Structurally Sound: Seven Musical Masterworks Deconstructed (Dover Books on Music) by Eric Wen

Author:Eric Wen [Wen, Eric]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dover Publications
Published: 2017-05-17T03:00:00+00:00

Example 5.21

Example 5.22 presents a foreground analytic reduction of the voice-leading over bars 10–16. A most striking feature is the skip up an augmented fourth from B2 to E3 in the bass across bars 13–14. Usually, ascending skips of an augmented fourth have a tendency to continue upwards by step, but here it continues down to E3. This unusual tritone skip intensifies the pathos expressed in this feverish movement.

Example 5.22

Making a connection between the II6 chord at the beginning of bar 10 and the augmented-sixth chord in bar 15 has ramifications for understanding the phrase rhythm of the antecedent part of the exposition. Hearing bar 10 as an articulation of II6 effecting a change of harmony—instead of a VII that extends the opening tonic—coincides with the initiation of a new phrase grouping. Furthermore, establishing a tonal relationship between the II6 at the beginning of bar 10 and the augmented-sixth chord in bar 15 helps us understand the connection between them. The six bars between the two chords essentially result from a repetition of bars 10–11 and bars 12–13 as the “first” and “second” measures of a four-bar unit. In this light, bars 14 and 15 represent the “third” and “fourth” measures respectively. Basically, the six-measure unit over bars 10–15 is an expansion of a four-bar group, as shown in Example 5.23. The arrival on the dominant in bar 16 initiates the beginning of yet another four-bar group, but this, too, is expanded by internal repetitions—almost as if it gets stuck—before moving on.

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