), 28 June (link), 29 June (link), 30 June (link).

Part 5: ascending Urlinie variants
10 July (link), 11 July (link): Notes 29 & 30.

2 September, 3 September: see Part 3 above. (BWV 924 & 924a)
4 September: this re-orientation post.

Part 6: the waltz ninth
Forthcoming: Note 31.

Part 7: the registral variant
Forthcoming: Note 32.

Part 8: the "primitive" rising line
Forthcoming: Note 22.

Part 9: the "mirror Urlinie"
Forthcoming: Note 34.

Part 10: from main text: Beethoven, Piano Sonata in Bb Major, op. 22, III
Forthcoming.

Part 10 will be the final entry in the JMT series.

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.

New essay published: supplement to British Isles essay

I have published a new essay on Texas Scholar Works: English, Scotch, and Irish Dance and Song: Supplement. Link.

Here is the abstract:

A supplement to the essay English, Scotch, and Irish Dance and Song, which is primarily a documentation of rising cadence figures in dances, fiddle tunes, and songs. Gathered here are another 50 examples found in files downloaded on 2 May 2017. These were the coincidental result of a search for more information on Nathaniel Gow, the son of the famous Scottish fiddler Niel Gow.

Addendum to the historical survey, index, published

I have published an addendum to the historical survey (link to that document) on Texas Scholar Works: link to the new document.

Here is the abstract:

This is an addendum to the essay Ascending Cadence Gestures: A Historical Survey from the 16th to the Early 19th Century (published on Texas Scholar Works, July 2016), consisting of posts since that date to my blog “Ascending Cadence Gestures” (on Google blogspot). This is also an index to musical compositions discussed in essays published or re-published on this platform since 2010, through 03 March 2017.

Milestone; new publication

Yesterday the number of posts to this blog reached 175. By way of celebration, I have published a A Gallery of Simple Examples of Extended Rising Melodic Shapes on Texas Scholar Works. Here is the abstract.

Prevailing stereotypes of formal cadences and arch-shaped melodies were especially strong in the eighteenth century, but they did not prevent European musicians from occasionally introducing rising melodic figures into cadences and sometimes connecting those figures abstractly in lines with focal notes earlier in a composition. This essay presents a few of the most direct, cleanly formed rising lines in music from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Here is the table of contents

Introduction
   1. Beethoven , 12 German Dances, WoO8n1
   2. Mozart, 12 Menuets, K176n1
   3. Johann Strauss, sr., Das Leben ein Tanz, oder Der Tanz ein Leben!, Op.49 (1831)
Music for Social Dance
   4. Schubert, Wiener-Damen-Ländler, D734n15
   5. Schubert, Valses sentimentales, D779n13
   6. Schubert, Ländler, D814n4
   7. Schubert, Deutscher Tanz, D769n1
   8. Johann Strauss, sr., Exotische Pflanzen, Op.109 (1839)
   9. Johann Strauss, jr., Künstlerleben, op. 316 (1867)
Minor Key
   10. Böhm, Suite in F minor, Courante
   11. Schubert, Grazer Walzer, D924n9
   12. Brahms, “Über die See”
Additional Examples
   13. Tchaikovsky, The Nutcracker, March
   14. Haydn, String Quartet in D Major, Op76n2, III
   15. Haydn, Symphony no. 86, III

Research vita

I retired from The University of Texas at Austin in May of this year. Since then I have "cleaned up" and stopped maintaining my personal web page, which had information on publications. To compensate, I have created a PDF file called "Research Vita" that can be accessed through this link: Vita.