Arnold Schoenberg’s concept of formal function, as formulated by Erwin Ratz, has become a staple of music theory since it was reimagined and systematized by William E. Caplin. However, this concept has been criticized for not speaking to the content of a piece of music, its particularity and meaning. By defining formal components, parts, and functions in line with the conceptual metaphors that underlie musical form, one may establish the inseparability of form and content. The definitions proposed here apply to art music from the eighteenth to the early twentieth centuries, the latter demonstrated through an analysis of Schoenberg’s Op. 11, No. 1.
This article follows on the heels of one by Holly Watkins, who argues that music, "a subsystem of the social system of communication," can evoke the organic (the bodily and the psychic) not by forming a self-contained unity of parts and whole but through the "internal recursiveness" of musical works, their external "recursiveness vis-à-vis other music," and-crucially-"the knowingness the music displays toward its own operations." I adopt the premise that music evokes the organic most vividly not through recursive processes in individual systems but through the as-if intentional integration of such processes in multiple systems, of which I concern myself particularly with the harmonic, contrapuntal, and formal domains (or, more precisely, the motivic). I offer correctives to the organicist theories of Arnold Schoenberg and Heinrich Schenker, which similarly concern these domains, and especially to their reception. And I explore this direction through an analysis of J. S. Bach's Prelude No. 7 in E-flat major from book 1 of The Well-Tempered Clavier, BWV 852, a singular piece that billows forth like an unfathomable blossom. Dieser Artikel folgt einem Essay von Holly Watkins, in dem die Autorin argumentiert, dass Musik, »a subsystem of the social system of communication«, das Organische (das Körperliche und das Psychische) nicht durch die Bildung einer in sich geschlossenen Einheit von Teilen und Ganzem, sondern durch die »internal recursiveness« von Musikwerken, ihre äußere »recursiveness vis-à-vis other music« und-was entscheidend ist-durch »the knowingness the music displays toward its own operations« hervorrufen kann. Ich übernehme die Voraussetzung, dass Musik das Organische nicht durch rekursive Prozesse in einzelnen Systemen, sondern durch die quasi-intentionale Integration solcher Prozesse in mehreren Systemen am anschaulichsten hervorruft, von denen ich mich insbesondere mit dem harmonischen, kontrapunktischen und formalen Bereich (oder, genauer gesagt, dem motivischen) beschäftige. Ich biete Korrekturen zu den organizistischen Theorien von Arnold Schönberg und Heinrich Schenker an, die diese Bereiche ebenfalls betreffen, und insbesondere zu ihrer Rezeption. Darüber hinaus erforsche ich diese Richtung durch eine Analyse von J. S. Bachs Präludium Nr. 7 in Es-Dur aus Buch 1 des Wohltemperierten Klaviers, BWV 852, einem einzigartigen Stück, das sich wie eine unergründliche Blüte forttreibt.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.