Tonal frames in eighteenth and nineteenth century music: PDF essay link, abstract, keywords

Title: Tonal frames in eighteenth and nineteenth century music

Link: Tonal frames

Abstract: Tonal frames are understood here as schemata comprising the "a" level elements of a time-span or prolongation reduction in the system of Lerdahl and Jackendoff, Generalized Theory of Tonal Music (1983), as amended and extended by Lerdahl (Tonal Pitch Space (2001)). I use basic forms from these sources as a starting point but call them tonal frames in order to make a clear distinction, because I have a stricter view of the role of register.

Keywords: Schubert, Valses sentimentales, Deutscher, D366, Lerdahl

Complex upper-voice cadential figures in traditional tonal music: PDF essay link, abstract, keywords

Title: Complex upper-voice cadential figures in traditional tonal music

Link: Complex upper voices

Abstract: Harmony and voice-leading are integrated in the hierarchical networks of Schenkerian analyses: the top (most abstract) level of the hierarchy is a fundamental structure that combines a single upper voice and a bass voice in counterpoint. A pattern that occurs with increasing frequency beginning in the later eighteenth century tends to confer equal status on two upper voices, one from ^5, the other from ^3. Analysis using such three-part voice leading in the background often provides richer, more complete, and more musically convincing analyses.

Keywords: Schubert, waltz, music theory, music analysis, Johann Strauss, polka, cover tone, three-part counterpoint, Home Sweet Home, Neils Gade, Strauss, Strauss family, galop, Johan Bülow, Johan Buelow

Dance and Dancing in Schubert's Vienna: PDF essay link, abstract, keywords

Title: Dance and Dancing in Schubert's Vienna

Link: Dance and Dancing

Abstract: This file has six parts: the first concerns dancing in Vienna and dance music genres during the brief period between the Congress of Vienna and the July Revolution in France (1815-1830). The second part brings the focus down more locally to the Schubert-Kreis and Schubert’s improvisation practice for dancing. Part 3 looks even more closely at some of the mechanics of that practice. Part 4 turns to the extant repertoire of Schubert’s dances. Part 5 explores Robert Schumann’s review of D365 and D783 and turns it back speculatively onto D779. Part 6 offers a short list of links relating to Schubert.

Keywords: Schubert, waltz, musical form, social dance, Vienna 1815-1830, improvisation, Litschauer, Wilmot, laendler, ländler, Schumann

Polkas with rising cadence gestures: PDF essay link, abstract, keywords

Title: Nineteenth-century polkas with rising melodic and cadence gestures

Link: polkas

Abstract: The polka became a popular social dance very quickly in the early 1840s. Its music was the first to introduce rising melodic frames and cadence gestures as common features. This essay provides a series of examples with commentary. Most pieces come from the 1840s and early 1850s. Variants of the polka—polka-mazurka, polka française, and polka schnell—are also discussed and illustrated.

Keywords: Dodworth, Eduard Strauss, Carl Michael Ziehrer, polka, social dance, Delia Ward, Franz Boehme, Johann Strauss, Stephen Foster

Nineteenth-century polkas with rising melodic and cadence gestures: a new PDF essay

Title: Nineteenth-century polkas with rising melodic and cadence gestures

 Link: Polkas

Abstract: This essay provides background on dance in the nineteenth century and then focuses on characteristic figures in the polka, especially those linked to rising cadence gestures. The polka became a popular social dance very quickly in the early 1840s. Its music was the first to introduce rising melodic frames and cadence gestures as common features. This essay provides a series of examples with commentary. Most pieces come from the 1840s and early 1850s. Variants of the polka—polka-mazurka, polka française, and polka schnell—are also discussed and illustrated.

Dance Designs in 18th and early 19th century music: PDF essay link, abstract, keywords

Title: History and Theory of Traditional European Tonal Music: Formal functions for phrase, theme, and small forms, following William E. Caplin, Classical Form: A Theory of Formal Functions for the Instrumental Music of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven (Oxford University Press, 1998), summary and examples with related information and data on dance musics and their performance in the same period.

Link: Dance Designs.

Abstract: A study of harmony and formal functions in dance music of the 18th and early 19th centuries. The data and analyses are also intended to supplement the form theory presented in William E. Caplin, Classical Form: A Theory of Formal Functions for the Instrumental Music of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998). Classical Form discusses the different movement types one encounters in the Classical sonata, quartet, and symphony, but because of the meticulous attention given to small-scale, theme units, the theory is also very well-suited to style studies of dance musics.

Keywords: William Caplin, Formenlehre, musical form, social dance, contradance, contredanse, Laendler, Ländler, Mozart, Hummel, Beethoven

Research Vita

I retired from The University of Texas at Austin in May of this year. Since then I have "cleaned up" and stopped maintaining my personal web page, which had information on publications. To compensate, I have created a PDF file called "Research Vita" that can be accessed through this link: Vita.