Key Profiles in Bruckner’s Symphonic Expositions

Abstract

Because of their novel harmonic and formal tendencies, Bruckner’s symphonies are often subjected to extravagant analytical practices. Schenker, himself a Bruckner student, viewed them as sublime, but ultimately unworkable, harmonic jumbles: “a potpourri of exaltations.” Darcy has argued that Bruckner’s second themes are largely presented in the “wrong” key, creating a nontraditional “suspension field ... [isolated] from the main line of ... symphonic discourse.” Taking this view as a point of departure, I show (1) that Bruckner’s second theme key choices do not break from tradition—they have precedent in earlier, more canonic literature; and (2) that distinct “profiles” emerge from them: I-to-V in opening movements, I-to-III-to-V in finales. These profiles suggest both that Bruckner conceived of deep structure as chromatically saturated, and that he varied the degree of saturation to differentiate between types of movements. Thus, Bruckner’s chromatic second themes—far from “suspending” a movement’s trajectory—represent powerful, energizing events en route to the dominant.

Sonata Form as Temporal Process: the First Movement of Bruckner's Sixth symphony

“…Accordingly, in a later essay Horton (2018b) proposes an analytical model based on what he calls ‘orbital tonality’ for the finale of the Seventh Symphony, in which three hexatonically related tonal orbits (E, A♭, C) work in close conjunction with both the intra‐ and inter‐thematic functions, encompassing all three theme groups while generating a teleological process towards the eventual confirmation of the E tonality 12. Nathan Pell, also countering the long‐standing tendency of isolating Bruckner from the mainstream symphonic tradition, asserts that ‘Bruckner's treatment of sonata form is a natural continuation of earlier approaches’ (2018, [5.4]). This perspective leads him to criticise Darcy's ‘alienated secondary theme’ argument, which, he claims, overlooks the fact that Bruckner's second theme actually initiates, in many cases, ‘a journey towards a goal – the dominant’ (ibid.).…”