A diverse selection of wondrously creative renderings by Franz Schubert of the ascending 5-6 sequence serves as the foundation for a reevaluation of the procedure and of the analytical tools used to describe it and to assess its role within a musical and (for texted music) poetical context. A range of late-eighteenth- and early-nineteenth-century thought on both sequential progression and harmonic analysis in general, by Emanuel Aloys Förster, Johann Philipp Kirnberger, and Gottfried Weber, among others, is assayed. Opportunities for chromaticism within the 5 and 6 phases of the 5-6 cycle are separately considered. The 5-phase trajectories are classified as diatonic, idiosyncratic, or obstinate. Despite its long history and current dominance, the mode of analysis based on Roman numerals and tonicizations is eschewed for sequential progressions. Instead, the connective role of sequential progressions within broader harmonic progressions is emphasized.
Focusing on music written in the period 1800–1850, Thinking about Harmony traces the responses of observant musicians to the music that was being created in their midst by composers including Beethoven, Schubert, and Chopin. It tells the story of how a separate branch of musical activity - music analysis - evolved out of the desire to make sense of the music, essential both to its enlightened performance and to its appreciation. The book integrates two distinct areas of musical inquiry - the history of music theory and music analysis - and the various notions that shape harmonic theory are put to the test through practical application, creating a unique and intriguing synthesis. Aided by an extensive compilation of carefully selected and clearly annotated music examples, readers can explore a panoramic projection of the era's analytical responses to harmony, thereby developing a more intimate rapport with the period.
David Damschroder's ongoing reformulation of harmonic theory continues with a dynamic exploration of how Beethoven molded and arranged chords to convey bold conceptions. This book's introductory chapters are organized in the manner of a nineteenth-century Harmonielehre, with individual considerations of the tonal system's key features illustrated by easy-to-comprehend block-chord examples derived from Beethoven's piano sonatas. In the masterworks section that follows, Damschroder presents detailed analyses of movements from the symphonies, piano and violin sonatas, and string quartets, and compares his outcomes with those of other analysts, including William E. Caplin, Robert Gauldin, Nicholas Marston, William J. Mitchell, Frank Samarotto, and Janet Schmalfeldt. Expanding upon analytical practices from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and strongly influenced by Schenkerian principles, this fresh perspective offers a stark contrast to conventional harmonic analysis – both in terms of how Roman numerals are deployed and how musical processes are described in words.
This chapter integrates perspectives on three issues. First, the movement’s correlation to a standard sonata-rondo form (Hepokoski and Darcy’s Type 4 sonata) will be delineated, in conjunction with an assessment of its idiosyncratic tonal plan. Secondly, innovative ways in which Schubert connects B ♭ and G chords will be explored. Thirdly, the fact that Schubert here uses tonic and dominant 6-phase chords in an emotionally positive context will be juxtaposed with the first movement’s extension to less salutary variants—the tonic’s G ♭—B ♭♭ –D ♭ (= F ♯–A–C ♯) and the dominant’s D ♭–F ♭–A ♭—drawing upon my discussion of that movement in Harmony in Schubert. Whereas those variants give the opening movement a sombre cast, by the final movement a new ebullience has emerged. Schubert utilises 6-phase chords extensively without exposing their darker potentialities, his artistic vision committed to making all end well. As we know, he was unable to translate that vision into a similarly positive transformation of his health.
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