A Problem in Organic Form: Schoenberg's Tonal Body

A Problem in Organic Form: Schoenberg's Tonal BodyAuthor(s): Patricia CarpenterSource: Theory and Practice, Vol. 13 (1988), pp. 31-63Published by: Music Theory Society of New York StateStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41054213 .

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A Problem in Organic Form: Schoenberg' s Tonal Body

Patricia Carpenter

When we speak of the "form" of a piece of music, what do we mean? Something about its wholeness - it is complete, lacking no part or member. Something about the relationships of parts and whole. Perhaps something about its unity - its parts are in a condition of harmony or agreement or are so constituted as to produce an undivided total effect. In this paper I will discuss Schoenberg's concept of musical form. He maintains that the wholeness of a work of art is like that of an organism: "The term form is used in several different senses. In an aesthetic sense, form means that a piece is organized; i.e., that it consists of elements functioning like those of a living organism."1 The form of a composition is achieved, he says, because a body exists, and because its members exercise different functions. A musical work is the presentation of a musical idea. Its unity is like that of a thought or image. The form of such a work, according to Schoenberg, articulates it in such a way as to make the idea comprehensible.

Now the concepts of form, and especially organic form, are somewhat out of fashion in today's theoretical world. I believe the mode of thinking underlying the concept of organic form can make Schoenberg's ideas about music difficult to grasp. Here I will briefly discuss these two concepts, form and organic form - first, to bring into focus some of the difficulties they present; secondly, to sketch a background for Schoenberg's concept. I will then turn to an Intermezzo of Brahms as an illustration, attempting to elucidate this piece in the spirit Schoenberg expressed in a letter to Rudolf Kolish:

You have identified the row of my string quartet correctly. It must have taken a great deal of effort, and I do not think I would have had the patience. But do you think that knowing it serves any purpose? I cannot imagine how. I am convinced that for a

composer who knows nothing whatever about using rows there is a stimulus in

learning how he can proceed....But aesthetic qualities are not disclosed in this way, or only incidentally. I cannot caution often enough that this kind of analysis must not

1 Fundamentals of Musical Composition, ed. Gerald Strang with the collaboration of Leonard Stein (London: Faber and Faber, 1967), 1.

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32 CARPENTER

be overestimated, because it leads only to what I have always fought against: to the

knowledge of how something is made, whereas I have always helped people to realize what something is ....For me there can only be an analysis which concentrates on the idea, showing its presentation and development. Of course, one should not overlook artistic refinements in the process.^

In discussing Brahms's Intermezzo, I will demonstrate the presentation and development of a musical idea and the manner in which the formal organization makes this comprehensible.

I: Form

If Schoenberg can be said to have developed a theory, it is first of all a theory of art and the work of art, that is to say, an aesthetic theory. His concept of form is that of aesthetic form, form as it applies to the concrete work of art. This concept underlies his specific technical treatment of musical form.

The term form bears a heavy burden. Perhaps this is why it is so rich. Applied to music, it has special problems. Schoenberg himself emphasizes these: Form, he says, incites the idea that there would be a solid and inflexible body like a mold in which to cast material, in order to produce a positive reproduction of the mold's negative. But in music there is nothing that justifies comparison to a mold. Whoever considers form like a mold in which to cast material, i.e., tones and tone successions, forgets that musical logic requires a different order and organization in every individual case.3

Now if form is such a difficult concept, why use it? Because it is directly relevant to the problem Schoenberg raises. The core of constant meaning in the term might be expressed as a question: What is real and how can we know it? That question has two aspects. One has to do with the unchanging meaning of a thing, that by which we recognize it in the changing flux of experience. The other has to do with the primary being of the thing: it is this thing here. Much of the western tradition of thought has been a search for the permanence of the "thing." Yet a thing is not stable and our knowledge of it, especially, is fleeting. What is capable of independent existence, like a thing, and yet is permanent amidst the flux of appearances? What belongs to the thing, what to the mind that knows? The

2 Berlin, July 27, 1932. Arnold Schoenberg Letters, ed. Erwin Stein, trans. Eithne Wilkins and Ernst Kaiser (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1965), 164. ú Unpublished fragment, Form, in the Archives ot the Arnold bchoenberg institute.

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SCHOENBERG'S TONAL BODY 33

concept of form in its traditional sense mediates this cleavage; it designates the constant in change. Today such notions as "perceptual category" or "invariants under transformation" are sometimes used for this aspect of form. But although we formulate the problem of knowledge differently, it has not essentially changed. Some notion akin to form mediates between the knower and the known.

Form should be understood as a function rather than a mold. As such it is whole-making and sense-making. Our apprehension of the world is of meaningful wholes. Beginning with differentiation out of the undifferentiated, and with similarities and differences, we establish notions of identity. Forming is articulation: joining and separating in order that things may be apprehended. I take this to be the basis of Schoenberg's belief that form in the arts, and especially in music, has to do less with beauty than with comprehensibility.4

Let me try to tease apart some of the difficulties that inhere in this term, in order to arrive at a notion of aesthetic form. First, it is crucial to distinguish, as I have above, between abstract and concrete senses of form - that is, form as similarities that can be abstracted from like but different individuals or form as the unique wholeness of the concrete individual - between a mold, an invariant shape into which different materials are cast, or the resulting individual object. Secondly, form in regard to a whole that evolves in time has its own set of problems: for example, the distinction between process and product; or specific perceptual problems, such as the comprehension of the content of a "moment," or content collected at different levels, or the gathering together of an entire work. Finally, and especially, confusion arises from the fact that form is a correlative term, the "how" versus the "what." Its meaning changes according to what is taken as its correlate - for example, matter, perceptual qualities, or content; the correlate in turn determines the kind of whole - for example, a physical, perceptual, or aesthetic whole.

These pairs of correlatives can be grouped into two large categories. The first takes form as correlative to matter. In this sense it generally means shape or figure: a variety of things differing materially have the same shape. In aesthetic theory, form in this sense generally specifies a similar set of relations organizing different elements. If the whole is a web of elements and relations, we can distinguish large and small elements, or near and far relations. Tovey, for example, distinguishes form and texture according to whether the elements are large or small and identifies form as shape with the large-scale structures effected so well by tonality, in contrast to what he calls the textures of contrapuntal procedures, such as canon.

4 See, for example, "Brahms the Progressive/' Style and Idea, ed. Leonard Stein (New York- St Martin's Press, 1975), 399.

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Immanuel Kant, who was probably the last to use this correlation, said that the conceptions of matter and form lie at the foundation of all other reflection. Matter, he said, denotes the determinable in general, form, its determination:

That which in the phenomenon corresponds to the sensation, I term its matter; that

which effects that the content of the phenomenon can be arranged under certain

relations, I call its form.5

For Kant form is pure order imposed by the mind upon the inchoate sense- data, correlative to the givens of the sensible world - what we would distinguish today as perceptual form.

Applied to a work of art, form is usually taken to be correlative to content. Then it is a vehicle or embodiment - not so much a material or even perceptual shape, but rather the materialized outer shape of an inner content, the sensible manifestation of an idea or meaning, the "outer-ance" of the inner. Form in this sense is not separated or abstracted from the content; rather, it embodies it or makes it manifest. The "what" and "how" are two aspects of the concrete entity.

Ultimately, form as correlative to aesthetic content is concrete: what is sometimes called total form or concrete form. One of the best statements about form in this sense is by the art theorist Conrad Fiedler (1841-95), an important source for modern formalistic theory: Art, he says, owes its essence to the spiritual power of man; therefore it is not the same as nature. The artist does not aim at

pleasure but at the perceptual or visible comprehension of the world. He recreates it in a Gestalt. Man engages in a struggle with nature, not as a physical, but as a mental necessity. The artist is not interested in copying, but in comprehending. Comprehension comes only in shaping. The work of art is an outer manifestation of an inner process. Form, then, is the vehicle for artistic consciousness; consciousness cannot exist without the form and form cannot exist without the consciousness. It is the act by which the mind grasps and masters the visible world.6

Schoenberg's conception of music - that it is not entertainment, but rather the

presentation of a musical poef s or thinker's ideas - echoes Fiedler's view of art.

5 Critique of Pure Reason, Book I, Part I, Paragraph 1. See also Patricia Carpenter, "Musical Form and Musical Idea: Reflections on a Theme of Schoenberg, Hanslick, and Kant/' in Music and Civilization:

Essays in Honor of Paul Henry Lang, ed. E. Strainchamps and M. R. Maniates with C. Hatch (New York: Norton, 1984), 394-427. 6 From On Judging Works of Visual Art, trans. H. Schaefer Simmern and F. Mood (first published, 1876; Berkeley: University of California Press, 1949).

THEORY AND PRACTICE




II: Organic form

I began this paper with Schoenberg's comparison of the form of a piece to that of a living organism. We are well aware of problems of analysis in organic theory: How does one break down a living whole into parts? How can one maintain concreteness during an analytic process of abstraction? But the greatest difficulty is this: if a work is like an organism, the whole is assumed, prior, given. One does not need to prove unity nor demonstrate that a whole is built up from parts or generated from elements or grown from a seed. The whole is there at the beginning, all at once; in Goethe's terms, it is a presentation, Darstellung. In laying out a discursive analysis it is easy to lose track of the priorly given whole. Further, one may be in fundamental disagreement with such a view of the work. But the primacy of the whole is the basic fact upon which Schoenberg's theory rests.

His theory is encapsulated in a passage from his 1941 lecture on "Composition with Twelve Tones":

Alas, human creators, if they be granted a vision, must travel the long path between vision and accomplishment; a hard road where, driven out of paradise, even

geniuses must reap their harvest in the sweat of their brows.

Alas, it is one thing to envision in a creative instant of inspiration and it is another thing to materialize one's vision by painstakingly connecting details until

they fuse into a kind of organism.

Alas, suppose it becomes an organism, a homunculus or a robot, and possesses some of the spontaneity of a vision; it remains yet another thing to organize this form so that it becomes a comprehensible message "to whom it may concern/'7

Schoenberg defines art, as have many others, by contrasting it to science. In an essay entitled "Principles of Construction," a part of his unpublished manuscript on the musical idea, he compares art and science and their differing constructs. Science, he says, must consider all conceivable cases; art confines itself to the characteristic, goal-serving, or otherwise "fitting" case. Science must present each case in the clearest light, whereas art seeks to heighten effect. Science gives facts ordered by common principles; art presents images, in which facts and principles are combined in a free way, so that the sense of what is said can be clearly grasped

7 Style and Idea, 215.

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36 CARPENTER

all at once. In art the construct is not a mechanical one, like a dock, for example, but an image which is like an organism.8

The tradition of organicism is a venerable one and has pervaded our thinking about art. Of the many qualities it has attributed to the artwork, some characterize Schoenberg's concept of form. One is the notion of an essence of the organism that pervades every detail. For example, in an essay on The Relationship to the Text/' written in 1912, Schoenberg speaks of a feeling of guilt when he suddenly realized he did not know the texts of the Schubert songs he so loved. He immediately read them all and found, to his astonishment, that without knowing the texts he had grasped the content. Thence it became clear to me that the work of art is like every other complete organism. It is so homogeneous that in every little detail it reveals its truest, inmost essence. When one cuts into any part of the human body, the same thing always comes out - blood/'9

Now this is one kind of wholeness. Perhaps it comes close to what Schoenberg calls "coherence." But I am interested here in another kind: the organic relation of parts and whole. In this regard there are three points to emphasize:

• First, an artwork that is like an organism has a particular kind of unity: it is a Gestalt - a functional whole, the properties of which cannot be derived from the sum of its parts. Schoenberg maintains that one cannot build up a work like a bricklayer laying out a wall. A work is a whole because its author, by virtue of his creative imagination, has fused its elements into a single entity, with a unity that is more than its parts. "Art does not depend upon the single component part alone," he says. "Therefore music does not depend upon the theme. For the work of art, like every living thing, is conceived as a whole - just like a child, whose arm or leg is not conceived separately. The inspiration is not the theme, but the whole work."10

•Second, such a work is an articulated whole whose parts - like the organs and limbs of the living organism - exercise their specific functions. Schoenberg distinguishes parts from limbs. One can cut a loaf of bread into parts, but never thereby obtain limbs. Nor are the legs of a table limbs. "Truly functioning limbs are found only in organisms, and unlike parts, which are actually dead, alive from event to event only through an external power, limbs sustain their power as a result of their organic membership in a living organism."11

8 Der musikalische Gedanke und die Logik, Technik und Kunst seiner Darstellung [The Musical Idea and the Logia, Technique and Art of its Presentation], 217ff. 9 Style and lita, 144. 10 Style arid Idea, 458. 11 "Principles of Construction/ 220.

THEORY AND PRACTICE




Schoenberg suggests that to symbolize such a musical form one might think of a body that is whole and centrally controlled (Zentral- und Gesamt korper), and that puts forth a certain number of limbs by means of which it is capable of exercising its life function. In music, he says, only the whole itself is that central body. In the course of this discussion he develops the notion I have taken here as my theme, what I have called the "tonal body7':

If one presumes...that one such body could be the tonality in a piece of music, then... the fundamental tone would be relatively lifeless if it did not itself contain those centrifugal and centripetal forces in its overtones that make up its life and

assign its organs their functions. It lies in its nature to allow these forces, that in it are unified and contained, to develop and strive away from each other, as it lies in their nature to do so. Thus they become limbs, thus they perform functions, thus they independently go their own ways. 12

•Finally, the cohesive force of such a whole comes from an inner energy, an inner necessity. The inner force that gives the tonal body its life is a musical idea. These three notions - a particular kind of wholeness, its articulation by the function of its members, and the idea which is its inner force - are the basis of Schoenberg' s theory of form. He treats them as technical matters.

Ill: The Musical Idea

Schoenberg was concerned throughout his life with the musical idea in its various manifestations. In traditional music theory "idea" designated a theme or melody. He seems to have begun with that, but by at least 1934, he no longer conceived of the idea as a concrete theme, but rather as the abstract relations it embodies: An idea in music consists principally in the relation of tones to each other. In his unfinished manuscript on the musical idea he explains it in terms of rest and unrest:

Through the connection of tones of different pitch, duration and stress (intensity??), unrest comes into being: a state of rest is placed in question through a contrast.

From this unrest a motion goes out, which after attainment of a climax will again lead to a state of rest or to a... new kind of consolidation that is equivalent to a state of rest.13

12 "Principles of Construction/' 5-6. 13 Der musikalische Gedanke..., 15ff.

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Schoenberg has described this unrest in many places. Perhaps the best known is in his essay, "New Music, Old Music, Style and Idea":

In its most common meaning, the term idea is used as a synonym for theme, melody, phrase or motive. I myself consider the totality of a piece as the idea: the idea which its creator wanted to present. But because of the lack of better terms I am forced to define the term idea in the following manner

Every tone which is added to a beginning tone makes the meaning of that tone doubtful. If, for instance, G follows after C, the ear may not be sure whether this

expresses C major or G maior, or even F major or E minor; and the addition of other tones may or may not clarify this problem. In this manner there is produced a state of unrest or imbalance which grows throughout most of the piece and is enforced further

by similar functions of the rhythm. The method by which balance is restored seems to me the real idea of the composition.14

This passage, and others like it, describe the idea in terms of a tonal problem. In his manuscript on the idea, Schoenberg goes on to locate the problem in the

smallest concrete elements of the material:

This unrest almost always finds its expression in the motive, but certainly in the Gestalt. In the theme, however, the problem of unrest that is present in the motive or in the fundamental Gestalt achieves formulation. This means that as the theme offers a number of transformations (variations of the motive), in each of which the

problem is present after all, but always in a different way, the tonic is continually contradicted anew.15

Schoenberg views tonality as a necessary conflict, a battlefield of centrifugal and centripetal forces. If life, if a work of art is to emerge, he writes, then we must engage in this movement-generating conflict. The tonality must be placed in

danger of losing its sovereignty. Each particular tonality is made manifest by this course of events: it is established, challenged, and reestablished. The challenge to the tonic creates unrest and imbalance, thus presenting a problem. The restoration of its sovereignty restores balance and resolves the problem.

14 Style and Idea, 122-123. 15 Der musikalische Gedanke..., 89.

THEORY AND PRACTICE




IV: Brahms's Intermezzo, Op. 76, 6

Now let me turn to Brahms's Intermezzo. I will view it as the presentation of a musical idea and attempt to describe its form as the articulation of that idea in such a way as to make it comprehensible.

Because a piece of music is like an organism, its formal members, like the limbs of an organism, are differentiated and characterized by their function - such as, for example, statement and establishing, transition and bridging, contrast, elaboration, or closing. In his theory of form Schoenberg interprets a traditional hierarchy of segments and sections as a functional progression from smallest part to organic whole. A motive is the smallest part in a piece of music which, "despite change and variation, is recognizable as occurring everywhere."16 It will be characterized by features of interval and rhythm and have harmonic implications. A Gestalt or figure is a configuration of motives. A phrase is a connection of Gestalten and motives, about as long as a breath. A theme or melody consists of phrases, and so on. The Grungestalt or basic shape is a "Gestalt that occurs repeatedly within a whole piece and to which derived Gestalten are traceable."17 By explaining the musical idea in terms of rest and unrest, Schoenberg is able to unify the formal levels of the work: unrest is inherent in the motive or Gestalt; the theme formulates the specific problem that unrest creates; the entire work is the development of the imbalance produced and balance restored. If I understand Schoenberg correctly, the idea is a set of abstract relations; the Grungestalt, its concrete presentation.

In the Intermezzo I will look at three things: the Grungestalt and its content; the articulation of the material derived from that content by the formal members of the piece; how that articulation illuminates the imbalance produced and balance restored.

The tonality Let me begin with the obvious large-scale layout of the Intermezzo: a

straightforward ABA with coda (see Figure 1). The first part and its return are stated in the tonic (A major); the contrasting middle section, in its submediant (it minor). The first part reflects this large-scale plan: the first statement and its return are in the tonic; its contrasting section is in the mediant major (Cj major). The subdominant, emphasized in three important places, is crucial in this tonal structure.

16 Der musikalische Gedanke..., 43f. 17 Der musikalische Gedanke..., 43f.

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40 CARPENTER

Figure 1: Formal Pian

A B Ã I Coda T(A+) srntf*-)- T(A+) 1-24 | 25-58 1 59-83 84-91

li ã I b I a* T M (CÍ+) T 1-8 1 9-16 I 17-24

If a tonality can be said to represent the "body" of the musical organism, what kind of a body does the overall formal structure of this Intermezzo make manifest? And how is its particular tonality established, challenged, and restored?

The tonal plan (Figure 2) is based on third relations. The main contrasting area is the lower third; the secondary one, the upper third. The mediant is expressed as major and represents the dominant in this structure. I take this to be the particular kind of A major this piece makes manifest. I have sketched these tonal relations on the circle of fifths (Figure 2a), which measures distance from the tonic by means of pitch content, and on Schoenberg's chart of the regions (Figure 2b), which demonstrates relationships of key areas to the tonic by fifth and by third relations.

A tonality may be challenged - and imbalance brought about - by ambiguous diatonic elements or by the introduction of nondiatonic tones. Notice the nondiatonic pitches in this structure: between the tonic and the farthest region, its mediant major (CÍ major): Af, Bf, DÍ, Ef; between the tonic and its subdominant (D major), G'. (Figure 2c) These can be understood as new ascending leading tones iP) acquired as the tonality expands clockwise around the circle, or as new descending leading tones (4 or ko), acquired as the tonality expands counterclockwise. In this intermezzo there are three additional nondiatonic pitches: PH, Bk, and Fx. In relation to the pitches of the tonic scale, Schoenberg calls such nondiatonic tones "cross related"; they represent two different forms of a single scale degree and create two contrasting leading tones: for example, D$, borrowed from the dominant region, is the ascending 7; Dk, by contrast, is the descending 4. Notice, during the course of the piece, how these cross-related pitches are introduced and how subsequently their relation to the tonic is made explicit.

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SCHOENBERC'S TONAL BODY 41

Finally, notice three enharmonic pairs (Figure 2d). Brahms has a way of defining a tonality by such pairs; this is so in this Intermezzo. An enharmonic relation pits against each other two tritone-related regions (opposite one another on the circle): for example, Bf is the ascending leading tone borrowed from a major region on III (Cf major); O is the descending leading tone borrowed from a major region on the lowered VII, G major (or its relative minor). I will maintain that in order to restore tonal balance, one of the members of these pairs must be overcome as the other is assimilated into the tonality.

Figure 2: Tonal Plan

a)

< A+ / < ' Dvr ^^E+ '^ CÍ- Nv / I V ' B+

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' /C>+

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42 CARPENTER

Figure 2, continued:

b) Mediant major Mediant Dominant V- ft

*■ **■ 5th

Submediant Tonic t- N ft- A+

Subdominant sd- D+

Major / minor

c) cross-related pitches: d) enharmonic pairs

=> Af/Bk Di- Al- E|- B|- Fx Et/P|

Bk- Fl|- Q- G' Bl/Q

The Grundgestalt Now look at the initial statement- first a brief overview, then the details.

Example 1 shows this first formal section, the statement, consisting of three phrases. It is in the form Schoenberg calls a "sentence": the first phrase or ''tonic form" establishes the tonality, the meter, and the motivic material; its immediate varied repetition or "dominant" form presents a contrasting harmony; the material is reduced: reductions and further reductions lead to the cadence, here, a cadence to V. These segments articulate the idea in an elegant way: the tonic form presents the Grungestalt; the dominant form formulates the problem; the reductions begin to clarify the material.

The Grungestalt is the basic shape to which derived Gestalten are traceable. In what does it consist? Example 2 shows the opening phrase of the statement, the tonic form. It presents two figures, the Grungestalt and its immediate repetition. This is a three-voice structure. The Grungestalt (Example 2.1) consists of two elements: the first is a two-voiced combination, two parallel tenths, the upper

THEORY AND PRACTICE



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displaced by an octave. These two, the outer voices, are doubled at the octave. The second element is a third inner voice, the leading tone (A-GÍ), which I call a "free" voice. Example 2.2 is a variant of the first, inverting the combination at the octave - that is, parallel tenths become parallel sixths. This basic two-voice combination, cleared of suspensions, octave displacements, and octave inversion is the stepwise descent of a third in parallel tenths (See Example 2.3).

A Gestalt is a configuration of several motives. Example 2.4 shows the motivic content of the Grungestalt. I follow Schoenberg in distinguishing rhythmic and intervallic features by notating them with caret and bracket, respectively. Four rhythmic features characterize the several voices. The basic combination is cast in a duple division of the beat, two quarter notes (a) and their displacement by an

eighth-note rest (b ), a configuration that in essence suggests a dissonant suspension. The other two voices are cast in a triple division of the beat, the "free" voice (c) and (d), which doubles the upper voice. Generally, throughout the piece, when this rhythmic configuration is present it characterizes this disposition of the voices. I distinguish two intervallic features: the major second of the suspension

figure "7 , and the minor second, the leading tone of the free voice "y . Finally, a figure emerges, defined by the phrase mark, encompassing a fourth; I call both

figure and fourth *£ .

Look now at this material in its final form, in the coda (Example 3). The motivic transformations summarize the events of the piece. These eight bars (bars 84-91; see Example 3b) are an expansion of the initial two - the tonic form (Example *3c) - extended by the interpolation of a cadential progression to V (bar 87), with the entire combination in octave inversion. Look first at Bars 90-91 (Example 3a), which are a dear recall of the suspension figure. Over a pedal, the original voices are characterized by the same disposition of both rhythmic and intervallic features (b is augmented): the duple division of the beat carries the basic combination; the triple division marks the free and doubling voices.

Bars 84-90 are a variant of the first figure, the Grungestalt (the upper voice descends from E in bar 84 to D in bar 90). I have laid out the motivic material over three staves in order to show how it has been teased apart, transformed and clarified (Example 3b). For example, the upbeat motive a is elaborated by a

neighbor note form of T ; b , augmented and displaced, carries the suspension

figure; ^is diminished and displaced, and the figure restored to its original

shape and pitch level; 'y becomes the descending leading tones 4-3 and tó-5. 1

VOLUME 13 (1988)



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believe that what Schoenberg means by "developing variation" yields an answer to the question: how do these materials arrive coherently at this state? And, perhaps, to the question: why?

The tonal problem Return now to the opening statement. Example 4 shows the second phrase, the

"dominant form" of the sentence, which Schoenberg defines as an immediate repetition of the first phrase, a variant based on a contrasting harmony. Here the function of this segment of the theme is to formulate the tonal problem (see Example 4a). A third voice, added to the basic combination below and above the original lower voice, complicates the harmony by introducing the first three nondiatonic pitches, fll, DÍ and BÍ. How could these be read in A major? Perhaps they could indicate two diminished seventh chords a major third apart (Example 4b),18 but such a juxtaposition makes little sense. This conjunction of pitches presents a problem because their relation to the tonic cannot be clear. On the one hand, Fl| and DÍ can be easily understood, fl| as tó, DÍ as Í4, borrowed from tonic minor and dominant, respectively, both closely related regions (and easily encompassed, for example, in an augmented I chord on II) (Example 4c). But Bf then is quite far. On the other hand, BÍ and Df are easily part of an applied dominant to the mediant, CÍ - but P| cannot belong to that region. DÍ is common to both these possible regions; I take the primary tension here to be between P| and B*.

Challenge, conflict, imbalance have been introduced. As I follow the enhancement, working-out, and resolution of this imbalance, I will talk about these two pitches in two aspects: specific pitch, for example, Fil, and tonal function, for example, F' as to. And I will talk about analogies of tonal function: for example, in the mediant major (Ci) the kó analogous to F^ is AN. I believe the primary purpose of motivic work is to make such analogies dear. For example, a motive might reinterpret specific pitches - as the first simultaneous interval of the A section, the suspension cj 3 becomes the first successive interval of the B section,

t6-5; or a motive might emphasize analogies - as the t6 represented by FM in the opening theme is assimilated into the contrast region (submediant, FÍ minor) as DM. I assume a nondiatonic pitch to be assimilated into the tonality when its relation to the tonic is made clear and explicit.

18 Schoenberg considered a diminished seventh chord to be an incomplete ninth chord, functioning as a dominant on a root a major third below its ascending leading tone.

VOLUME 13 (1988)



1 i 1

Si

Q

& «

"5,

¿3

ful " • • ...l|*~"

"::ì-^Ìjì

■■■äa ■

|:: . ;:;:r il. 4.. i I




Consider once more the three pitches that present the problem. It would be so convenient to read BÍ in the basic combination as C' (Example 4d)! Indeed, although BÍ will be clearly defined as Í? in the mediant major (CÍ), a distant region, it will be overcome by O as tó in the dominant. And although fl| will be clearly contradicted by EÍ as t? in the submediant (Ft minor), its function as tó in the tonic will be affirmed in the coda, by its inclusion in a diminished seventh chord on V. DÍ is no real problem.

Clarification

Example 5 shows the concluding phrase of the sentence, what Schoenberg calls the reductions. This segment functions to simplify the material in preparation for the cadence. Simplification is usually clarification.

This phrase consists of two statements of the basic combination and a cadence to V. The first statement produces parallel sixths above the original lower voice (bars 5-6); the second statement is a diminution of this in octave inversion (bars 7- 8). Each extends the span of the basic combination to a fourth. Notice how the

material is simplified: octave displacement is omitted; the figure ~ is reduced to a

fourth skip, inverted above E, with a simple scalewise return; the rhythm is a straightforward two against three. Two of the nondiatonic pitches introduced in

the dominant form are clarified by means of the leading-tone *y , which is first transposed to the upper fifth (DÍ), on the way to effecting the half-cadence, and then applied (by analogy) to the third degree (BÍ), foreshadowing the contrasting region to be elaborated in the next section.

Example 5.2 summarizes the opening statement, coordinating the four statements of the basic combination with the parts of the sentence - tonic form, dominant form, and reductions. The bass line descent from CÍ to E articulates these segments.

Two variants: the first tonal contrast; the cadence to the tonic Example 6 concerns the remaining two segments in the first section. In

Example 6.1 I have laid out the two variants of the opening sentence, which serve as contrast and establishment, respectively.

Example 6.2 shows the contrast section b (bars 9-16). It presents the confrontation of Fi| and Et; Fi| loses. Example 6.2a recalls the statement of the

VOLUME 13 (1988)



ss

1 Oí »o

ful Leí s

S" ^ -^-^ ■■■■■■■■■iiii eaea^^^^OÊtasm ™ < * <o <f° -^-^ ■■■■■■■■■iiii ™ • • • r

/ I "' >. N I I" ' I I •' i** I I" ' , ... I f i** 0?« =

A¿!') , <L ... -v L ' " . J ^' <l-

/;:!7ll^iN r~¡ ; i i 0H-J n V-rT»7 | | -¡...j :•- *Tî 1 -* "- *

pä -^ f . - r '~ i I - - s



( ca

CO

3 ;:::f3- i " i: ' "

p. - i I »U4*_ | « - ?> • «

^( jy Mit/ / n í "f -

It pK ^ "f l~|"

3<hPJ IPi* ^ = / 2 -t & --Cr IPi* ^ = 2 & --Cr



I Oí

i 1 I

¿s

ft. jfr> Illt 4111 m m m m

-■li-,*" I /'' 'ì /'"'n , (l o

®p;:E-::::™ -■li-,*" I ■*" r ©Garfea

/'' /'"'n , ' V (l o

©ifczLÜ:K il 1 ®tLL'I;VÌ '- '■/

s © :.s=ü..!íV) s T © ^ '¡VI



O 'S?

I

§

CS

><

tit r ? IT H ' I

ill



6.3: Section a- É /C, G, 4

TF © © DF 0 • ^J*K *-* *_5 k6-5

LP L-^T I-" 'J L^ L^j"^ Tonic: •¥ Dom: -V SD:-*

16 ^6 a)

17 ® (EL

DF ® (5) TP DF

10 9^10 10 9 - 10 10 9 - 10 10 9 - 10 1 z '

b) /^-^ ^-.

a i L- - j * i ^x^ p^^ ^' 1 Y ^a¡ BC ^ above lowcr voice

6 6

T: + IV II V I

' l '

c) [|c| reductions (bars 5-8, 11-16, 21-24)

if'j>1l ' '? ' J 'i'i1 f ' ''Mi ' 'i ' i f f r ' ih ' i ''Mi i f if ' ' > i <" ¡1)0,



56 CARPENTER

problem in the dominant form of the initial statement. In this variant tonic and dominant forms are contracted to a single statement (bars 9-10) and the reduction

extended by a sequence of 7 (Example 6.2b; bars 11-16). This first contrast section elaborates the mediant major, Ct, moving to a half cadence on its dominant, thereby pushing the tonality as far as it will go in this piece: to the fifth fifth clockwise around the circle; all ascending leading-tones are in. The problem presented in the dominant form has been met head on: F' is abandoned, set aside by the major third of the mediant, Et. Further, its function, to, is also negated: tó in the mediant (Ct minor), AN, is replaced by the mediant major's At, a pitch strongly emphasized by the disjunct voice leading of the first phrase (bar 10) and the sequential extension of the reduction (bar 13). Two of the "problem" pitches, Bt and Dt, are assimilated into the mediant region. Notice the lowered 7th degree, B', which, leaning toward the subdominant of this region, initiates the bass line descent and prepares for the oncoming contrast section, the submediant (Ft minor), and for the analogous lowered 7th (G') in the next segment.

Example 6.3 shows the varied return of the initial statement, a7. Beginning like the opening statement, but moving through dominant and subdominant regions, it finally effects the cadence to the tonic. The dominant form now elaborates the dominant; the reductions move through the subdominant to the close. This statement works with the lowered 6th degree, taking up two enharmonic conflicts, overcoming one member of each by means of a t6 made explicit in a region close to home. First the Bt/O conflict is dealt with. The dominant form (Example 6.3a; bars 19-20) transposes the function of ¥' in the opening statement: O becomes t6 of fhe dominant region. Bt has been cancelled and will not return as a member of a region. Next the At/Bt conflict is taken up. In the reduction (Example 6.3b), G', initiating the bass line descent, elaborates the subdominant, D major, introducing its t6, Bt. Thus the t6 function has been made explicit in both dominant and subdominant regions. But the At, as can be seen in the striking juxtaposition of the cross-related forms in the cadence (bar 23), has not been overpowered.

At this point the chromatic content of the piece is complete.

Contrasting middle section

Example 7 concerns the contrasting middle section, B. Its structure is somewhat loose (as characterizes a contrasting section, according to Schoenberg) consisting of two alternating phrases and a liquidation that reduces the material to its essential bits. Example 7.1 shows the two statement phrases of this section. The first phrase (Example 7.1a) is the Grungestalt as it appeared in the reduction in bar 5, reinterpreted in a new region (the mediant, Ft) by means of a tonic pedal and

THEORY AND PRACTICE




Example 7: The Contrasting Middle Section: Di,E' Contrasting section:

Two four bar phrases (a,a*) alternate: 25-28, 29-33, 34-37, 38-42 Three reductions to two bars: 43-44, 45-46, 47-48, to SD

Liquidation: 49-58

7. 1: Old and new material

6 6 a) C) i 1

s£. Z

* |-

I mm

I' ' I -' J J I Li I r r I r f ' '' " ' u ' o ' u ' u * chordal extension

b)

gtf j ^ !^TT , T77TIT i =,



58 CARPENTER

interpolation of a dominant arpeggiation. The second phrase (Example 7.1b) is a variant leading to a cadence on V.

Schoenberg maintained that in a coherent contrast something is changed, something kept. The main contrast here is the new region, which establishes the Et as P in a region close to home. Example 7.1c indicates how the development of old motivic material, the rhythmic features a and b , contributes to a coherent

contrast by emphasizing the leading tone *y , reinterpreted as k¿-5 (D^-C#) and a

variant of the figure ^£ .

In reductions, transitions, and liquidations, where material is reduced to its most essential form, it is usually also clarified. That is the case here. Example 72 shows the beginning of the liquidation, the reduction of the first 4-bar phrase to two-bar fragments. Notice two things: the sharp juxtaposition of the cross-related AÍ/Ah (bar 43) and the curious voice leading it produces, At to Gi (Example 7.2a). These reductions refer back to those in Part I (Example 7.2d), especially bars 21-23, in which the pitch A was placed in the context of dominant and subdominant regions and contrasted to the important At. There I maintained that the At at the end of that section, challenged by Bk, was nevertheless left in a state of strong tension; here it will be laid to rest. This is accomplished by reinterpreting it as Bk in a diminished seventh chord (bar 46) (Example 7.2b), which carries the descending thirds of the basic combination to the subdominant.

The liquidation (Example 7.3) illuminates what has happened. The first

segment (Example 7.3a), a clear transposition of the basic combination to the submediant, articulates the upper and lower leading tones, ko and 'i - D^/Bjf -

around its fifth degree, showing Bt to be analogous to Di in the opening statement and Di| to Ft| and thereby clearly defining the functions of those two nondiatonic pitches. The second segment (Example 7.3b) assimilates these elements into a cadence to I in the submediant.

Summary Look once again at the coda in Example 8. The nondiatonic pitches have been

either assimilated into the tonic or negated. For example, Et, reappearing in bar 81, has been shown to be the leading-tone of the submediant and resolved in this

region, close to home. The At, defined as t¿ in a distant region (the mediant

major) will be finally negated by the subdominant emphasis in the coda. I would

say that tonal balance is restored as G' (bars 84-85), indicating the subdominant

major/minor, prepares the way for the return of Fi| (bars 87f.), borrowed from

THEORY AND PRACTICE




Example 7.2: Reductions : At /ßt

§ ur ~i ìafr^TjB ' »J BC!!!>^^L¿^L4 F^

b)

-Vf- + c)

d): Reductions, paît I:

■ ry lf¡rai'ili'?iJ "" ' ' ' J '1 'Fif ^ "" ' ' ' ir rif-J-i¿ ^ * 'üb

iiyi^a^ ■jM m ,'f I l,i fT ^ ■jM "

'1 1 1 I

|' l,i 1 if!

1 DF © ^ © Rei©- ^ (2' Jg)^ _ (I4)

^V^t-tv nTP'-. ^

kffci j j J iiiJ^i,rni=d=====l _



60 CARPENTER

Example 7.3: Liquidation

a)

* •- y- - • io 9 - io ^x^-^ 10 9-10 *

10 10 6 6 6- (6) 10 10

^"^"^ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

[bc!

Qy " » o o » " |o

"

10 10 6 6 6 6 10 10

n-« t o L. ft ° e " " o

tt'i|[a 3 i ■ ̂ ^ 3 f r r r 3 3 6 6

THEORY AND PRACTICE




b)

a© © ® (S) ® Q tut i i - p^^^ L r"' 7^ M r^^

. . rim

|BC| "+y

r ' " • :

p ip i* *J ~^

10 10 6 6 3 3

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62 CARPENTER

Example 8: The Coda

Coda @^ (83) ^~s,(m) © (86) /^'

@ © @ (5i) (m) a ji | ¿twin. i^TH I I .

C'"J a ji |

J4|J ¿twin.

J 4 I J iOJJ i^TH I I

I

THEORY AND PRACTICE




subdominant minor, which, together with GÍ, effects the diminished seventh chord on V that allows its resolution in its proper context, as tó to è in the tonic - the context that was thwarted in bar 4.

I have attempted to show here how unrest in this piece is formulated in the ''dominant form" of the statement as a specific tonal problem: three incompatible pitches foreign to the tonality challenge it in a particular way. I have traced how these elements were enhanced and how the disruption they brought about was ultimately subdued by their assimilation into an expanded tonality, that is, their relation to the tonic was demonstrated. Especially, I have hoped to show how each formal member played its role in clarifying this process - which I take to be the presentation and development of the musical idea.

VOLUME 13 (1988)



A Problem in Organic Form: Schoenberg's Tonal Body

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Transcript of A Problem in Organic Form: Schoenberg's Tonal Body