The Galant Style Revisited and Re-Evaluated

Sheldon, David A.

doi:10.2307/932212

Cited by 29 publications

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“…Understandings of music of the galant style have been pluralistic ever since the beginning of the eighteenth century, when the term ‘galant’ was first applied to music (Sheldon 1975, p. 240; Radice 1999, p. 607; and Heartz 2003, p. 18). For instance, Johann Mattheson appears to have associated galant music with the works of Italian opera composers more generally (Sheldon 1975, pp. 251–2, and Heartz 2003, p. 18), whereas C. P. E. Bach, Heinrich Koch and Daniel Gottlob Türk characterise the style more via specific musical features and its distinction from the strict or learned style (Heartz 2003, p. 19).…”

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“…Considering both the backdrop of eighteenth‐century writings and the etymological research of Mark Radice (1999) and David Sheldon (1975 and 1989), this definition initially appears to raise a number of issues. For instance, one is not likely to find J. S. Bach on a list such as Mattheson's ‘most famous and most galant composers in Europe’, yet Gjerdingen (2007a, p. 6) holds that even this ‘paradigmatic Baroque’ composer could create galant music when he chose to do so 1.…”

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“…A brief overview of the etymology of Gjerdingen's galant homme further confirms the ethereal nature of Gjerdingen's ‘galant’ category. The characteristics he ascribes to ‘galant men and women’ (2007a, p. 5) originated in seventeenth‐century France, were imported to Germany, and underwent substantial changes in interpretation throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries (Sheldon 1975, pp. 241–2, and 1989, pp.…”

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Revisiting the Galant in Gjerdingenian Schemata

2023

Music Analysis

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Robert Gjerdingen's schema theory focuses the long‐debated ‘galant’ style concretely onto an inventory of stock musical phrases, or ‘galant schemata’. The rich historico‐cognitive discourse sparked by this growing ‘schematicon’ has provided significant theoretical evidence for their historical situatedness, coherence and objectivity; however, there remains a shortage of empirical studies that problematise their contexts of applicability, as well as descriptiveness within full galant works. In light of this, the present investigation schematically interprets three varied works by the eighteenth‐century composer C. P. E. Bach, who is known for pushing the boundaries of the galant style: the Magnificat in D, Wq. 215; Die Israeliten in der Wüste, Wq. 238 (all applicable movements); and the ‘Württemberg’ Sonatas, Wq. 49 (opening movements). Similar proportions of each vocal work are found to be covered by galant schemata (55 per cent and 46 per cent, respectively), atypical schema variants (17 per cent and 24 per cent respectively) and non‐schematic space (25 per cent each), whilst the ‘Württemberg’ Sonatas yielded more (82 per cent) typical schemata, fewer (3 per cent) atypical schemata and reduced (13 per cent) non‐schematic space. Comparisons and analyses within and between these works and schematic categories reveal potential additions to the galant schematicon; highlight the existence of interactions between galant schemata, higher‐level schemas and partimenti schemata; and elucidate both fluid and strict understandings of Gjerdingen's galant category within eighteenth‐century music. Consequently, they focus the question of schema historicity back onto their galant situatedness and establish an important evidence‐based framework from which the Gjerdingenian galant category – and the schemata which constitute it – may be further elucidated.

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