Music 15200
Harmony and
Voice-Leading II
Lawrence Zbikowski
University of Chicago
Department of Music
Winter Quarter 2003
MWF, 10:30 - 11:20
Goodspeed Hall 402
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Music 15200
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This course continues the three-quarter sequence of harmony and voice-leading courses begun with Music 15100. The course will focus on an expansion of tonal syntax (especially with regard to the treatment of the dominant) and musical analysis, with a brief excursion into imitative counterpoint. Our focus on analysis will culminate in a short paper on a Schubert song. The course is accompanied by two skills sections: one focuses on the piano keyboard, the other on aural skills. Course assistants:
Week 1 (1/6—1/10)On 1/6 we started the second term with a practical overview of the course. It was practical in that I played guitar (and even sang, shocking as that might seem) and played music to illustrate my points. It was an overview in that the points I was making pertain to the central challenge of the course, which is to understand how tonal syntax reflects the shaping influence of both harmony and counterpoint (especially counterpoint between the melody and the bass). My first two illustrations came from the world of popular music—more specifically, country and western music. I showed how it was possible to play Don Gibson's "Oh Lonesome Me" on the guitar by simply holding down the appropriate chord and then making use of finger-picking techniques to pull out the melody. This suggests a strongly harmonic bias for this music, something also evident in Hank Williams's "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" (which I also played). However, I showed how an arrangement of the latter that made use of a descending bass pattern could change how we heard the harmonic progression—the specific descending-bass pattern I chose made the move to the subdominant chord much more noticeable, providing a motivating force distinct from the regularities of phrase rhythm that provided the first explanation for the appearance of the subdominant. Indeed, one could argue that this sort of bass necessitates the harmonic progression that occurs. I then turned to the fourth-movement recitative "Siehe, ich stehe vor der Tür" from J. S. Bach's 1714 cantata for the first Sunday of Advent, "Nun komm der Heiden Heiland" (BWV 61). Here the function of the bass was even more obvious as the bass pedal in the opening measures finally yielded to a first-inversion harmony that led to the relative major (the tonal area in which the movement closed a few moments later). This quite clearly demonstrated how the contrapuntal perspective that informed Bach's harmonic writing shaped the sense of progression that is so clearly audible in the music. And that, in short, is the subject for our next ten weeks. We engaged practical materials on 1/8 when we worked through one of the exercises from the workbook in preparation for Friday's assignment. We followed this with a first pass through an analysis of the opening of the last movement of Mozart's string quartet in Eb, K. 428. There we caught a more than passing glimpse at the habitat and behavior of the subdominant chord in the wild, as well as some slightly irregular voice leading associated with a dominant chord in third inversion. Heady stuff, this music theory. . . During the first part of class on 1/10 we had a brief diagnostic test on aural skills, which will help Ben Hartman place students in the correct sections. After this bracing experience we turned to a somewhat fuller consideration of ii, ii6, and IV. These harmonies introduce a new function within our survey of tonal syntax: that of leading toward the dominant. We are, of course, familiar with the dominant in connection with its role in establishing a tonal center; what the supertonic and subdominant harmonies introduce is the possibility of making the dominant a distinct focus of tonal motion. We ended by looking at the opening of the second movement of Mozart's violin sonata K. 377, which illustrated both of these functions within its first eight measures.
Week 2 (1/13—1/17)Building on the material introduced last week, class on 1/13 continued work with ii, ii6, and IV, which I noted are classed as dominant preparation harmonies or (somewhat less felicitously) pre-dominant harmonies. I noted basic aspects of how these harmonies are used, and then divided the class into small groups to work through a few exercises from the workbook. Much to our amazement, there appeared to be only one or two bass lines that could be written to these exercises: clearly we'll have to spend time during the remainder of this week exploring other alternatives. The ides of January (that is, 1/15) found us exploring th 5-6 technique. I noted that the series of parallel stepwise fifths that this technique avoided had certain things to recommend them—smooth linear motion, and the possibility for clearly-defined harmonies on the strong beats of measures—but that this sort of voice leading was generally recognized as deficient after the fourteenth century. (It still happens in heavy metal, but that's another story.) The 5-6 technique gets rid of the parallels by turning each fifth into a sixth before proceeding to the next fifth. We then looked ahead to the homework assignment for Friday, and I noted how this technique could be used, and also how the two exercises exploited the basic harmonic functions we have discovered (setting out tonic, and leading toward the dominant) in different ways. We finished with a return to the last movement of Mozart's string quartet in Eb, K. 428, and discussed the approach to the dominant that occurs in the last couple of measures before the double bars at the end of m. 16 Analysis was again our topic on 1/17, and we looked at the excerpt from the first movement of Mozart's violin sonata K. 296 from the workbook, and the use of the 5-6 technique there. We then turned to a small-group exercise focused around analyzing the theme from the first movement of Mozart's piano sonata in A, K. 331. We had just launched our discussion of the harmonic analysis of the first four measures (with their prominent series of parallel tenths) when we had to break off; we'll finish our discussion on Monday.
Week 3 (1/20—1/24)On 1/20 we returned to the theme from Mozart's K. 331 sonata and completed our discussion of its analysis. Two things emerged out of this exercise: (1) even a simple sounding classical theme can be pretty complicated; (2) the relationship between tonic and dominant, and various subtle details of this relationship (such as the way the dominant is approached in m. 12 of Mozart's theme) are crucial to the structure of classical music. I then turned away from analysis to a license of voice leading. I usually emphasize that the leading tone should, in almost all cases, lead to the tonic. And I think that's a good general practice. But as we know, there are certain exceptions, such as the "alternate resolution" shown in A below.
But the situation given at B is one that I haven't allowed. That is, until I recently checked in with good old J. S. himself, and found that this voice leading is quite common in Bach's chorales. So if Bach can do it, you can as well. But you need to insure that scale degree 2 proceeds to scale degree 1 in the soprano, that the rest of the voice leading is as smooth as possible, and that this is a final cadence. If all those are in place, feel free to use Bach's voice leading. Why should this be permissable? I think two things are behind this "departure" (since Bach is usually pretty strict about how his leading tones progress): (1) these cadences are final, and so the normative resolution of the leading tone has been well established; (2) as my arrows on B indicate, one can hear a sort of resolution of the leading tone in the outer voices, both of which (because they are part of a normative cadence) are quite prominent. I began class on 1/22 with a brief analytical exercise focused on the third movement of Bach's second sonata for unaccompanied violin (BWV 1003). We listened to the piece (without score) and tried to develop an account what was important within or essential to the movement. As discussion proceeded we did turn to the score, but our main emphasis was on the music rather than (only) its notation or the way it was shaped in performance. This exercise culminated in a few observations on the basic elements of musical analysis, to wit:
We left these weighty issues in what at first seemed a somewhat abrupt fashion and turned our focus to the cadential six-four. However, the process of laying out the important aspects of this stylized gesture returned us once more to the domain of analysis, for our approach will attempt to reflect both the place this gesture occupies within the larger framework of tonal musical syntax but also the more localized voice leading through which it is realized. We'll take up some of the details of this voice leading in subsequent classes. Building on the focus on phrase structured suggested by a study of the cadential six-four, on 1/24 we explored phrasing in the exposition and recapitulation of Fernando Sor's Op. 15 Sonata. One important point that emerged was the importance of components of harmonic syntax—familiar things like tonic and dominant—to the articulation of formal boundaries. The sonata also gave us insight into some of the ways a harmony can be prolonged, and thus used to generate considerable spans of music. We concluded class with a brief consideration of voice leading in the cadential six-four, and of the need to be careful with the doubling of either the fourth or the sixth above the bass.
Week 4 (1/27—1/31)The beginning of fourth week on 1/27 found us exploring the cadential six-four through a small-group exercise. Groups were given short exercises from the workbook which they completed and then put on the board. We finished by singing and (where necessary) discussion the completed harmonizations. Lucky volunteers (okay, students chosen at random from the class) began class on 1/29 by putting the first four measures of their homework up on the board. We sang through and discussed their solutions (especially where they were "innovative"), and considered other ways to solve the problems the exercises presented. In the latter portion of class we analyzed the opening of the first movement of Mozart's K. 380 violin sonata and then sang through the opening of one of Bach's harmonizations of "Freu' dich sehr, o eine Seele," with special attention to the applied dominant chord (a "V of V") that occured in the second measure. On 1/31 we finished the week—and the month—with a look and listen to the Queen of the Night's aria from the second act of Mozart's Magic Flute. I was particularly concerned with the sequence that occurs midway in the aria—an opportunity for some of the most memorable coloratura writing in this thoroughly memorable piece—and how the prolongation of tonic that sequence realizes fits in to the cadences that form part of Mozart's dramatic and tonal plan.
Week 5 (2/3—2/7)
EXAM 1, Friday, 2/7. Review materials will be posted closer to the time of the exam.
Week 6 (2/10—2/14)An introduction to imitative counterpoint and sequence. No class on 2/10: undergraduate break.
Week 7 (2/17—2/21)We began, on 2/17 with a further consideration of the second movement of Handel's Concerto grosso Op. 6, No. 5. I expanded somewhat our notion of how imitation could be used to generate a piece of music exploring the key areas visited by Handel in the course of this relatively short movement. While the larger harmonic context within which these key areas operated was clearly important, each also became a site from which further imitations of the basic subject of the movement launched the explorations that culminated in the return to tonic at the end of the movement. This was preceded not only by a pedal on the dominant, but also by a marvelous chain of 7-6 suspensions, which we took just a moment to analyze. As mentioned on Friday, another importance means of generating musical material is the ground bass, and I introduced one of the most famous of these (at least judging from texts in music history and analysis), Dido's concluding aria from Henry Purcell's 1689 Dido and Aeneas. I discussed briefly the basic structure of the ground (a chromatic descent through a tetrachord, followed by a cadential figure) and hinted at aspects of the text-music relations we shall pursue further on Wednesday. I concluded class with a brief demonstration of canonic composition, anticipating the assignment due Wednesday. Here is the conclusion of that exercise, along with some commentary:
The first portion of class on 2/19 was spent concluding our discussion of Dido's lament from Purcell's Dido and Aeneas. While there is no doubt that the bass pattern Purcell uses for the ground that forms the basis for this aria is a lamento bass (as it would be called in the seventeenth century) it is also clear that Dido herself is not, in a simple way, lamenting her imminent passing. She instead remains in control of her fate, her vocal line rising against the relentlessly descending bass even if she must ultimately descend as well. The lament proper comes only after Dido stops singing: then Purcell enchains the viols in a rapid series of descending lines that truly summarize the lament that Dido has forestalled with her imperial command of even her own passing. From Purcell's Dido we turned to Schubert's Gretchen (of "Gretchen am Spinnrade"), using the intense tumult of her disturbed emotions to illustrate the process of tonicization. Time ran somewhat short, and so we deferred a complete discussion until the next class. . .And so on 2/21 we were again cast into a kind of dementia, this suggested by Schubert's cartwheeling through a rapid succession of keys in the opening pages of his song as a way to portray Gretchen's distraught state. The illustration of toncization was an apt one, for in this process—midway as it is between the temporary inflection of a secondary dominant and the more complete change of key suggested by a modulation—we leave tonic, alight on a new key, but only for a moment, quickly moving back to tonic or on to yet another new key. In a similar fashion Gretchen's thoughts find no ready focus (the whirring of the spinning wheel notwithstanding), but careen about within the confines of her obsession. As an example of a more 'orderly' process of key change we turned to Schubert's "Heidenröslein." Here the move toward the dominant was quite orderly, with a stability that even suggested modulation (although I like to reserve the term for situations where the key is further stabilized by either a confirming cadence, new material in the target key, or both).
Week 8 (2/24—2/28)
Bach opened class on 2/24—or, rather, his first prelude from The Well-Tempered Clavier did. I played through the prelude, and we then discussed the large-scale form of the piece, noting the modulations (or near modulations) and the way these worked together to create a larger pattern of harmonic motion that clearly laid out C major. As seems to be our habit, we went from this orderly world to the slightly unhinged environment of Schumann's "Ich grolle nicht," from the song cycle Dichterliebe. In the time that remained we were only able to develop an overview of the song and some of the challenges of song analysis, topics to which we returned at the end of the week. . . Ben Hartman took over class on 2/26, with a focus on uses of ii7 and IV7 and their various inversions. The former harmony played a fairly prominent role in Schubert's "Ständchen," which also led to further discussion of the interaction between text and music in songs. The first portion of class on 2/28 was taken up with a brief consideration of uses IV6 and vi, both in leading to the dominant or (in the case of the latter) setting up short circle-of-fifths progressions that lead just as surely to the dominant. We also reviewed the main requirements for modulation, which include for any source and target key:
In truth, not every modulation will have all of these features, but the relative strength of the modulation can be gauged by noting how many of them it does have. We then took up the deferred matter of relationships between text and music in Schumann's "Ich grolle nicht," and gave particular attention to the way Schumann draws out the irony of Heine's text by infusing the 'casual' reflection on the miserable character of the beloved with an intensity that leaves no doubt about the unresolved passions that still consume the narrator.
Week 9 (3/3—3/7)Class on 3/3 was led by Kimmy Szeto, who discussed uses of IV, IV6, and vi. Kimmy noted the use of vi in deceptive cadences, and ways the subdominant is used as part of a prolongation of the tonic. Class was cancelled on 3/5 in protest of continued plans for war. Class on 3/7 began with a somewhat abstract contemplation on the resolution of the seventh within ii7 and IV7 chords. The long and short of it is that the seventh of these chords should resolve stepwise downwards in most instances; although it is true that the seventh of a V7 chord is at times more freely treated, the less-sharp dissonance of ii7 and IV7 chords tends to be treated more strictly. This contemplation concluded, we turned to the song "Täuschung" ("Illusion") from Franz Schubert's Winterreise. We were particularly concerned with relationships between the text and the music in this song, with particular attention to how the illusion (or delusion) that is the topic of the song was portrayed in the music. Four factors proved important here:
All of these aspects of the musical setting thus work together to give a strong representation of both the strength and the impossibility of the illusion that momentarily occupies the narrator.
Week 10 (3/10—3/12)Further work with song analysis, review. We began class on 3/10 with a brief discussion on Schubert's "Des Müllers Blumen," from Die schöne Müllerin. My emphasis was on the cadences that occur in the course of the song and their relationship to the keys toward which Schubert gestures in his setting, but we also considered briefly the interpretation of the image of weeping set forth in the final stanza of the song. We then turned to a tune from the jazz repertoire, Luiz Bonfa's "Gentle Rain." Here the focus was on the use of ii-V-I progressions in establishing key centers. In the opening line of Bonfa's tune just such a progression is used to establish A minor. This is followed immediately, however, by a quick circle of fifths progression that brings the music to pause briefly on F major before a succession on enchained ii-V-I progressions and a bit of third slippage return the music back to A minor. All of this was, in one way or another, familiar ground, and yet it was singularly interesting to hear this ground traversed in a language the specifics of which are quite different from those of the late eighteenth century. Our last class of the year (on 3/12) began with a brief review of important points in the analysis of Schubert's "Des Müllers Blumen" that emerged in my review of the homework exercises. We then turned to a rather simpler but no less striking instance of text and music working together—the group Solas's rendering of Peggy Seeger's "Song of Choice." To a casual reader the text of the song might seem almost consolatory, with its suggestion that profound problems may be in fact illusory—"For seeds you cannot hear may not be there / Seeds you cannot see may never grow." As the lyrics continue it becomes apparent that these words are not consolatory but admonitory. The music that sets these words, however, almost immediately removes any ambiguity: with a combination of a hemiolic rhythm and a temporary destabilization of tonic at the end of the chorus in which they occur it becomes clear that there is no consolation to be found in turning one's back on the evil of the world. We concluded with an overview of the final exam, and the unfigured bass waiting there for members of the class. As a preparation for this concluding exercise we worked through just how one harmonizes such a bass, with particular emphasis on the relatively orderly process through which one can "read" the harmonic syntax of an unfigured bass.
FINAL EXAM: Monday, 3/17, 10:30—12:30. Review materials are now posted.
Policies:Late assignments are not accepted for grade. GradesGrades will be determined on the basis of the two exams [30%] (Exam 1: 10%; Final Exam: 20%), homework assignments [40%], the final analysis assignment (10%), and performance in skills sections [20%]. (Note that the percentages given are approximate.) Homework AssignmentsThere will be four homework assignments in each unit, for a total of twelve assignments.
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Texts:The text for the course is the new third edition of Harmony and Voice Leading by Edward Aldwell and Carl Schachter, and Volume I of the Workbook for the text. These, together with CDs which include all the main musical examples from the text, are available at the Seminary Co-op Bookstore, 5757 South University Avenue, and will be used throughout the year. Additional resources |
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Copyright © 2003 Lawrence M. Zbikowski For inquiries about this page, or suggestions, contact Lawrence Zbikowski, Department of Music, University of Chicago. |
