Assignments for
Music 25801/31801:
The Analysis of Song

Weekly guide:


	Week 1
	Week 2
	Week 3
	Week 4
	Week 5
	Week 6
	Week 7
	Week 8
	Week 9
	Week 10

These are the assignments for Music 25801/31801, Larry Zbikowski’s course on the analysis of song at the University of Chicago, Autumn term 2007. Various course materials can be found on the Chalk site for this class.

Week 1 (9/24—9/26)

Class notes

for 9/26

Write out harmonic reductions for “Morgengruss” and “Des Müllers Blumen” from Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin. These reductions should consist of the basic harmonies (typically, in four or five voices), with a roman numeral/figured bass analysis underneath.

One of the challenges of doing these sorts of reductions is figuring out what to include and what to leave out. For instance, the introduction to “Morgengruss” sketches out the melody for the opening measures of the song, and then shifts to something more generic and “introductory.” The third measure is perhaps most simply rendered as a succession of quarter-note chords, but should the notes introduced by the skips in the right hand be included? I would encourage you to let the essential voice leading be your guide in answering questions like this. If a musical strand seems to trace out an important path, include it in your reduction. If it seems like filigree, or if it duplicates another voice, perhaps your reduction will be clearest if you leave it out.

These challenges are, if anything, more obvious in sections of “Des Müllers Blumen.” At times you will want to include more detail to make clear the harmonic progression, but figuring out where voices “go” can sometimes be challenging. (Note, however, that both hands of the piano part are written in bass clef throughout.)

Reductions such as these have two functions. First, they will require you to consider closely just what is essential for the harmonic structure of the song and what belongs to the level of surface rhythmic and harmonic activation. Second, they will give you a playable sketch of the song. Indeed, you should do this assignment in close correspondence with a keyboard (of the black-and-white variety), striving to come up with a final product that sets out, in outline, the basic harmonic features of the song.

Week 2 (10/1—10/3)

Class notes

for 10/1

Reading:
Edward T. Cone, The Composer’s Voice (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1974), chapter 1 (“Some Thoughts on “Erlkönig”), pp. 1-19; the pdf is available on Chalk. Cone was, of course, a composer, teacher, and analyst, as well as a writer of consummate accomplishment where wrapping words around music is concerned. You should take note in particular of the more general questions he asks, and how Schubert’s song encourages or allows him to ask these questions.

Listening:
Schubert, “Erlkönig” op. 1; “Gretchen am Spinnrade” op. 2; recordings are available on Chalk.

To prepare these songs you should listen to them, do an initial harmonic analysis on each (nothing fancier than roman numerals/figured bass is necessary, but do take note of modulations/tonicizations and other deflections away from tonic), and come up with some initial ideas on the relationship between the music (especially when it is at its most exceptional) and the text.

for 10/3

“Danksagung an den Bach” from Die schöne Müllerin.

Using three staves, write out a harmonic reduction for the song (on the upper two staves) and a figured bass (on the lowest stave). No other analysis is required (although if you must I can’t rightly stop you).
Write a brief (c. 250 word) account of distinctive aspects of the poem and Schubert’s treatment of it. Note in particular the role repetition plays in both the poem and the song. What would you say the character of the miller is, based on this song?

Week 3 (10/8—10/10)

Class notes

The song cycle in the nineteenth century. Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin. Bass lines and harmonic structure (with particular attention to levels of harmonic functionality); review of common chromatic chords.

for 10/8

Listening and analysis:
Schubert, “Der Fischer,” and “Fischerweise.”

for 10/10

Reconstructing Schubert’s “Heidenröslein” (measures 1-14).

This assignment is an exercise in harmonic syntax and patience. I would like you to create a hypothetical reconstruction of the derivation of Schubert’s “Heidenröslein.” While a completely artificial activity—we have, after all, the completed song ready to hand—it should help clarify aspects of harmonic syntax that may be obscure when we look at the finished song.

Your reconstruction will proceed in four steps—use the large staff paper provided, which will allow you to align the measures of each successive version.

Step 1: Write out, in simple keyboard style (one note in the left hand, three in the right hand), the basic harmonies for the song, using only root-position harmonies, with triads and dominant-seventh chords. Use the largest rhythmic durations practicable: in measures 1-6 half notes and 11-13 are all that is wanted; in the remaining measures, quarter notes should do.
Step 2: Selectively employ inversions of dominant-seventh chords to create a smoother bass line. For instance, the path from V⁷ to I can be smoothed out by using a V^4/2 chord, with the bass half note changed into two quarter notes (the first will be the root of the chord—from Step 1 above—the second the dissonant seventh). Change the voicing of the right-hand part as needed to avoid doubling tendency tones. In this example the bass of the following I chord will have to change, but its duration can remain a half note. Change only the bass notes of the dominant-seventh chords and the chords to which they resolve—leave the rest alone.
Step 3: At this stage you can add other diatonic seventh chords (as always, not exceeding Schubert’s original vocabulary) and use inversions for the root-position chords still in measures 7-9; leave everything else as it was in your Steps 1 and 2.
Step 4: Copy out Schubert’s actual accompaniment (in simplified form), and explain (on a separate sheet of paper) how it can be derived from your Step 3 version of the song; use measure numbers and pitch designations as necessary to make clear how Schubert’s version is different from yours.

I will leave it to you to decide how much detail you want to capture in your upper voices (since there are interesting divergences between the piano and vocal parts).

Week 4 (10/15—10/17—10/19)

Class notes

Dramatic and character development in the song cycle; introduction to conceptual blending theory. Songs from Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin. Techniques of analytical notation.

for 10/15

Reading:

Susan Youens, Schubert: Die schöne Müllerin (Cambridge University Press, 1992) [Call no.: ML410 .S26 Y67 1992 on reserve]
Susan Youens, Schubert’s Poets and the Making of Lieder (Cambridge University Press, 1996) [Call no.: ML410 .S26Y68 1996 on reserve]
Susan Youens, Schubert, Müller, and Die schöne Müllerin (Cambridge University Press, 1997) [Call no.: ML410 .S26 Y675 1997 c.1 Gen on reserve]

Listening:
Schubert, Die schöne Müllerin, in any recording.

Writing Assignment #1, for 10/15

Write a 750-word (c. three-page) essay on “Am Feierabend,” the fifth song from Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin. As you’ll discover from Graham Johnson’s notes to the Hyperion Schubert Edition recording of the cycle, and in Susan Youens’ Cambridge handbook on the cycle [ML410 .S26 Y67 1992, on reserve], this is an exceptionally rich song for interpretation, not the least because there is a cast of characters that come on to Schubert’s stage (and which the singer needs to embody). For your essay, however, I would like you to adopt a slightly idiosyncratic position, which is that the song embodies a reminiscence on the part of the miller. Let me set this out in cinematic terms: as the scene opens, we see the miller striding along a forest path (the mill stream not far away), and overhear him speaking to himself. After a bit he slows and stops, and becomes lost in a memory of the previous evening, when he gathered with the other apprentices at the conclusion of the day’s work. Two images dominate this memory: a kindly and yet regal statement of approval from the master; and a soft good night from his daughter, the beautiful maid of the mill. This last image jerks the miller back to the present, and he returns to the present and strides on through the forest.

In your essay, I would like you to describe how Schubert’s music supports this staging of Müller’s poem. You should think broadly about Schubert’s musical materials—he has, after all, more than just pitch material at his disposal—but pay particular attention to the way he uses harmonies and key areas to suggest different images within this scene (and in some cases transitions between portions of the scene). You should make use of at least one musical example to illustrate your argument (but I can imagine using more). Think carefully, however, about the role of the example(s) in your essay, and be sure to incorporate the example(s) fully within your argument. Put another way, examples are not icons. They are instead material anchors for sequences of musical events. [The notion of a material anchor comes from the work of Ed Hutchins (“Material Anchors for Conceptual Blends,” Journal of Pragmatics 37, no. 10 (October 2005): 1555–77). The tokens we use for monetary units—paper bills and metal coins, for instance—are good examples of material anchors.] To get the most out of these anchors you need to set them up properly, and in many cases lead your reader through them. Examples should be neatly rendered and appended to your text.

Given the brevity of this essay, and its artificial nature (in that I’m requiring you to adopt a particular interpretation of the song), you needn’t worry about an introduction or thesis statement. Simply launch into your account as though you had already set up the framework for it (which I guess I’ve done with these instructions), and concentrate on developing the strongest and clearest sketch of the scene that you can. You also needn’t worry about a conclusion, although you might want to consider how the miller’s moment of reminiscence has effected a change in his psychological state.

Week 5 (10/22—10/24)

Class notes

The expressive resources of the song cycle. Songs from Schubert’s Winterreise. Further work with chromatic harmonies; linear voice-leading.

Week 6 (10/29—10/31—11/2)

Class notes

Further development of the song cycle in the nineteenth century; the song as fragment. Songs from Schumann’s Heine Liederkreis op. 24 and Dichterliebe op. 48. Degrees of closure in harmonic structure.

Writing assignment 2 due 10/29.

Week 7 (11/5)

Class notes

The song as dramatic scene. Songs from Schumann’s Eichendorff Liederkreis, op. 39. Harmonic ambiguity, metric structure and rhythmic figuration.

Week 8 (11/12)

Class notes

Further development of harmonic strategies in the nineteenth century, viewed through the lens of the song. Songs by Brahms. Harmonic substitution; rhythmic manipulation as a dramatic device.

Writing assignment 3 due 11/14 (noon).