Modal Idioms and Their Rhetorical Associations in Rachmaninoff’s Works

Abstract

In this article, I examine passages from more than a dozen works by Rachmaninoff—especially the Third Symphony, op. 44—in order to better understand the significance that certain modal idioms (diatonic and equal-interval) have in his harmonic language and to show the consistency with which he treats these idioms across his oeuvre. I describe three types of diatonic modal idiom and three types of equal-interval modal idiom and I outline their basic rhetorical associations in Rachmaninoff’s music: diatonic modal idioms are consistently associated with introduction, exposition, digression, and post-climactic activity while equal-interval modal idioms are consistently associated with intensification, climax, and destabilization. I consider the implications those rhetorical associations have for the analysis of entire compositions, and, along the way, I suggest possible avenues for future research on Rachmaninoff’s position within both the pan-Europeanfin de siècleand the so-called Russian “silver age.”