The Romantic Generation

CHARLESROSE,N

Haruard Uniuersity PressCambridge, Massachusetts

1995

l

Contents

Preface ix

oNE Music and Sound

Imagining the sound I Romantic paradoxes: the absent melody 7 . Classical and

Romantic pedal l.: Conception and realization 27 . Tone color and structure 38

Two Fragments

Renewal +t . The Fragment as Romantic { lm 48 . Open and closed Jl Words

and music 58 . The emancipation of musical language 58 Experimental endings

and cyclical forms 78 Ruins 92 Disorders 95 Quotations and memories 98

Absence: the melody suppressed 112

rHREE Mountains and Song Cycles

Horn calls 116 Landscape and music 124 . Landscape and the double timescale 135 Mountains as ruins 142 , Land,scape and memory 150 Music and

memory 165 Landscape and death: Schubert 174 . The unfinished workings ofthepast 204 . Songcycleswithoutwords 220

FouR Formal Inteilude

Mediants 237 . Fow-bar phrases 257

FrvE Chopin: Counterpoint and the Narratiue Forms

Poetic inspiration and craft 279 Counterpoint and the single line 285 Narrativeform: the ballade 302 . Changes of mode 342 . kalian opera and J. S. Bach -l++

',t\ ( ltttlt1l1 \tt!tt,,"t!\'

r'llro.rtrl (\(t(t\('\ lr,l Vlltl'r',ll\ .lllrl (lttrtl'

rl( n!llY i'),1

I t,ttt"f ,,t ttt.'tl

tlrolr (\.ll0ll lllll,l{ r') Nl,'r I'r,l

sr vrf N Obgltin: From thc Miniature Ccnrc b thc Sublimc Styla

,,lli rrrusic? l/O Ilubltt't 41.1 . Modal harmony? 416. Mazurka as Romantic

rrrrr .l/() 'lhc latc mazurkas 4.19 Freedom and tradition 152

t.tIGHr Liszt: On Creation as Performdnce

)rrrr.lrUt;rlrlt' grcatness 472 . Die Lorelei: the distraction of influence 474 ' The

,r,',rt;r: rlr(' tlistraction of respectability 479 . The invention of Romantic piano

,rrrrrtl: tlrt. I,lrudcs 491 Conception and realization 506 . The masks ol Liszt 511 '

(tt,rrrrp'sirtg: Sonnet no. 104 517 . Sel{-Portrait as Don Juan 528

N I N ri l)erlioz: Liberation from the Central Ewropean Tradition

tlirrtl itl<rlrters and perfidious critics ,542 . Ttadition and eccentricity: the id6e

ixt' f-J(, Chord color and counterpoint 550 Long-range harmony and contra-

rrrrrtal rhythm: the "Scbne d'amour" 556

.r.EN Mendelssohn and the Inuention of Religiows Kitsch

Vrrstering Beethoven .i69 Transforming Classicism 582 Classical form and mod-

.r'n scnsibility 586 . Religion in the concert hall sso

ELEVEN Romantic Opera: Politics, Trash, and High Art

l)olitics and melodrama 599 . Popular ^rt 602 . Bellini 60B Meyerbeet 639

,l,wELVE schwmann: Triumph and Failure of tbe Romantic ldeal

f 'lrc irrational 646 . Theinspiration of Beethoven and clara wieck 658 The inspi-

rarirrrrof E.T.A.Hoffmann 569. Outof phase 683 . Lyrtcintensity 689 Failure

,rrrd triumph 599

Preface

It is equally fatal to have a system and not tohave a system. One must try to combine them.

-Friedrich Schlegel, Athenaeum Fragments

The death of Beethoven in 1827 must have given a sense of freedom to thecomposers born almost two decades earlier: Chopin and Schumann in 1810'Mendelssohn the year before, Liszt the year after. Perhaps only Chopin was

not intimidated by the commanding figure of authority that Beethoven repre-

sented for generations to come. I think it is probable that Beethoven's deathhastened the rapid development of new stylistic tendencies which had alreadymade themselves felt and which, indeed, even influenced his own music.

The death of Chopin in 1849 was not so signal an event for the world ofmusic, but it, too, marked the end of an age. Schumann was to die only a fewyears later, after entering an insane asylum; in the 1850s Liszt renounced muchof his adventurous early manner, pruned his youthful works of their excesses'

and developed new directions of style, many of which would be realized onlyafter his death by musicians who took no account of his experiments. In 1850

the young Brahms arrived upon the scene, and it was clear that there was a

new and more conservative musical philosophy in the air.

In these writings on music from the death of Beethoven to the death ofChopin, I have limited myself to those composers whose characteristic styles

were defined in the late 1820s and early 1830s, a compact group in spite ofwidely differing musical ideals and the evident mutual hostility frequently met

with among them. Slightly older than the composers born around 1810' Berlioznevertheless belongs essentially with them. In addition, a consideration ofBellini and (more briefly) Meyerbeer is inescapable for an understanding of the

period.On the other hand, Verdi and'Wagner are absent, as their stylistic individu-

ality was fully shaped only in the 1840s; their greatest achievements belong

Inder of Names and V/orks 7l I

', \.\, I'ltt' llr tttt,tttttt ( ;r',tt',ttltttil

bowr-bar 'phrases

The four-bar phrase has had a bad press in our tirttt:. (itorrprtrl',,rll tlrc ltrtrs ittfours is often considered mechanical and even thoughflt'ss, rurtl lristorirttts ol

music will hold up three- and five-bar phrases for our aclnriratiort as il tlrcywere gems of inspiration. The periodic phrase-whether in bar groups of thrt't'or (most often) four-is essentially a system of controlling large-scale rlrythtttby imposing a steady, slower beat over the beats of the individual bar.

The system of four-bar phrasing was already in frequent use in the early partof the eighteenth century-dance patterns demanded this kind of regularity;by the last quarter of the eighteenth century it dominated almost all composi-tion. The slower beat imposed over the music should not mislead us: the musicof the late eighteenth century actually seems to move faster than that of thcBaroque. The rate of change of the harmony was slower; this is reflected inthe four-bar groupings, and it controls the sense of large-scale movement. The

technique works very like the motor of a car in a higher gear, the motor turnsover more slowly, but the car moves faster. The slow harmonic rhythm andthe periodic phrase are the main aspects of the move to a higher gear, and theyallow the more largely conceived dramatic structures to unfold effectively andavoid the concentration on the small-scale rhythmic motion within the bar.

In the late eighteenth century the module of four bars can be altered invarious ways. The phrase can be introduced by one or two bars of accompa-niment, and the last bar can be extended by echoes. Haydn's String Quartetin C Major, op. 33, no. 3, opens with an example of both of these devices:

Violino I

Violino II

Viola

Violoncello

Allegro moderato

l'{r F nl ,{ | i lJ i i'ir I ir i, I'

qfrusgl.t-;l d.[FfJ]1 -

t-

I wo four-bar phrases are extended to six here by one bar of introduction andI'y lc;rlaying the last bar an octave lower. \7hat makes the repeated note,rr'cornpaniment of the opening bar so effectives is that it is not mere accom-p:rrrir.nent: the melody, too, begins with a repeated G (-lJJ) as if the first barwt'rc first augmented and then accelerated. In any case, this is essentially a

lorrr-bar phrase extended.l.ater in this movement another method of extension is employed-expand-

irrg the center of the phrase-a more sophisticated technique quite advancedlor its time:

,1,)

6ilH

t)l

.,.( t( ) I'ltr' ll,tttr,tttltr ( )r'trt't,l!rrtt

This phrase is, of course, derived from the opening theme played twice as fast.

The second bar is repeated a half step lower in an obvious echo, and turns afour-bar group into five bars. (\7hen the phrase is repeated, Haydn furthersurprises us by extending the movement for two more bars.)

Mozart was to employ the technique of inner expansion with great subtlety'In the Trio for Piano and Strings in E Major, K.542, the initial theme of the

B major second group expands what might have been a four-bar phrase to sixbars:

I have deliberately chosen this example because it is what might be called a

hard case, a convincing six-bar phrase. Nevertheless, one gets a clear sense inlistening to it of a phrase being stretched out, with a resulting increase oftension. In the majority of Mozart's themes there is an increase in harmonicmotion after the second or fourth bars. Consider the opening theme of thistrio, for example:

.,(tl

il6ll:r

i=[llAl,tI ill I l l{I lllri'

lior tlrc B major theme above, the commonplace pattern would have been:

or in outline:

lrr the six-bar phrase this structure augments the rhythm:

'Ihis gives a commonplace pattern a greatff breadth and more intense charac-

,*, "ia accounts fo, ihe effect of a line sustained beyond the listener's expec-

tations.For Beethoven, the four-bar rhythm takes on an even greater effect of motor

energy than for tire composers of the previous generation' propelling the music

forward; his deviations from it seem almost always like an act of will: they

,.q.ri.. an effort. Nonetheless, we should abandon the general prejudice that

the deviations are more imporiant than the formidable stretches of conformity'

i;-."rh; to seem odd that deviating from the four-bar system should be

considered more creative than using itlmaginatively-as if we were to reproach

a composer for not throwing u i.* five- o. three-beat measures into his

standard 414 or common time'

on the whole, it is clear that by the 1820s the four-bar period has extended

its dominion over musical composition. The large-scale structure may no

i""g.t U. said simply to organize the rhythm shaped by the.periods: it is now

iil."iorrr-Uu. p..iod, themielves which have become the basic elements of

musical material, as attention is deflected away from the bar a1d to the whole

phrase as a unit. Deviations from the four-bar grouping tend' therefore' to

i.u.top very different aspects from those I have sketchily summarized for the

late eiihteenth century. thopint G Major Prelude has a fine example of the

new technique:

Virrrr.t

I ltt' li,,rtt,trrltt ( ;.',t,',ttl,t)tt

After the tvvo bars of introduction, only bar 11 is an exception to the four-barpattern, and interrupts the regularity set up by bars 3-6 and 7-10. Bar 11 isnot, however, an extension in the classical sense, either echo or further devel-opment. It simply prolongs the harmony of bar 10, acting as a fermata overthe upbeat back to the strong bar that opens the next phrase. Bar 11 is a kindof rubato, an expressive suspense.l

A similar example may be found in the Scherzo in B flat Minor by Chopin.The middle section opens with a new twenty-bar sostenuto theme, repeatedimmediately with one extra bar:

1. Carl Schachter has interestingly analyzed bar 1 1 as an augmentation of the important motifof the melody E-D in bar 3, in Music Forum V (New York, 1980), pp. 202-21.0.

lr, II rrtt^l 1l lll I i lll lllll

16',/ 'r'ilo'r F

l'he extra bar does not, in reality, affect the periodic :T"ttl:tl it is only a

r.trllato.Theorchestrawaitsbrieflywhilethesingeraddsahttleexpressrverlccoration. The operatil origin of this passage is obvious' particularly in its

i;,;-*d"n.., *h.." the lecoration becomes more elaborate:

What these examples show is that the suppleness of the four-bar phrase under

ff"yi" ""a Mozart glr., *"y ro a cert;i; rigidity: the four-bar period is no

i;ft; so malleabl.;,; .;riiy extensible, but it can sdll be inflected bv a

,ny?n.ni. freedom which does not alter the basic shape'

The danger of p.rlodl. fh,"'i"g (in four bars' or' more rarely' in three) is'

of course, monotony' Jo* uff thJ sense of the invariable downbeat on bar 1'

It is when the system J.-ptoytd with understanding' or-when the deviations

are not merely local eccentricities but contribute to the larger plan, that the

rnusic tends to b" *o,i-"'ltt"ft'l' \rhen the phrase lengths are uniform' the

sense of monotony t";;;;;t"ntered by v"'yittg the accent of the bar' and

avoiding the relentlesr'"ltt"t"tio" of i'ong'u"d *""k b1-t-:-The interplay

;.i[;ph"se length and accent allows the composer to organize his structure

with freedom.

) (,'l I'ltt' littttt,tttltt ( ;.,,r(,t,tlttt,t

'We can see this in the sinrplest 1)ut nlost sl)r'clrtcrrl;rr lorur rrr tlrt'l:urrorrsritrno di tre battute from the Scherzo of lleethovcrr\ Nirrth Syrrrplrorry:

Rhythnus von 3 Takten.

lr, \

Rhythw von 4 Telten.Ntho di o@n d&rle

At the beginning of the passage, the emphasis' defined by th9 motto' lies on

the first of the three-b"; ;t""pt ibars 177-206)' Then the t-qhT^i: shifts' and

the motif is found on thJsecond of the three-bar sets (bars 207-224), and then

;ild;;";" back to the first bar (225). putting the accent on the second of

;;;; ;;r, is a destabilizing force, and Beethoven creates a miniarure ternary

structure of stability-i"tilfiriry-riability. The return to four-bar grouping (bar

iltl;;.h.ved by placing the motto on each of the four bars in succession'

and the quadruple thd; it atn*a by shifts of harmony' It is tvpical of

Beethoven that each ririfi "f rhythm is ietermined almost solely by the way

,fr. p.l".ip"l motif it fi"..a. I have.chosen this exceptional three-bar rhythm

^,-i.',.,ppt.nesscharacterizesBeethoven'Spracticewiththemorecommonfour-bar form.'";;;;r"c. from the finale of Schubert's sonata in c Minor, D.958, written

,h;;rt ;;?rre his death in 1828, shows a very different interplay between

u...rra and phrase length, but one of equal mastery:

I'1,,' Il, trtt,ttttt! ( ;(',tt','tlttttt

rtd=4++t-rrl; rr jrlfl lr I lr' lr ' lu,J:'Jl"-,j]lllo -4 I r I I I | |I t,ll tail'-tl

This lyrical interlude in this tarantella movement consists of two phrases' offifteen and seventeen bars respectively-or 4 + 11 and 8 + 8 + 1. There is no

suggestion of irregularity in performance, however, as the accent remains

steady: the strong bar here is always the odd-numbered one. The contrast is

one of a trochaic structure followed by an iambic one. In other words, in the

first part of the theme, an accented bar is followed by an unaccented one: bars

247-250 have a feminine ending with the accent on the first and third bars,

and bars 251,-257 continue the pattern. The second part of the theme (bars

258-273) is the reverse: an accented bar is preceded by an unaccented one.

Bar 273 leads back to the opening pattern. It is not merely that the whole

passage adds up to thirty-two bars which gives the impression of regularity,

Lut that the irregularities balance symmetrically and keep the pulse steady' 'We

must remember that (exactly asin4l4 time) bars l and 3 are generally strong(or downbeat), bars 2 and 4 weak (or upbeat). (Bars 258 to 273 start with a

fourth bar accent.) Schubert retains the regularity of the module but varies the

accent of the phrases.

It should be evident that in the 1820s, at least in the work of a master like

Schubert, the deviation from the four-bar module can have as systematic apurpose as the standard form. The basic distinction should not be between

composers who slavishly followed the standard form and those who aban-

doned it creatively, but between those who employed it (or not) unthinkingly

FrrnAlA1 lNlrnll, Itl' .'(r'/

.rlr,l 11r,,.,,. rylr,r r.tl,llrtr', 1 tlr,. .,ir1'r tlnlro,,rlrorr ol .r l,u1it'r lilttl slowt't llt'ltt tlltllrt rrrrrr,r. lo rt'.rlrzt'.r n{ \\' l( nrl!(,r.rl 1,,'rr,l)('(lrv('<ltt lltt'ctttirc fi)rlll.

l'lrt' sct lt'l ol :rvortlrrl,, nr()nol{)ry wrtlr tlrt' lirtrr-lrlr rnodule was to vary the.r((('nl :ur(l tlrt'wt'ililrl ol llrt'lr;rrs lo:rvoicl giving a similar emphatic accent ontlrt'lirst lr;rr'of cvcry gr()ul), rrs if ()ne were accenting a downbeat. Afterllt't'r lrovcrr rrrrcl lrcfore Brahnrs, perhaps the greatest master of the techniquewrrs ( lhopin, rrs one can see from the opening of the Nocturne in D flat Major,r>;t. )7, tr<>.2, of 1836:

After a bar of introductory accompaniment (which hints at the contour of thernelody), we find a five-bar phrase followed by a three-bar answer-or better,four and a half bars followed by three and a half. Basically, the fourth bar ofthe melody (bar 5) has been lengthened. Instead of

we find a surprisingly long Al with a wonderfully expressive effect, and thisforces an accelerated movement in the following bar with a sense of greaterpassion. The Etude in E Major, op. 10, no. 3, also opens with a similar groupof five and three bars, but different forces are at work:

t

J

t

,lcr,l ' l'lte' llt trrr,rrrl it ( intrnttitrtt

!-r:Nr'(t MA N(tN'tI(rt't'o,

Bar 6, which should be a second or weak bar, has the weight of a downbeat,and crowding the whole second phrase into three bars creates an agitatedcontrast with the simpler opening.

'We can see that the module of four is generally constant with Chopin butthat it is partly independent of the length of the phrase, which Chopin canvary with great suppleness. The opening of the Scherzo no.2 inB flat Minor,op. 31, shows a very sophisticated use of syncopation within the four-barpattern:

F(tEMAl lNIFltl.Utrtl )nrl

iffi',r,',#l$ll

'f 'he downbeats or first bars of the group are placed at.5,9,13, 17,21, and2.5. Bars 5 and 13 have powerful fortissimo accents but act almost as upbeatst<r the next bars, and the ties from 6 to 7 and 14 to 15 are essentiallysyncopations. Bar 17 is much weaker than 13; bar 21 has no accent at all,rnerely sustaining a tied note; and bar 25 commences as a void. Nevertheless,there is no sense of irregularity, and the larger four-bar rhythm is relentless.'fhis makes possible the effect in bars 22 and 45, where a violent off-beatrlccent in a "weak" measure results in a double off-beat effect. It is evidentthat this syncopation requires a strict tempo; any expressive freedom can takeplace only within the four-bar group, but the first bar must always arrive withmetronomic regularity, and bars 16 to 24 permit no freedom at all to becompletely intelligible.

In the fourth scherzo in E Major, op. 54, what seems to be an irregularnine-bar phrase after a brilliant climax (bars 384-393) is in fact an absolutelystrict carrying out of an eight-bar pattern:

270 I'ltr lirtttt,tttltr ( ;t'tl.'l ttl,tt,t

+ Ped"

Herethefirstbarsordownbeatsofthephrasesareat3S3)361"369'377':ss' u,'a 393. Bafs 385.and 387 aretherefore Strong bars, and at 384 Chopin

h;;;;g"" the phrase a'bar before the downbeat of the phrase. Bars 384 and

;az ^;r ryrr.op"t.d; they anticipate the metrical accents and act as upbeats.

This dramatic effect *ork, onty ir the pause in bar 383 is not lengthened as

it so often is in concert, since most pianists find it convenient to heave a long

,igh of r"lr"f after the uirtrro,lty of ba" 369 to 382' The temptation should be

resisted, as the phrase 3g4 to jg: h considerably more expressive if it sounds

like a syncop"tio., to the central beat. when this introductory phrase reap-

;;;r;, i; l, p?.."d.d once again by an arpeggio that begins within the middle

of " fo,rr-b"r group' arching over the systematic rhythm:

ll;,ilY:,',|1,,11R.r. +

{16

ll,,

I nll^l,{I lt,Il l{I lJlrl t/t

,l t

,,ll F

*

How concerned Chopin was for the large-scale beat to be perceived can bescen by his notation of the end of the scherzo:

The scale, which must be played more or less as fast as one can, is still measuredout by Chopin in four bars, each beginning with a note of the tonic triad.

Chopin's mastery comes from his ability to retain the four-bar groupingwhile varying the metrical significance of the bars. The opening of the Nocturnein G Minor, op.37, no. 1, reveals his ability to manipulate a commonplacetechnique:

The first phrase seems to be over at bar 4, but is then extended and carriedforcefully into what follows. Bar 5 appears to be the completion of this process,

f 7--<L3

.) / .r. I'ltt' Iirtttt,tttltt { ;t'tt(.,,t!tt,tt

but then suddcnly with thc sccontl lrcat bcconrcs ir r'('rurrr,,l rlrc lirst lorrr brrrs,now more drarnatic and more expressive.'I'he ncw forr't.t,nrt.s lxrrtly frornChopin's ability to fuse the two playings of the theme into one, to make bar5 both a resolving completion and a new beginning.

Chopin's exquisite manipulation of the inner accents of a four-bar group canbe demonstrated with extraordinary clarity in the central section of the B flatMinor Scherzo in a passage shortly after the one quoted earlier:

', --

-

Here the same motif is used both for emphasis:

JJIJ_fJ

and for release:

J J IJ I IThe emphasis is placed initially on the first bar of the four-bar groups, or thedownbeat, the release on the third. This pattern is played three times. Thefourth time, the third bar is also given the emphatic form, and in the next

(ffir@

.r1.r *-

l'rrt. lr;rt 1',rorrp tlrt' ;l(r('nt,, .r( r('\'( r.,,'.1, witlr tlrt' relcrtsc ttrt thc first bar, thecrrrplrrrsis orr tlrt'rlrirtl. (Wc toultl torrsitlcr-tltis wlrole passage as three four-bart',r'()ul)s lirlkrwccl by two six.brrr gr()Lrps, but this does not alter the essentialrlrytlrrrr of four bars.) ll'pcrlirrrned correctly, this passage has the effect of ancxprcssivc syncopation, a shift from a fully stable version to an unstable onet<rrrrparable to the form observed in the ritmo di tre battute we found inllcetl-roven's Ninth Symphony. Few composers were capable of this craftsman-ship.

lf we keep in mind this ability both to retain and to override the four-barlhythm, we can understand the more complex of Chopin's experiments, liketlre second nocturne of opus 37,inG major. This is one of Chopin's rare uses

of a three-bar period:

r\r" DANTE

274 I'ltl Iltltttttrl tc ( )t'ttt't tt! tt ttt

In these three-bar periods of bars 1,-1,2, the left and right hands are out ofphase, the left being consistently a half bar ahead of the right. The left hand

tegins a new period with bar 4 while the right hand ends its phrase (and this

process continues through bar L2, the left hand always ahead of the right). Bar

4 is therefore a new first bar and a fourth bar at the same time, and what isimplied is an overlapping system of four-bar groups so reduced to three. Atthe second half of bar 13, the pattern changes to an open four-bar phrase,

which ends on bar 17, but a new four-bar pattern overlaps here starting on

the second sixteenth note. An analysis may be fussy, but the result of Chopin's

play of rhythmic structure is a fluid motion that enhances the barcarole

character of this nocturne.This kind of mastery was denied to Schumann, but in his concern to make

the four-bar structure interesting, he was forced into solutions that are as

original as chopin,s, and perhaps more dramatic. The eighth piece of the

Dauidsbiindlertiinze is in seven-bar phrases:

N'8 tt

(

({t

'-?-.--

.) /\I rr 11 Nl ,\ I I ll I I ll I lll) I

,I

{

I

There is clearly a bar missing in these phrases, with a wonderfully eccentric

effect. This is because bat 4(andbar f 1) is at the same time both an answer

io,fr. pr"..aing bar, in f","ittt with bar 2.(andwith bar 9l'and a beginning

of a new four_bar pt."ri1t", accelerates the harmonic rhythm to the end of

the seventh bar. schumann underlines the eccentricity with his final bar, which

is a one,beat bar in a two-beat metric. Not only do we feel that a bar is missing,

but-when the repeat b.git', "' it should-a beat has also disappeared'

This structure-three seven-bar phrases plus one four-bar phrase extended

byawritten.outritarilandointofiuebars-ithabeatloppedoffisunusualforSchumann; what is typical is the extravagance' Even more typical' and in some

ways equall y ,*rr^u^g;*, is -schuma'i"'' f"qo""t attempts to inflect the

rhythm by obscuring ,f,. Jo*"Ututs with an insistent emphasis on weak beats

or else with a continuous employment of rubato' The seventh piece of the

Dauidsbi)nd'lertiinze provides one of the finest examples:

Nicht schnell. Mil iiussers{ slnrhel F)mpfirrdung'

27(t I'ltr lirtttt,ttr! tt ( ;('tt('t tt! tt tt,

The indicatiott ritenuto arrives even beforc tcttlp() ()r l):lsrr rlrytlrrrr lr:rs lrrttl rt

chance to establish itself, and is repeated every two birrs.'l'hc,tbsctlce of att

indication a telnpo is also typical of Schumann. It does llot mean that thc

original tempo should not return, but it is evidently impossible to make clear

to ih" litt"ner just where the tempo has been reestablished. 'What comes out

most convincingly is a flexible movement in which the rhythm is continuously

bent accordittg iothe caprice of the performer' on whom the coherence depends

as well.In songs, the four-bar phrase can be ambiguously treated: the piano can add

bars to the singer's fonr-tar phrase, and the extra bafs most often sound as ifthey were in a different rhythmic space, subordinate to the principal one. In

Der Einsame (The Solitary Man) by Schubert, the vocal part is perfectly regular

in sets of four half bars. The interruptions of the piano make it more complex'

but the regularity is not genuinely upset:

Nacht,im spit er - wiirmten Heril, ai* s-lU il,fr ^it "ur - gi:iig-tim Siru rertraulich zu der

di-r "it, i"h ririt turguig-tbm Sim ver - trau - lich zu -

Pianoforte.

6

6

!I r.p1 J,Jipll ,l'1, ptJklJ r-

',ollrllrl,,,rr rrrr |"'r'lrsrtl, rol.ir.hl.,io rrrr,lro- sr:hwcrt.

.r'/7

l.-, .-i-+d

can be integrated withas in Schubert's An die

$ r-r-rr rT--rrI I lt I I Ll

')t l

Nevertheless, the interruption of the accompanimentthe vocal melody to form a unified phrase togetherMusik (To Music):

htffi'tlL'

Siugstimme.

Pianoforte.

The first vocal phrase is four bars in length. The second phrase overlaps withthe first and starts in the piano; three bars of voice continue the line to forma new four-bar version, more expressive and more complex, of the first phrase.

S7ith greater intensity, the interruption of the piano part can appear to begina new four-bar group, and then the return of the voice starts a new four-barphrase of its own, half independent and half integrated with the initial pianoline, as in "Der'Wegweiser" (The Signpost) from Winterreise:

Singstinme.

wie viel gruea

bem wil- derKris lnstrickt,li-ger Ac-cord von dir,

ta

M[ssig.

278 The Romantic Generation

-!vas ver - neiil' ich denn die ][re

mir versteck-te Ste ge durchver-ectureite Fel-sen - htjha?- su-che

ge, wo die audern l,\-aldrer gehn,

ge durch ver - scbaei-tre-Fel- sen - hiilur, durch Fel - sen-hijhn?

There is no way to decide, from bars 1.0 tr> 14, whether we have a four-bar or

a five-bar phrase: both have equal claims. (For anothef example of this im-

pressive technique from Im Frl;hllng, see p. 62). Bars 15 to 19 ate a four-bar

phtur. lengthened to five by a repetition of the third bar'

The forrr-ba, phrase enlarged the time scale of music. In the newly systematic

use developed ln the early nineteenth century, it turned short pieces into

genuine miniatures, as if Chopin's Prelude in G Major were only seven bars

io.rg ".rd

not thirry (that is, seven times four plus one bar of introduction and

one"baf of suspension). It gave a larget sense of motion to long works and

altered the significance of the smaller details. Eventually this larger sense was

to make potribl. the gigantic forms of the'wagnerian music dramas.