Monday, February 20, 2017

Assignment for Monday, February 27; Chopin continued

Let's continue with the Chopin Preludes; choose one or two from nos. 8-11, and be prepared to hand one of them in. I'm going to re-adjust the course schedule this weekend; we'll try to finish the Preludes quickly.

Also, please read these excerpts from Charles Rosen's wonderful book The Romantic Generation, on the Chopin Preludes. This is the kind of book that you can just dip into at random and learn something new; I highly recommend just browsing through it, looking for pieces you recognize. Or, you can also go to the index and look for your favorite composers & pieces - it's fun.

The entire book is available as an e-book from the Library:
https://vufind.carli.illinois.edu/vf-uiu/Record/uiu_6698223

Or you can download excerpts here:

Chapter 2, "Fragments" pt. 1 (p. 78-89)
Chapter 2, "Fragments" pt. 2 (p. 95-98)
Chapter 4, "Formal interlude" (p. 261-265)

One of the claims Rosen makes is that in 19th century music, "attention is deflected away from the bar and to the whole phrase as a unit." Does that ring true with your own experience? Please comment below; think of one example that might back up Rosen's claim, and one counter-example, from pieces that you already know.

13 comments:

  1. This claim from Rosen seems to be true in my experience. One aspect of Romantic music that stands out to me is the experimentation with form that did not occur in previous eras. Romantic composers often "broke the rules" by manipulating standard forms to surprise their audiences. This large-scale way of thinking about music did indirectly draw focus to larger gestures and distracted from devices that pre-Romantic composers would have previously used to draw interest, such as subtle harmonic or timbral changes. One example of this is Fast zu ernst from Schumann's Kinderscenen collection. This piece has a general ABA form, but the irregular length of the phrases mixed with syncopation between the melody and accompaniment influence the ear to listen to the shape of the piece as a whole. However, this is not always the case, especially for Romantic pieces that have steady and consistent harmonic motion. For example, Chopin Prelude no. 4 with its steady downward direction and static harmonic motion can easily be listened to at the bar-level.

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  2. I may not be as well-versed in Romantic music as others, but in my experience I find instances of both standard forms focusing on bars and deviation from that among several works. The standard forms are more common with dance pieces, such as marches and waltzes, where the music serves a more functional purpose. The example that comes to mind is Trisch-Trasch Polka by Johann Strauss, written in 1858. It has a predictable form with heavy downbeats, emphasizing the dance steps. On the other hand, we've heard several examples in class of focuses on the phrase lengths rather than the bars. The example that comes to mind is the 5th movement of Symphonie Fantastique, when the Dies Irae theme comes in. The theme as a phrase becomes the basis for structure, and the other parts are composed around it. The theme itself is 20 bars long, which doesn't lend itself well to standard phrases based on bars. The movement as a whole progresses through the presentation of various themes of irregular length, making the structure based on phrases rather than bars.

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  3. In context, Rosen speaks about the need of the Romantic composers, to find new ways of expressing intense feelings, philosophic ideas, supernatural elements. So they had to have a starting point and that starting point was the Classical model - four-bar phrase. They soon realized that this would not be enough, because it is a rigid concept and then there is the danger of monotony.
    Then they started to experiment using various means, like through an 'extra' bar here and there, interrupting the pattern (and Rosen gives the example of Chopin's Prelude No. 3), or by changing the placements of the stronger beats, altering the sense of the bar structure (Beethoven, Brahms etc.).

    With all the new things and experiments and altering of the forms, still during the 19th Century, composers sometimes returned and composed in the 'old-style' of Classicism - and they were in a way precursors of neoclassicism. Some examples would be Grieg's Holberg Suite, Liszt's 'A la chapelle sixtine', or Tchaikovsky's divertissement from 'The Queen of Spades'.

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  4. I think Rosen's claim is generally true. However, I think that it's just a consequence of melodies and harmonies and composers creating more elaborate and emotional lines.

    One example that would counter his claim, in my opinion, is Chopin's prelude in C Major. At least for the first third or so, I think a listener could arguably hear each bar individually.

    For the vast majority, though, I think his claim holds true. I think many of the other preludes contain beautiful phrases, that when inspected at the bar-level would sound out of place. For example, I think Chopin's prelude in Ab Major needs to be heard at the phrase-level.

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  5. Music in the classical period holds 2 or 4 bars phrases or etc. However, as Rosen pointed out, the phrase begun to expand to the longer phrases. Still the bar phrase pattern did not break entirely, but it is true that we can see many 19th century music that goes further away from the classical model. One example for me would be Schubert's Arpeggione and Brahms's Viola Sonatas.

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  6. My limited understanding of romantic music on a structural level would lead me to agree with Rosen overall. Especially with vocal music of the era, not only does the music transcend bar lines and the four bar phrases of the classical era, but the music conforms not just to what the text says but what it inspires. A piece that comes to mind is Liszt's setting of "Oh! quand je dors". Throughout the piece the length of phrasing varies based on the text and the moment that it falls in the song. Perhaps a counter-argument to this would be the opera that was being performed at the beginning of the 19th century. Many of Rossini's and Donizetti's most well known works premiered prior to 1850 and made use of many of the conventions of classical opera.

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  7. I believe that as with any art, there is no "set" way of thinking of, or approaching, something, nor a completely subjective way of approaching it - I think that an approach that pulls from both the objective (structure, vertical harmonies, harmonic progressions) and the subjective (phrasing, interpretation, how you hear it) is essential in being able to gain the full artistic value of a work through analysis. I think that whether a work is composed primarily with attention to form or to an idea/feeling, that elements of the other can and should be interjected in order to bring across new, complex, and varying ideas. A good example is Chopin's set of preludes, or any of his piano works. They combine in different variations and levels original musical ideas (such as melodies or themes) with more objective elements of music to add structure as well as to deviate from a structure (using common vs. uncommon chord progressions, cadences vs. deceptive cadences, switching between relative keys vs. straying far away from the original area, etc.). So to simply answer the original question, I don't think that either the bar (the more objective) or the phrase (the more subjective) call for different amounts of attention in the 19th century.

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  8. Excellent comments everyone! This quote of Rosen has always kind of bothered me: I can think of plenty of Baroque and Classical pieces where the phrase stands out much more than the bar. Still, pieces like Bach's Goldberg Variations, even though the phrases are clearly marked, still have a "bar-by-bar" harmonic rhythm. And Chopin, as Alex points out above, can manipulate these phrases expertly.

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  9. Unlike Fugues or inventions of Bach, 19th century music has more 'personal stories' in music. Of course, baroque composers expressed their own personalities in their music in different ways but it is true that 19th century music was more about poem, literature or humans emotions. To convey the whole process of the 'story line', I agree with the Rosen's claim, the whole phrase or even entire piece has to be considered as a unit. However, like a idee fixe, or beethoven symphony no.5, small unit were still powerful tool for the romantic composers as well.

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  10. Yes it does I believe, the music of the Romantic period is less small parts in more focused on phrases. For example the piece that I analyzed, Chopin's no. 10 prelude in C# minor contained distinguishable phrases as sections and must be observed in that manor to analyze the piece correctly. The phrases are signaled by the cascading right hand lines mixing with the dominate section where it goes to the V between phrases.

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  11. I would say that Rosen's theory definitely rings true in some cases. As mentioned in another comment, there aren't set rules for a whole century of music, encompassing all compositions and all. However, this definitely becomes more of a prevalent idea in 19th century compositions. It's clearly seen in the Chopin Preludes, in many of the faster pieces, it is obvious that the focus cannot be on a single bar. There is clear emphasis on phrase. I think that pretty much any vocal piece will be phrase centered. In the Schubert unfinished symphony, however, you see definite bar emphasis, at least at the transitional point, leading to rehearsal B.

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  12. I agree with Rosen. Except Chopin' Music, in Schuman, Liszt 's piano music, the Harmony changes frequently. Schumann's Op.17, Op.16 , Liszt major piece inside his Travel years. From Harmony side, harmony/chords changes frequently inside bar, like Prelude No.9. So, how to interpret these chords should not only look themselves but the whole phrase is right. In addition, from performance side, how to interpret these chords, also need to look the whole phrase even whole section.They are different and where is the moment/ chords/harmony the performers can stress or do rubato, also rely on analyzing from the view of a whole phrase since you can not do

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  13. since you can not put rubato everywhere in a phrase or a piece. I hope what I write make sense. :)

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