scholarly journals Parsimonious Voice Leading and theStimmführungsmodelle

2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ariane Jeßulat
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Voice Leading

This article confronts the dialectic between parsimonious voice leading, as represented by neo-Riemannian theory, and the diatonicStimmführungsmodelle, or the traditional formulas and methods of thorough-bass pedagogy as they were preserved in the nineteenth century. The historical contexts are represented by Carl Friedrich Weitzmann’s essay on the augmented triad (1853) and Simon Sechter’sGeneralbass-Schule(1835). The possibility of setting the diatonic and chromatic models into productive analytic practice is explored, even as it is acknowledged that they are grounded in different principles. Steven Rings’s “syntactical interaction” and Richard Cohn’s “double syntax” are invoked. A Brahms song and a Schubert symphony serve as extended analytical examples.

scholarly journals The Musico-Poetics of the Flat Submediant in Schubert's Songs

2019 ◽  
Vol 144 (2) ◽  
pp. 239-286
Author(s):  
David Bretherton
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Voice Leading ◽  
Apparent Association

AbstractComposers' increasing and increasingly evocative use of chromatic mediants during the first few decades of the nineteenth century is arguably a hallmark of early Romantic harmony. The apparent association in Schubert's songs between ♭VI and the representation of utopia, fantasy, reverie, dreams and other positive, other-worldly states has been noted by many scholars. However, the fact that he also occasionally employed ♭VI to portray darker sentiments is rarely commented on and questions the degree to which the ♭VI harmony itself acts as a positive, other-worldly signifier. This article accounts for these various opposing uses and proposes that surface voice-leading details (ones that are often overlooked by Schenkerian and neo-Riemannian approaches) are key to understanding the musico-poetics of ♭VI in Schubert's songs.

scholarly journals Types and Applications of P3,0 Seventh-Chord Transformations in Late Nineteenth-Century Music

2016 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel Reenan ◽  
Richard Bass
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Music Theory ◽  
The Other ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Voice Leading ◽  
Musical Structure ◽  
Tristan Und Isolde ◽  
Richard Strauss ◽  
Late Nineteenth

The expression P3,0refers to one class of parsimonious voice-leading transformations between seventh chords introduced in a 1998 article by Jack Douthett and Peter Steinbach as Pm,n(Journal of Music Theory42 (2): 241–63). In addition to tones that may be held in common, the subscripts indicate the number of voices that move by half step (m) or whole step (n) in connecting one seventh chord to the next. P3,0designates a transformation in which one of the chord members is held in common while each of the other three moves by half step. P3,0transformations produce some of the most striking chromatic harmonic progressions in the late Romantic repertoire. This study focuses on aspects of P3,0transformations that include 1) their place in the broader context of neo-Riemannian voice-leading transformations; 2) their properties and a specific means of notating all possible P3,0types; 3) explications of how the various types are integrated within late nineteenth-century harmonic practice and interact with traditional tonal harmony; and 4) analytic applications that demonstrate how P3,0transformations operate within and contribute to musical structure, including the opening of the Prelude to Wagner’sTristan und Isolde, and a complete song (“Ruhe, meine Seele!” op. 27 no. 1) by Richard Strauss.

scholarly journals Brahms’s “Great Tragic Opera”

2011 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Melissa E. Hoag
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Voice Leading ◽  
Linear Motion ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Musical Representations

Nineteenth-century critic Hermann Kretzschmar’s hearing of the first four songs of op. 57 as a “great tragic opera“ offers a fitting starting point for this analytical essay on Brahms’s song, “Ach, wende diesen Blick” (op. 57, no. 4), the very song referenced in Kretzschmar’s remark. This essay demonstrates how Brahms constructs drama through several prominent pitch constructs that unfold as musical representations of the poetic conflict. This will be achieved primarily through voice-leading analysis and explication of an event called amelodic disjunction, a linear construction that arises as a result of Brahms’s complex contrapuntal style. Often composed of more than one strand of linear motion (as in a compound melody), the melodic disjunction features a seemingly anomalous leap or gap that is created when one of these melodic lines is abruptly abandoned, and any residue of melodic implication in the line is not resolved immediately, or at all. Along with several other disruptive pitch events that recur throughout the song, the melodic disjunction in op. 57, no. 4 avoids traditional resolution for dramatic reasons.

Harmony Simplified

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason Yust
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Harmonic Functions ◽  
Voice Leading ◽  
Tonal Music ◽  
Harmonic Progression ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Harmonic Techniques

The syntactic norms of common practice harmony are well known, but we lack good explanations for them. A theory of convergence is offered to explain how dominant and predominant harmonic functions work in tonal music. A geometric Tonnetz and concepts of triadic orbits and simple triadic voice leading are then developed to distinguish different types of harmonic progression, neighbouring, sequential, and cadential, with distinct formal functions. The concepts of triadic convergence and triadic cycles are then generalized to the diatonic dimension of the Tonnetz, leading to analogous concepts of enharmonic convergence and enharmonic tour useful for understanding nineteenth-century harmonic techniques.

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