New publication: Part 2 of Form Functions in Mozart Menuets

I have just published Formal Functions in Menuets by Mozart, Part 2: Sonatas and Chamber Music on the Texas Scholar Works platform.

Here is the abstract:

Continuation of a study of formal functions (after Caplin) in named menuets by Mozart. A table of data and comprehensive musical examples cover the trios, string quartets, string quintets, quartets and quintets with other instrumentation, piano sonatas, and violin sonatas.

For both parts of the study, the principal results are:

(1) An older historical narrative is discredited, according to which 18th century composers used period themes but Beethoven turned toward sentences instead. The menuet designs are remarkably and consistently varied.
(2) The antecedent + continuation theme is so important to the menuet repertoire that I have named it the “galant theme.”
(3) A small but still significant number of presentation + consequent themes appear.
(4) The available theme categories do not account well for some features of an 8-bar theme’s second phrase. In particular, “continuation” is too broad to account for the difference between “development” (as in fragmentation or sequence) and “continuing melody” (as in a new basic idea).

New publication: Form functions in Mozart menuets, Part 1

I have just published Formal Functions in Menuets by Mozart, Part 1: Orchestral Works and Independent Sets on the Texas Scholar works platform: link.

Here is the abstract:

A study of formal functions (after Caplin) in named menuets by Mozart, the larger goal being to historicize more fully form-design practices in European music during the second half of the eighteenth century, especially emphasizing the importance of the “galant theme” or anticipation + continuation/contrast model. The essay includes a table of data along with comprehensive musical examples drawn from the orchestral compositions and from the independent sets of menuets, many of which are either orchestral or keyboard reductions of ensemble pieces.

New publication: Form functions in Bach menuets

I have just published Formal Functions in Menuets by Johann Sebastian Bach on the Texas Scholar works platform: link.

Here is the abstract:

The menuet entered into upper-class social dance, ballet, and opera no later than the 1660s, thanks largely to Jean Baptiste Lully. This essay charts formal functions (after Caplin) in named menuets  by Johann Sebastian Bach, with additional commentary on his contemporaries in Germanophone countries.

New publication: second supplement to British Dance and Song

English, Scotch, and Irish Dance and Song: Supplement 2 was just published on Texas Scholar Works. Here is the link: supplement 2. And here is the abstract:

Another supplement to the essay English, Scotch, and Irish Dance and Song, which is primarily a documentation of rising cadence figures in dances, fiddle tunes, and songs from late eighteenth and early nineteenth century published sources. Gathered here are an additional 70 examples taken from files downloaded in May and June 2017.

Menuet survey summary

A longer-term goal of the menuet survey—which still needs entries on J. C. Bach and Mozart—has been a large documentation essay to be published eventually, like others, on the Texas Scholar Works platform. At this mid-point in the series of posts (I plan to examine a large number of menuets by Mozart), a summary of the argument might be useful:

This essay historicizes hybrid themes (after Caplin) in terms of first strains in named menuets and (secondarily) first sections in instrumental movements clearly based on the menuet. The antecedent-continuation theme is renamed "galant theme," and—for the purpose of the dance—the list of eight-bar themes is reduced to four: period, sentence, galant theme, and presentation-consequent. This last I sometimes refer to as the "6+2 theme."

Menuet series 3-1 (Sacchini)

Antonio Sacchini was a student of Francesco Durante and thus thoroughly trained in the Neapolitan manner we associate now with partimento improvisation, accompaniment, and composition. Sacchini became one of the foremost exponents of the prevailing Italian style across Europe, beginning in Rome, Florence, and Venice (from which he also traveled to Germany), but moving on to London, where he stayed for a decade, and finally to Paris, where Marie Antoinette was his patron. He died in 1786.

 A set of six menuets for string trio and two horns was published in London, presumably during his residence there (between 1772 and 1781).

No. 5. The simplest of periods, where the only change is in the phrase-ending bars (boxed).

No. 4. A classic sentence with an answering transposition in bars 3-4 and fragmentation to start the continuation phrase.

No. 3. Here Sacchini maintains the basic sentence structure but emphasizes contrast rather than developmental continuity. Note the change of dynamic in bar 3 and again in bar 5, as well as the strong contrast in the two ideas of the continuation phrase.

No. 1. Here every idea is different -- what I call a galant theme, with contrast as the expressive goal.

No. 2. Very similar to the preceding.

No. 6

New essay published -- 17th century German and Austrian music

I have published a new essay on Texas Scholar Works: Seventeenth-Century Germany and Austria: Ascending Cadence Gestures. Link.

Here is the abstract:

The seventeenth century in Europe was a particularly rich time for experimentation in musical performance, improvisation, and composition. This essay, meant as an addendum to Ascending Cadence Gestures: A Historical Survey from the 16th to the Early 19th Century (published on Texas Scholar Works, July 2016), documents and analyzes characteristic instances of rising cadential lines in music by composers active in Germanophone countries—and, as it happens, particularly in the cities of Hamburg in the north and Vienna in the south.

Among the composers whose work is discussed are Johann Caspar Kerll, Johann Heinrich Schmelzer, Johann Rosenmüller, Georg Muffat, and Georg Böhm.

Menuet series 2-13 (Telemann)

Telemann cultivated the galant style in a serious way. His keyboard music and sonatas and fantasies for violin, however, are poor sources for menuets -- many are written in the three-movement design Allegro-Andante-Allegro -- and I turned to the orchestral works for examples. Because that repertoire is very large, I arbitrarily worked with overtures (suites) whose home keys are G or A.

This sentence fits the model quite well. The modern notation, btw, is by Michel Rondeau. I have included only the two clarino parts (identical to violin 1 & 2) and the bass.

This is quite similar to the first example above.

Here is a good example of the galant theme: antecedent + a continuation phrase that contrasts rather than develops.

Here there is less contrast because of the repetition of the basic idea's rhythms.

And here is a case that radicalizes the above. The same rhythms in every bar but the last bring much closer attention to shapes. In such a constrained context, bars 3-4 do sound like a contrasting idea and bars 5-6 like a second contrasting idea. Note that there are some broader connections: the arches showing the same overall direction in each phrase and the motivic ground in the basic idea and in bars 5-6.

Menuet series 2-12 (Gottlieb Muffat)

Another close contemporary of J. S. Bach, Gottlieb Muffat—who was Georg's son—worked throughout the first half of the 18th century in the Viennese court (among his students was the future Empress Maria Theresa). The six suites in the Componimenti musicali (~1739) contain 13 menuets. Here are comments on several of them.

Suite no. 5, the trio to the second menuet, offers a simple presentation phrase, but the continuation emphasizes contrast, not development. So although I have called it a sentence, this first strain really belongs to a separate category, presentation + contrast, a design that is not only common in the menuet, along with the allied antecedent + contrast, but becomes more and more so in the second half of the 18th century, to the point that it is the preferred form for menuets by J. C. Bach and Mozart.

Suite no. 1, trio to the menuet. Similar to the preceding.

Suite no. 5, second menuet. A "classic" antecedent + continuation theme, with considerable fragmentation in bars 5-7.

Suite no. 6, trio to the menuet. The distinctiveness of the chromatic figure, the placement of the mirror at bar 5, and the extent of the mirroring all favor hearing this theme as a period.

Suite no. 2, menuet. A reasonably straightforward period; the transposition of the basic idea in the consequent is substantial but the arpeggio figure with the rhythms maintained makes the relationship clear.

Suite no. 6, menuet. The formal functions as a "galant theme" make sense. This one is interesting because of the mirroring of rhythms -- see the two (a)s and the two (b)s -- and shapes -- the two (a)s. Despite the mirroring, the continuation phrase is contrasting rather than developmental.

Suite no. 2, trio. Once again the continuation is a contrasting phrase. The presentation is extended by simply adding two bars that transpose bars 3-4 down a third.

Suite no. 6, "menuet III." The previous example hints at a figure realized in this one. I have labeled the formal functions as a sentence, but the effect overall is not 4 + 4 but rather 6 + 2: three statements of an idea followed by a formula cadence with a different melodic figure.

Much the same effect occurs in the 8-bar antecedent of the 16-bar period in J. S. Bach's French Suite in D minor, menuet II. Look especially at the alto voice (arrow).

We will see this 6 + 2 arrangement—and even its reverse, 2 + 6!—in menuets by later composers.

Menuet series 2-11 (Graupner)

Christoph Graupner, like J. S. Bach and Telemann, was a professional musician in north Germany—he spent most of his career in Darmstadt, whose Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek holds a manuscript collection of 20 dances (IMSLP link).

No. 7: A "textbook" period to begin. Note that the upper staff is written with the French violin clef.

No. 10: A fairly simple "galant theme" though the repetition of the bass figure through the first four bars undercuts contrast in bars 3-4.

No. 11: The opposite case: the bass changes direction after the scalar descent in bars 1-2, but the melody in bar 3 repeats the rhythm of bar 1. This first strain is on the fence, so to speak, between galant theme and sentence.

Menuet series 2-10 (Georg Muffat)

The goal in this section of the menuet series is to make comparisons between J. S. Bach and his German contemporaries (in the earlier series it was French predecessors and contemporaries). To begin, here is a table with data:

The numbers for Bach are the 28 named menuets, that number identified by Jenne and Little (link to earlier post). For the others also, I used only movements named menuet in solo and chamber music. Sources will be identified in posts on the individual composers.

One obvious point to be made is the large number of periods in Georg Muffat's music (he was an older contemporary, born in 1653), but the significant drop relative to antecedent + continuation and sentence themes in Bach's close contemporaries (Gottlieb Muffat, Graupner, and Telemann).

As with all the work in this series of posts, the "data" were gathered opportunistically and I do not pretend that they are complete, especially as I firmly restricted myself to named menuets. Many other pieces, especially rondeau themes, are obviously also menuets. And of course my restriction meant that the entire eighteenth-century song repertoire was excluded.

I found four collections by Georg Muffat on IMSLP (link): orchestral—Armonico tributo, published in Salzburg in 1682; Florilegium Primum, published in Augsburg in 1695; Florilegium Secundum, published in Passau in 1698—and six keyboard partitas in an undated manuscript, for which I am using modern notation by John Phelan.

From these last, as clean an 8-bar period as one could want. Note that the antecedent is set with the familiar chaconne bass figure, but that rhythm and direction clearly separate the contrasting idea from the basic idea. (Partita no. 5, menuet II)

Here is another example. This is from the first suite in the Armonico tributo, first violin part only. Note the "Allegro è forte." Throughout its history, the menuet took on both ceremonial-processional and pastoral characters with equal ease.

From Partita No. 2, the second menuet. The addition of ornamentation in the consequent does not in any way disturb the senses of symmetry and return. It is highly likely that this little piece reflects common performance practice, especially by keyboard players but almost certainly by others, as well.

From Florilegium Primum, suite no. 6. Ornamentation can also cause problems for analysis, as here. I first identified this as a sentence, assuming that the noodling in bars 5-6 were the functional equivalent of fragmentation. The lower parts, however, clearly mark bars 5-6 as a repetition of bars 1-2, and thus I conclude that the design is presentation + consequent—reluctantly, to be sure, because, as Caplin notes, this is a rare form (so much so that he doesn't even include it in his list of hybrid themes). The presentation + consequent theme is indeed rare throughout the entire history of the menuet. (The modern notation, btw, was made originally for the Werner Icking Music Collection by an editor identified only as "kompy.")

The final example from Muffat is from Florilegium Secundum, suite no. 4. I will continue to emphasize the importance of the antecedent + continuation theme throughout this series. Indeed, in my view, to call it a hybrid fails to historicize the several 8-bar theme types completely—and not only for the menuet (though it has special importance there). As we will see later on, antecedent + continuation becomes so prevalent in J. C. Bach and Mozart that I will refer to it as the "galant theme." (Note also how often Telemann used it -- see again the table at the top of this post.)

This example is what I would call a "classic" (not "classical") antecedent + continuation theme: a clearly defined basic idea followed by a strongly contrasting idea (in both shape and rhythm), and a continuation featuring fragmentation.

Menuet series 2-9 (Werner)

This is an entertaining oddity -- though such fanciful collections are by no means uncommon in the 17th and 18th centuries: Gregor Joseph Werner's Neuer und sehr curios- Musicalischer Instrumental-Calender from 1748 (IMSLP link). The suites are organized by month and in each of them the menuet clocks the hours of the day. The months of January and July are represented here, the former with nine hours of daylight and fifteen hours of night, the latter month with the opposite. Needless to say, Werner's dozen menuets offer little for analysis of typical menuet characters--but they do speak to the remarkable flexibility of the genre. One cannot imagine a gavotte (or even a rigaudon or bourée) being treated this way at any point in the century.

(January)

(July)

Bach menuet themes 4, compound themes

16-bar period
   French Suite No. 1 in D minor, II
   French Suite No. 3 in B minor, I
   Partita No. 1 in Bb major, I
   Suite in E major for Lute, BWV 1006a, II
16-bar sentence
   English Suite No. 4 in F major, I
14-bar antecedent + continuation (but A = 36 bars!)
   Suite in A major for Violin, BWV 1025

Of the five 16-bar themes, three have sentences in their first 8-bar units, two have periods.

16-bar period
   French Suite No. 1 in D minor, II. The 8-bar consequent is close to the antecedent in its basic progression and figures, but Bach does work in a number of embellishing variants (and a bit of invertible counterpoint: compare bars 5 and 12).

   French Suite No. 3 in B minor, I. Here the 8-bar consequent is a literal repetition of the antecedent except in the cadence.

   Partita No. 1 in Bb major, I. This sort of dense motivic play within the sentence design undoubtedly fascinated the early Romantics.

   Suite in E major for Lute, BWV 1006a, II. Alterations in the 8-bar consequent begin immediately after the repetition of the basic idea (earlier than in the preceding Partita menuet) in service of the modulation.

16-bar sentence
   English Suite No. 4 in F major, I. Compound sentences are not common in any era, compared to the 16-bar and even 32-bar period. This example is even more remarkable in that the 8-bar presentation is a period. (Yes, I have on several occasions objected to Caplin's confusing repurposing of the terms for 8-bar themes to map onto 16-bar themes. I have yet to come up with anything better, however.)

14-bar antecedent + continuation (but A = 36 bars!)
   Suite in A major for Violin, BWV 1025. This is of an entirely different order from the other 27 pieces Bach named "menuet." Obviously an expanded instrumental concert piece in the Italian manner, it offers us only one point for comparison -- its opening, which I have read as a 14-bar antecedent + continuation theme. The intertwining of the treble parts makes the articulations hard to find, and I have relied substantially on the bass, whose figures--boxed--are quite clear as 8 + 6 bars. In the first half of the antecedent (bars 1-4) the two treble voices are almost in unison, as one might expect in the tutti sections of an Italian concerto. At bar 5 they break apart in the manner of the concertino, with the principal melody in the keyboard (see the arrow). The cadence articulation is largely concealed by the overlapping figures: the violin's long note in bar 7 suggests an ending there, but it is contradicted by the seventh (D5) in the other treble part; in bar 8, the keyboard line finishes (D5 resolving to C#5, B5 to A5), while the violin simultaneously leads into the next bar as a pickup.

Bach menuet themes 3, sentences

Sentence
   French Suite No. 6 in E major
   Suite in Eb major for keyboard, BWV 819, II
Presentation + consequent
   Cello Suite No. 1 in G major, II
12-bar sentence
   Partita No. 5 in G major
   Brandenburg Concerto No. 1, I


Sentence
   French Suite No. 6 in E major. For such a benign little piece, this menuet is remarkably frustrating. Surely ideas (a), (b), and (c) are quite different from one another, and yet the common rhythm and the strictly repeated second-bar neighbor figure (with the bass) as surely draw a close connection between them. I have opted for sentence because the strain "feels" closer to that type—with its emphasis on connection and development—than to the antecedent+continuation, which tends to emphasize difference.

   Suite in Eb major for keyboard, BWV 819, II. A "textbook" sentence.

Presentation + consequent
   Cello Suite No. 1 in G major, II. The rare presentation + consequent theme is certainly closer to the sentence than the period, in the main because the effect of contrast or symmetrical return that we expect of the period is largely lost. Only the strength of the cadence in bar 4--as here--creates the necessary articulation.

12-bar sentence. A very motivically driven strain; the two-bar ideas are almost entirely suppressed. For Bach, a very odd piece in its overt galant cadence figures.

   Partita No. 5 in G major

   Brandenburg Concerto No. 1, I. Unlike the preceding, this one sharply and methodically maintains the traditional two-bar units of the menuet.

Bach menuet themes 2, periods

Reproduced from an earlier post, the periods among first strains of J. S. Bach's 28 named menuets:

   English Suite No. 4 in F major, II
   Partita No. 1 in Bb major, II
   Partita No. 4 in D major
   Brandenburg Concerto No. 1, II
   Suite in Eb major for keyboard, BWV 819, I
   Orchestral Suite No. 1 in C major, I
   Orchestral Suite No. 1 in C major, II
   Orchestral Suite No. 4 in D major, I
   Cello Suite No. 1 in G major, I
   Cello Suite No. 2 in D minor, I

   English Suite No. 4 in F major, II. This doesn't make for a "textbook" period (for that, see the two examples from the keyboard Partitas below), in that the melodic shape of bar 2 is altered in bar 6, but the rhythms are the same (if one ignores the ornaments. . .) and the underlying bass is largely the same, as D3-E3-F3 | G3-F3 in both cases.

   Partita No. 1 in Bb major, II. Strikingly similar to those French menuets that are identical in bars 4 and 8, but that a small flourish is added in bar 4, whereas the music stops dead in bar 8.

   Partita No. 4 in D major. The PAC in bar 4 is not unknown in earlier French menuets, but it is by no means common. Where it does appear, the strategy often is as in this instance: to make a pleasing contrast with a simple I-V HC in bars 7-8.

   Brandenburg Concerto No. 1, II. A transposed consequent. Note that bar 6 would be equivalent to bar 2 if the eighth notes were removed -- then C#5 as a half note goes to the quarter note D5.

   Suite in Eb major for keyboard, BWV 819, I. A less "obvious" period than most of the preceding. The consequent is again transposed, but not exactly; still, we can easily hear the shape of bars 5-6 as that of bars 1-2. What complicates the consequent is its invention-like motivic play: in bars 5-6 we hear the basic idea against the contrasting idea simultaneously, then in bar 7 the contrasting idea's motive is used in the right hand to approach the cadence.

   Orchestral Suite No. 1 in C major, I. From a somewhat overdone piano arrangement of the suite. I hear bar 5 as referencing bar 1 through the melody, but the bass is different, so that a reading of this theme as antecedent + continuation would perhaps be equally plausible.

   Orchestral Suite No. 1 in C major, II.  (Once again I apologize for the heterogeneous sources for the various Bach examples.) This trio is another instance of the PAC to end the antecedent, and this time I note that a PAC in bar 4 of an 8-bar theme remains highly unusual in music for social dance and more stylized music for concert alike throughout the remainder of the eighteenth century. I observe, btw, that the obvious galant solution for bar 4—a 6/4 5/3 over V—is even less likely than the PAC: in the 56 cadences (or phrase endings) of the 28 Bach menuets, first strain, only once does the HC embellished by 6/4 appear (that's in the keyboard Partita in G major).

The fragmentation in bars 5-7 beat 1 might lead to a different reading except that it is already present in the basic idea.

   Orchestral Suite No. 4 in D major, I. A simpler example than many of the recent ones above.

   Cello Suite No. 1 in G major, I. Similar to the preceding in the limited transposition to begin the consequent.

   Cello Suite No. 2 in D minor, I. Another unproblematic period form. Bach does manage to reverse the bass line while maintaining the basic idea: in the antecedent D3-C3-Bb2-A2, in the consequent D3-E3-F3 (Bb) G- A.