Phrase Rhythm in Tonal Music

Rothstein, William

doi:10.2307/853976

Cited by 50 publications

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“…Phrase rhythm is here understood as the interaction of phrase structure and hypermetre, where phrase structure is the melodic and harmonic content of a directed tonal utterance and hypermetre is the rhythmic organisation of a passage such that a listener can perceive time spans at the level of the bar as either beginnings or continuations within larger time spans. The recognition of the independence of phrase structure and hypermetre comes from the work of William Rothstein (1989, pp. 5–13) 5 .…”

Section: Gounod ‘Faîtes‐lui Mes Aveux’mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…2222The relationship of phrase rhythm to form is not a primary consideration for much phrase‐rhythm scholarship, but the general correlation of tonal and thematic stability with relative regularity of phrase rhythm is mentioned at the margins of several studies; see Bhogal (2004, p. 145), Caplin (1998, pp. 13 and 17) and Rothstein (1989, p. 99). It is generically expected then that reprises, sites of thematic return and most often too of tonal resolution have relatively regular phrase rhythm.…”

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confidence: 98%

“…Bars 1–27 are an instrumental introduction in C minor. The boundaries given for the antecedent and consequent phrases are the beginning and end of the vocal groupings that deliver a stanza of text, which are not always equivalent to the tonic or dominant starting points/endpoints of the phrase, nor to the start and end of hypermeasures; on the potential non‐congruence of harmony, melody and hypermetre, see Rothstein (1989), pp. 5–13.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…88Yust locates the former strategy in a tradition of Schenker‐influenced analysis which often takes as a starting point the alignment of hypermeasures with tonal middlegrounds and allows for temporal plasticity atop that base, citing among others Schachter (1976, 1980 and 1987), Yeston (1976), and Rothstein (1989; 2018, p. 123); Ito (2013), which extends the approach of Rothstein (1989) into ‘hypermetric schema’, follows in this tradition. The second strand of theory is sceptical of that sort of irregularity in hypermetre and focuses instead on the separability of metric structure from phrase structure, generally considering hypermetre as a metre‐like regular frame against which groupings can shift; Yust traces the foundational distinction between metre and grouping to Lerdahl and Jackendoff (1983), and cites Kramer (1988), Temperley (2003), and Ng (2012) in this category; Stefan Caris Love's concept of the ‘hypermetric floor’ as the highest, most persistently regular rhythmic level in a piece also belongs in this category (2016, pp.…”

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Phrase Rhythm and Loss in the Music of Maurice Ravel

Blättler¹

2023

Music Analysis

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A particular subset of Ravel's output features a phrase‐rhythmic technique wherein tonal and thematic returns are accompanied by surprisingly asymmetrical or ambiguous phrase rhythm. This defies both generic conventions linking thematic reprise and tonal closure to relatively stable phrase rhythm and specific expectations created by these works’ formal processes, and contrasts with trajectories moving from phrase‐rhythmic instability to stability which Ravel deploys in other works. The set of pieces which features this technique includes À la manière de … Chabrier, the Menuet sur le nom d'Haydn, pieces from Le Tombeau de Couperin, the last of the Valses nobles et sentimentales, and the ‘Blues’ movement from the Violin Sonata. This study notes how themes of loss and distance connect these pieces, allowing for the phrase‐rhythmic technique to be bound up with interpretative implications which can enhance our understanding of how phrase rhythm can carry expressive freight.

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Section: Gounod ‘Faîtes‐lui Mes Aveux’mentioning

confidence: 99%

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confidence: 98%

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Phrase Rhythm and Loss in the Music of Maurice Ravel

Blättler¹

2023

Music Analysis

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“…The Schenkerian view of sonata form, moreover, offers another explanation of the high counts in Table . Invoking Schenker, William Rothstein suggests that ‘in the vast majority of sonata forms the harmonic goal of the development is […] V’ (, p. 112). And, as Hepokoski and Darcy assert, ‘[W]hen a major‐mode exposition ends, as it usually does, with a tonicized dominant […] the entire development may be heard as a prolongation of this V, regrasping it and activating it as a chord […] at the end’ (, p. 198).…”

Section: Exmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Development‐Ending Dominant and the Late Cadence in vi: Changing Norms in the Sonatas of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven

Duane¹

2019

Music Analysis

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Scholars disagree about the stylistic norms surrounding the end of the development section in eighteenth‐century sonatas. Although most sonata theories claim that the typical development ends with a prolonged dominant of the home key, other work never mentions this prolongation and focuses instead on a late cadence in vi – a gesture that often occurs near the end of the development, just before a brief retransition that may or may not culminate in a home‐key dominant. I evaluate these divergent views by analysing a corpus containing all first‐movement sonata forms from the string quartets and piano sonatas of Haydn, Mozart and early Beethoven. The results validate both views, provided they are placed in historical context. In the 1780s and 1790s the majority of developments ended with a dominant prolongation. In the 1760s and 1770s, however, only about a third ended this way. At the same time, the late cadence in vi appeared in over three‐quarters of developments from the 1760s and 1770s but in only half of those from the 1780s and 1790s. Thus, the conflicting accounts of development‐ending norms reflect a historical transition from one convention (the late cadence in vi) to another (the dominant prolongation).

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Harmony in Mendelssohn and Schumann

Damschroder

2017

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Phrase Rhythm in Tonal Music

Cited by 50 publications

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Phrase Rhythm and Loss in the Music of Maurice Ravel

Phrase Rhythm and Loss in the Music of Maurice Ravel

The Development‐Ending Dominant and the Late Cadence in vi: Changing Norms in the Sonatas of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven

Harmony in Mendelssohn and Schumann

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