Analysis Today de Edward T Cone

Analysis Today Author(s): Edward T. Cone Source: The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 46, No.
2, Special Issue: Problems of Modern Music. The Princeton Seminar in Advanced Musical Studies (Apr., 1960), pp. 172-188 Published by: Oxford University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/740369 . Accessed: 22/02/2014 09:53
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ANALYSIS TODAY
By EDWARD T. CONE
analysis of music-especially of traditionalmusic--is one of the most respected of theoreticaldisciplines,but the respect in which it is held would do it a disserviceif it preventedthe periodic re-evaluationof the subject. What is analysis,or what ought it to be? What are its purposes? To what extent are traditionalconcepts and methodsapplicable to new music? What are the relationsof analysisto fromthe and to criticism? My title refersto a discussion, performance pointof view of today,of thesequestions;it is in no way meant to imply or that I have made startling to promulgate, that I have a new system discoveriesabout new music.
I
THE
of the term at the outseta naked definition Rather than presenting let us begin by lookingat a familiarexample. The under consideration, few measuresof Tristan have performed first many servicesotherthan theiroriginalone of openinga music-drama;let them serveyet another and open the argumenthere.
Ex. I
This chordal sequence can be accurately enough described as a minor triad on A, a French sixth on F, and a pimary seventhon E; among but such a description,revealing nothing of the relationships the three chords, involves no analysis whatsoever. If, however, one 5 67 an elementary he has performed to the passage as I -II 4-V refers 31 172
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analyticalact: he has related each of the chordsto a tonic, and hence to one another. He has made a discovery,or at least a preliminary to be testedby its fruitfulness in leading to further hypothesis discovery. But the analysis as such ceases with the choice of the tonic; once this has been made, the assignment of degree numbersto the chordsis pure on the other If, hand, one pointsout that the second chord description. stands in a quasi-dominantrelationto the third,he is doing more than simply assigning names or numbers: he is again discovering and explainingrelationships.
Ex. 2
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Turning now to the actual score,the analystmightbegin a program note thus: "The risingleap of the 'cellos from A to F is succeeded by a chromaticdescent,followedin turnby ..." He need not continue; this is pure description. But when he points out that Example 1 represents the chordal skeletonof Example 2, he is once more on the right track.He can go stillfurther by showingthat all the appoggiaturashave half-stepresolutions,and that the motif so created is augmented in the motion of the bass, and paralleled in the alto, in such a way that the chordal progression of measures2-3 becomes an amplification of the melodic half-step of measure 1. Ex.
-
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The fact that in the above diagram no such analogy has been pointed out in the half-steps E-D$ and A-An is in itselfan importantthough the negative part of analysis, since it implies by omission that these if relevantat all, are incidentaland subordinate. progressions, one might claim that, from a serial point Going one step further, of view, the opening sixth is imitatedin the thirdE-G# (see Ex. 4). This is the point at which analysisproper passes over into what I call
174 Ex. 4
The Musical Quarterly
not supprescription:the insistenceupon the validityof relationships orchestration the for above the In text. the case, example, ported by implies the wrong-headednessof the suggestion,since the opening interval,played by the 'cellos alone, is heard as a unit, whereas the between 'cellos and oboe. E-G$ is divided disparately and prescripbetween description Analysis,then, existsprecariously tion, and it is reason forconcernthat the lattertwo are not always easy to recognize. Description is currenttoday in the form of twelve-tone to further investigation, counting-necessary,no doubt, as preliminary on the whatsoever. Prescription, but involvingno musical discrimination of Werker'sanalyses other hand, is obvious in the absurd irrelevancies of Bach but is equally inherentin some of Schenker'smore dogmatic and in those of his followers. pronouncements It should be clear at thispoint that true analysisworksthroughand for the ear. The greatestanalysts (like Schenkerat his best) are those revealhow a piece of musicshould be withthe keenest ears; theirinsights heard, which in turn implieshow it should be played. An analysisis a directionfor a performance. In order to explain how a given musical event should be heard, one must show why it occurs: what preceding events have made it necessary or appropriate, towards what later events its function is to lead. The compositionmust be revealed as an organic temporal unity, to be sure, but as a unity perceptibleonly gradually as one both to the forward moment flows to the next, each contributing to as musical referred is often What effect. motion and to the total of each event to its predecessors logic comprisesjust these relationships as well as to the whole. The job of analysisis to and to its successors, revealed in everygood but they are implicitly uncover them explicitly, to detailingwhat happens, fails to Description,restricted performance. to an explain why. Prescriptionoffersits own explanation, referring music. the of course actual the to than rather scheme imposed externally thisview of logical- or, as One more familiarexample may clarify to call them,teleological relationships. I prefer
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fromBeethoven'sSonata Op. The recapitulationof the Prestissimo in such a way thatthe II$ (V of V) 109 burstsin upon the development is followedimmediately point of view descriptive by I. From a narrowly one could call thisan ellipsis,pointingout that the normally expectedV Ex. 5
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has been omitted.Looking ahead, however,one will find that the first phrase of the recapitulationends on V, and its consequent on I. The and apparentlyresolved by what puzzling II4, then, only temporarily follows it, actually points ahead in such a way that the immediately whole passage is bound togetherin a cadential II-V-I. The propulsion thus generatedis given an extra spurtby the compressedII-V-I at the end of the consequent,and the forwardmotion is renewed with fresh energyby the elisionthat sets the next period going.
II
I need hardlymentionthe obvious effects of such an analysison the of this passage. Whateverdoubts one had as to the proper performance appeared can placing of the main accent in thesephraseswhen theyfirst if need be, in the now be resolved; the expositioncan be reinterpreted, new light of the recapitulation. II It should be apparent at this point that analysisand hence per-
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formanceas it has been discussedabove - cannot apply to certaintypes of compositionin vogue today. When chance plays the major role in the writingof a work, as in Cage's Music for Piano 21-52, logic as defined above can take only an accidental part. The same is true of music written according to a strictlypredeterminedconstructivistic scheme, such as Boulez's Structures.In neithercase can any musical eventbe linkedorganically withthosethat precedeand thosethatfollow; - in the it can be explained only by referring to an externalstructure one case the laws of chance and in the otherthe predetermined plan. The connectionsare mechanisticratherthan teleological: no event has any purpose- each is thereonly because it has to be there.In a word, this and the only possible or appropriate music is composed prescriptively, the originalprescriptive plan. This is not analyticmethodis to determine of the but the key accordingto which discovery analysis cryptanalysis a cipheror code was constructed. (If we are lucky,the composeror one us with the of his initiateswill spare us a lot of hard workby supplying key.) A third categorythat does not permit analysis is representedby is given such free Stockhausen'sKlavierstiickXI, where improvisation rein that it actuallycreatesthe formof the workanew at each performance. Thus KlavierstiickXI does not exist as a single compositionand can be discussed be treatedas one. Each new rendition cannot fruitfully all such versions of to be sure; but the relationship on its own merits, to the abstractidea of the piece as a whole, and the decision as to the - these problemscan be argued estheticvalue of such an experiment At any rate theyare far afieldfromthe practicalconsiderations endlessly. that are our concernhere. (It need hardlybe pointedout that improviof a Baroque concerto, sation as traditionally applied to the framework A cadenza servednot only to for example, had purposesquite different. but also to punctuate an important show off the soloist's virtuosity statedorchestral melody cadence; the soloist'selaborationof a previously in the form.The qualityof a givenrealizathe dualisminherent clarified situation; the to the compositional tion depended on its appropriateness create the as in did examples, not, many present-day performance situation.) III The analysis of music of the periods closelyprecedingour own - has almost always assumed the applicathe 18th and 19th centuries bilityof certain familiarnorms: tonally conditionedmelody and haron a regularmetricalbasis. Naturally structure mony,periodicrhythmic
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such standards cannot be applied uncritically to the music of our own but on the other hand they should not be dismissedwithout century, examination.I contend that, in a more generalizedform,they are still useful. Regardless of vocabulary, linear and chordal progressions still show striking analogies to older tonal procedures,analogies that are in turnreinforced structure. by rhythmic Only in thoserare cases wherethe music triesto denythe principleof progression (as in the examples cited in the immediatelypreceding section) are such analogies completely lacking. This pointof view is moregenerally accepted withregardto harmony than to melody,perhaps because harmonic analysis is the more firmly entrenched is synonymous discipline.Afterall, formanymusicianstheory with harmony, melodybeing supposedlya freecreativeelement,neither in its compositionnor in its perceptionsubjected to rule. (They forget, of course,that the object of the studyof counterpoint is primarily the and of the construction, combination, only secondarily melodies.) Whereas Hindemith'senlargement of traditionalharmonyto encompass vocabularies is generallyknown and often applauded, his present-day to find a melodic framework, attempt actually a much less questionable procedure,is oftenignored. Anotherreason forshunningmelodic analysisis that it is not always easy or even advisable to abstractthe purelylinear elementfroma proas the Wandererand the Magic Sleep, gression.Wagner, in such motifs is writing in which the melodic passages aspect is an incidentalresultof the chordal motion. A little later, Debussy offersexamples (like the openingof Refletsdans l'eau) in which a linear phrase is dissolvedinto an atmospherically dispersed harmony that implies without actually pages, like statingthe expectedmelodic resolution. Hyper-impressionistic fromBart6k'sOut-of-Doors Suite,fragmentize partsof the Night-Sounds the melodyto such an extentthat the progressive elementis heard to be the increase and decrease of densityas the motifsfollow one upon the linear aspect, which is here reduced other,ratherthan the specifically whereverthere are successivedifferentiato a minimum.Nevertheless, thereis melody tionsin pitchthereis melodyof some kind,and wherever the ear will tryto hear it in the simplestpossibleway. This is not meant to implythat we must expect to findbehind conthat temporarymelodic lines the simple stepwise diatonic framework Schenkerhas pointed out in Classical examples. But the ear will naturit in pitch.The adjacent pitches ally connecteach tone withthoserinearest may be diatonic or theymay be chromatic;theymay be actually adja-
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centor displacedby one or moreoctaves; theymay be present by implication only. In some cases motivicassociations or peculiar scale-formations may enforcethe acceptance of a largermodule- as in the simple case of bugle-calls,the adjacent tonesof which are a thirdor a fourth apart. (In the case of microtonalmusic, smaller modules may be in effect, ears can accept althoughit is doubtfulto what extenteven present-day them.) In everycase the ear will do the best it can with the available intervals. It is the dutyof the analystto show the patternof connections by which an educated ear - his own - makessense of the total melodic flow. Even less than in traditionalmelodies must one assume that there is one uniquely correctway of hearing. Rather, the best analysisis the one that recognizesvarious levels functioning as when simultaneously, a tone resolvesonce in the immediatecontextbut turnsout to have a different goal in the long run. Two very brief examples may help to this point of view. clarify Ex. 7
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The firstis the opening of Schoenberg's Klavierstiick Op. 33a. Chordal ratherthan melodic in conception,its linear structure is neverthelessclear. Despite the octave displacements, a line can be traced in the uppermostvoice fromthe F$ in the firstmeasure to the B in the third. (Notice, however,that at one point two adjacent tones are presented simultaneously instead of successively.) At the same time, the original Bb leads, through various voices but always at the original octave-level,to the same tone of resolution.At this point the entrance of the F, repeatingthe climacticF of the second measure,begins a new motion that is carried forwardthroughthe succeedingphrase. Ex. 8 ~P
ma aS
Analysis Today ~'t
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~i~i
The second passage is from the second of Sessions's piano pieces measure and the Gb in From My Diary.' Here both the F in the first the third are associated with upper and lower chromaticneighboring tones.But what of the cadential motif?Why is the patternaltered?And why is the linear descentfromthe Cb in the second measure brokenat this point?There are several possibleanswers,all of which are probably bass-notein each of the four relevant.Firstof all, the most prominent - is an - as indicatedby its repetition and by its quarter-stem measures of the another at level, hanging F, which can be heard as a resolution, Gb - a resolutionconfirmed by a direct Gb-F in the bass. But at the the space betweenthe same time,thereseems to be an implied E filling by the originalassociaGb and the D in its own voice a tone suggested motionin the melotion of E withGb, and by the prominent whole-step itspace as it descends. dic descent.In thiscase the line graduallyincreases
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But if it seems far-fetched to introducean unstated,understood element, one can hear the skip Gb-D as a way of emphasizingthe cadence, and point out that the motif of neighboringtones aims each time more directlytowards its resolution: the firsttime the neighborsfollow the principal;the second timetheyprecedeit; and the last timethe principal takes the place of one of its own neighbors.Finally,it should be noted that the next phrase takes offfromthe dangling Gb in a subtle motivic to the beginning. reference T'r Ex. io
It is of course impossible to do justice here to the role of such but on examinationone will find details in the total melodic structure,
1 Copyright 1947 by Edward B. Marks Corporation. Reproduced by permission.
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the same kind of connectionat work in the large. Note, for example, themeof the Schoenbergpiano piece is controlled how much of the first - whetherin its original octave or by the high F already mentioned in another and by its associationwith the adjacent E. It is again this that preparesfor the recapitulation;and it is F, in its highestregister, with the tranquil second theme,later closes first the E that, returning the motionin a loweroctave in thefinalmeasure.In sum,modernmelody can not get rid of stepwise motion, because that is the way we hear melody; but it can and does expand (or on occasion contract) the distance, both temporal and spatial, between successive steps. From but a this point of view even Webern is found to be no pointillist, lines. and of subtle fragile draughtsman The role of harmonyin the music of our century,although more complicated as it is by extensively explored, is perhaps more difficult, many factors,such as the frequentexploitationof the static, sensuous of the chord in additionto or even at the expenseof its progressive effect functions.As a result, one can no longer assume the easily defined of obviouslytonal music. Chords can no longerbe precisely functionality But it contexts. be maintainedin differing named, nor can theiridentity the non-triadic in even that, music, to realize is important stubbornly conceptof the chord remains,by analogy at least. The composercan set simultaneities that, by their commanding position or by up arbitrary - the chords the controllingsonorities as repetition,are accepted nonin the mannerof traditional againstwhichothertonescan function harmonic tones. Bart6k's Improvisations Op. 20 show how by such a can be used to harmonizesimple techniquequite complicatedsonorities In the followingexample fromthe last of Sessions's modal folk-tunes. resolutions suggest Diary pieces the metricalpositionand the half-step chord is an appoggiaturato the second; thissuppositionis that the first D in the bass, and by the confirmed by the appearance of the root-like that ensue. clinchingrepetitions
Ex. II
i
--
2'I
In fact, only where the contrapuntalaspect becomes so strongthat as a point in a moving is heard primarily everyelementof each sonority
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wherethe texture is completely line, or at the otherextreme, pointillistic, is the chordal concept seriouslychallenged. In such cases one further assumptionof traditionalharmonythat must then be questioned is the or coloristically, of course, it will primacyof the bass. Contrapuntally have gained in importance, but at the expenseof its role in defining the A beautiful of this a at work over harmony. example process already century ago is shownin the openingof Liszt's Vallie d'Obermann,where the melodic action of the bass clouds the harmony.Not untilthe return of the theme adds a new bass underneaththe originalone is the situation made clear. A further step in this directionis taken by Mahler, who by his polyphonically opposed chords pointsthe way towardspolytonalityin the magical cowbell passage in the firstmovementof his Sixth Symphony.A more thoroughgoing Symexample is Stravinsky's a phonies pour instruments vent,a more trulypolytonalwork than any of Milhaud's often-cited Saudades, which in fact presentonly extended and elaborated harmoniesover a single real bass. There are otherforces at workundermining the primacyof the lowest voice. Impressionistic which reducesits role to that of colorparallelism, istic doubling,is too well known to require citation.Less frequent, but moreimportant in the lightof later developments, is the masking possibly of the true harmonicbass by a decorativevoice below it, a technique seen clearlyin the repetition of the opening of La Fille aux cheveux de and Mahler, is the lin. Another device, common to the Impressionists ostinato.From one point of view the persistent voice is emphasized,but at the same time it is removedfromthe sphere of action. In Debussy, as later in Stravinsky, the ostinatoresultsin harmonicstasis; in Mahler thereis a constanttensionbetweenthe harmonyimplied by the motionless bass and those outlinedby the movingvoices and chords above it. In both cases the functionalrole of the bass is called into question. So far no specific reference has been made to the problemof tonality. rare cases, such as passages in Le Sacre du Except in comparatively where an almost completely statictone or chord of reference printemps, is set up, tonality is creatednot by harmonyalone, nor even by harmony structure:in a and melody,but by theirrelationship with the rhythmic of A discussion certainrhyththe cadence. the of word, by phenomenon mic aspects,then,can no longerbe postponed.
IV
Much of the vitalityof the music of the Classical period derives determined of meterand rhythm, the former fromthe constantinterplay
182
motifs varying by regularbeats and measuresand the latterby constantly and phrases. This tensionbetweenthe abstractand the concretebegins is often when phrasearticulation to break down duringthe 19thcentury, liberatedthat the tied to the meteror else so completely eitherslavishly of the measure in much sense of the meteris almost lost. The retention music is purely conventional,and it is no wonder that Impressionistic to keep an abstractpattern later composershave abandoned the effort For thisreasonthe reguwiththe actual rhythm. when it would conflict examas Webernmustbe carefully larityof the meterin such composers ined. Is it to be felt as a constantlypresent control? Is it a pure convention?Is it, as some would have us believe, an evidence of the composer'snumerologicalsuperstitions? The answers to such questions must always be given with specific to the textinvolved.When, as in the case of Example 11, the reference the explanation is relatively motifsets up a clear cross-rhythm, easy. Webern's Piano Variations,on the other hand, presentthe problemin an acute form.What has happened here, I think,is that the composer of rhythmic, metric, has called on a complex set of interrelationships melodic of the for to factors textural and tenuity compensate dynamic, twelvemeasuresof the last movement, In the first and harmonicinterest. time-divisions simultaneously for example, I findat least seven different cross-meter a the meter set are These possible (3/2), by up functioning. the of the two-note of the phrases, motifs, rhythi (5/4), the rhythm and the linearpattern(Ex. 12).* the dynamicalternations, the tone-row, The reallyimportant questionto ask in all such cases- and even in triedto get rid of all traditional cases wherethe composerhas deliberately downbeat? If the structural locate metricalmeasurement--is, can we we can, then we can proceed with analytic concepts in some way analogous to those of the traditionalrhythmand meter,phrase and mustbe devised. new rhythmic theory cadence. If not, some completely to do this,but I have as Some musicians,like Stockhausen,are trying one no seen satisfactory emerge. yet By structuraldownbeat, of course, I do not mean the arbitrary beat of everymeasure; I mean rather phenomena accentuationof the first like the articulationby which the cadential chord of a phrase is identified,the weightby which the second phrase of a period is feltas resolvthe release of tensionwith which the tonic of a recapitulaing the first,
2 Copyright 1937 by Universal Edition, A.G., Vienna. Reprinted by permission of Associated Music Publishers, Inc., sole agents for the United States.
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tion enters.(In the Webern example,I hear the downbeat as the Eb at the beginning of measure 12; and I considerit no accidentthat it occurs at the beginning of a measure,precededby a ritardando.) It is just here that the importance of rhythm to the establishment of tonalityemerges,for the cadence is the point in the phrase at which rhythmic coincide. It would be partly emphasisand harmonicfunction true to say that the cadence creates tonality, but it would be equally trueto say that tonality createsthe cadence. Where the cadence exists, it is impossible to hear musicas completely atonal,even thoughone may be unable to definethe key in conventional terms.
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We know the signs by which a cadence can be recognizedin traditionallytonal music: its position at the end of a phrase, the melodic The actual downbeatmay not always the change of harmony. resolution, cadential with the coincide point, but such unusual cases arise exactly most often when the phrase is rhythmically prolonged (the feminine ending) or when it pointsahead so clearlythat the next phrase acts as sectionis followed a huge cadence to the first(as when an introductory by a main theme). In any case, keysare definedby the appearances of strong,cadential downbeats- whetherclearlyon the tonic as in most as notablyin the Prelude Classical examples,or on deceptiveresolutions, to Tristan. The extent to which analogous principlesgovern the structureof A few examples will show them at music is surprising. contemporary work. of Bart6k'sFifthQuartet may The openingof the second movement downbeat comes The first as an is heard it until upbeat. puzzling prove cadence on the same on the D in measure5, clinchedby an even stronger that tone (now supportedby its fifth)in measure 10. The digression by the followssuggeststhe key of C, but this tonalityis not confirmed cadence, which, when it arrivesin measure 20, is again clearly on D. The first page of Sessions's Second Sonata for Piano is much less of Bb triadic; yetwhen the downbeatcomes in measure 11, the harmony of Not onlythe V-I impliedby the progression fifths is clearlyestablished. to D, accented by the downward in the bass, but the melodic resolution is confirmed which tonal this by what follows. towards center, leap, points but the is downbeat clear such no presented, In the second movement, cadences of measures 177 and 190 both suggest feminine two important an unstatedresolutionto E. The importantdownbeat of measure 191, harmony; comingas it then does on F, is in the natureof a neighboring and not untilmuch later,at measure 213, does the expectedE occur, its forits long postponeas a pedal forten measurescompensating extension ment.The last fewmeasuresof the Lento act as an upbeat releasedin the returnof Bb in the opening of the finale.But this in turn,aftera long elements,gives way at the last to the key of C, battle with conflicting establishedin the final chord. on which a downbeat is firmly to as a "downbeat composer," by is sometimesreferred Stravinsky rather often emphasizesthe beginnings which I suppose is meant that he than the endings of his phrases. This resultsin a weakening of the cadential sense,it is true,the phrasesso accented being as it were huge
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feminineendings to their own opening chords. A typical example is the opening of the Sirinade en la. The harmonic progression would be describedin traditionaltermsas VI 6-I in A minor; actually the
F of the first chord is heard as hardly more than an appoggiatura resolvingto the E of the second. This would appear to be no progression at all, in which case the phrase should be a huge diminuendo.Yet we cannot be too sure: in a similarsituationat the beginningof the third movementof the Symphonyof Psalms, the composer,by changingthe mode and the orchestration at the cadential word Dominum, creates a clear accent even thoughthe chord has remainedessentially the same the (C) throughout phrase. In any event, whatever we may decide about the reading of his is perfectly phrase-accentin detail, Stravinsky capable of producinga downbeatat precisely the pointwhereit is required.I need big structural only point to the huge deceptive cadence that opens the Symphony in Three Movements, the dominant G of the introductionresolving finallyupward to the A of the ostinatotheme (rehearsal number 7); or to the way in which the Interludeacts as an upbeat to the C major of the finale. More controversial is the attemptto find traces of tonal form in atonal avowedly compositions;yet I do not see how music like Schoencan fail to arouse certain berg's,withits usuallyclear cadentialstructure, traditionalassociationsand responses.The previously cited Klavierstiick 33a six with of which the second chords, throughthe fifth Op. begins are very easily-although not necessarily-heard as forming a progression referring but when the opening to E minor.This in itself is nothing, phrase is heard as an upbeat resolvedin the thirdmeasure, and when the resolving is recognizedas a seventhon E, a tonal analogy sonority is set up. The first section of the piece concludes even more unmistakand the themethat ably on E, withthe added emphasisof a ritaridando; followsin measure 14 gives the effect of a sudden shiftof key. In the to the the ritardandoof measure 34 again calls attention recapitulation, following downbeat, where the E appears in the upper voice, but supportedin the bass by A-in the manner of a deceptivecadence on the E, which is so strong IV. It remainsforthe finalcadence to confirm that it is not dislodged by the dissonant tones with which it is here surrounded. Several objectionscan be made to the above account: that it picks
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to the movementbetween them, out isolated points withoutreference that the "cadences" on E are a resultof the fact that the row ends on to music in this style. that note, that such analysis is irrelevant count I plead guilty.I have indeed picked out isolated To the first "full-cadences" points,because theseseemed to me to be the important of the piece. (Important "half-cadences"occur at measures9, 24, and 32.) The movementbetween them cannot, I grant, be explained in motiondomisimple tonal terms.At some points,linear or contrapuntal above will indicate nates-in which case the melodicprinciples suggested the logic of the chosen cadences. At other points the sonoritiesthemselves dominate-and thesecan of coursebe shown as derivedfromthe opening chords.As a resultthe entirepiece can be heard as a development of its original cadential progression-thatis, as analogous to a traditionalstructure. I agree that the cadences are partiallydue to the use of the row. is a virtue or a vice of Depending on one's point of view, this effect technique. It may even have been one of the Schoenberg'stwelve-tone points persuading him to turn towards the system,away from freer invalidatethe actual musatonal methods.In no case can the argument ical result. I answerthat one who cannot indeed To the charge of irrelevancy, hear such cadential phenomenain thismusic mustjudge the analysisto and inapplicable.But one who does hear themmustadmit be prescriptive to that extentthe validityof the approach. He may counterthat one the ought not to hear the music in this way; but he is then criticizing be would effects cadential Unwanted method. the not analytical music, human as great a flaw in atonal music as the chance appearance of a in a non-representational painting. figure V The last point suggeststhat thereis a relationbetween analysisand criticism.It is not a simple one. Analysiscan often reveal flaws in a work, it is true- oftenbut not always. If it were dependable in this between the disputed regard,we should be able to decide definitively of Beethoven'sSonata Op. 109 (measC. and CX in the last movement the famousAL in Schoenberg's Op. 33a is indeed an ure 55) or whether too oftenwork both all cases such Ab (measure 22). But unfortunately ways: the C- that fromone pointof view preparesforthe advent of D two measureslater mighthave been avoided in order not to anticipate
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it; by the same token,although the A, seems more logical in the rowstructure (in spite of the At lacking in the lefthand), it may somewhat fifth that comes soon after. The ear freshness the the of Ab-Eb spoil but insofar as analysis must be the ultimatejudge of such subtleties, to the finaldecision. trainsand sharpensthe ear it makes its contribution It would be temptingto go furtherand state that analysis can the qualityof a work,but thisrequiresa faithin rationality demonstrate that I am unable to summon. Judgmentof final excellence must be intuitive.If analysis leads one to condemn a work he fundamentally continuesto hear as good, he must conclude that there is nevertheless eitherwithhis ear or withhis method.Since he cannot wrong something dispense with the only pair of ears he has, upon whose evidence the should have been based in the first examination place, he mustblame his method. He must then find a new one based on his own hearing,one his musicaljudgment.He may then not contradict, thatwill substantiate, the excellenceof the workin question, claim that analysishas established but he will be wrong; his own judgment will have established the analysis. One positivepoint emergeshere, and it is a crucial one. The good compositionwill always reveal, on close study,the methods of analysis This means that a good composition needed forits own comprehension. but it means more than that. In its own structural manifests principles, that a work of art a wider context,it is an example of the proposition ought to implythe standardsby which it demands to be judged. Most and sets about criticism today tacitlyaccepts the truthof thisstatement how well and work a standards the testing given by implied discovering is of this it lives up to them. For investigation kind, analysis naturally of primary importance. should take a further Criticism step, however,and the best criticism does. It should questionthe value of the standards.A work that sets no of evaluation; one that does clear standarddeniesor defiesthe possibility set its standardfailsor succeeds insofaras it measuresup to it; one that - but its value cannot exceed is at least flawless measuresup completely the value of its own standard. It is this final step that is completely of analysis. beyond the confines case in point. No seriouscritic The music of Webern is a prominent of his the and forms his of the denies complete consistency perfection has been style. Its paucity of normal melodic and harmonic interests mentionedabove, but in connectionwith other values that, replacing
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these, uniquely characterizehis manner. What is seldom questioned is - of the restrictive the significance of the styleitself standard (for it is a restrictive one) that Webern set for his own music. Are the limitstoo narrow to permit accomplishmentat the very highestlevel? Only a decision of this point can determineone's final evaluation of the composer. It is a decisionthat depends on one's beliefsabout the limitsand aims of art in general and is thus not exclusively musical, although it mustat the same time be peculiarlymusical. It mustbe made on faith, and it must be accepted or rejectedin the same spirit.

Analysis Today de Edward T Cone

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Analysis Today de Edward T Cone

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Analysis Today Author(s): Edward T. Cone Source: The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 46, No.

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