The Functions Of Harmonic Motives In Schubert’s
The Functions of Harmonic Motives in Schubert’sSonata Forms1Brian BlackSchubert’s sonata forms often seem to be animated by somehidden process that breaks to the surface at significant moments,only to subside again as suddenly and enigmatically as it firstappeared. Such intrusions usually highlight a specific harmonicmotive—either a single chord or a larger multi-chord cell—eachreturn of which draws in the listener, like a veiled prophecy or thedistant recall of a thought from the depths of memory. The effectis summed up by Joseph Kerman in his remarks on the unsettlingtrill on Gß and its repeated appearances throughout the firstmovement of the Piano Sonata in Bß major, D. 960: “But the figuredoes not develop, certainly not in any Beethovenian sense. Thepassage. is superb, but the figure remains essentially what it was atthe beginning: a mysterious, impressive, cryptic, Romanticgesture.”2The allusive way in which Schubert conjures up recurringharmonic motives stamps his music with the mystery and yearningthat are the hallmarks of his style. Yet these motives amount tomuch more than oracular pronouncements, arising without anyapparent cause and disappearing without any tangible effect. Quitethe contrary—they are actively involved in the unfolding of theThis article is dedicated to William E. Caplin. I would also like to thank two ofmy colleagues at the University of Lethbridge, Deanna Oye and EdwardJurkowski, for their many helpful suggestions during the article’s preparation.2 Joseph Kerman “A Romantic Detail in Schubert’s Schwanengesang,” in WalterFrisch (ed.), Schubert: Critical and Analytical Perspectives, (Lincoln: University ofNebraska Press, 1986): 59. Charles Rosen has gone further in emphasizing thetrill’s suggestive power, proposing that in some way it is the source of the wholework: “The opening phrase of the first theme of this movement ends with a trill inthe bass, pianissimo, on a Gß resolved to an F, and the more one plays it, the morethe entire work seems to arise out of that mysterious sonority.” See his SonataForms (New York: W.W. Norton, 1988), 261. For a more recent Neo-Riemannianview of the movement, which also treats the recurring tonal allusions as motivic,see Richard L. Cohn, “As Wonderful as Star Clusters: Instruments for Gazing atTonality in Schubert,” 19th -Century Music, 22/iii (Spring 1999): 213-232.1
2Intégralform. Here they fulfill three distinct, but related functions:referential, modulatory, and gestural. In their referential role, harmonicmotives create a web of tonal allusions that foreshadow or recallspecific keys or events in the movement. Such occurrences usuallyhighlight a stable harmony that cites the tonic of a referencedtonality. As shall be seen, these cross-references clarify the relativestructural weights of certain keys at critical junctures in the form.Harmonic motives assume a more dynamic character in theirmodulatory role, where they become the fulcrum of the form’sprincipal modulations. In these instances they consist of either asingle dissonant chord (such as a diminished seventh or augmentedsixth) or a cell of two to three chords. By participating in diversetransitional passages across the form, a harmonic motive caninfluence how the tonal plan develops, since its particularproperties determine a specific type of tonal motion. For instance,the use of different resolutions of the same diminished seventhchord in the modulatory scheme generates movement by a minorthird, while the two resolutions of a German sixth as a dominantseventh, then augmented sixth, generates movement by a minorsecond.In their gestural role, harmonic motives are marked as anextraordinary event projecting a recognizable emotional quality thatcolors the movement with each of the motive’s returns. Thisquality depends upon a number of factors. In the case of aharmonic cell, its distinctive voice leading creates the effect; in thecase of an individual chord, the effect depends upon how thechord enters and is prolonged. Often these gestures occupymoments of arrested motion, which in themselves have aconsistent expressive character.The main topic of this article is the contribution of harmonicmotives to the structural and expressive cohesion of Schubert’ssonata forms; in other words, how they help to create a unifieddramatic whole as active elements in the form’s unfolding. I willfirst fill in the rough outline of the referential, modulatory, andgestural functions I have just sketched out by illustrating eachfunction with a concrete example. I will then demonstrate the wayin which these functions work together in a more thoroughdiscussion of the first movement of the String Quartet in D minor,D. 810, “Death and the Maiden.” Finally, how harmonic motives
The Functions of Harmonic Motives3emerge in Schubert’s sonata forms is as crucial as what theyaccomplish. In fact, the composer’s idiosyncratic handling of suchmotives lies at the heart of his personal style. I will thus concludeby dealing with the character of Schubert’s harmonic motivicprocess in general and its effect on the dramatic nature of hissonata forms.The following analyses are all concerned with the interpretiveimplications and expressive quality of specific foreground details—elements that are often filtered out in a middleground perspective;thus I do not follow a Schenkerian approach. Instead my view ofthe structural significance of these details is based upon WilliamCaplin’s theory of formal functions.3 Specific issues of the theorywill be dealt with when they arise in the analytical discussions. Oneconcept, that of the expanded cadential progression or ECP, isparticularly relevant to the understanding Schubert’s use ofharmonic motives. In such progressions the duration of one ormore of the harmonic elements leading up to the concludingharmony is prolonged. Due to these prolongations, the progressioncan extend across a number of phrases, while still expressingcadential function.4 ECPs feature some of the most strikingappearances of harmonic motives in Schubert’s sonata forms. Therole of the progression—the confirmation of a key by weighty anddefinitive cadential closure—provides the vital context for suchappearances and their significance in relation to the tonal structure,an idea that will be pursued in more detail in the following pages.5Classical Form: A Theory of Formal Functions for the Music of Haydn, Mozart, andBeethoven (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998).4 For an in-depth treatment, see Caplin, “The ‘Expanded Cadential Progression’:A Category for the Analysis of Classical Form,” Journal of Musicological Research, 7/iiiii (1987), 215-57 and Classical Form, 109-11.5 See Caplin, Classical Form, 97-8, for the importance of such tonal confirmation inthe subordinate theme. Here ECPs contribute to the looser structure Caplinconsiders a characteristic feature of such themes.3
4IntégralThe Referential Function of Harmonic MotivesReferential harmonic motives usually consist of a singleconsonant chord that recurs prominently in different key regionsacross the form. The motive’s appearance in a new tonal contextnecessarily involves a change of the chord’s harmonic function.However, its structural status also changes over the course of themovement: it is often prefigured as a prominent note of a melodicline before it enters as a full harmony; it then assumes the positionof a distinct key at some later point in the structure. Such is thecase of the “cryptic” Gß trill in the passage quoted from Kerman atthe beginning of the article. As has been shown by numerouswriters, this trill stands at the beginning of a process in which theGß is elevated first to a harmonic status (the prolongation of ßVI inthe home key Bß, mm. 20-33) then to a local tonality (Gß/Fƒ minormm. 47-57), which displaces the home key at the beginning of thetransitional process.6 Thus there is a feeling of outward movementfrom note through chord to key, with the prolongation of the flatsubmediant harmony in the tonic Bß major anticipating the nexttonal region of the form.7The process also works in reverse: an established key may bereduced later to a subsidiary harmony within another key—acommon occurrence in the concluding passages of Schubert’sthree-key expositions (see below). Thus a tonality or a specificThe modal change from chord to key in this case is unusual with respect toSchubert’s normal practice. Usually the key will be in the same mode as itsprefiguring chord.7 Schubert’s projection of an initial melodic configuration onto the tonal structureof a movement has been discussed by a number of scholars, beginning withMiriam K. Whaples’s treatment of the first movement of the String Quintet in CMajor, D. 956 (“On Structural Integration in Schubert’s Instrumental Works,”Acta Musicologica 40 (1968): 195). Both David Beach and Gordon Sly have dealtwith the issue from a Schenkerian standpoint. Beach addresses the unusual formof the Quartettsatz, D. 710, in “Harmony and Linear Progression in Schubert’sMusic,” Journal of Music Theory 38/1 (1994): 1-20. Sly discusses the early ViolinSonatina in G minor, D. 408 in “The Architecture of Key and Motive in aSchubert Sonata,” Integral 9 (1998): 67-89. More recently Susannah Clarke hasdemonstrated how an altered note can become a key in its own right. See“Schubert, Theory and Analysis,” Music Analysis, 21/ii (2002): 209-43, specifically231-238.6
The Functions of Harmonic Motives5tonal relationship acquires a motivic character in Schubert’s sonataforms. By “motivic character” I mean that, rather than remaining afixed point within the tonal plan of a form, a key functions as amore fluid musical idea—a motive in its own right—which isdeveloped through recurring harmonic references to it, or to itsspecific relationship with another key.8 During the course of thisdevelopment, the very nature of the key-as-motive remains pliableas it shifts from a confirmed tonality to a tonicized harmony withinanother key; or emerges from a tonal implication in a melodic lineto become a key in its own right. Such tonal allusions help to clarifythe relative structural status of different keys in the form. Generallyspeaking, they can either undermine a key’s status byforeshadowing a subsequent tonality or strengthen that status byabsorbing a previously established tonality into the key as aconstituent harmony.9 The Quartettsatz in C minor, D. 710,provides a good example of this process.The exposition of this movement consists of a main theme inC minor, a first subordinate theme in Aß major and a secondsubordinate theme in G major. (Please refer to figure 1 for theThe expressive power of tonal allusions, coupled with the often unsettlingworkings of memory in the composer’s music is an important topic of Schubertscholarship. Among those who have dealt with it are Edward T. Cone in“Schubert’s Promissory Note: An Exercise in Musical Hermeneutics, ” Schubert:Critical and Analytical Perspectives, ed. Walter Frisch (Lincoln: University of NebraskaPress, 1986), 13-30; Poundie Burstein in “Devil’s Castles and Schubert’s StrangeTonic Allusions” Theory and Practice, 27 (2002): 69; and Susan Wollenberg “‘Dortwo Du nicht bist, dort ist das Gluck’: Reflections on Schubert’s Second Themes,”in Schubert durch die Brille 30 (January 2003), 91-100. One of the most profoundtreatments of this issue is found in Charles Fisk’s monograph on the late pianoworks, where he deals with tonal recall within and between movements in thecontext of the Romantic image of the wanderer. See Returning Cycles: Contexts for theInterpretation of Schubert’s Impromptus and Last Sonatas (Berkeley: University ofCalifornia Press, 2001).9 Recently Peter H. Smith has identified another important function of harmonicrecall, which is not the subject of the present article. He argues that highlightingthe same chord in two successive tonalities serves to create continuity acrossstrongly differentiated formal divides, alleviating the threat of self-sufficiency inintensely lyrical thematic regions. See his “Harmonic Cross-Reference and theDialectic of Articulation and Continuity in Sonata Expositions of Schubert andBrahms,” Journal of Music Theory 50/2 (2006): 143-179, particularly 157.8
6Intégraltonal plan of the exposition.) Both the middle key (Aß) andconcluding key (G) of the exposition are stable tonalities that areconfirmed by perfect authentic cadences.10 Such three-keyexpositions present a particular problem—the apparent redundancyof two subordinate keys. This criticism is articulated veryeffectively by the Schenkerian theorist Felix Salzer in a comparisonof Schubert’s practice with Beethoven’s. Salzer argues that, whereaswith Beethoven one of the subordinate keys is not fully developed,allowing the other to prevail, with Schubert both are equallydeveloped so that “we discover an equilibrium of keys and it isimpossible, in comparison to the Beethoven examples, to speak ofa predominant key of the subordinate theme. Thus we are dealinghere in the exposition with three distinct keys.”11Fig. 1: Quartettsatzin C Minor, D.in703,planD.of expositionFigure 1. QuartettsatzC tonalMinor,703, tonalMain Thememm. 1-19C-transition 119-27C- ! Aß plan of exposition.Subordinate Theme 1 trans 2ST2closing section retrans. : 37-6161-9393-125 125-39139-40Aß Aß- !(C-)!G- G G ! C-In many of Schubert’s three-key expositions, the middle key isan unstable, cadentially unconfirmed tonality through which themusic passes before arriving and cadencing in the final key. Thecadential confirmation of the second subordinate key thus elevatesit to a superior structural position over the middle key.12 In theQuartettsatz, though, both keys are confirmed cadentially. Thus,With respect to the cadential confirmation of Aß major, I disagree with Smith’scontention that the sudden forte entrance of the minor mode coupled with thereturn of the main theme material at m. 61 interrupts, rather than completes, thecadential progression. (Smith, “Harmonic Cross-Reference,” 156, footnote 11.).The melody comes to its conclusion sforzato on the Aß in violin I, while the cellointroduces the beginning of the main theme. I thus interpret this point as acadential arrival that elides (albeit dramatically) with the beginning of the transitionto the second subordinate key.11 “Die Sonatenform bei Franz Schubert,” Studien zur Musikwissenschaft 15 (1928):86-125. “daß wir ein Gleichgewicht der Tonarten vorfinden und es unmöglich ist,analog den Beethovenischen Beispielen, von einer Hauptonart des Seitensatzes zusprechen. Wir haben es also hier in der Exposition mit drei verscheidenenTonarten zu tun.” (102, my translation).12 This is the situation in the first movement of The “Great” C-Major Symphony,D. 944 and the first movement of the String Quintet in C major, D. 956.10
The Functions of Harmonic Motives7superficially at least, they exhibit the “equilibrium” condemned bySalzer. Yet on closer examination we see that Schubert has carefullydistinguished between the structural weights of these tonalitiesthrough a careful use of harmonic references.The process of subordinating Aß to G relies on Aß itself as thereferential element, which appears on various structural levelsacross the movement in much the same way as Gß does in the BßMajor Piano Sonata discussed earlier. Aß first enters as animportant melodic component of the initial descending tetrachordfrom C to G—the movement’s central and most pervasive motive(ex. 1a, mm. 1-2 and mm. 3-4). It then emerges as the exposition’sfirst subordinate key in a serenely lyrical theme that contrasts withthe extreme agitation of the main theme. It is subsequently recalledas a prominent harmony in the final cadences of the secondsubordinate key, G major, where it helps to clarify the relativestatus of the two subordinate keys (see ex. 1b, mm. 105-125).13The cadential process here involves two evaded cadences (mm.112-13 and mm. 120-21), followed by an expanded cadentialprogression that brings the theme to an end with a perfectauthentic cadence in m. 125. The length and relative complexity ofthe series of cadences in G major alone place considerableemphasis on the confirmation of that key, suggesting that it is thetrue goal of the exposition. Much of that length is due to thestriking prolongations of the Aß Neapolitan chord as the predominant in each of the cadences. Here the former tonic of themiddle key (Aß) becomes an important harmonic component in thefinal confirmation of the second subordinate key G. Thus what waspotentially a competing tonality is absorbed into its rival as a crucialelement in the latter’s grounding. The referential process Schubertinitiates in these cadential progressions thus provides a clear tonalperspective that allows the home and second subordinate key toemerge as the main pillars of the exposition; for the middle key isnot only demoted to the status of a subordinate harmony withinthe concluding tonality of the exposition, but, in its new harmonicSee Smith, “Harmonic Cross-Reference,” 152, and James Webster, “Schubert’sSonata Form and Brahms’s First Maturity, Part I,” 19th-Century Music 2 (July 1978):28, for a discussion of the same passage.13
8Intégralstate, it also contributes directly to the cadential confirmation ofthat tonality.14The prolongation of the Aß Neapolitan in the cadential processnot only refers back to the first subordinate tonality of theexposition—it also bring with it much of the atmosphere of thatkey’s theme: the chord appears at first in its stable root, rather than fl, position, thus suggesting its earlier state as a consonant tonic; themusic’s forward momentum is suspended for two bars on the firstviolin’s sustained Eß, creating a mysterious intensity similar to theprevious theme’s lyricism; and finally the Eß itself, together with thedisposition of the three other voices, recalls the head of that theme(specifically mm. 28-29). These tonal reminiscences thus have thequality of a vision that is briefly recalled, then lost, suggesting theephemeral nature of the key they have summoned up.The Modulatory Function of Harmonic MotivesFrom tonal allusion we now pass to a more direct involvementof harmonic motives in the form—their modulatory function. Herethey assume a central role in the structure’s modulations, evenserving as the linchpin of the modulation itself. Consequently theyexert a strong influence over the key structure, first through theindividual contribution they make to each modulation, and secondthrough certain of their properties which, when consistentlyexploited across the movement, determine a specific type of tonalmotion or key relation that comes to the fore in the course of themusic.Webster and Smith also discuss how tonal references undermine the status ofthe middle key in Schubert’s three-key expositions. They focus, however, onreferences to the tonic in transitional passages between the first and secondsubordinate keys. In such instances, the tonal allusions they address arise from thetrajectory of the modulatory passage, which passes back through the tonic beforecontinuing on to the second subordinate key. See Webster, “Schubert / Brahms’sI,” 28, which deals with the Quartettsatz and Smith, “Harmonic Cross Reference,”155-57, which discusses the first movement of the String Quintet, D. 956.14
9The Functions of Harmonic MotivesExample 1. Quartettsatz in C Minor, D. 703.theme, descending tetrachord.Ex.1: Quartettsatz in C Minor,703a) D.Maina) Main theme, descending tetrachordmain themeAllegro assai.descending tetrachordBbAbG' ' (' ' & C! % ' '' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' )' ' ' '(' ' ' ' ' ' (' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' (' ' 1Violin I &! % Viola" &% Cello# &% Violin II''' ' ' ' (' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' (' ' b) Exposition, end of second subordinate theme.b) Exposition, end of second subordinate themedescending tetrachord (in augmentation) & ' ( ' ') ' ' ( ' ( ' ' ' ( ' *! % 105Vio
Brian Black Schubert’s sonata forms often seem to be animated by some . In fact, the composer’s idiosyncratic handling of such motives lies at the heart of his personal style. I will thus conclude by dealing with the character of Schubert
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