JMT series, part 4a-2 (simple rising lines)

In note 28 I wrote "Other pieces that use the simplest form of the rising Urlinie include the following (qualifying comments in parentheses)."

Among the pieces named was Haydn, Symphony no. 104, III. It's not quite as simple as I claimed, however—there is a drop from ^6 down to ^7, which also happens in the menuet of Symphony no. 86 (as discussed in my essay Ascending Cadence Gestures: A Historical Survey from the 16th to the Early 19th Century, published on Texas Scholar Works: link). About Symphony 86 I wrote:

This time [in the reprise] 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 key is the same in Symphony no. 104, ^5 is as firmly settled as the tonic pedal note underneath it, and a string of parallel sixths lead the melodic line down to the cadence. Only the sforzando on the last beat of bar 6 suggests anything different: B5 sticks out above, then leaps down to the dominant's C#5 (see the box).


What that sforzando hints at it is the possibility of a rising line from A5, but, as happened in Symphony no. 86, directionality is undermined by curling back to the lower octave instead of rising toward C#6 and D6.

As is well known, Haydn can't seem to leave things alone in a reprise, and the effects can easily be seen even in design features like linear patterns. In the A section, the eight-bar theme is repeated (in different instrumentation). In the reprise, the theme statement makes it through six bars before changes start, the overall result being an extension of the continuation phrase from four bars to eleven, including two bars of grand pause (!), and a clearly profiled stepwise ascent from B4 through C#5 to D5 (see the second system below). The codetta adds a little flourish that gives us C#5-D6 at last.

This condensed version shows just the ^5-^8 progress over the course of the reprise.

JMT series, part 4a-1 (simple rising lines)

Note number 28 is the first in my article "The Ascending Urlinie" (Journal of Music Theory 1987) to contain a list of additional examples. In the article I wrote that motivic foregrounding and layering did not necessarily generate rising background lines. Here is my text for the first example:

n28: The Menuet of Haydn’s Symphony no. 100 is a case in point. In the first period (measures 1-8, which stand for the whole), the initial motion is strongly downward, but the final cadence produces a clear ascent from ^5 to ^8 in the upper-most part.

Thinking of this in Schenkerian terms—as I was in 1987—the rising line is not workable in the theme's first presentation because it doesn't mesh well with the bass, especially in bars 5-6, where one would have to imagine a doubling of bass and soprano, never a good idea. It's much easier to build a line in this way: D5 initiates a fifth-line; to C in bar 4, recapture C in bar 6, B on the last beat of that bar, then A in bar 7, and an implied G in bar 8. The ascending scale in the cadence is boundary play. See this version here:

In the reprise, on the other hand, the chromatic passing tone D# in the bass (from m. 6) is gone, and a string of diatonic figures, all rising, take over the lower parts, directly linking the chromatic scale fragment to the diatonic scale fragment (see the arrows in the figure below). As a result, the rising line from ^5 to ^8 has a clear path and pitch design can be read as well-matched to the important aspects of expression.

The text above comes from my essay Ascending Cadence Gestures: A Historical Survey from the 16th to the Early 19th Century, published on Texas Scholar Works: link.

Subsequent posts will offer more discussion of pieces named in note 28.

Gallery of Simple Examples, volume 2

I have posted a sequel to the gallery of simple examples (link to volume 1). The title is A Gallery of Simple Examples of Extended Rising Melodic Shapes, Volume 2: link to volume 2.

Here is the abstract:

This second installment of direct, cleanly formed rising lines offers examples from a variety of sources, ranging from a short early seventeenth century choral piece to Prokofiev’s Classical Symphony, and from Scottish fiddle tunes to Victor Herbert operettas.

Here is a combined table of contents for the two volumes, arranged chronologically and with the volume number indicated:

Praetorius, three-voice motet "Preis sei Gott in der Höhe"       -- vol. 2
Johann Heinrich Schmelzer, Partita ex Vienna, Courante      -- vol. 2
Böhm, Suite in F minor, Courante       -- vol. 1
Anon., Chelsea Stage    -- vol. 2
Anon., The Duchess of Gordon     -- vol. 2
Anon., The Kerry Jig       -- vol. 2
Anon., The Nabob        -- vol. 2
Anon., The Runaway Bride   -- vol. 2
Anon., Shepherds Jigg   -- vol. 2
Anon., Yankey Doodle      -- vol. 2
Mozart, 12 Menuets, K176n1       -- vol. 1
Haydn, String Quartet in D Major, Op76n2, III       -- vol. 1
Haydn, Symphony no. 86, III      -- vol. 1
Beethoven, 12 German Dances, WoO8n1       -- vol. 1
Hummel, from 6 German Dances & 12 Trios, op. 16      -- vol. 2
Schubert, Wiener-Damen-Ländler, D734n15       -- vol. 1
Schubert, Valses sentimentales, D779n13       -- vol. 1
Schubert, Ländler, D814n4       -- vol. 1
Schubert, Deutscher Tanz, D769n1       -- vol. 1
Schubert, Grazer Walzer, D924n9       -- vol. 1
Johann Strauss, sr., “Champagner Galop,” Op. 8      -- vol. 2
Johann Strauss, sr., Das Leben ein Tanz, oder Der Tanz ein Leben!, Op.49       -- vol. 1
Johann Strauss, sr., Exotische Pflanzen, Op.109       -- vol. 1
Johann Strauss, jr., Künstlerleben, op. 316       -- vol. 1
Brahms, “Über die See”       -- vol. 1
Tchaikovsky, The Nutcracker, March       -- vol. 1
Herbert,  Sweethearts, n7: "Jeannette and Her Little Wooden Shoes"      -- vol. 2
Herbert, Naughty Marietta, n17: "The Sweet Bye and Bye"      -- vol. 2
Herbert, Babette, n23: Finale III      -- vol. 2
Prokofiev, Classical Symphony, Gavotte      -- vol. 2
Gershwin, Shall We Dance, "Slap That Bass"      -- vol. 2
Waxman, Rebecca, "Hotel Lobby Waltz”      -- vol. 2 

Praetorius, Terpsichore

IMSLP recently added a file with the part-books for Michael Praetorius' Terpsichore (1612) (link). In celebration of that event, here are three examples. The pieces (in score) are discussed, along with many others, in my essay Ascending Cadence Gestures: A Historical Survey from the 16th to the Early 19th Century (link). Edited versions of the text are given here along with a facsimile of the cantus part.

Number 35 is the first of the more than 160 courantes in the volume. In the second strain the range F4-C5 is established firmly at the beginning, C5 held, then a partial descent occurs midway, and the pattern is repeated, at which point the range F4-C5 is covered yet again and expanded by one for the cadence on D. (Note: The score in modern notation was transposed up a fifth.)

n147: "Incerti" = author of the melody is unknown. This is one in a series of courantes in once-transposed Dorian mode (final G; one flat in the signature). In the first strain see a simple linear ascent to the cadence on D5. In the second strain, the figure in part or whole occurs four times in a row, leading to G5 in the end.

n265 is a three-strain ballet, without notated repeats. The first strain ends with the long note in the middle of the third system. The second strain ends with the last long note in the fourth system. 

In effect this ballet is really two strains, as the third is a close variation of the second. The point of interest is in the cadences for the second and third strains: the first of these cadences lies (and is somewhat buried) in the lower register, ending on F4, but the second is made very prominent by transposition up the octave, ending on the same F5 that started the strain.

Interlude: Three from Victor Herbert, continued

In yesterday's post, I wrote about movements from Sweethearts (1913) and Naughty Marietta (1910). Today's focus is on no. 23, the final number in Babette (1903). This short and uncomplicated finale—no extended szena!—is a reprise of two earlier numbers, n5: "The Letter Writing Song," in which Babette sings about her work writing letters for others, and n2: "My Honor and My Sword." The reprise of n5 is an invitation to Babette's wedding, n2 a trio (in the subdominant), and an instrumental version of n2 closes the operetta. Both n2 and n5 independently have rising-line-based designs.

The "trio": reprise of n2: "My Honor and My Sword."

The instrumental conclusion: reprise of n5.

Interlude: Three from Victor Herbert

"Interlude" in the title refers to a short break from the "JMT series," which will resume soon.

I spent a week or two earlier this month going through vocal scores of Victor Herbert operettas. By the time I was done, more than ninety pieces—songs, marches, scenes, finales—emerged with ascending cadence gestures. I have chosen three to present here because they are typical of Herbert's writing and because each has a design that can be heard as a simple rising Urlinie.

The first is from Sweethearts (1913), the second from Naughty Marietta (1910). The third is discussed in a separate post: from Babette (1903).

 Sweethearts, n7: "Jeannette and Her Little Wooden Shoes." A solo version is presented here for efficiency's sake. See further below for the original quartet version (where three other singers accompany a soloist). This is the refrain of a verse-refrain (or chorus) design, and it is followed by a purely instrumental repetition ("Wooden-shoe Dance"). The sforzando C5s establish the register that is then occupied by a strongly defined focal tone Bb4. The ascent to the cadence is quite straightforward. And of course all of it is repeated in the instrumental dance. The style is close to that of the rural Schnadahüpfl and related dances and dance-songs (link).

Original quartet version, opening.

 Naughty Marietta, n17: "The Sweet Bye and Bye." Similar to the preceding in that a focal tone is firmly established—here even more directly, with clearly identifiable figures moving above and below—and the ascent in the cadence unmistakable.

JMT series, part 3b (more on BWV 924 & 924a)

The earlier of two published analyses by Schenker is in an issue of Der Tonwille—see references at the bottom of this post. It is the only reading with a rising line in his published work.

A facsimile of the detailed reading is below. This comes from my own copy, given to me by my former Indiana colleague Vernon Kliewer on the occasion of his retirement. You can find a cleaner version in Drabkin and Annibaldi, page 63 (again, see references at the end of this post). I wrote this in my JMT article: Schenker "gives an analysis of the first of J. S. Bach’s Twelve Little Preludes in which the essential motion is the 'composing-out of the space of the fourth from G to C.' He describes this motion as accomplished by ^5-^6-^7-^8 over I, followed by a repetition of ^7-^8 over V and I, respectively. . . . By the standards of the fully developed theory, this analysis is unconvincing, but it is more to the point that Schenker’s essay contains no comment suggesting that the rising Urlinie is in any way problematic. In fact one of his closing comments is, 'After this presentation, who can still doubt that this Prelude, through Urlinie, voice leading, and harmony, develops only the triad, the chord of C?'” (276-77; see note at bottom of this post] I then recount how he changed his mind about rising lines over the course of the next two years. As we will see below, I came up with quite a different reading myself—Urlinie from ^5—but on revisiting the matter over this past week, I find this first reading of the piece the most convincing of them all. It charts the course of the upper voice beautifully and therefore also matches the bass and its implied (partimento) figures.

William Drabkin has an equally interesting reading that retains Schenker's upper-voice shapes but expands on them using my three-part Ursatz device (from another 1987 article). His graph is the lower system below. In the upper system, I have pulled out a pair of unfoldings as a complementary way to relate the two upper voices.

Schenker's later analysis (here in a version from Meeùs, Figure 8) runs from the initial ^3 and shifts a great deal of the earlier-level motion to the pedal-point dominant. Allen Forte and the Forte & Gilbert textbook follow this.

Nicolas Meeùs tries to solve the problem of too much attention to the end by creating a different kind of rising inner voice (the one he labels "Cantizans").

I have an unpublished analysis, probably from the 1980s, in which I read the Prelude from ^5. My octave couplings -- at (a) -- imitate those of the WTC I C Major Prelude. At (b) sixths elaborate from above, starting from a unique C6 cover tone. At (c) I might have unfolded a third from B4 to the open note D5.

References:
Meeùs, Nicolas. "Fundamental Line(s)." Conference paper, 2004. Available from the author's website: link.
Drabkin, William, and Claudio Annibaldi. "'Bisogna leggere Schenker': Sull' analisi dell Preludio in  Do Maggiore BWV 924 di Bach." Rivista Italiana di Musicologia 24/1 (1989): 48-66.
Forte, Allen. "Prelude in C Major." Allen Forte Electronic Archive. University of North Texas. Link.
Forte, Allen, and Steven Gilbert. Introduction to Schenkerian Analysis. New York: Norton, 1982.
Schenker, Heinrich. Der Tonwille: Pamphlets in Witness of the Immutable Laws of Music: Offered to a New Generation of Youth. Translated by William Drabkin. Cambridge University Press, 2004.
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Note: I am embarrassed to say, thirty years later, that I seem to have mischaracterized Schenker's Tonwille background by writing "the graph of the piece shows all six upper-voice tones as large notes (that is, as Urlinie tones) with a subordinate Anstieg leading to the ^5" (277). As you can see from both background and Urlinietafel (foreground) above, this is not the case. Nevertheless, the basic characterization of the Urlinie as consisting of all the labeled notes, except the opening ^3 & ^4, is correct, as it is consistent with Schenker's conception at the time. (He repeatedly refers to "the composing-out of the space of a fourth" in the Tonwille essay.)  If we do read the background strictly according to notation as in Free Composition, then the background is an ^8-^7-^8 neighbor figure: see below (adapted from Drabkin and Annibaldi's example 6). This is Drabkin's reading above without the structural alto.