Modal Ethos and Semiotics in Tonal Music: Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Schumann, Brahms, Massenet, Mahler and Debussy 1495505162, 9781495505164

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Mo d a l Et h o s a n d Se m i o t i c s IN To n a l Mu s i c Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Schumann, Brahms, Massenet, Mahler and Debussy

Mo d a l Et h o s a n d Se m i o t i c s IN To n a l Mu s i c Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Schumann, Brahms, Massenet, Mahler and Debussy

Marshall Tuttle

With a Foreword by

Sergey Bogza

The. Edwin Mellen Press Lewiston'Lampeter

Library of Congress Cataioging-in-Publication Data Library of Congress Control Number: 2016959885 Tuttle, Marshall. Modal ethos and semiotics in tonal music : Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Schumann, Brahms, Massenet, Mahler and Debussy / Marshall Tuttle ; with a foreword by Sergey Bogza. 1. Music-Genres and styles-Classical. 2. Music-Instruction and StudyComposition. 3. Music—Instruction and study—Theory. I. Title. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-1-4955-0516-4 (hardcover) ISBN-10: 1-4955-0516-2 (hardcover) hors série. A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the British Library. Front Cover Photo: Initial depicting Boethius teaching his students from Folio 4r of a manuscript of the Consolation ofPhilosophy, Italy?, 1385. This image is in the public domain and taken from Wikipedia .org. Copyright

©

2016 Marshall Tuttle

All rights reserved. For information contact The Edwin Mellen Press Box 450 Lewiston, New York USA 14092-0450

The Edwin Mellen Press, Ltd Lampeter, Ceredigion, Wales UNITED KINGDOM SA48 8LT

Printed in the United States of America

Ta b l e o f Co n t e n t s Abstract..........................................................................................1 Foreword by Dr. Sergey Bogza.................................................. 3 Preface............................................................................................5 Chapter 1 : Purpose and Scope of the Present Work................7 Purpose.......................................................................................... 7 Analytical Approach.....................................................................7 Definitions.................................................................................12 Problems Addressed................................................................ 14 Outline of the Following Study............................................. 21 Conclusion................................................................................ 22 Chapter 2: Bach's Method of Integrating Mode and Tonality through Modulation................................................................... 23 “Werm ich einmal soll scheiden”........................................... 23 Contrast with Schenkerian Analysis......................................30 Conclusion................................................................................ 34 Chapter 3: Analysis of Debussy's Syrinx-.Impressionism, Expressionism and Tuning....................................................... 37 Introduction.............................................................................. 37 Importance of Syrinx in the Flute Repertoire.................. 37 Contradictory Analytical Approachesto Syrinx................39 Background.............................................................................. 45 Debussy's State of Mind When Composing Syrinx......... 45 The Failed Tristan Project...................................................46 The Story of Syrinx...............................................................49 Analysis.....................................................................................50 Method...................................................................................50

The Opening............................................................................ The Central Episode.......................................................

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Recapitulation.................................................................

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Coda and Resolution............................................................ 53 The Key to Syrinx..................................................... .TT.~...65 Pan = Tristan?..................................................................... gg Discussion.............................................................................

gp

Structure and Expression.....................................................69 Tuning in Performance........................................................ .. Impressionism or Expressionism?...................................... 75 Conclusion..................................................................

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Chapter 4: The Case for the Authenticity of BWV 565....... 79 Introduction........................................................................... Discussion...................................................................

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Analysis Part I: Key Structure of the Fugue.........................90 Analysis Part II: Correspondences between Various Organ Compositions of Bach............................................................... 97 Analysis Part III: Musical Action in BWV 565................. 102 I. Toccata..............................................................................102 II. Fugue...............................................................................103 III. Cadenza......................................................................... 106 Musical Action of the Entire Composition......................1Ö7 Meaning and Metaphor in BWV 565....................................109 Chapter 5: Mahler's Adagietto: a Study of Seduction........119 Part I: Gustav and Alma........................................................ 119 The Story.............................................................................. Adagietto.............................................................................. 121

Part H: Death in Venice.........................................................126 1. A minor = Aschenbach................................................127 2. F major = The Attraction of an Object of Desire... 130 Conclusion................................................................................132 Chapter 6: Beethoven's Heilige Dankgesang.......................135 Have you Met Lydian?..........................................................135 Modal and Tonal Relationship and Associated Éthos......141 Chapter 7: Bach and Mozart go Locrian.............................. 147 Bach's Locrian New Year..................................................... 147 Mozart's Locrian and Pedrillo's Failed Heroism.............. 151 Chapter 8: Schumann's Dichterliebe: Flowers that Bloom in the Spring..................................................................................159 Chapter 9: Massenet's Pseudo Phrygian Meditation...........171 Chapter 10: Brahm's Concerto Against D Major................. 179 Chapter 11: Some Summing Up.............................................193 Chapter 12: New Directions in Modal Ethos...................... 203 Introduction.....................................................

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Structural Characteristics of Modes................................... 204 Twelve-Tone Serial Structures............................................ 208 Trichords and Expression..................................................... 213 Mechanics of Twelve-Tone Rows Based on Trichords....214 Conclusion.............................................................................. 219 Bibliography...................................................................... ;..... 221 Index.......................................................................................... 243

Ab s t r a c t

This work examines a specific technical and expressive means by which the various ecclesiastical modes persisted and were integrated into compositional practices of the tonal period, from the time of Bach through to the early twentieth century. It is demonstrated that a technique of integrating modes into tonal music is not through the use of melodic or harmonic materials, but through modulation. Modulations can be drawn from and limited to those keys which derive from chords that exist in the modal scale of the final key of a composition. This leads to what can only be referred to as a kind of pseudo-diatonic chromaticism. Modulations are limited by a diatonic scale, but that scale is distinct from the major-minor scale system which characterizes the surface level musical activity of a composition. Hence the modulations are chromatic according to a given key, but individual keys visited are limited by a very traditional set of diatonic relationships among themselves. The expressive significance of mode-derived modulatory structures is examined and found to correlate with the doctrines of modal ethos handed down through the centuries from a variety of sources. Hence, the fact that chromatic modulations are limited to keys derived from modal scales becomes significant as a semiotic tool. Various compositions of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Schumann, Brahms, Massenet and Debussy are examined in varying levels of detail. The examples illustrate usage of Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian and Locrian modes. Attention is drawn to associated texts, expressive markings and stories related to the compositions by the composers and performers. The results demonstrate the consistency of ethos with use of mode. Confirmatory reference is made to compositions of Verdi and Berlioz. Attention is drawn to the manner in which the many options offered by historical descriptions of modal 1

ethos are limited in a manner which mirrors tonal structure. Diverçnces of specific expressions between compositions w^ the same modal references are described in terms of different tonal associations, thus distinguishing the expressive methods of modal ethos from those of assofciative tonality. Solutions are suggested to certain issues in musicology which have been subjects of some controversy. In light of the insights gained from relating mode to expression, performance practices are considered which can brmg the musical relationships which are the aural embodiment of that expression, to tight. The variety of compositions examined suggests a variety of distinct approaches to performance practices which can be utilized to support the messages of each of the compositions, rechmques such as varied temperaments (for instruments of vanable tuning), tempo and fingerings (as notated by one composer) are suggested to clarify the expressive intentions of the mdividual compositions. Findly, methods are considered for bringing the concepts of modal ethos forward into post tonal music. An approach is described which can recreate all the significant parameters of modal reference at a structural level without compromising even the most stringent demands of post tonal compositional practices.

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Fo r e w o r d The scope of publications related to methods of analysis is an enormous one. It is rare, however, when a publication whose aim to illuminate the expressive elements of a given compositional practice, results in compelling revelations of historical, theoretical, and performance perspective. What is inspiring in Dr. Marshall Tuttle’s work is that his sincerity and the absence of a predetermined outcome leads the reader on a journey of discovery, illuminating the range of possible outcomes when applying contrasting analytical models. Therefore, the content in this book is not a dispassionate account of a rarely thought-of compositional device, but a study of a viable alternative meant to assist in extracting meaning when traditional models fail. In short, this research shows how composers like Bach, Beethoven, Debussy, and Brahms, among others, used the hidden expressive potentials of mode and modal ethos to express concepts not afforded in a tonal structure. For example, contrasted with strictly tonal composition, modality based on modulation in a tonal context results in a kind of revelation. The final appears from outside the inner workings of a piece, and only clarifies retrospectively the relationships and musical actions within a composition. This differs from strictly tonal composition, where the tonic occurs as the logical outcome of the preceding musical action. The results of this analytical approach offer additional insights clear enough to suggest use of specific tempos, temperaments, and even fingerings in a variety of pieces. Dr. Tuttle’s authoritative voice on modal ethos and its role in performance is the result of a distinguished career spanning five decades as a composer, performer, scholar and educator. I had the great privilege of assimilating principals channeled in this scholarship, first as a composition student, and later in life as a professional conductor. This publication is an 3

indispensable resource for anyone interested in how modes and modal ethos can influence structures, modulations, harmonic hierarchy, and yield distinct artistic expression in new compositions. As I read these pages, Fm filled with the hope of the possibilities that the research in this book can open for theorists, composers, performers, and in the design of advanced music study. As we take this journey, may we meet the presented challenges with passion, patience, and sincerity. Dr. Tuttle's work makes a new and compelling case with distinction and clarity for the persistence, the relevance and continued utility of mode and modal ethos in evolving musical contexts throughout the tonal period and into the future. Dr. Sergey Bogza MüMkin University

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Pr e f a c e Severinus Boethius, to who inspired this book, and whose portrait while teaching his class appears on the cover of this book, made a notorious comment about musicians, composers and theorists: There are three types of individuals versed in the art of music: one is the person who plays an instrument; another that composes songs; and the third is the individual who evaluates the work of the performer and the songs. But those who are in the instrumental class and spend all their time there—as, for example, kitharists and organists and players of other musical instruments—^these are excluded from the knowledge of the science of music and made servants, as said, devoid of all reason and destitute of all speculative thinking. The second class of individual involved with music is that of the poet who possesses not so much a propensity for thinking and reason as a natural instinct for song. And so this type of musician is separated from music as well. The third class is that which has the capacity to judge, so that the rhythm and the melody, indeed the entire song, can be evaluated. Because this class is steeped in reason and thought, it can rightly be esteemed as belonging to music. That person is a musician who applies the faculty of reason and thought to what is fitting and appropriate for music with regard to modes and rhythms, of the genera of songs and the mixings of sounds [consonances] of all types, which will be explained later, as well as the faculty of judging the songs of the poets.'

') Translated from the original Latin found online at THESAURUS MUSICARUM at http://www.chmtl.indiana.edu/tml/start.html.

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While Boethius was eventually put to death for his beliefs, this evaluation still carries with it some grains of truth even today. There often appears a natural antipathy between musicologists and performers which serves neither them nor the art of music. One of the goals of this work is to bridge that gap between performers, composers and theorists by examining a compositional method hitherto not particularly well documented, discussing methods of elucidating the resulting compositions in performance and assimilating that method in new compositions. I would like to acknowledge and thank (in alphabetical order) Karol Berger, Sergey Bogza, Lionel Friend, Joseph Gold, Peter Kramer, Natalia Kourenkova, Toni Kram, Margo Schulter, Roger Sender, Leland Smith, Sam Solano, Sara Watts and Charles Waterman for (also in alphabetical order) discussions, encouragement, instruction, proof-reading, suggestions and tolerance in relation to the preparation of this manuscript.

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Ch a pt e r 1 PURPOSE AND SCOPE OF THE PRESENT WORK

Purpose The thesis of this study is that modes persist to some extent as a compositional tool in tonal music. Persistence of modes as a structural and expressive device in the music of the 18* 19* and 20* centuries is a rather arcane topic. In their persistence, modes function in a manner independent of and superior to other methods of organizing pitch relationships. Considered by itself, it would not be a very interesting topic. However, when the work is carried through to completion, some problems in musicology are solved in the light of a new way of looking at compositions and their geneses. In addition to illumination of certain technical problems, consideration of modal structures in tonal compositions leads to the possibility of specifying expressive elements of compositions based on the doctrine of modal ethos. Combined with elements of associative tonality, modal ethos delimits and clarifies levels of expressive intention which can not be otherwise uncovered. Analytical Approach The bulk of this work is analysis without particular concern for modal relationships. Any other approach would beg the question: no result can be proven by using itself as the means for its own demonstration. Rather, the results we seek will emerge consistently from detailed consideration of musical material. We will use entirely neutral methods of analysis that were designed to delineate harmonic and key 7

relationships, with no presumptions as to what results will emerge. Analysis is the process of resolving an object into its component parts. As such, any analysis of a specific composition can only very rarely proceed to completion using the application of a single analytical tool. Thus, harmonic analysis, Schenkerian analysis, rhythmic analysis, formal analysis, etc. all yield results consistent with applications of specific compositional processes in a given piece. Not all methods are equally useful across the entire musical repertoire. As examples, key relationships as an analytical tool for Gregorian chant are as much out of place as are Schenkerian methods in Wagner. Expression, meamng and metaphor in music are transmitted through a number of methods. Among those methods are both structural and defined methods of conveying meaning. Notes, in the relationships they assume in a given composition, project a defacto structure in the world of that composition. For example, in tonal process the expected resolution of a leading tone to its tonic is not merely a grammatical relationship. In the context of the tonal system, that expectation represents a philosophy: The ends achieve are predictably based on the means by which we achieve them. In addition to the overriding philosophical stance encoded in the systematic grammar of a given compositional process, specific relationships are encoded within the actual musical material and its development in a given composition. In contrast to tonality. Modes function according to a different philosophy. A mode is defined by its last note or Final”. Since, as originally defined, all modes utilize the 8

same eight note scale, (B and' B[, are both possible in the modal system) there is (theoretically) no way to determine the final of a mode from the material itself.’ The concept of 'final' differs profoundly firom the concept of 'tonic' in this regard. While a tonic is the logical, rational result of musical activity, a modal final is a revelation from outside the system.^ In tonality, we know what ends we are going to come to by the means with which we arrive. In a mode, we only know in retrospect the significance of the means that we have employed by the ends that cast light back upon them. Two types of expression have emerged which are based on a priori definition: modal ethos and associative tonality. Modal ethos was a system of assigning expressive meanings to different modes.^ Modal ethos is structural. Modes are defined by distinct sets of intervals within a scale, and thus modes are easily distinguishable by those pitch relationships. Associative tonality assigns expressive meanings to specific keys. Associative tonality is not structural. Without the ’ This statement is theoretical. In practice, composers often chose melodic motives which were derived from important notes within the mode, thus telegraphing which final to expect. ^ The process of articulating resolution from outside the system became more pronounced in late renaissance music where finals were often stabilized with major triads that included notes outside the scale. Hence a Phrygian composition could easily end with an E major triad incorporating a note (G#), which would not have been part of the discourse of the composition. ^ Specific examples will be given throughout the text of the following chapters. The important point here is that Modal Ethos is associated with structure, and therefore can maintain it's integrity in a variety of compositional contexts which do not necessarily appear to be modal on the surface.

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possession of absolute pitch it can be difficult to hear the differences between keys. Since all keys have the same structure, associations can be difficult to hear absent some mechanism for specifying the association. Associative tonality is often invoked to describe passages that modulate outside the limited circle of diatonic keys.'* As we shall see in Chapter 2 below, allowing Modal structure in key relationships may, in some contexts, obviate the need for associative tonality as an explanatory tool. Much energy has been expended in attempts to prove or disprove the existence of associative tonality.^ The simple answer is that it does exist in cases where composers have used it as part of their compositional process. Key associations are not universally agreed upon.® The same key may be attached to different meanings in different pieces, and some composers do not use fixed key associations at all. Most famously in Wagner s description of his poetic-musical [jeriod. Wagner tied modulation to textual elements in a structural fashion reminiscent of modes. According to his theories, modulation to contrasting keys was based on the expressive relationships between the varying keys. For example, Budden denies the importance of associative tonality in Verdi, since Verdi allowed his arias to be transposed. Budden, Julian The Operas of Verdi, rev. ed.d Voi. 2, From II Trovatore to La Forza del Destino, Oxford: Clarendon, 1992, p. 144. Lawton, however, counters this by referring to published scores which he claims show a planned relationship between tonality and drama, Lawton, David, ‘Tonality and Drama in Verdi's Early Operas” (Ph.D. Dissertation, University of California Berkeley, 1973), p. ix. Easely cites this conflict as one of the issues to be explored in his thesis. Easley, David Bradley, ‘Tonality and Drama in Verdi's La Traviata" (M.A. Thesis, Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, 2003.) See Steblin, Rita, A History of Key Characteristics in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries, 2'^ rev. Ed., Rochester, University of Rochester Press, 2002.

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Lack of consistency across different pieces or different composers is of little significance in the consideration of any specific piece. If key associations exist within a specific composition, then analysis of that composition is incomplete without reference to that specific compositional tool.’' The research undertaken here will demonstrate that modal ethos and associative tonality can exist simultaneously in the same composition without contradiction or interference. The vocabulary of means for musical expression includes the following hierarchically ordered elements: Mode/Modal Ethos Tonal mechanics Associative tonality Motives and other musical material in a specific composition. where Mode and modal ethos are structural elements, tonal Mechanics are processes, and associative tonality and musical materials are manipulated within those structures by those processes. Musical materials are capable of interactions within the stractures and processes defined by tonal and modal elements that contain them. In the examples studied it will be seen that evidence drawn from this approach throws light on some unresolved issues of historical scholarship. No claim is made for the universal applicability of this approach. Rather it is suggested that analytical tools need to conform to compositional process in order to achieve a ’ Key asscx:iations can often be determined by reference to texts in vocal works, for example.

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meaningful and insightful result. If music is a language, any great piece of music is a work of poetry. As such, it needs to be analyzed on its own terms. Mere grammatical deconstructions, meant to prove the validity of a tool with a predetermined outcome, will not throw light upon the compositional structure or expression, or inform performance and reception. Definitions Modal practice is an exceedingly complex topic, as it encompasses a millennium of evolving practices in western music. For the purpose of this study, we begin with a simple model of church modes as defined below. Modes are defined by three elements: range, reciting tone and final. Originally, there were eight modes. For ease of reference, we will use the Greek names later associated with them rather than the numbers assigned by Boethius® as shown in Table 1.1. The reason for this choice is that usage of modes in tonal music is nothing like its usage in medieval or renaissance music. Use of the older system of nanung modes would imply a t)^e of connection which does not exist. In addition to the 'original' eight church modes listed in the Table, we will make reference to major, minor and locrian modes in the course of this study.

At the same time, we will not alter citations of renaissance theorists who refer to modes with numbers.

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Table 1.1 Number Name®

Range Reciting Final

I Dorian

D-D

A

D

n

A-A

F

D

E-E

C

E

IV Hypophrygian

B-B

A

E

V Lydian

F-F

C

F

VI Hypolydian

C-C

A

F

vn

G-G

D

G

D-D

C

G

Tone

Hypodorian

m Phrygian

Mixolydian

vm Hypomixolydian

Table 1.1. Definition of modes used in this study. Range becomes somewhat irrelevant once part music extends the compass of a composition through soprano and bass ranges, but range does maintain its integrity in purely melodic writing and in definition of melodic material, as we ’ We will use hypo- in the same way we use piagai, to indicate the even numbered modes, e.g. hypodorian and piagai dorian are the same mode for the purposes of this study.

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shall see. Reciting tone is a different matter. As originally defined, it had to do with melodic activity - the note on which extended passages of text would be chanted. Our study will show that it has some use in terms of describing a primary area of modulation within a composition. In some modes this distinction is significant. For example,- in the case of Piagai Lydian mode we are more likely to see modulation to the mediant than to the dominant. Table 1.1 above represents an extreme simplification of developments that went on for some centuries. However, it is a useful starting point for the purposes of this study. The complexity of late renaissance modal practice disappears as modes recede into the tonal background. We proceed with a basic concept of mode as generally (even if superficially) understood. This approäch is confirmed by the usage that tonal composers made of modal references. For example: in the Lydian chorale variations in Beethoven's Heilige Dankgesang there is not one Bt, even though that note was readily available in even the earliest examples of Lydian mode. Problems Addressed Before beginning our discussion, it must be acknowledged that the issue of modal ethos is a thorny one. Over the centuries, from ancient Greek times through the medieval and renaissance periods of music, a wide variety of characteristics became associated with each of the modes, some of them contradictory. Indeed, ancient Greek modes have little in common with the traditional western European church modes, either structurally or in their musical usage.

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There are three responses to the dilemma of which assignations of ethos are meaningful and which aren't. First, homonyms exist everywhere, and generally do not confuse when encountered in context. No native English speaker would confuse “sail” and “sale” even though they have the same sound. Nor would the same speakers miss the significance of the zeugmatic activity that can only be described as “garage-sailing” based on that homonym.'“ Context, often in the form of text or stories or stage directions etc., usually clarifies the intentions of the composer. A second response to the dilemma is that the very act of subsuming modal practice into tonal processes delimits the expressions accessible to modal ethos. For example, locrian mode has its final on the leading tone of a major scale. Its expression would then tend to signify an action that cannot be carried to completion for some reason or other. An approach which limits ethos to significations consistent with tonal action actually confirms tonal structure and action. A third response acknowledges the history of modal ethos. Originating as a concept in ancient Greek music, it was taken over by Boethius in the middle ages. This led to the problem that mode names in the medieval and renaissance periods were applied to different scale structures, so, on the whole, references to ethos declarations of the ancient Greeks are complicated in modem terms. By the end of the renaissance, a number of theorists had weighed in on the ethos of the particular modes, and their Beethoven uses a similar type of musical zeugma in his Heilige Dankgesang, discussed in Chapter 6 below.

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Statements often seem to contradict one another. These contradictions, however, do not invalidate each other any more than homonyms invalidate one another. In fact a case can be made that all of them can be true and at the same time be based on structural elements of the modal scale. Let us consider the example of Lydian mode. Here are four assignations of ethos to Lydian.” Lydian sharpens the wit of the dull and moves the mind from earthly to heavenly desires. Lydian, the fifth mode, is by nature hard, harsh, strong, severe, bitter, [and] threatening.... Hard threatening words are suitable for this mode, partly mixed with laments. The fifth tone is by nature very suitable for use in songs of thanksgiving, and is particularly pleasurable to sing. It is suited for hilarity, cheerfulness, and gentler and milder affects... Though these descriptions may seem at odds with one The first statement comes from Andreas Ornithoparchus,_A/aitce active micrologus. (1517), cited in Whitwell. D. “Essays on the Origins of Western Music, nr. 114; On the ló*^ Century German Music Treatises”, p. 4, accessed at www.whitwellessavs.com/docs/DOC 5finrirv- Thè o^er statements of ethos can be found in Smith, A. The Performance of I6r Century Music, New York, Oxford University Press, 2011. A number of early theorists descriptions of modal ethos are given in the appendix. The Lydian quotes come from pp. 197, 198 and 193 respectively: Herbst, Musica Poètica, siye Comperulium Melo-poëticum, Nuremberg, 1643, p. 197; Sweelinck, Über die acht, respektive zwölf Tonarten. \1^ Century, p.l98; and Finck {Practica «u/jica,Wittenberg, 1556).

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another, they can all be explained in terms of tonal structure. If attention is drawn to the augmented fourth above the final, Lydian may well become harsh, even threatening. If the augmented fourth, B, is altered with a flat sign to a perfect fourth, the mode can sound more cheerful and milder in its effect.'^ The first and third statements above of Lydian ethos are similar and both point towards a 'higher' purpose or entity in terms of thanksgiving and heavenly desires. Lydian is, in fact, the lowest of the modes. It is built on the bottom note of the Pythagorean scale as derived from a rising circle of fifths. In addition, it is the mode in which the other six notes of the scale are highest above the final, with major 2,3,6,7, augmented 4 and perfect 5. Thus everything is literally as far 'above' the final as is possible in a diatonic scale. Thus, the attention is called above the final more in Lydian than in any other mode.‘^ Even so, it would appear that the first and second statements above concerning affect are based on divergent characteristics and therefore contradict one another. The augmented fourth, B, can sound harsh and threatening when pushed against the final, or it can draw the mind from earthly to heavenly desires if it leads upwards towards the dominant. I do not assert that the reasons given here explain the differences between the declared statements of ethos in terms of historical usage. I merely observe that the same element when viewed from different angles may present different aspects without contradiction. To use a geometrical analogy, a cylinder when viewed from one angle may present itself to appear as a circle, but when rotated by ninety degrees and viewed from that angle it will have the appearance of a rectangle, for example. This is an important point to specify in terms of understanding Beethoven’s Heilige Dankgesang which we will consider in Chapter 6.

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The situation is no different in tonal music. Generalizations are often made about the mood contrast between major and minor, e.g. major is 'happy', 'triumphant' 'strong' etc., while minor is sad' and even 'pathetic'. One can point to transformations from minor to major in Beethoven's fifth and ninth symphonies as examples of the former and-to the Pathétique sonata and Pathétique symphony of Beethoven and Tchaikovsky respectively as specific examples of the latter. However all this falls apart when we consider something like the aria “Vesti la giubba” from I Pagliacci. The intensely powerful minor aria is followed by a major postlude of extreme pathos. Generalizations are just that: generalizations. There can always be exceptions, especially in the arts, where creativity rather than rote repetition is the norm. The augmented fourth of Lydian can be pushed against the final and create a harsh effect, or it can point towards the dominant and create and effect of lifting the mind to a higher plane. There is no contradiction, only a series of metaphors for possible tonal actions which, when they are imprinted upon musical material, may behave in a variety of ways. It can be argued that assignment of modal ethos cherry picks from the many possibilities those that are in support of the desired end. This is a valid observation. It is, however, not necessarily a criticism. In the cases where texts are associated with compositions, the composer has given a context from which to choose. In the few cases that we shall examine where texts are not associated with the compositions, other contexts of purely musical action may clarify intended expressions. 18

That different authors have attributed different significations to different modes can be falsely used to claim there is no significance to modal ethos as an expressive tool. For example, Palisca writes There was not enough consistency in these received analogies to guide a composer firmly. Moreover, the modes as practiced in polyphonic composition lacked sharp affectivé profiles. The differences between them that could be exploited were mostly too subtle to be detected by even intelligent and musical listeners. Besides, as the theorists sometimes admitted, a good composer could twist any mode to serve any purpose... Mode ethos was a humanistic vogue that came and passed fairly quickly in the second half of the sixteenth century. The extremely text-sensitive polyphonic style that it served passed with it. The very humanist movement that made mode ethos fashionable dealt it a fatal blow by invalidating the classically inspired associations, thus depriving it of authority and leaving the field open to a variety of mode-ethos coordinates in an untidy grid of associations. Several unreasonable conclusions have been drawn here. Beginning with the final sentence, the charge of an “untidy grid of associations” really has no meaning, other than to Essays in Musicology: a tribute to Alvin Johnson Lewis Lockwood and Edward Roesner eds., American Musicological Society, 1990 p. 138.

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demonize what are essentially homonyms. The fact that a single mode might have a large number of associations under the label of its ethos in no way limits the validity of each expression. Indeed, a good composer could “twist any mode to serve any purpose”, but that very twisting becomes the point at which a great composer transcends the rather-prosaic flatness of the dictionary and enters into the realm of poetry. The contention that “There was not enough consistency in these received analogies to guide a composer firmly” also seems strange. We do not expect that sort of guidance from very much of that which we leam in the study of music, else every music student would be a “firmly guided” accomplished composer. The motive behind Palisca's contention that “The differences between modes...were too subtle to be detected” is difficult to grasp. Modes are structural elements of music and can be heard with some familiarity. How can this statement be made about how music was heard five centuries ago? In any case, it is not entirely clear that his contention matters if the use of modal ethos was part of the compositional process. No analysis or performance is meaningful without grasping this aspect of the composition and emphasizing it in performance. From a larger perspective, Palisca's main point, that modal ethos was abandoned, will be shown to be inaccurate based on the works to be studied here.‘^ Though it certainly was not taken over literally from generation to generation of This study will not focus on all attributed significations of all modes. Musical analysis will be carried out to the point of defining mode and those associations which are consistent with the expression of the composition under consideration will be taken into account. The larger project would exceed the possibilities of a single monograph.

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composers, it persisted in a streamlined version throughout the evolving tonal period. This will be demonstrated both on the basis of textual associations and the action of musical material within compositions. Outline of the Following Study The method of combining modal structures with tonal processes is elucidated in Chapter 2, where we consider two modal Bach chorales. Using identical analytical methods, we then proceed to analyze several pieces in detail, including Debussy's Syrinx, Bach's D minor Toccata and Fugue BWV 565, and Mahler's Adagietto. The Debussy and Mahler compositions come with ready made stories handed down by the composers; stories that give some hint as to what was intended to be expressed. We find that the analytical approach supports the associated stories. Though the Bach Toccata has not come down with a story directly attached, through consideration of Bach's use of tonal association and the doctrine of modal ethos, it is possible to construct a story for this piece that is consistent with stories that elucidate other works by Bach. In so doing, an argument is made for the authenticity of BWV 565 as a composition by Bach, countering arguments to the contrary which have arisen over the past half century. Following the three extended analyses, several compositions by other composers will be examined in somewhat less detail. Having established the method, it will not be necessary to go into extended discussions in order to recognize and justify the techniques in use. Works by Mozart, Beethoven, Schumann, Brahms, Massenet and, once

21

again, Bach will be examined to demonstrate examples of Locrian, Lydian, Mixolydian and Phrygian modes. Most of these pieces will have texts associated with them. The Brahms Violin Concerto, which we will examine, has no textual associations. However, the musical action is so clear, and the associative tonal references and modal ethos- are so well coordinated, that it will be possible to make specific statements about the expression of the piece based solely on musical relationships. In a final chapter, we speculate about methods for preserving modal reference in post tonal compositional styles. Conclusion That which we demonstrate in this work is not universally applicable to every composition. Not all music can be, or needs to be, explained in these terms. However, the compositional method uncovered here is persistent enough to warrant discussion as an expressive technique in and of itself. In the process of this study, it becomes evident that some significant fraction of what was formerly considered to be advanced forms of chromaticism may in reality have been derived from regressive methods sourced in the distant past. In fact, the whole issue of any relationship between 'chromaticism' and 'advanced' may need to be reconsidered.*®

The present work profits from consideration of the scores referenced in each of the chapters. Given the extreme length of some of the compositions, and the widespread availability of these works on line, we have not incliided them in this work in the hopes that those resources will be exploited by the reader.

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Ch a pt e r 2 Ba c h 's Me t h o d o f In t e g r a t i n g Mo d e a n d To n a l it y THROUGH Mo d u l a t i o n “Wenn ich einmal soll scheiden” Example 2.1 below reproduces the musical part of the final chorale, no. 72, from Bach's St. Matthew Passion. It is simplified in that the first four measure repeat is omitted, as this is only required by the text. Slurs are also omitted, since they are associated with text and not with musical stmcture. A Roman numeral harmonic analysis is included.’’ This chorale is based on the tune “Herzlich tut mich verlangen”, which text was written over a pre-existing modal melody.'* The chorale is presented several times in the St. Matthew Passion in harmonizations both tonal and modal. There is little controversy over the fact that this particular harmonization is 'modal' and that the tune itself is modal. The purpose of considering this tune here is to determine exactly how it is modal and where that modality shows up in analysis.

’’ We are considering this example solely to examine musical technique. Further analyses will not discount texts. ** The original is a song by Leo Kassier (1564-1612) “Mein G'muth ist mir gewirret” ('my peace of mind is shattered', apparently by a woman.) One can only wonder at how the image of the wounded savior, sanctified by a song celebrating adolescent angst, invites his followers to take up the cross themselves. Superficially, the association makes failure not merely not an option, but not even a possibility. However, the ethos of the tune in hypophrygian includes variously: grave and quiet, restful and tranquil, melancholic and plaintive, serious and lamenting, which broadly conceived suits both situations. A similar topic to Hassler's is treated by Schumann with reference to the same mode as we shall document later.

23

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av Ï= a good deal of J.S. Bach's output is indeed unlike anything else, even in his own music.... > there is in the D minor toccata...a general tunefulness of material very difficult if not impossible to credit with any certainty to any other composer.... I do not know how to dismiss these arguments. With this admission he renders his argument moot. Analysis below will demonstrate how the tonal processes and structure of the composition create the effect that he must Jones, D. R, The Creative Development of Johann Sebastian Bach, Oxford and New YorkrOxford University Press, 2007. p. 160. BWV 564 is dated between 1710 and 1717. Butt, J., ed.. The Cambridge Companion to Bach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997. p. 78. Wolff, Christoph, Johann Sebastian Bach The Learned Musician, Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2001. p. 170. The Italian concerto transcriptions are dated in the period 1713-1714. Williams, 1981, p. 334

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acknowledge but cannot explain, and how they mirror compositional gestures in Bach's other works.. Bach was exposed to Italian concertos and used them early in his career, around the time BWV 565 may have been composed. Bach was not a monolithic composer with a limited number of techniques (as Williams acknowledges), but rather often created instrumental effects in imitation of different instruments or styles. There is simply no reason to discount the opening in octaves. Williams brings up several other purely musical issues, which will be answered by a deeper musical analysis; > The use of diminished seventh chords in the Toccata > The nature of the counter subject relying on mostly parallel thirds and sixths > Extensive unison passages > The fugue subject appearing as a pedal solo ) The piagai cadence at the end of the piece resolving to a minor tonic > The formal strategy does not rule out other composers. Due to the different types of musical issues involved in addressing these points, I will treat them out of order. Some of these points are easily refuted, whüe others are answered by consideration of deep structural relationships between surface material and tonal structure of the composition. On the other hand, any analysis necessary to confirm Mr. William’s (and others’) assertions on these points is lacking in all cases.

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Let us begin with the observation, echoed by many others, of the simple nature of the counter subject, which is for the most part a series of parallel thirds and sixths with little independent counterpoint. Such parallel writing is not at all uncharacteristic of Bach, and the D major Fugue BWV 532 contains an 18 measure passage which is nothing but parallel thirds and sixths (mm. 103-120) interspersed with a few measures of solo pedal passages playing the first measure of the subject. On purely statistical grounds, the D major fiigue should be much more questionable: some 38 of its 137 measures devolve to unison, parallel 3rds, or measures in which the pedal plays the head of the subject solo. This statistic does not even take into account the counter subject itself, which devolves to nothing more than a rather slow and uninspired descending scale in a two beat pattern in parallel sixths with the repetitions of the motive in the subject. If Bach does it in BWY 532, there is no reason for Bach not to have done it in BWV 565. The appearance of the subject head as a pedal solo seven times in BWV 532 (mm. 20, 46, 52, 79, 103, 105, 119) should leave us unsurprised by a single two measure statement of the subject as a pedal solo in BWV 565. We can't call BWV 565 into question without calling BWV 532 into question as well.'" This will result in a chain reaction leading to more and more compositions having to be discarded from Bach's output. Dr. Williams' comments on the diminished seventh chords in the toccata demonstrate another example of his careful choice of words: The last movement of the Gamba Sonata BWV 1028 also resorts to numerous passages in unadorned parallel sixths.

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The very simplicity of the diminished 7* is not characteristic of Bach's period. Sometimes, of course, diminished 7ths do resolve that way in recitatives, but no good recitative composer - and all the best composers of their period are uniquely gifted recitative writers (Monteverdi, Purcell, Handel, J.^SrBach, Mozart, Wagner...) would ever have depended largely on diminished 7ths in the same key as in the case with the D minor toccata. Note that it is the very naivety of them that is anachronistic, not the effect itself. This claim is simply false. One finds the same resolution three times consecutively in the crucifixion narrative, no. 73 from the St. Matthew Passion under the text !‘...auf, und standen auf viel Leiber der Heiligen die da schliefen; und gingen aus den Gräbern nach seiner Auferstehung”. (tr.: ...open, and arose many bodies of the prophets who slept there; and went out of the Graves to their resurrection.) shown in Example 4-1. There is more to this issue that will be considered later in light of a more thorough analysis of the entire composition. But once more, if Bach can do it there, he can do it here. If Bach can write his tonally static Canzona in 1705, he can do the same some ten years later. If Bach can resolve the same diminished seventh chord to its tonic three times in six measures in the St. Matthew Passion in 1827, then he can do the same resolution twice in 8 measures here.

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Example 7-4. Interruptions to Pedrillo's Romanza. a. Belmonte interrupts the interlude between verses 2 and 3 demanding “make an end, Pedrillo”. b. Pedrillo breaks off singing to cough.

Example 7-5. Tonal action in Pedrillo's Romanza. 153

The lack of a clear logical close to the piece is problematic. Indeed, Mann writes'®® Nor can I specify the tonality since it veers between B minor, D major and F sharp major, with switches into A major, C major and G major. The melody inclines to a Phrygian mode on B which explains the choice of [JI and i,Vn and postulates the other keys as dominants. It is very difficult to hear D as a tonic. The D that ends (but does not close) the piece is a transient key, part of a prelude/interlude that modulates from the opening F# major chord leading sequentially back to the F# cadence. (Example 7-5). However, the assignment of keys to F# major and C major are not supported by a close analysis of the melodic and harmonic action. The piece does begin on an F# major chord, but in the key of B minor. There is no dominant or scalar action to define C major as a key, rather it appears only as a subdominant to the key of G major. Therefore, the assignment of B phrygian as a tonality of the song is also in error. Phrygian mode on B would require reciting tones/modulation to E and G. The tonal structure emphasizing F#, B and D does not fit that model. Rather there are a number of reasons to consider the Tonality as being F# locrian. The song has two strong cadences on F# minor. The melody in relation to F# is strongly locrian with emphasis on C natural, and locrian mode on F# uses D and B as it's reciting tones.'®' Phrygian mode on F# would also use '®® Mann, William S., The Operas of Mozart, New York, Oxford University Press, 1977. p. 315. '®' Rockstro, William Smyth, “Locrian Mode”, in A Dictionary of Music

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D and B as its reciting tones. However, the strongly emphasized C major chord a diminished fifth above the strong cadential F#, and the expression of the song: Pedrillo's inability to bring the matter to completion are more consistent with locrian than with phrygian ethos. The tonal action includes two leaps up a fourth (F# - B and A - D) and three melodic descents of a fourth leading to cadences (D - A, C - G, B - F#). Considering the first leap up a fourth to B, the overall structure is from B minor down to F# Major. The diversion to D major merely sets up the starting point for the descent to A major. Therefore we have F# - B followed by D-A, C-G, B-F#. The verse is an ornamented return to F# from B, and F# is the tonality of the Romanza by any normal consideration of form in relation to harmonic action. The D major interruption (“Finish it!”) and the D major interruption of the song (Pedrillo coughing) are not final. They are presented as interruptions in both cases. The irony is that D major is the heroic key, and had been since before it was even a key. We have already heard that dorian mode represented the sun, and it was generally associated with heroism. Pedrillo's heroism manifests itself as inability to finish singing because he has to cough. Tme enough to locrian logic, what Pedrillo intends to do is left undone. His singing has no effect. His cough, however, is very effective and manages to attract the women's attention. The world responds not to his heroism, but to his incompetence. Having understood that the musical action begins and ends and Musicians (A.D. 1450-1880), vol. 2, George Grove, ed., London, Macmillan and Co., 1880. p. 158.

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with F#, we have to confront the fact that this F# is locrian. The actual melodic cadence uses the locrian scale (see measures 14 and 18 of Example 3). The tonics visited in the Romanza are also locrian derived: F#, B, A, and G.'“ The C major chord associated with the key of G Major is also a locrian artifact. There are a number of comic elements in this particular number. It occurs immediately after Belmonte's big aria “Ich baue ganz”, which is a heroic feat for any tenor anywhere just to get through. Pedrillo's Romanza ends a half step lower (a locrian relationship to Belmonte's Ej,). Even Pedrillo's pseudo heroic D is unresolved. The limited range, the interruption and exhortation to end on D (an exhortation to be an ironically unheroic heroic), and the cough, all point to Pedrillo's incompetence. The last thing Pedrillo says before he sings the Romanza is also telling: Es ist doch um die Herzhaftigkeit eine erzlappische Sache. Wer keine hat, schafft sich mit aller Muhe keine an! Was mein Herz schlagt! Mein Papa muss ein Erzpoltron gewesen sein . (tr. Courage is a foolish thing. He who has none cannot make any with all his effort! How my heart beats! My father must have been a great coward.)

And so, Mozart has, with the complete emasculation of D major, with the' unresolvable locrian, with the constant interruptions, and with the inability to even bring the song to "“Strictly speaking, the key of A should be minor and not major, but already by the time of Mozart modal borrowing is altering background keys.

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a final cadence, given us the direct experience of Pedrillo's impotence. As with Bach and the other examples we have considered, the tonal structure itself is a metaphor for the character's psyche. In this particular instance, the use of a locrian tonal structure expresses Pedrillo's inability to achieve his ends.

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Ch a pt e r s Sc h u m a n n 's Di c h t e r u e b e : Fl o w e r s t h a t Bl o o m i n t h e Spr i n g

Schumann’s Dichterliebe is one of the composer's most successful compositions. It has been the subject of an analysis by Komar'®^ that sought to demonstrate that the composition is indeed a song cycle and not just a collection of independent pieces. His analysis uses Schenkerian methods. He acknowledges the limitations of this approach:*^ Schenker provided a theory of tonal music according to which the basic harmonic melodic progression (Ursatz) of a piece controls' the entire piece. But he applied this theory to individual movements rather than to entire cyclical works. Shortly thereafter he observes: But a quick glance at the wide range of keys of the sixteen Dichterliebe songs - there are nine keys irrespective of modal changes - and in particular at the different keys of the outer songs (A major and C# minor), will reveal the lack of an obvious single key controlling the entire work. His findings point to some interesting pitch relafionships that are carried from song to song, however they do not lead to a Schumann Dichterliebe: An Authoritative Score, Historical Background, Essays in Analysis, Views and Comments, Komar, Arthur, Ed. W. W. Norton and Company, New York and London, 1971. pp. 6394. ibid. p. 65.

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a coherent description of the entire cycle. No large structure can be created without first laying a foundation. In contrast to his bottom-up approach, we will consider the song cycle from a top-down perspective. Our cursory examination will begin by correcting Komar's assertion that the opening song is in A major. By this point in our study, when we consider the poem to the first song of Dichterliebe a big phrygian bell should be echoing in our minds: Im wunderschonen Monat Mai als alle Knospen sprangen da ist in meinem Herzen die Liebe aufgegangen Im wunderschonen Monat Mai als alle Vogel sangen da hab ich ihr gestanden mein Sehnen und Verlangen (tr. In the beautiful month of May, as all the buds blossmed, love arose in my heart In the beautiful month of May, as all the birds sang, I confessed to her my longing and desire.)

A reduction of the first song is presented in example 8-1. In response to this poem, Schumann has composed a piece that has all the earmarks of a Phrygian tonal structure. The initial For another point of view, Sams asserts the opening song is in “F# minor, as required by the key-sequence of the cycle as a whole.” Sams, Eric, The Songs of Robert Schumann, London, Methuen, 1969. p. 109.

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note and Final chord are both C#, the area of principal modulation is A, the reciting tone for plagal phrygian, and the final chord is actu^ly a dominant seventh chord of F#, the reciting tone for hypophrygian. The topic reflects Boethius' story of inflamed passions, which is one of the bases of Phrygian ethos.

Example 8-1. Reduction of the first song in Schumann's Dichterliebe. The repeat sign is not Schumann's and glosses over some rhythmic differences between verses. The text is discussed separately. SeeChapterS, p. 61.

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There are cogent reasons to hear this movement as being in Phrygian rather than in F# minor or A major. We have already referenced the poetry, but' the note C# itself is characterized by a treatment which magnifies the basic characteristics of phrygian. Phrygian is the highest of the traditional modes. That is, it is built on the highest note in the modal scale as generated by a rising circle of fifths: F-C-G-' D-A-E.'®’ The note C#, on the other hand, is the highest note in the circle of fifths, so that now the expression is that of the highest mode on the highest note. Musically, this precarious height is amplified by the way the note C# is treated in the piece. It is subjected to a constant downward pressure by repeated dissonances that weigh upon it. The opening C# is immediately answered by a D in the bass, which forces it down by step. The first cadence in a key (m. 6) is in the key of A major, which forces C# down a third. The closing chord is a dominant seventh chord of F# minor, which implies resolution of the C# down by fifth. Though that resolution to F# never happens, it is the downward pressure on the note C#, rather than the key, that is the point of the song. The C# Phrygian tonality of the opening song (as distinct from F# minor and A major, local keys within the piece) is central to the musical expression of the poem. We hear a young man whose passions have been inflamed beyond a level where they can be sustained, and which are teetering on the verge of collapse. The seventh note of the scale was mutable, either B or Bj,, and was therefore not considered to be useful as a final for the original church modes. In this key signature the sequence is D-A-E-B-F#-C#.

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Once the modal source of the first song is understood, the cycle is supported by two foundations:'®® Song 1 Song 16 C# Phrygian - C# minor - Di, major The three points of attack upon C# in the first song are the note D, the key of f# and the key of A. This arpeggiated structural D major assault on C# presents the lowered second scale degree as the tonal issue that destabilizes C#. Rectification of this tonal problem requires substitution of D# for D in order to lead to a more stable C# minor, and ultimately the final Dt major which closes the cycle. Looking at the keys to the songs in the cycle we see an obvious two part symmetry: C# Phrygian A D G be C adgE(,Bi,ei,BE c#/Di, From this enumeration, we notice that the order of tonics in songs 2 - 6 is matched by the order of tonics in songs 8-10 and 14 - 15. The modes of the respective keys, however, are exchanged, major for minor and minor for major. There are two anomalies in the second line above. The first is the substitution of C in song seven for C# in song one. One need not look too deeply to grasp the significance of this. C as leading tone of C# represents the poet's refusal to act: “Ich grolle nicht (tr. / won't growl). In terms of the text, the poet's assertion is belied by everything else he says in the song. The C is a lie, just as the text of the song denies itself. The C is A model of this type of transformation already existed in Beethoven's

Heilige Dankgesang as discussed in Chapter 6.

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alsp a symptom of the half step collapse characterizing the following major to minor transformations of the keys A, D and G to a, d and g. This half step collapse is followed shortly by the collapse of Ej, major into Ej, minor. We shall explore this from another angle below. The larger anomaly in the second half of the cycle is the trio of songs 11-13. There is no analog for them in the keys in the upper line. These three songs are, however, key to the resolution of the tonal problem that rendered C# phrygian so unstable. Substitution of Ej, for D as a structural scale tone begins with the transformation of G major to g minor. E[, then emerges out of the key of g minor as the tonality of the three-song group based on tonic and dominant of Et.*” The song in ej, minor represents the emotional low point of the work as the poet cries in his dreams and awakens only to continue crying. The key of ej, minor is literally at the bottom of the circle of fifths, as far removed as possible from the unstable elevated C# of the first song. It is out of the e(, minor that the reverse transformation of b and e minors to B and E majors proceeds. In this section the pitch D is replaced by D#. Substitution of D# for D prepares the path to the ultimate disposition of the unhappy love affair in c# minor, and finally to psychological peace of the D], major postlude. The sequence of keys contains another higher level motive: descent by half step between songs. For the moment we will discount the first, seventh aiid sixteenth songs in C#, C and Even more emphatically, Schumann emphasizes the importance of these three songs in creating resolution by drawing the music for the Di, • major postlude to song 16 from the piano postlude to song 12.

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C#/Di„ respectively. Considering the remaining songs in order A - D removes one sharp D - G removes one sharp G - b is characterized by lowering the tonic G a half step b - e removes one sharp e - a removes one sharp a - d adds one flat d - g adds one flat g - E|, adds one flat E[, - Bt- et prolongs E(,and emphasizes the majorminor transition of e|,. ej, - B adds one flat (on the piano B = Q,) B - E removes one sharp Supporting this structure are the three pillars of C# phrygian, C major and c#/Di„ which represent respectively the entrance into the affair, the turning point from good to bad, and the exit from the affair.'™ The descending and ascending half steps between these three keys provide. an architectural marker to the different stages of the poet’s experience. As a musical element of supreme irony, the phrygian scale and the major scale are inversions of one another. The sequence of rising whole steps and half steps in a major scale is mirrored It is an interesting exercise to play the tonic chords of the sixteen songs in order. Doing so clarifies just how much the tonality of the opening and closing songs stands outside the tonal action of the song cycle. This activity demonstrates how, in some profound sense, Schumann has created a love story which is unhappy, but which ultimately does not have a permanent deleterious effect upon the poet. Unlike a very large fraction of romantic heroes, Schumann's poet is able to restore the rift in his soul.

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in the sequence of descending whole steps and half steps in the Phrygian scale. The poet actually begins the cycle with his world turned upside down, and the love affair proceeds by “falling” until he reaches an absolute bottom in ej, minor, from which position he is able to right himself. Examining the sequence of keys in closer detail yields even further insight into the emotional narrative, as adjacent keys create locally evolving tonalities: Keys of individual songs: C#ADGbeCadgE|,B|,ei,B E c#/D(, C#----------------C—7-----------c—Et/ei, —c#----------- D|, Phrygian - locrian

Evolving Tonality of key sequence The keys of the opening three songs maintain the tonality of C# Phrygian projected in the first song. The fourth song introduces the key of G, which no longer relates to a C# Phrygian tonality. The relation of G to C# is that of a locrian mode: it is as if the phrygian mode has modulated up a fifth to the locrian mode, and become even more unstable. The following keys, G b e C a d, are all organized around the tonality of C major, which is the central pillar of the cycle. With the sequence of g, Ej,, B|„ the tonality evolves to C minor. The final sequence of keys, et, B, E, C# derive from the tonality of c# minor. There is a clear narrative here. The unstable C# phrygian, of the opening song is rendered even more unstable by the locrian implication of the key of G major. G alters the tonality of the key sequence, and pushes the local tonality down to C major, where transformation of the poet's mindset 166

from positive to negative takes place. Having attached the descending half-step to negative emotional content, we see that same process continuing with the transformation from C major to c minor over songs 7-12, and the further transformation of the Ej, tonal reference to e\, minor in songs 11 - 13. The latter transformation pivots back to the key of c#, where the entire experience is buried. Finally, freed of the burden of the unhappy experience, the poet is restored to a state of peace with the rising half step E - F characteristic of the transformation from c# - Db. While controversy is sometimes expressed over the use of extended wordless piano postludes in the cycle,*’’ it should be noted that Schumann manages to draw a distinction between resolution (the closure of the affair), and psychological healing. Essentially, Schumann has painted this particular love affair as a temporary descent into madness. The poet can find no words to express the final state of peace and transcendence. Only the musician can achieve this.”’ In the postlude, Schumann brings us to a repose far removed from the turbulent emotions brought on by the love affair.”’ The meaning of the closing piano music is clear in light of Kovar, ibid. p. 11. Hoffman-Axthelm, in his musical-psychlogical study of Schumann, arrives at the same conclusion from a psychological perspective. Hoffman-Axthelm, Dagmar, Robert Schumann: Eine MusikalischPsychologische Studie, Stuttgart, Phillipp Reclam, 2010. pp. 93-100. An interesting thought experiment is to compare Dichterliebe to Berlioz' Symphonic Fantastique and Lelio, which treats more or less the same topic. Neither can be faulted for genius, but the evolving emotional experience seems to be communicated in a much more focused and effective fashion in the smaller work.

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it's derivation from the final lines of song 12 where it first appeared:”sei unserer Schwester nicht hose, du trauriger blaser Mann” {be not angry with our sister, you pale sorrowful man). In the wordless postlude, we are given direct experience of the peace that the poet has achieved upon release of his painful past, and the source of that peace in the forgiveness of the object of his affections. This is perhaps the most difficult part of the cycle for the singer to perform! As cited above, Kovar has remarked that nine of the twelve possible tonics are used in Dichterliebe. We find this to be inaccurate. The three tonics supposedly missing from the cycle are F, F# and Aj,. As it happens, f# is the key of the opening song, even if it is not the tonality of that piece. The expressive use of C# phrygian as the tonality of the opening song, and the architectural function of C#, explain why the tonic of f# cannot achieve closure in that song. The absence of a song in the key of Aj, fulfills the same function; to maintain the phrygian tonality. C# phrygian would have a diminished chord as dominant, and therefore no key is associated with that step of the phrygian scale. By avoiding Aj„ C# is left as phrygian, without a dominant key. The final key that is absent is F. Withholding F from the key sequence is justified by the piano postlude in the final song. The freshness of resolution to Dj, major is explained to a large extent by the absence of the pitch F in the larger tonal structure. Since resolution can only occur after the affair has been buried, a structural F cannot appear prior to that release. Thus the minor-major transformation of the final song opens to a new world. None of Schumann's methods differ from the techniques 168

used by Beethoven in his Heilige Dankgesang, which makes it's effect by transitioning between Dorian, Major and Lydian modes as described in Chapter 6 above. The technique of using modal transformation as an expressive device is merely an extension of the process of the more common transformation of minor to major. Our analysis makes it clear that the key relationships of the cycle must remain static. If one song is transposed, then all songs should be transposed in order to maintain the expressive significance projected by relationships between keys. Comparison of Dichterliebe to Debussy's Syrinx is instructive. Both pieces use phrygian mode, and both pieces end on Dj,. The similarities pretty much end there. While both characters are in the throes of unstably elevated passions, their finals are differentiated by relationship to keys. Pan is a B[, minor character trapped in a phrygian emotional state. In Debussy we experience the profound moment of collapse that occurs as Pan confronts his responsibility for the eternal frustration of his own desire. His collapse in Bj, minor calls on all the references of that key as indicating small, mean, unhappy with itself, etc. In Dichterliebe we follow Schumann's poet as he is dragged down from his inflamed state into a tragic affair which causes him great sorrow. In the course of his evolution he is able to rectify the situation and return to his senses, healed and whole. Thus relation to the key of D), is used to create an entirely different association than that of B[, minor.'’"* While Pan is brought down by his experience, the poet is From which it follows that the key of Syrinx is definitely not Dt.

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finally elevated by his. We can hear this directly. The transformation from Phrygian to Major mode is achieved by raising the second, third, sixth and seventh scale degrees. We hear the downward pressure on the opening C#, we hear the keys falling farther and farther down the circle of fifths till they collapse into six flats, and finally we climb back out to the more balanced natural state of Di, major. Pan's Di, is a dark minor third to his depressed key of Bj, minor. The poet's Di, is elevated above his experience and made whole by having released it. This comparison demonstrates that in tonal music, mode transcends the limitations of tonal practice. In Syrinx, we begin on the final note, but end in the final's key on a different note. In the first song of Dichterliebe, we begin on the final of the mode, and the cycle ends in that key. In Dichterliebe the final note takes 16 songs to achieve it's own key. Technically, this variety of treatments applied to the final represents no evolution over Bach's usages of mode via modulation as outlined in Chapter 2 above. However, it does emphasize the flexibility with which introduction of modal elements may enrich musical expression. Modal ethos functions independently of tonal association, moves freely throughout the different levels of the tonal hierarchy, and adds a separate layer of signification to musical expression.’’^

’’’ There is very much more to be said about this song cycle and its masterfiil intertwining of text and music. Consistent with the goals of this study, this chapter is limited to consideration of only one aspect of that relationship: how modality ignites the musical action and how it creates expression through tonal structure.

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Ch a pt e r 9 Ma s s e n e t 's Ps e u d o Ph r y g ia n Me d it a t io n

Massenet’s Meditation from Thais is a popular and important piece for solo violin. Unfortunately, it is rarely, if ever, heard in anything resembling its origin^ intended expressive context. We shall consider Massenet's very specific directions for the performance of this solo, and investigate their relationships to the tonal structure of the excerpt and the opera, and its intended expression. The heroine of the opera, Thai’s, is a courtesan who has a conversion experience and becomes a saint. The Meditation represents her conversion, and has some very specific imagery in terms of its key relationships. While the piece occurs as a violin solo near the end of the second act of the opera, it returns in the final scene, much elaborated, as a duet between Thais and the monk who was responsible for her conversion. This second appearance clarifies the expressive intent of the original solo instrumental version. The Meditation is performed between the first and second scenes of Act II in the opera.’’® In the first scene of Act II, the monk, Athanael, confronts Thais, arguing for her to abandon her hedonistic and sinful lifestyle and to seek salvation through God. In her silent reflections following their encounter, the Meditation is performed by the orchestra as an interlude. In Scene 3, Thais determines to follow Athanael into the desert, her first words after the Meditation being:

All references are to the revised score of 1898.

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P^re, Dieu m'a parle par ta voix ! (tr: Father, God has spoken through your voice!) Thus, the dramatic function of the Meditation in context is clear: Thai's hears and heeds the call to lead a Christian life. It is during the Meditation that she makes the decision to abandon her hedonistic past. Massenet went to the trouble of writing in fingerings for the solo violin part in the Meditation. Example 9.1 shows his fingerings from the full score. In this passage the melodic line moves up froni E (over an A major chord) to F natural (over a Bi, minor chord) to F# (over a D major chord). Massenet’s fingering for this passage (Example 1) is: 4 (a string) E AM chord

1 (e string) F B[jm chord

3 (a string) F# DM chord

In a cursory review of many performances, no performers were found who used this fingering. lA

a«sy»

Example 9-1. Measures 9-11 of the Meditation from Massenet's Thais. All markings are in the original score.

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Admittedly, this is a very strange fingering, and most certainly not anything that would come first to mind if ease of execution were the sole issue under consideration. On the other hand, lightly dismissing the explicit prescription of a composer capable of creating an opera of the dimension and expressive power of Thais, in favor of an easier fingering, is not really supportable either. Rather, we should seek to understand why that fingering is specified, and what is the expressive intent of the composer in writing it. Fortunately, the Meditation occurs in an opera where context abounds in the form of text, plot and dramatic reprise with specific verbal associations attached to musical events. In the first phrase of the Meditation itself, there is nothing in particular to suggest why this fingering is chosen, however the effect of this fingering is clear: it breaks up the flow of the line as E is diverted from its expected resolution to F#, and as the A major dominant chord is diverted from its expected resolution to the D major tonic chord. While there is no local explanation for the B], minor chord, there is a significant amount of expressive energy spent in flat keys the middle section of the Meditation. The central section of the Meditation modulates to F major. In F major, the melody rises to it's highest pitch up to that point in the piece, (G6), and struggles through to the eventual collapse of the section into F minor. The collapse is brought on by the intrusion of Bi, minor. Hence, the F in measure 10 is clearly a reference to a distinct tonal area rather than a mere passing chromatic tone, and the B[, minor chord is one that causes chaos in the musical development. The melodic F in measure 10 is therefore functionally a key reference and not merely a 173

chromatic passing tone. It is clearly meant to be F natural and it is not meant to be a chromatic passing E#. Furthermore, Massenet chose to emphasize the 'outside' nature of the F natural by a number of devices: a crescendo highlighting the Bj, minor chord and a rallentando to place the event more firmly and persistently in our ears. As the interpolated Bt minor/F natural reference is a diversion or restraint, pulling the musical action away from the expected resolution to D major/F#, even so Massenet’s fingering accentuates this aspect of the line. Performing Massenet's fingering, the F natural emerges with its own distinct color on the E string, divergent from and unrelated to the color of the resolution E-F# on the D string, the main harmonic and melodic action' of the melody. The shift from F natural on the 1®* finger on the E string to F# on the finger on the A string will also take extra time. This may not be noticeable as such, but it cannot be avoided. Finally, the use of the E string for a single note calls the note F to our attention for its brighter, even gaudier, color. Hence the fingering calls attention to and emphasizes the harmonic side step. According to the notation, Massenet's intention is clear and precise. It remains to be determined what meaning is associated with that intention. The expressive nature of this harmonic side step needs to be evaluated. Modem performance practice seems to be to' reduce any such effects and perform instead a seamless Italianate melodic line. The actual effect of Massenet’s notation denies the validity of that approach. At the same time, Massenet’s effect also denies the standard clichds of French music: that it is static, that it is harmonically 174

conceived, that each moment is complete in and of itself and that harmonic progression is often not meaningful. In fact, the progression of A major - B), minor - D major is a progression in every sense of the word. While the movement from A to D is hindered by the retrospective B[, minor chord, the victory over that hindrance and move forward into D is the expressive point of the phrase. The progression cannot be approached as three distinct and static elements. It is the straggle to achieve the redemptive key of D major that is the spiritual victory of the Meditation. This view is supported by consideration of the final scene of the opera: in this scene Athanael repents his conversion of Thai's. He begins to feel that “nothing is true but life and the love of human beings”, and he begs Thais to come back into the world and be his lover. Thais, however, is blissfully unaware of his words and describes the heavens opening and the angels welcoming her into their midst as she dies. This passage begins with a reprise of the Meditation and ends in a D major apotheosis as Thais sees God. The text sung to the Bi, minor chord is the word “mortelle” (Example 9.2). J’ai le seul souvenir de la beaute mortelle (tr.; I have only the memory of thy mortal beauty) In this case, it is clear that Bi, minor is looking backwards in time, towards something that has become increasingly irrelevant in the life of Thais. Her response to Athaniel’s exhortations is to recall to him the moment when his words brought her to the only true love; love of God.

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