William Kinderman

The second practice of nineteenth-century tonality

In 1861, a half-century before Arnold Schoenbergs break with tonality, a young composer associated with Liszt saw a threshold to musical modernism as lodged in the suspension of the main key. As the unified tonal perspective of earlier music yielded increasingly to dualistic key structures often laden with chromaticism, the language of music was transformed. In The Second Practice of Nineteenth-Century Tonality, nine prominent theorists and historians explore aspects of this musical evolution, from Schubert to the end of the nineteenth century. Many works discussed are masterpieces of the performance repertory, ranging from Chopins piano pieces and Wagners music dramas to the symphonies of Bruckner.The integration of analytical and historical approaches in the essays seeks to avoid narrow specialization as well as the polemic stance of some recent studies. A critical assessment of issues including inter-textuality, narrative, and dramatic symbolism enriches this investigation of what may be described as the second practice of nineteenth-century tonality. William Kinderman and Harald Krebs are professors of music at the University of Victoria. Kinderman is author of Beethovens Diabelli Variations and Beethoven and editor of Beethovens Compositional Process (Nebraska 1991).

Dramatic Recapitulation in Wagner's "Götterdämmerung"

In his essay, A Note on Opera, Donald Francis Tovey wrote that a far more important aspect of Wagners musical organization than any details of leitmotiv is the matter of recapitulation. Nowhere in Toveys writings did he explore in detail the implications of this striking observation, which so flatly contradicts much of traditional Wagner scholarship. In fact, recapitulation is a conspicuous feature in many of Wagners works: the Chorus of Pilgrims in Tannhduser, the Prize Song in Die Meistersinger, and the bells of the Temple of the Holy Grail in Parsifal are some of the most familiar examples. And, as Tovey did point out on several occasions, there are two instances in Wagner where recapitulation assumes extraordinary importance. In Tristan, and in the Ring, W gner achieved a musical articulation of the crux of the drama not by means of the leitmot v or thematic recall, but by massive musical recapitulation. The best-known example of large-scale recapitulation in Wagners works is Isoldes concluding Liebestod in Tristan, and its dramatic point has been discussed by Joseph Kerman in his book Opera as Drama.2 But an even larger musical recapitulation takes place in the last act of GOtterddmmerung, in the passages that prepare and depict Siegfrieds moments of revelation before his death. This recapitulation h s r ce ved very little critical attention. Lorenz overlooked it completely, and, in his zeal to classify its form according to recurring motives, obscured its correspondence with the last act of Siegfried. Consequently, Lorenz regarded precisely this section as unusually 1A Note on Opera, in The Main Stream of Music and Other Essays (New York, 1949), p. 359. Tovey also made this point in several other essays, but never more clearly than here.

Beethoven's compositional process

Fresh perspectives on the symphonies and piano concertos of Ludwig van Beethoven are offered in the inaugural volume of North American Beethoven Studies . To be published under the joint auspices of the University of Nebraska Press and the Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies, the volumes in the new series will focus on the life and work, milieu and influence of the great composer. The first volume, edited by the noted music scholar and pianist William Kinderman, brings together recent studies by leading scholars on Beethovens major orchestral, including the first two piano concertos, the Egmont overture, the Missa Solemnis, and several of the symphonies, especially the Third, Fifth, and Ninth. They devote special attention to Beethovens creative process by analyzing, in some instances closely for the first time, his numerous surviving musical sketchbooks and loose sketch-leaves. The issues dealt with include Beethovens reinterpretation of the composition models of Haydn and Mozart, his working methods in composition, the structural expansion of his symphonic forms, the design of variation movements in his symphonies, and Beethovens musical symbolism. Four introductory essays probe the relation between Beethovens sketches and the analysis of his finished works; it is a fascinating and controversial undertaking. The first volume of North American Beethoven Studies illuminates critical issues and challenges traditional interpretations of some of Beethovens most celebrated works while avoiding the narrow specialization of some recent scholarship. Future volumes will focus on performance practices, composition, and recording history.

Beethoven's Symbol for the Deity in the "Missa solemnis" and the Ninth Symphony

try takes on new significance, however, when it is considered in relationship to the Entstehungsgeschichte of the composition that was occupying-or, rather, consuming-him at the time: the Missa solemnis. In brief: what the sketchbooks show is that when Beethoven copied down this quotation from Kant, he had already worked intensely on the Mass for most of a year, but was far from finished. At this point in the compositional process, he had not yet devised one of the most impressive symbolic and structural musical el-

The Evolution and Structure of Beethoven’s “Diabelli” Variations

T HE THIRTY-THREE VARIATIONS ON A WALTZ BY DIABELLI, Op. 120, represent Beethovens most extraordinary single achievement in the art of variation-writing, and in their originality and power of invention stand beside other late masterpieces such as the Ninth Symphony, the Missa solemnis, and the last quartets. When Anton Diabelli announced the publication of this work in 1823, he proclaimed these Variations a great and important masterpiece worthy to be ranked with the imperishable creations of the Classics, entitled to a place beside Sebastian Bachs famous masterpiece in the same form, the Goldberg Variations. This is still the general critical verdict today. Nevertheless, as in the case of other late works by Beethoven, the difficulty, great length, and complexity of the Diabelli Variations have conspired against frequent performances and have posed an obstacle to satisfactory comprehension of the work as a whole. Paradox lies at the heart of this composition-Beethovens sublime transformation of a theme he disdained as a cobblers

Hans Sachs's “cobbler's song,” tristan, and the “bitter cry of the resigned man”

Abstract Analysis of Hans Sachss “Cobblers Song” in Act II of Wagners Die Meistersinger offers the point of departure for a reexamination of the music and drama of the third act, culminating in the explicit quotation of Tristan. The consideration of large‐scale musical recapitulation, formal design, motivic relations, and musical symbolism suggests an interpretation differing significantly from those of some recent commentators and opera directors. As this analysis shows, the resignation of Hans Sachs harbors Schopenhauerian features that are not without relevance to Wagners biography.

Beethoven's unfinished piano trio in F minor from 1816: A study of its genesis and significance

During 1816, Beethoven worked on a Piano Trio in F minor, which he offered to British publisher Robert Birchall on October 1 of that year. This unfinished work has received almost no previous scholarly attention, yet the manuscript sources for the F minor Trio are extensive and revealing. Study of the Scheide Sketchbook at Princeton, New Jersey, and the draft for the first movement of the trio in the Staatsbibliothek preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin, MS Grasnick 29, shows the originality of Beethovens plans for the trio. The draft for the movement is transcribed and is shown to be intimately related to entries in the Scheide Sketchbook, a circumstance supporting the proposal of a new chronology for Beethovens use of the book. In its style and structure, the F minor Trio bears comparison with several of Beethovens earlier works in this key, such as the “Appassionata” Sonata and the F minor Quartet, Op. 95. At the same time, the unfinished trio displays affinities with some of his later pieces, such as the “Hammerklavier” Sonata, Op. 106, and it helps fill out the picture of Beethovens artistic development during this pivotal yet relatively unproductive phase of his career. Among the tasks that occupied Beethoven when he set the trio aside were a pair of symphonies to be written for the London Philharmonic Society. Although the symphonies for London were never finished, these plans exerted an impact on Beethovens creative activity. Examination of the sketch sources from this time not only clarifies the nature of the unfinished trio, but allows for a fresh glimpse at the early genesis of what became the Ninth Symphony. [Supplementary materials are available for this article. Go to the publishers online edition of Journal of Musicological Research for the following free supplemental resource: an audio recording of the unfinished first movement of Beethovens Piano Trio in F minor, as transcribed and edited by William Kinderman. Performed by: William Kinderman, piano; Christina Lixandru, violin; Diana Flesner, cello.] 1 I am grateful to Dr. Helmut Hell, Director of the Music Division at the Staatsbibliothek preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin, for allowing me access to the Grasnick 29 manuscript and other sources, and to Paul Needham, Librarian of the Scheide Collection at Princeton University, who kindly permitted me to examine the Scheide Sketchbook. Musical examples from these sources were typeset by Bradley Decker. Research for this study was supported by the Research Board of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. A version of this article was read at the annual national meeting of the American Musicological Society, Houston, November 2003. This article is dedicated to my students at the University of Illinois, especially to the participants in the graduate seminar on Beethoven held during the autumn of 2001, which included a preliminary investigation of the unfinished Piano Trio in F minor.

Beethoven After Napoleon: Political Romanticism in the Late Works (review)

Beethoven After Napoleon: Political Romanticism in the Late Works. By Stephen Rumph. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004. [ix, 295 p. ISBN 0-520-23855-9.

A companion to Wagner's Parsifal

45.] Index. Stephen Rumphs Beethoven After Napoleon: Political Romanticism in the Late Works tackles a vitally important topic: the relation of the music to its political context. The pieces that come under consideration include the Third and Ninth Symphonies and Fidelia, as well as the Egmont music, a number of sonatas and quartets, some of Beethovens patriotic songs and marches, and particularly his Battle Symphony from 1813, Wellingtons Sieg. As the author rightly states in his introduction, a political study of Beethoven can scarcely be regarded as a curiosity for interdisciplinary studies: it belongs squarely within musical criticism, alongside biography, sketch studies, and formal analysis (p. 1). Rumph frames his argument in relation to the movement known as politische Romantik (political Romanticism) led by such figures as the Schlegel brothers, Novalis, and Heinrich von Kleist. He emphasizes their grievances against French cultural hegemony and their virulent reaction to all things French and enlightened. This ideology of political Romanticism, he claims, was no passing fad for Beethoven but exercised a profound and enduring influence on his later style (p. 5). There is scant documentation of Beethovens connection to these writers, and although Rumph acknowledges that his study is speculative, he aims to convey a new way of seeing . . . [that] incarnates the ideological in specifically musical structures (p. 8). In the opening chapters of the book, Rumph impressively draws upon the aesthetic writings of Friedrich Schiller, a writer whom Beethoven admired. Schillers notion of artistic activity as Spieltrieb (play drive) and his famous distinction between naive and sentimental poetry are explored. Emanuel Kants theory of the sublime serves as context for thoughtful comments on Beethovens treatment of das Erhabene in his song Die Ehre Gottes aus der Natur, from the Gettert Songs, op. 48. Another influential writer who receives attention here is E. T. A. Hoffmann. Rumph is particularly interested in Hoffmanns famous critique of the Fifth Symphony from 1810, in which Beethovens music is regarded as revealing an unknown kingdom, a world that has nothing in common with the outer sensory world (p. 9). Rumphs strategy is to invert Hoffmanns view. He seeks to show that Beethovens late works represent a kingdom that is very much of this world, one that actually reflects the reactionary turn in the politics of post-Napoleonic Europe. Such an argument has originality, and goes against the grain of much Beethoven scholarship. Rumph admits that the young Beethoven embraced an ideological world view diametrically opposed to the ethos of political Romanticism (p. 35). Nonetheless, he sees a decisive shift in Beethovens attitude beginning in 1809, when Napoleons armies besieged and occupied Vienna. Rumph finds that Beethovens letters from 1809 to 1813 trace an unbroken arc of resentment, in which Beethoven pins the full blame for his economic vicissitudes on the war with France (p. 96). Against this historical background, Rumph sets forth the main point of [his] entire book, namely that the same ideology that shaped Beethovens late style helped create the Restoration (pp. 106-07). A key work to address in this context is surely Beethovens only opera, Fidelia. Unfortunately, Rumph does not investigate thoroughly some aspects of the opera that do not conform to his thesis. Fidelia is closely bound up with French models and Enlightenment ideals, and its extensive final revision took place in 1814, several years after Rumph sees Beethoven as having renounced these principles. While he acknowledges that Leonore wears the pants in this opera of conjugal love (p. 164), he does not recognize her full importance as a symbol of liberty, which was enhanced unforgettably in the section added to Florestans aria in the revision (a passage influenced in turn by Egmonts vision of Clarchen in the Egmont music, from 1810). …