David Schulenberg

Modes, Prolongations, and Analysis

mong the more important results of the teachings of Heinrich Schenker has been the attempt by some of his followers to extend his method of analysis to repertories other than those dealt with by Schenker himself. One can immediately deduce two goals for such efforts: to trace the history of Western music and compositional thought in terms that stem from Schenkers insights into the structure of tonal music; and to search in nontonal music for continuity, directionality, and coherence, each understood in a way comparable to Schenkers demonstration of these qualities in the tonal repertory. This program, which has been taken up most prominently by Felix Salzer and his associates,2 raises a number of immediate questions. First, can historians and theorists today accept the teleological assumptions underlying Schenkers understanding of music history, which he viewed as an evolution toward (and subsequent decline from) the discovery of the Ursatz and its unfolding at various structural levels in the music of the twelve great masters of tonality?3 Such a view can be discerned even in Salzers sympathetic analyses of non-tonal works; the problem with it is that it imposes a burden on non-tonal music to meet the same aesthetic standards against which tonal works are judged, and evaluates works chiefly on the degree to which they approach the use of tonal procedures.4 From a purely theoretical point of view additional problems arise. First, several scholars have questioned the validity of applying moder theoretical views to music created within a quite different conceptual framework. While this can be defended within a strictly empirical approach to analysis that regards anything seen on the page or heard in a performance as its subject, it seems hazardous to rely solely on such an empiricism without considering the compositional theory and procedures that inform the work, as well as other aspects of its native cultural milieu, such as performance practice. The reason is that otherwise one is all too likely to restrict ones analysis to a search for procedures and explanations familiar

MODIFYING THE DA CAPO? THROUGH-COMPOSED ARIAS IN VOCAL WORKS BY BACH AND OTHER COMPOSERS

Among the many unique features of the vocal music of Johann Sebastian Bach is the use of what has been called ‘free’ or ‘modified’ da capo form in roughly a third of the movements that have an overall ternary design. Bachs reason for adopting this distinctive form, used in duets and choruses as well as arias, has been the subject of frequent speculation by scholars, who have found precedents in works by Alessandro Scarlatti and parallel examples in the music of Handel. Through close analysis of text and music in numerous examples, this study demonstrates that Bachs version of this design is a defining element of his style; although it resembles early types of sonata form, it is distinct from anything in the music of his predecessors and contemporaries. No single explanation can account for his use of it, but most examples demonstrate Bachs close attention to particular formal or rhetorical features of their poetic texts. I propose a new term, ‘through-composed da capo form’, for this design. Its prominence in Bachs music is a product of his emergence as a composer during a period when German poets and musicians were adopting new approaches derived from the Italian tradition of opera seria but had not yet reduced them to formulae.