Sei sulla pagina 1di 123

MARK EVAN BON DS

otj ess etoric


Musical Form and the Metaphor of the Oration


Harvard University Press
Cambridge, Massachusetts, and London, England I99I


!
JljlOI!
i)"
Ii ./0 1_
:ic,,,(y)
\.,')

Copyright © 1991 by the President and Fellows To Dorothea


of Harvard College
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 I

This book is printed on acid-free paper, and its binding


materials have been chosen for stren g th and durability.

Library of Catalogillg-in-Pllblication Data

Bonds, Mark Evan.


Wordless rhetoric: musical form and th e metaphor of the oration /
Mark Evan Bonds.
p. cm.-(Studies in the hi story of music ; 4)
Includ es bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-674-9 5602-8
I. Music-Philosophy and aesthetics. 2 . Mu sical fo rm . I. Titl e.
II. Series: Studies in the history of musi c (Cambridge, Mass.) ; 4.
ML3845 . B6 1991
781.S-dC20 9 0 - 26 494
CII'
MN
Contents

Introduction: Musical Form and Metaphor

The Paradox of Musical Form 13


Generative alld Conformational Approaches to Form 13

Sonata Form Jnd the Limits of Definition 30

2 Rhetoric and the Concept of Musical Form in the Eighteenth


Century · 53
Rhetoric and the Prag matic Orientation of Eighteenth-Century Aesthetics S4
Mu sic as J Language 61
Mu sical Grallllllar and Musiol Rhetoric 68
Rhetoric and the Theory of the Compositional Process 80
Mel ody and the Thematic Basis of Form 90
Genre, Formal Convention , and Individu:ti Genius II R

3 Continuity and Change in Later Metaphors of Form I J2


The Continuity of Rhetorical Imagery in the Nineteenth Century 132

The Metaphor of the Organism and the Emerging Paradox of


Mu sica l Form 14 1
Three Case Studies: Reicha, Marx, Schoenberg 149

4 Rhetoric and the Autonomy of Instrumental Music r62


Rhetoric and the "Musical Idea" 164
Rhetoric and Analysis in the Late Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth
Centuries 169
5 Rhetoric and the Role of the Listener in the Analysis of WORDLESS RHETORIC
Large-Scale Form 181
Listener-Oriented Theories of Form 181
Listening for the Plot: The Il.hetoric of Formal Archetypes 186
Analyzing the Musical Oration: The First Movement of Haydn's Symphony
No . 46 in B Major 192

Originals of Quotations Given in Translation 207

Index 23 I
INTRODUCTION

Musical Form and Metaphor

Abbreviations "Form" is one of the most widely used terms in aesthetics. It is also one of
the most 3mbiguous. Two of its most common meanings are in fact dia-
AfMlII Arelliv Jiir MIISikwissellselrajt metrically opposed. "Form" is commonly used to denote those features a
AMZ AIIgl'llleille mllsikalisclle (Leipzig) given work shares with a large number of others, yet it is also often under-
stood as the unique structure of a particular work.
BAMZ Berliner Allgemeine mllsikalische ZeitllllS
These differences cannot be easily reconciled, for they reflect two funda-
D Vjs Dwtselle VierteljahrsschriJt Jiir LiteratllTlllissl'llschajt I/lld iellle mentally different attitudes toward the relationship between form and con-
JAMS JOllmal oJthe Americall Mllsicological Society tent. The idea of form as a structural pattern shared by a large number of
JMT .lOllmal oj Mllsic Theory unrelated works rests on the premise that a work's form can be distin-
guished from its content. The idea of form 3S the unique sh3pe of 3n indi-
MQ MlIsiwl Qllartaly
vidual work, on the other hand, precludes 3ny such distinction.
Nell! Crolle Ti,e Nelli Crolle Dictiollary oj Mllsic alld Mllsicialls. 20 vols. Ed. Stanley Sadie. Both of these '3ttitudes 3re legitim3te, and both play an import3nt role in
London: Macmillan, 1980.
analysis. In practice, most critics deal with the semantic paradox of "form"
by nuking some kind of terminological distinction between "outer" and
"inner" fonn, or between "fonns" and "form," or "form" and "structure."
Yet such distinctions, while useful, do not address the underlying paradox
by which the S3me root term-not only in English, but in German, French,
:lI1d other Iangu:t ges as well-c3n 3pply to such widely divergent ideas.
The sel1l3ntic paradox of "form" is a linguistic vestige of a conceptual
unity t11:1t no lon ger exists. [n the theory and aesthetics of music, the dis-
tinction between "inner" and "outer" form is a relatively recent phenome-
non, one that began to emerge only toward the end of the eighteenth cen-
tury 3nd in the early decades of the nineteenth. It coincided as 1\
shall argue in later chapters, it is directly related to-three important devel-
opments in musical thought. The first of these was the emergence of form
itself as an abstract concept. Throughout the eighteenth century, accounts
of what we now think of as conventional movement-length forms (sonata
form, rondo, and so on) were almost invariably presented within broader
discussions of such issues as melody, harmony, rhythm, or genre, or within of his time that these two accounts appe:lred not within discussions of mu-
accounts of such aesthetic concepts as unity, variety, or coherence. "Form" sical form per se, but rather within extended discourses on melody. The
became an established rubric in manuals of compositional pedagogy only first account is presented under the more specific rubric of modulation, the
later; the term itself, significantly enough, appears only sporadically in second within :I description of various genres (symphony, concerto, and so
eighteenth-century wntll1gs on music and did not become a widely ac- on). [n the final volume of the Vers/lch, Koch also makes one of the earliest
cepted category in its own right until the second third of the nineteenth categorical distinctions between "inner" and "outer" form in music, but he
century. stops short of making any explicit differentiation between their aesthetic
The second development, closely related to the first, was the increasingly value or importance.
detailed description of those common structural conventions that had al- Over the course of the nineteenth century, more and more theorists wrote
ready been in use for a generation or more. Sonata form, for example, had with increasing specificity about both the nature of large-scale formal con-
played a prominent role in instrumental music since at least the 1760s; and ventions and the more abstract concept of form in general. Almost without
yet while one can find scattered attempts throughout subsequent decades to exception, however. these same writers consistently deprecated the very
describe this structural convention, it was not until the '790S such ac- structures they described in such detail, attributing "true" form to the
counts began to go into any appreciable degree of detail. unique ch:lr:lcteristics of a work rather than to those features it shares with
The third of these changes, which also occurred toward the end of the many others. The two concepts of form were thus imbued with increas-
eighteenth century, was the growing conviction that the unique, "inner" ingly disparate :lesthetic values. This outlook, epitomized in Adolf
form of a work was aesthetically superior to its conventional, "outer" form. Bernhard Marx's epochal Die Lehre von der mllsika/iscilen Komposition (1837-
As specific forms came to be described in more detail, the aesthetic im por- 1R47). is the basis of most modern-day attitudes toward form. Today, the
tance of these conventional structures was consistently deemed inferior to existence of specific fOlmal stereotypes is generally acknowledged-if at
the unique nature of the work at hand. times only grudgingly and with considerable qualification-but the artistic
Nowhere are these changes more concisely illustrated than in the writings merit of a given work is seen to reside in its "inner" qualities, those unique
of the theorist and composer Heinrich Christoph Koch (1749-1816). With features that set it apart from all other manifestations of whatever stereo-
the exception of one important passage, which I shall consider in detail in typical form it happens to represent.
Chapter 2, Koch's treatment of form as an independent category is still quite Both of these concepts of form, as [ shall argue in Chapter I, are neces-
tentative throughout his Versuch ein('Y An/eitlwg Zllr Composition (17R2- ' .. sary for analysis, yet neither is sufficient. The challenge, then, is to reconcile
1793), the most extensive and detailed compositional treatise of the Classical these disparate perspectives. This is not to say that there is something in-
era. I Koch uses the term "Form" repeatedly and even provides an entry for herently wrong with paradoxes; indeed, in this particular instance, the ten-
it in the work's index, but at no point does he venture any clear or concise sion between these two very different ideas of form serves as a useful re-
definition. His subsequent Mlisikalisches Lexikon of 1802 similarly fails to minder that form is too broad and subtle a concept to be explained by any
provide a separate entry or definition for the term, in spite of its repeated one approach. Yet there is a danger in accepting this paradox of form too
use there. Yet only five years later, Koch supplies precisely such an account readily, p:lrticubrly in analyzing a repertoire that antedates the conceptual
in the abridged edition of the same musical dictionary. 2 • dichotomy between "inner" and "outer" form.
In the second and third volumes of his VerSllcll, Koch provides the earliest The emergence of this dichotomy was due not so much to changes in the
detailed accounts of what we now call sonata form, the most important conventional forms as to changes in fundamental attitudes toward the na-
movement- length structural convention of the Classical era. Yet it is typical ture of form itself. There was of course no single, monolithic view of mu-
sical form in either the eighteenth or the nineteenth century, any more than
I. Koch. Vcrsllch eiller ;mr Composititlll, 3 vols. (Leipzig: A. F. Diihllle. 17H2- there is today; the term is so broadly encompassing that nearly every writer
1793: rpt. Hildesheim: Olms. 19(\9). Throughout rhis book. the terlll "Cbssiol er:," is used who has ever commented on a specific work of music may be said to have
as a convenient shorthand to designate a period extending from approximately '770
addressed the issue of form. But there were certain basic premises of form
through 1820.
2. Koch. A1I1si/:,,/isc/H's Lc'xi/:,,", 2 vols. (Franktilfr/Main: A . Hermann d.j., 1 S02: rl'L
that changed between the late eighteenth and the mid-nineteenth centuries.
Hildesheim: O lms. 1964): idem. Halldll'iirlc'rbllciJ Ii", Mllsi/: (Leipzig: J. F. Hut- We can best understand these changing premises by tracing the shift in the
knoch. 18°7: rpt. Hildesheim: Olms. 1981). metaphors used to describe form.
To the rather limited extent that eighteenth-century authors commented Koch was correct to observe that while "a great deal about rhetoric may be
on large-scale, movement-length form at all, they generally tended to rely found scattered here and there in writings on music," it had "not yet been
upon the imagery and vocabulary of rhetoric., While parallels between mu- the fortun e of the human spirit to bring these writings together in a system-
sic and rhetoric had long been recognized, it was not until the eighteenth atic order."l A good part of the problem, it would seem, lies in the nature
century that music came to be described as a language in its own right, of rhetoric, which in its own way encompasses an even broader range of
independent of any verbal text. And within this conceptual metaphor of ideas than "form" itself.
music as a language, a broad range of eighteenth- century theorists and The term "rhetoric" has been used so widely in recent years-often in-
aestheticians considered an individual work of instrumental music to be a discriminately-that it is best to state at the outset what a rhetorical concept
kind of wordless oration whose purpose was to move the listener. The ra- of musical form does not entail. It is not to be equated directly to
tionale behind the structure of this oration, in turn, was held to manifest Mattheson's well-known but widely misunderstood attempt to draw par-
certain basic parallels to the rationale behind the formal conventions of tra- allels between the form of a musical movement and the structure of an
ditional, verbal rhetoric. oration (exordium, narratio, propositio, and so on). This attempt will be
After 1800, writers gradually abandoned the metaphor of oration, discussed in some detail inl Chapter 2; ,suffice it to say for the moment that
preferring instead to describe the musical work as an organism and its form Mattheson's outline represents only one manifestation of a rhetorical con-
as an organic relationship of individual parts to the whole. The musical ception of form. Nor docs the rhetorical concept of form refer to the use of
work was now imbued with the force of life itself. Whereas the eighteenth "figures" which, when arrayed in a sequential order, could create a large-
century's metaphor had emphasized the temporal nature of the work in per- scale whole.
formance and viewed form primarily from the pers pective of a listening Instead, "rhetoric" is to be understood here in the much broader sense as
audience, the preferred metaphor of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries defined by Aristotle: "the faculty of discovering the possible means of per-
has been more spatial in perspective, in that it considers the work and its suasion in reference to any subject whatever."4 Rhetoric, by this definition,
constituent units as a simultaneously integrated whole. Organic imagery is not a specfic body of rules or devices, but rather "the rationale," as one
emphasizes the autonomy of both the artwork and its creator; the listener, modern writer has described it, "of the informative and suasory in dis-
in effect, becomes an interested third party. course."; In this sense, form is the manner in which a work's content is
This shift in metaphors reflects fundamental changes in the concept of made intelli gible to its audience. Conventional patterns, by providing lis-
both mu sic in general and musical form in particular. While toda y we tend .,. tel1lTS with points of reference and predictability, tlcilitate the presentation
to think of the form of any given work from the perspective of the work of a content that necessarily varies from work to work.
itself (and thus indirectly from the perspective of the composer), theorists When viewed in thi s broad light, the metaphor of the musical work as
l
and aestheticians of the eighteenth century consistently approached the issue an oration, as I argue in Chapter 2, provides a means by which internal,
of form from the perspective of the listener. In its orientation toward the generative forces may be reconciled with external conventions . It offers a
audience, its vocabulary, and its categories of thou ght, this earlier idea of conceptual framework that, in the case of specific schemas like sonata form,
form was essentially rhetorical. Koch, the most penetrating theorist of his offers an alternative to the dichotomy between the large-scale thematic
generation, all but equates movement-length form with rhetoric in his events and the h3rmonic outline of a movement. It offers, moreover, a con-
MHsikaIisches Lexikon of 1802, explicitly confirming a tendency already pre- ceptual basis applicable to all forms prevalent throughout the period under
sent in his earlier VersHch. His rhetorical concept of musical form, as I shall discussion here, including even such problematic "non-forms" as the fan-
argue in Chapters 2 and 3, was neither arbitrary nor isolated. On the con- tasia and the capriccio. And as I argue in Chapter 4, it also provides an
trary, it was part of a long tradition that extended across the continent. It important antecedent for the Romantic view of instrumental music as an
included such major figures as Johann Mattheson, Jakob Adlung, Johann autonomous art.
Philipp Kirnberger, Carl Ludwig Junker, Johann Nikolaus Forkel, and
Georg Joseph Vogler in Germany; Jerome-Joseph de Momigny, Alexandre 3. Koch . MlIsiRa /iscll"s L('xiRclll, "Rhetorik."
4. Aristotle. Til" "Art" of RIletoric, 1.11.2. , trans . John Henry Freese (Cambrid ge. Mass .:
Etienne Choron, and Anton Reicha in France; and Francesco Galeazzi in
Harvard Universit y Press. 1947).
Italy. 5. Donald C. Bryant. RI/I'toriwl Dimellsiolls ill Criticism (Baton Rouge: Louisiana Statt'
In spite of the chronological and geographical breadth of this tradition, University Press . 1973). p. 14·
Many of the parallels between musical form and rhetoric have been rec- tive instruments, actively shaping our apprehension of the broader network
ognized in recent years; but all too often scholars have dismissed such anal- of ideas related to the original metaphor. 8 As George Lakoff and Mark
ogies as instances of "mere" metaphor, as "unmusical" explanations ofmu- Johnson point out, some metaphors are so pervasive as to f.1shion our view
sical phenomena. 6 But to dismiss the rhetorical metaphor of musical form of the world, often in ways of which we are largely unconscious. Using as
on these grounds is to misconstrue the nature of metaphor itself. Metaphors an example the conceptual metaphor of "argument" as a "war," Lakoff and
are necessarily limited, for a total congruence of characteristics between Johnson cite an entire family of related images attached to this metaphor,
terms or objects would amount to nothing less than identity. There is no all of which combine to shape the manner in which we conceive of and
reason, moreover, to consider imagery drawn from rhetoric as being some- conduct arguments: we develop a strate,f!.Y by which to attack an opponent's
how less valid than more "musical" terminology. Since classical antiquity, position w hil e defending our own in the hopes of winninLi! a dispute. A culture
writers on music have in fact resorted to metaphor repeatedly in an attempt in which "an argument is viewed as a dance, the participants are seen as
to expand their vocabulary, and an understanding of the metaphorical performers, and the goal is to perform in a balanced and aesthetically pleas-
origins of these terms can only help our efforts to make sense of passages ing way" would "view arguments differently, experience them differen tly,
whose meanings might otherwise remain obscure. 7 And the literary arts- carry them out differently, and talk about them differently."9
grammar and rhetoric in particular-have long been an important source of In their respective eras of predominance, both the rhetorical and organic
musical terminology. It is easy to forget how many "musical" terms, like metaphors of musical form have been sufficiently widespread and powerful
"theme," "period," "phrase," and even "composition," are derived from to act as cognitive instruments. It is thus all the more important that we
grJmmar Jnd rhetoric. Nor were these terms "dead" metJphors for writers recognize this shift in perspective, lest the organic (spatial) metaphor that
of the eighteenth century: theorists repeJtedly com men ted on the analogous has prevailed since the mid-nineteenth century exercise a disproportionate
functions of literary and musical themes, phrases, and periods. influence over our hi storical interpretations of the rhetorical (temporal)
To insist on a distinction between "musical" and "unmusical" explana- metaphor that predominated in eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century
tions is thus neither reasonable nor helpful. Metaphors are more than a mere accounts of form.
substitution of one term for another: they reflect broader processes of Approaching a work of music theory or aesthetics with the question of
thought that often associate extended networks of images and functions how appropriate certain rhetorical metaphors mayor may not be within
beyond the individual terms in question. The language we use to describe that particular text is therefore a precarious procedure at best. 10 Such an
any concept inevitably shapes the manner in which we understand it, and approach views metaphor as "something to be eliminated as quickly as pos-
metaphors represent one of the most important means by which to extend sible," in order "to get down to the literal meaning that the metaphor covers
and alter the meaning of existing terms. Certain metaphors, in fact, are so up."" Rather than limit ourselves to examining what "literal" meanings
deeply ingrained in our patterns of perception that they function as cogni- metaphors express, we should broaden our inquiry to include what concep-

6. See, for example, Fred Ritzel, Die Elltwicklllllg der "Solla tenform" im IIll1sij;titcorctiscitrll R. Max Bbck , "More on Metaphor," in Metaphllr alld Thollght , ed. Andrew Ortony
Scltr({ttlltll des 18. lind '9 . Jaitrlllltlderts (Wiesbaden: Breitkopf & Hartel, 1968), and John (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979), p. 39. See also George Lakoff and Mark
Neubauer, The Elnallcipation of Music from Langllage: Departllre from Mimesis ill EiglltCl'lItit. John son, Metaphors We Li,)c By (Chicago: University of Ch icago Press, 19Ra); Ea rl H.
Cetlfllry Aesthetics (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1986). Ritzel calls Forkel's analogy MacCormac, A Thcory of Ml'faphor (Cambridge, Mass: M. I. T. Press, 1985); and
to language the "vulnerable point" of his argument abo ut form, his outlook an "exception" Eva Feder Kittay, Metaphor: Its Force atld LitlS"istic Structllre (Oxford: Clarendon
(pp. 127, 106); rhetoric itselfis a "standard foreign to music" (p. 20), and Matthcson's "d ry Press, 1987).
rheto rical theories" had little influence on the remainder of the century (p. 47). According 9· Lakoff and Johnson, Metaphors We Lil)e By, p. 5.
to Neubauer, Forkel "clung" to the "outdated language of musical rhetoric in accounting 10. As, for example, in Nancy K. Baker, "Heinrich Koch. and the Theory of Melody,"
for the developmental sections" of sonata-form movements (p. 34). And while Neubauer JMT, 20 (1976),3; and Gtinther Wagner, "Anmcrkungen wr Formtheorie Hcinri ch Chris-
concedes that musical rhetoric is a "codc" for "some important music" of the seventeenth toph Kochs ," AjM"" 41 (1984), 86-/12. One notable exception to this tendency is found
and eighteenth centuries, we should "judge the thrust of the theoretical effort from our in Nicole Schw indt-Gross, Drama IIlId Disk"rs: 211r zwischcll Satztallllik 1/111/ t1111-
vantage point as mistaken" (p. 40). livisc/Il'1II Prozl'ss alii Bl'ispil'i der dJ.lrchbrllCh"tIl'll Arbeit ill dl'r1 StreichqllartettclI Mozarts 11111/
7. See, for example, Jeremy Yudkin's illuminating commentary on musical terms drawn Haydlls (Laaber: Laaber-Verlag, 1989), a study th at came to my attention too late for ade-
from grammar and rhetoric in contemporary accounts of early medieval polyphony: "The quate incorporation into this book.
Copula According to Johannes de Garlandia," Mllsica disciplina, 34 (1980), 67-84; and "The II. Jerry L. Morgan, "Observations on the Pragmatics of Metaphor," in Metaphor alld

Anonymous of St. Emmeram and Anonymous IV on the Copula," MQ, 70 (1984). 1-22 . Thollght, cd . Ortony, p. 147.

. .
tions a metaphor implies. '2 Metaphors prompt insig ht, and the metaphor tion is crucial. The classification of genres and their related forms, as an end
of the musical work as an oration in eighteenth- and early nineteenth- in itself, leads to little more than an inert model. But when viewed as a
century accounts of movement-length form is something more than a lin- convention, genre es tablishes itself as "the basis of the conventions that
guistic faule de mieux. The fact that there was a need for new terms is in make literary communication possible," and the "processes of generic rec-
itself revealing, and the centrality of the rhetorical term s that were so widely ognition" become "fundamental to the reading process."'; Genres are no
accepted reRects some of the basic premises behind contemporary attitudes longer viewed as "taxonomic classes," but as "groups of norms and expec-
toward the issue ofform. Rhetoric was by no means the only metaphor tations which help the reader to assign functions to various elements in the
applied to musical form prior to 1800, but for more than a century it was work . .. The 'real' genres arc those sets of categories or norms required
clearly the predominant one. to account for the process of reading." , 0
Another common objection to interpreting Classical form through the This kind of thinking can be applied to musical forms as well. Specific
imagery of rhetoric is the notion that this approach represents an outmoded conventions, too often viewed (and either denigrated or rejected) as cate-
vestige of Baroque thought. [n point of fact, the application of this image gories, elll be studied more profitably as the musical equivalent of plot
specifically to the idea of large-scale, movement-length form did not gain archetypes. Each manifestation of a stereotypical form provides a frame-
widespread acceptance until the second half of the eighteenth century. What work in which the processes of formal recognition become essential to the
little attention has been given to musical rhetoric in the Classical era has act of li stening .
tended to focus on one rather specific element of th e field , the device of
musico-rhetorical figures. ') And while there can be no question that the use The focus of this book, then, is the changing concept of musical form over
of figures and "topics" survived well into the Classical era, it is clear th:1t I I a period extending from roughly 1730 until as reRected in the rise and
this practice, important as it may be, constitutes only one facet of the fall of rhetoric as a central metaphor in accounts of form1r In terms of the
broader idea of music as a rhetorical art. 'theorists them selves, this era extends from Johann Mittheson through
With its emphasis on the role of the listener, the Classical era's rhetorical Adolf Bernh:lrd Marx-that is to say, from the earliest, somewhat tentative
concept of form seems strikingly contemporary for us today in many re- attempts to :lccount for musical form in the early eighteenth century, down
spects, for it entails an analytical method analogous to recent re:lder- through the systematic "codific:ltion" of specific formal conventions in the
oriented theories of literary criticism. These similarities, outlined in Ch:lp- middle of the nineteenth. The emphasis throughout is on the evo lu tion of
ter 5, provide a historical foundation to more recent theories of form that concepts th:lt :lfe specific:llly applic:lble to instrumental music. A vocal
assign a central role to the listener :lnd his expectations of stru ctur:ll events work's text offers a basic and obvious point of departure for the analysis of
in the analysis of movement-length form. Scholars in other fields, most form; indeed, the perceived aesthetic superiority of vocal music over instru-
notably in literary criticism, have long recognized the analytical value of a mental music until relatively late in the eighteenth century goes a long way
rhetorical approach to large-scale formal conventions. Recent reinterpreta- toward explaining just why sustained theoretical accounts of form as an
tions of genre theory, in particular, have opened new perspectives on the abstract category began to appear only near the end of the century. Earlier
analysis of structural stereotypes. Genre is now seen more as a convention theorists, concerned primarily with vocal music, could reasonably assume
than a category, as a "pigeon" rath er than as a "pigeonhole." q Tl)is distinc- that a work's structure would be determined to a considerable extent by its
text, which in turn would ordinarily vary from piece to piece. But the
growing stature of instrumental music throughout the eighteenth century
12. See Samuel R. Levin, Atetaphoric Worlds: Conceptiolls of a ROIlln/lfic Na tllrt' (New
produced new interest in the more abstract principles of form. By 1799, an
Haven: Yale University Press, 19 88) , p. ix; and Mark Turner, Drath Is the Mother o( 13 fa llt)' :
Milld, Metaphor, Criticism (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, [987), pp. [6-21. anonymous reviewer of four symphonies by Mozart could go so far as to
13· See, for example, Leonard Ratner, Classic Music: Expression , FOrlll, alld St),le (New proclaim that a composer displays the greatest genius only in instrumental
York: Schirmer, 1980); Gernot Gruber, "Mllsikalische Rhetorik lind barockc Bildlichkcit music, "for there he is limited solely to the language of sounds. His
in Kompositionen des jungen Haydn," in Der junge Haydn , ed . Vera Schwarz (Grn:
Akademische Druck- lind Verlagsan stalt, 1972), pp. 168-[91; Wye J amiso n Allanbrook,
Rllythmic Gesture in Mozart (Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 1983). 15. Ibid. , pp. 36, 259.
14· Alastair Fowler, Kinds of Literature: An Introduction to tile Theory ofCenres alld Modes 16. Jonathan Cu ll er, Tile PII rsll it of Semiotics, Literature, Derollstnatioll (Ithaca ,
(Cambridge, Mass .: Harvard University Press, [982), p. 37 . N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1981), p. 123.
thoughts have their own clarity in themselves, without being supported by thetics as a whole. What is important for our purposes, however, is that the
poetry."'? It is the contemporary effort to account for "pure" musical form rhetorical concept of form is to be found in all of these categories of writ-
that is my principal concern here. The demonstrable and important con- ings , in sources aimed at a broad spectrum of readers.
nections between vocal and instrumental forms deserve serious considera- [n surveying such a variety of sources, I have not attempted to review
tion, but the issues of text-setting raise a variety of problems that go well the works of any single author or composer systematically. My purpose
beyond the concept of form in its more abstract sense, independent of tex- instead has been to identify broad lines of thought that transcend not only
tual dictates and restraints. Dance music and program music similarly in- individual writers but also the generic categories of theory, pedagogy, and
corporate structural motivations that are extra-musical; accordingly, these aesthetics. My discussion of Forkel's concept of musical rhetoric in Chapter
genres also stand outside the scope of this study. 2, for example, focuses on those elements common to many other writers,
Any discussion of musical form runs the risk of being overly abstrac.t if intentionally leaving aside any detailed discussion of the many fascinating
it is too general, but of only limited applicability if it is too specific. views that are peculiarly Forkel's own. And while concentrating on a single
Throughout this book, I shall try to avoid these extremes by focusing prin- cltegory of sources can be highly rewarding, as John Neubauer has shown
cipally on one large-scale stereotype-sonata form-and by to in his recent survey of eighteenth-century aestheticians, such an approach
integrate the analysis of specific sonata-form movements with a broader also has its limitations, as Neubauer himself acknowledges. ,N An aestheti-
understanding of musical form in the late eighteenth and early nin eteenth cian, particularly if he is not a musician by training, tends to approach his
centuries. By using sonata form as a paradigm for the concept of musical subject from a perspective quite different from that of the composer or ped-
form, I do not mean to suggest that other structural conventions, such as :1gogue, w hose :1ims and methods are necessarily more concrete. There is 3
the rondo, minuet, theme and variations, or fugue, are somehow less wor- tendency 3Il10ng general 3estheticians, moreover, to emphasize those ele-
thy of consideration: indeed, one of the most serious shortcomings of recent ments co mmon to 311 the 3rtS. But this 3pproach is not necess3rily evident
theories of Classical sonata form is the lack of a co nceptual basis of form in the m o rc technical literJture of any given field. The much-debated issue
that can be applied to these other structural stereotypes as well. But sonata of mim esis offers a good case in point. The imitation of nature, as Batteux
form is clearly the most important of all instrumental forms of the period: 3rgued in his influenti3l Lcs beaux-arts reduits Ii un meme principe (1746), is the
it appears in the large majority of first movements in symphonies, sonatas, one element common to all the arts, including music. Yet while this ide3
string quartets, and the like, as well as in many slow movements and fina- W3S t3ken up with great enthusi3sm by aestheticians, it seldom found its
les. And in many respects, it is also the most subtle and complex ot- the way into the n;ore technicllly oriented manuals of musicll composition.
various conventional structures from this period. Part of 3 broader attempt to unite music with the other arts, the concept of
In reinterpreting theoretical concepts of the eighteenth and early nine- mimesis ultimately seems to have had little influence upon the more me-
teenth centuries, I have tried to draw on as wide a range of contemporary chanical aspects of composition. Contemporary comparisons between mu-
sources as possible, from the musical repertoire itself to didactic treatises to sic 3nd painting or music and architecture, in similar fashion, arc seldom if
aesthetic systems of music and the arts in general. The original functions of ever tran sla ted into the professional vocabulary of the craft of music. Rhet-
these sources were obviously quite disparate. The musical repertoire in- oric, on the other hand, is an image used by aestheticians, theorists, and
cludes its own nonverbal accounts of form as articulated by composers and pedagogucs alike in expbining the art of music in general and the concept
provides both the criteria and raison d'are for evaluating verbally articulated of form in particular.
theories of form. The didactic treatises I have cited range from simple tutors At the sa me time, these verbal sources are not without their own limi-
to the most sophisticated discussions of the more technical aspects of music. tations. In accounting for specific large-scale forms, theory lags behind
The distinction between the more demanding of these treatises and those practice, 3S is so often the case, and for the period under consideration here,
devoted to aesthetics is not always easy to maintain. But the aesthetic trea- it is especially difficult to weigh such f.1ctors as the relative influence exer-
tises, on the whole, are directed more toward the general reader interested cised by any given work or writer. Geographical considerations are partic-
in the philosophy of music than toward the aspiring composer. In many ularly difficult to evaluate. For all its many composers, the Austro-
instances, these works consider music within the broader context of aes-

17. AMZ, I (1799), col. 494. 18. Neubauer, Emancipation, pp. 4-5.

, ) .
,
Bohemian realm produced remarkably little in the way of musical theory CHAPTER 1
or aesthetics. 19 It does not necessarily follow, however, that the French and
north-German sources cited here are therefore invalid as an aid to interpret-
ing the music of Viennese Classicism. The scattered references to rhetoric
that do exist in the relatively few south German, Austro-Bohemian, and
Italian sources all suggest that there is no fundamental north-south division
on this issue. From about 1790 onward, moreover, French, north German,
and Italian writers alike consistently cite Haydn's music as a mod el of mod-
ern instrumental composition .
A handful of writers from the eighteenth and early nineteenth ,centuries
prove themselves to be unusually articulate in exploring the concept of The Paradox of Musical Form
form. And while I emphasize the writings of these authors in particular-
Johann Mattheson, Johann Nicolaus Forkel, and Heinrich Christoph Koch
in the eighteenth century; Jerome Joseph de Momigny, Anton Reicha, and
Adolf Bernhard Marx in the nineteenth-I also seek to show the extent to Definitions of musical form almost inevitably call attention to the paradox
which their ideas are representative of their respective generations. by which :1 single term can be applied with equal justification to two fun-
By the same token, I make no attempt to survey here the considerable damentally different concepts: form as an aggregate of features that m :my
and growing number of recent writings on either sonata form or form in unrelated works have in common, and form as an element of that which
general. Again, my purpose is to identify basic methodologies and funda- makes :111 indi vidual work unique. The ten sion inherent in this paradox is
mental approaches. And if in the first chapter of this book I focus on the useful, for it reminds us that no single perspective of musical form is suf-
work of two particular individuals, Leonard Ratner and Charles Rosen, it ficient by itself.
is because they have proven themselves to be among the most articubte and At the same tim e, we sho uld not be so quick to accept this paradox with-
influential writers of our own day. out fir st considcring the impetus bchind its rclatively recent emergence in
"Form" in music is an elusive subject in part because it can so easily be the bte ci ghtecnth and early nineteenth centuries. Nor should we forget
construed as an omnipresent force, touching in some way on virtually every th :lt the proccss of defining any onc formal stereotype, like sonata form, is
element of music. It is inextricably linked to a variety of other, equally itself fraught with paradox: in isolating and identifying those features com-
wide-ranging concepts such as style and genre, none of which can be ade- mon to all sonata-form movements, we run the risk of misunderstanding
quately addressed here. Nor, I must emphasize once again, is form an issue the very essence of tint form , and indeed, the essencc of form itself.
susceptible of anyone "solution ." A variety of methodologies is both useful
and necessary. In the process of illuminating one particular perspective over
the course of one particular historical period, I am all too aware of the many
Genera tive and Conformational Approaches to Form
valuable alternatives not addressed here. At the same time, the use of im-
agery drawn from the discipline of rhetoric is an issue that has remained Thc concept of musical form encompasses two basic perspectives that differ
largely outside recent critical debate on the concept of musical form in the radically from each other. On the one hand, "form" is often used to denote
Classical era. By reasserting its importance for the eighteenth and early those various structural elements that a brge number of works share in
nineteenth centuries, I hope to stimulate a renewed discussion of the signif- common. In terms of practical analysis, this approach to form looks for
icance of rhetoric in our own understanding of a repertoire that is decep- lowest common denominators and views individual works in comparison
tively familiar. with such stereotypical patterns as sonata form, rondo, ABA, and the like.
For the sake of convenience, this view of form may be called "conforma-
19. See Carl Dahlhaus, "Romantische Musikasthe tik und Wien er Kbssik," AJM IV , 29 tional," as it is based on the comparison of a specific work against an ab-
(1972), 167-18 I. stract, idea l type.

\ ,

r 1
The contrasting perspective sees form as the unique shape of a specific tion marks, giving decided preference out to generative
work. This view, unlike the first, is essentially generative, in that it consid- form.2 "Sonata style" and "sonata principle," as Joseph Kerman correctly
ers how each individual work grows from within and how the various cle- points out, have become "the preferred terms in recent years.")
ments of a work coordinate to make a coherent whole. In its most extreme The most recent monograph on the subject, Charles Rosen's Sonata
manifestations, the generative idea of form makes no essential distinction Forms, deftly skirts the issue by using the plural. 4 Rosen offers no central
between the form and content of a given work . definition of the form in the singular, preferring to deal instead with smaller
The fact that a single term should apply to two such disparate views categories such as "minuet sonata form," "aria sonata form," "slow-move-
reflects the historically close relationship of the two. Yet this terminological ment sonata form," and the like. According to Rosen, we have been falsely
paradox also helps to obscure the very real distinctions that need to be main- led to assume that "there was such a thing as 'sonata form' in the late eigh-
tained between form as a pattern and form as the product of a generative teenth century, and that the composers knew what it was, whereas nothing
process. Both approaches are valid, yet neither is sufficient for musical anal- we know about the situation would lead us to suppose anything of the kind.
ysis. Looking for stereotypical patterns can help call attention to deviations The fecling for any form, even the minuet, was much more fluid."5
from a recognized norm, but it cannot explain these deviations ..At the same Sonata form, in Rosen's view, "is not a definite form like a minuet, a da
time, analyzing a work entirely "from within" cannot account for the strik- capo aria, or a French overture: it is, like the fugue, a way of writing, a
ing structural similarities that exist among a large number of quite indepen- fecling for proportion, direction, and texture rather than a pattern." Rosen's
dent works. essentially generative outlook toward form leads him to conclude that son-
The problem with most recent discussions of musical form has not been ata form is in fact "an immense melody, an expanded classical phrase."6
one of extremism-most writers concede that there is at least some merit This disparagement of the conformational approach to analysis is as old
to both perspectives-so much as one of irreconcilability. The middle as the systematic classification of specific forms. Since the mid-nineteenth
ground, to date, has been less a reconciliation of these two points of view century, theorists have been quick to point out that the identification of
than a tacit and largely unilluminating acceptance of their paradoxical co- large-scale conventions in the analysis of a work (ABA, rondo, sonata
existence. form, and so on) is comparable to an anatomical exercise, a process that
In recent years, the drive to reconcile these two perspectives has been addresses the "external body" but not the "internal soul" of the work at
undermined by the widespread suspicion that the conformational approach hand. 7 In the early years of this century, .Donald Francis Tovey persistently
to form is of questionable value in the analysis of specific works. While the criticized what he called the "jelly-mould" theory of sonata form. And
fundamental validity of generative analysis has never been called into seri- Heinrich Schenker, for altogether different reasons, derided traditional ac-
ous question, conformational analysis has come under increasingly severe counts of the form based on superficial norms.K This decided antipathy to-
criticism over the last forty years. The very notion of comparing an indi- ward external conventions is now a standard element in most discussions
vidual work with a prototypical norm is widely regarded with disdain. The
problem, as Carl Dahlhaus has noted, lies not so much in the legitimacy of 2. Newman, Tit£' SOllata ill tit£' Classic Era, Jrd ed. (New York: Norron, 1983), p. lIS.
deriving abstract formal types from a large body of works, as in the fact 3. Kerman, review of SOllata Forms by Charles Roscn, New York Rel,ielv or Books, 23
October 1980, p. 5 I .
that the application of these formal schemes ultimately tends to call atten- 4· Rosen, SOllata Fortlls (New York : Norton, 1980; rev. cd. 1988).
tion to moments of apparently secondary importance. I 5. The Classical Sty"': Haydll, Mozart, BeethovCIl (New York : Norton, (971) ,
As a result, the tendency over the last few decades has been to downplay p. 52.
or dismiss altogether the very existence of stereotypical norms. The struc- 6. Ibid . , pp. 30, 87.
7. See Ca rl Dahlhaus , "Gdiihlsas thetik und musikalische Formenlehre," DVjs, 41
tural convention known as "sonata form" provides a case in point. The term
(19 67), S05-5 16 .
itself, after more than a century of heavy use, is now widely subjected to 8. See, for example, Schenker's "Vom Organ is chen der Sonatenform," Das Meisterll'nk
extreme qualification and equivocation when applied to the music of the ill dn MI/sik, 2 (1926), 45-46; idem, Dn Ireil' Satz, 2 vols. (Vienna: Universal, 193 S), I,
eighteenth century. William S. Newman, in his three-volume "history of 211-212 ; and Stephen Hinton, "'Natiirliche Ubergange': Heinrich Schenkers Bcgriff von
der Sonatenform," MI/siktheorie, 5 (1990), 101-116. On Tovey, see Joseph Kerman, "The-
the sonata idea," consistently places the term "sonata form" within quota- ories of Late Eighteenth-Century Mu sic," in Stl/dies ill Eightemth-Cmtl/ry British Art alld
Aesthetics, cd. Ralph Cohen (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press,
I. Dahlhaus, "Zur Theorie der musikalischen Form," AfMw, 34 (1977), 20. 19 8 5), pp. 217-244.

T 'XI n Tl n T. F S Tl H F. TOR I c: The Paradox of Musical Form I 5


Allegro
oflarge-scale form. In The New Grove Dictionary oj Music and Musicians, for
example, James Webster emphasizes at the very outset that "sonata form Violin I

is .. . not a mould into which the composer has poured the contents; each
movement grows bar by bar and phrase by phrase."9 Eugene K. Wolf, in
Violin II
The New Harvard Dictionary oj Music, similarly argues that "sonata form is
best viewed not as a rigid, prescriptive mold, but rather as a flexible and p

imaginative intersection of modulation, the thematic process, and numer-


Viola
ous other elements."JO
p
It is easy to agree with such vie·ws. The ''jelly-mould'' idea of form is
clearly inadequate for any analysis that hopes to get very. far beneath the Violoncello
surface of a work. The generative approach to form, on the other hand, has "., c dolce
proven its analytical value so consistently that it needs no defense, here or
elsewhere.
At the same time, the a priori categorization of specific forms remains
essential in the analysis of individual works . No matter how deprecated the
idea of a stereotypical pattern may be, it must still be integrated into a
broader theoretical concept of form if we are to understand any number of
important works of music.
Some specific examples can help to illustrate this point. In the first move-
ment of his String Quartet in F Major, Op. 59, No. I, Beethoven eschews
the standard repetition of the sonata-form exposition. While relatively un-
p
usual for its time (r806), this device is by no means unprecedented and in
itself does not offer any genuine analytical insights. What makes this par-
ticular strategy meaningful is the manner in which the composer integrates cresco p
this event-or non-event, as it might be called-into the movement's struc-
ture as a whole. 10

The beginning of the development section (mm. I03ff.) is the key pas-
sage. Beethoven begins with an exact repetition of the movement's opening
measures, identical down to the smallest details of phrasing and dynamics.
Only in m. I07, with the repeated eighth-note pairs and the arrival on Gb,
do we realize that we are now in fact in the development section. Measures
I03-r06, in effect, constitute a false repeat of the beginning of the exposi-
tion.
The autograph score provides special insights for this particular passage. "
Beethoven's original manuscript is full of extensive changes, but at no point
is there any indication that the composer intended to repeat the first half
(the exposition) of this movement. In fact, he specifically added at the top
I. ra Beethoven, String Quartet Op. 59, No. I, first movement, mm . 1-I2

9. Webster, "Sonata Form," Nell' Grove.


10. Wolf, "Sonata Form," The New Harvard Dictionary oj Mllsic (Cambridge, Mass. :
Harvard University Press, 1986).
II. The autograph score, in the Staatsbibliothek Preussischer Kulturbesitz, ilerlin, is
available in a facsimile edition, with an introduction by Alan Tyson (London: Scolar Press,

I
1980).

!
, ' t "." . n . r" . " ...
100
of the score "LJ primJ pJrte sobmente llllJ volta," as if to SJY to the copyist:
Violin [ >1 ; "The absence of a repeJt sign for the exposition is not a mistake." And
p although the composer struggled with the question of whether or not to
Violin"
repeat much of the secolld half of the movement (corresponding essentiJlly
to the developlilellt and rec:tpitubtion sections, mm . r r 2-342 of the fil1Jl
version), there is no indication of any deleted repeat sign that would have
Viola
___-+- U: ____r- _ _ _ _ _____ 1
affected the first half.
The false exposition repeat in mm. 103-106, then, appears to have been
Violoncello central to Beethoven's conception of the movement's overall dimensions. In a
movement characterized by the qualities of forward momentum and them:ltic
p
elision, the composer effectively avoids a conventiolul cadence on the domi-

[1+:'-El'FV. --- ::-:.::.:..=-.:=-::=----.:---==--


nant at the end of the exposition; yet he also manages to articubte the begin-
ning of the development section by calling attention quite forcefully to what
it is 1I0t: a repeat of the exposition. In other words, Beethoven manages to
elide the juncture between exposition and development and at the same time
call attention to the onset of the development with unusual clarity. (This same
technique of simultaneous large-scale elision :l!1d articulation, significantly
enollgh, is :lIso to be found at the juncture between the development and re-
capitulation, Illn!. 242-245, where the cadential figure from mm. [9-22 is
reclpitulated in the tonic /)(ji,Jrc the onset of the "true" recapitulation at m. 254,
"" e dotre which co rresponds to the movement's opening.)
lOS What I11 Jkes the device so effective here is th e composer's manipuhtion
of his listeners' expectations: Beethoven is relying on his listeners' knowl-
.._._._. _._-,-c e·, ::.:e .- ........ . .. .. .. :: .. . '.:" :.: ...... . .
edge of the co nwlltiolls o f so nata for m . The sheer economy of this m:lIlip-
ulation is st rikin g, and once again, the autograph score allows us to consider
I" .. .. .... .... .... .. .... -# -# -# . . . . . .- .. q--../" -.r Beethoven's ch:lIl gin g thoughts on the precise manner of articulating this
J false expo sition repea t. Hi s original idea had been to repeat the first six
Iut: .-::'1: ' ..::\:: . == m eJsures of the movement, rather than only the first four as in the fin:1I
1''''--'----''-·
version (mm. 103-I06):
- ',r=:==:
Violin I
f
I"

r-L ;::j;: .-
110
...
...
rug
_
.
.
.=r: = ..-
{'
_... ..- -
Violin II
"'or
<
c-=--.
_.

lor· -, p
f
Viola --. , .=
'1\\-:
" ..............
-
f
.-
.. .... .
p
.....-.-. p
Violoncello - . .. ..
f p ,.", e dolce
-,.
:
[ .2 Beethoven, String Quartet Op. 59. No. T. ftrst movement, beginning of de-
J p velopment section, from the autograph score
I.Ib Beethoven. Quartet Op. 59, No. I, ftrst movement, mm. 97-[ 12
I
" rates the standard elements of exposition (mm. 1-79), development (mm .

I I
I" SO-I 32), and recapitulation (mm. 133-202) within the traditional bipartite
framework that was so common throughout the Classical era (mm. 1-79 :1:
., 80- 202). The exposition moves from the tonic to the dominant, with a l:ew

I I --.
and contrasbng theme (mm. S8ff.) to help articulate the arrival on G major,
the secondary'area of harmonic stability. The development, in turn, loses
no time in introducing a sense of extreme instability. It begins by OUtllll1l1 g

L ! .....
,...,,...,
..
--=
a fully diminished seventh chord (mm. 80- 82) unrelated to anything heard
before in the work. Haydn then manipulates fragments of a theme heard
previously in the exposition (mm. 83-96). Together with the absence of any
solid bass line, these procedures combine to give the passage 111 mm. 80-9 6
1.2 continued
a decidedly unstable, development:lI quality. . '
Haydn negates this instability with a single stroke by remtroduClng the
opening theme in the tonic at m. 97. The augmented orchestratIon at the
It was only later that the composer realized he could create the illusion of moment of return corresponds to the fullest version of the theme heard up
an exposition repeat more economically by deleting the two measures cor-
responding to mm. 5-6. In addition to being more efficient, the end result
is also more effective, for the final version gives added emphasis to the Alleg ro con spirito
dissonant, "developmental" Gb in m. roS. The thematic deviations of nL
ob J ))
1-;:'; .-
107 notwithstanding, it is the arrival on this Gb that announces unambig- . -r r
uously that the development has already begun. In the final version, Bee-
/
[ hrns I' f
thoven enhances this simultaneous sense of arrival and departure still further ,It I
.
.-... J
by emphasizing the registral isolation of this Gb. The (deleted) repetition of
.. -.-
;
- t;;;I- ""t -.f>/ -.f.#--r
mm. 6-7 had already brought us to the G-natural above it, overshooting :
/ p
p
the subsequent Gb. By means of this deletion, Beethoven avoids a sense of
registral redundancy and heightens, both literally and figuratively, the mo- !. (1J ,..,.. DJ)
I
ment of departure. j. I

t
In its finished state, this passage can of course be interpreted in many to

ways. But it is difficult to imagine a satisfactory analysis that does not in


I!
some way attempt to reconcile the events of mm. r06-ro8 with the concept
r
of sonata form as an abstract, a priori pattern, one that includes a progression i
from an exposition to a developmental section .
An earlier but similar instance of a composer calling explicit attention to I
the conventions of large-scale form may be found in the technique of false
recapitulation, which Haydn cultivated with special intensity during th e late
I
!

!
1760s and early 177os.'2 The first movement of the Symphony No. 41 in C
Major (composed no later than 1770, probably ca. 1766-1769)') incorpo-

12. For a more detailed discussion of this technique, sec my "Haydn's False Recapitula-
1.3 a Haydn. Symphony No. 41, first movement, mm. 1-10

tions and the Perception of Sonata Form in the Eighteenth Century" (l'h.D. diss., Harvard
University, 1988).
I). The suggested date of ca. 1766-1769 is from James Webster's fo rth coming mono- uscript copy of the work ci ted in Georg Feder's work-list for The New Grove Haydll (New
graph on Haydn's Symphony No. 45. The term it/lis allte ql/em of 1770 is from a dated man-
York: Norton, 19R)), p. 147·
,
i

.\
2() WORnT llHFTOllTr
80 85
to this point (mm. 19ff) and adds another touch of authenticity to what
will eventually prove to be a false recapitulation. As in the case of the Bee-
thoven quartet, only a small quantity of material (in both instances as little
as four measures) is needed to conjure up in the mind of the listener a sense
of structural articulation . The impression that one major segment of the
p movement has ended and another has begun is achieved with a remarkable
economy of material.
90 The fermata in m. 100 provides the first hint that the development may
not yet be over. And while the resumption of the consequent phrase in m.
101 dispels such passing doubts temporarily, the diminished seventh chord
in m. 104 signals the onset of a long sequential passage moving through 3
variety of keys. The development, quite clearly, is still under way. The tonic
does not return again until m. 133, but this time its return is definitive. The
articulation of this true reC3pitulation is emphasized by the simultaneous
95
return of the opening theme in its original orchestration.
Neither of these interpretations-of the Beethoven quartet or of the
Haydn symphony-is particularly radic31. Yet each analysis rests on 3 con-
cept of sonata form th3t is no longer fashiOluble, one that gr3nts a central
role to the use of standard patterns within the works in question. These
analyses, in other words, arc based on the assumption that a construct now
known as sonaL1 form did exist in the minds of at least some eighteenth-
century composers and presumably in the minds of at least some listeners
100
ob. hrns as well. Viewed from this perspective, these two movements offer a kind
of wordless comnientary on the two most critical junctures within:1 son3t3-
form movement: the articulation between exposition and development, in
p
the Beethoven qU:1rtet, and the articulation between development and re-
'"
capitulation, in the Haydn symphony. There can be no doubt that in these
p3rticular inst:lIlces Beethoven and Haydn were both Iplaying upon the ex-
f p their contemporary audiences, specifically as regards the struc-
- - - --- - - --- - tunl conventions of large-scale first movements.
f p These analyses illustrate the need to reconsider the theoretic31 premises
p
underlying the new orthodoxy of form. The generative approach, for the
105 lio most part, seeks to expbin the recurrence of stereotypical patterns as the
ob

product of internal forces. Rosen, for example, argues that "the 3bstr3ct
forms ... do not make their effects by breaking 'rules,''' and that "the
f
element of surprise ... does not depend upon a deviation from some imag-
ined musical norm outside the individual work." The "movement, the de-
velopment, and the dramatic course of a work all can be found latent in the
f
vic, via 8ve material," which can "be made to release its charged force so that the
music ... is literally impelled from within."'4
f

I.3b Haydn, Symphony No. 41, first movement, mm . 80-110 '4. Rosen, The Classical Style, pp. 296, J 20.

,"'I
=
Yet we cannot adequately address these specific passages from Beethoven ing sonata form . William S. Newman, for example, advocates a shift of
and Haydn without reference to "a musical norm outside the individual emphasis from questions of external conventions to "stylistic or generative
work." Nor is it at all clear in what sense these events are "latent" in the traits."' RIn preparing his "history of the sonata idea," Newman found that
opening material. An analytical approach based on the assumption that "it "an effort to consider musical form as a generative process-that is, as the
is the work itself . .. that provides its own expectations, disappoints and structural result of tendencies inherent in its primary ideas-seemed to yield
finally fulfills them ,"" l while useful up to a point, simply will not suffice by a more fluid approach to form analysis .""9 More recently, Jan LaRue has
itself here or in any number of other similar instances. maintained that "a plural, descriptive approach cannot be used to clarify our
At the same time, neither of these analyses could be expanded along their understandin g" of the evolution of Classical forms ; "we must rely on fun-
present lines to provide an even remotely satisfactory account of either damental, generative principles, not taxonomic surveys ."'o And Leonard
movement as a whole. While the conformational approach may be essential Ratner has provided historical justification for such an approach by identi-
in explaining these particular passages, this approach also cannot stand by fying eighteenth-century treatises, most notably by Joseph Riepel and Hein-
itself. It must be integrated with an analytical methodology is more rich Christoph Koch, that advocate the expansion of small-scale constructs
generative in nature. In the case of Beethoven's Op. 59, No. [, one would into larger ones.'1
need to trace the manipulation and ultimate expansion of a relatively sma ll To varying degrees, these generative views of form all rely on the con-
number of thematic, harmonic, and rhythmic motives into a coherent ceptual metaphor of the musical work as an organism. Indeed, the modern
whole, as well as the strategic exploitation of texture, register, and dynam- history of organic form can be traced back to the very period under inves-
ICS. tigation here: Goethe, the early German Romantics, and Coleridge all
The first four measures of the opening theme, to cite only one case in played important roles in the idea's early development. H By the beginning
point, revolve around the tonic, as might be expected, but in the second of the twentieth century, even such disparate theorists as Schenker and
inversion rather than in root position. This initial sense of instability h3s Ebenezer Prout could share a common philosophical conviction that all
important implications for the remainder of the movement, for it provides works of art, as organisms, could ultimately be reduced to a germinal unit.
a central element in the forward drive that is so characteristic of the move- In Prout's formulation, "all music is an growth, and ... the binary
ment as a whole. It also offers a convincing motivation for the renurkable and ternary forms are developed from the simplest motives by as natural a
fact that the first root harmonization of the opening theme in the tonic does process of evolution as that by which an oak grows out of an acorn."'·1
not occur until the beginning of the cod3, in m . 348, well over four-fifths Schenker, too, saw music as a process of grow th, albeit from the Ursalz
of the way through the entire movement. This delay further hei ghtens the
climactic nature of an event that occurs only after the recapitulation has
spun its course. Similar generative devices can be traced throughout the 18. Newman. The SO llala ill II,,' Classic Era, p. 119. See also Newman's "Musica l Form
as a Generative Process," jOllfllal of Aesthelics a/l(l Art Crilicislll, 1Z (1954). 301-309.
Haydn symphony as well.
1'1. Newman, The SOllala ill Ihe Baroque Era, 3rd cd. (New York: Norton, 1972), p. 5.
Generative analysts have argued along similar lines with great effect, 20. LaHue, review of SOllala Forllls by Charles Hosen.jAMS, 34 (1'181),560.
maintaining that conventional structures are a broader nunifestation 21. Ibtn cr, "Eighteenth-Century Theories of Musical Period Structure," MQ, 42 (t956),
of smaller-scale events. In the early years of this century, Hermann 439-454. Ratner's work I13S paved the way for many subsequcnt interpre(3tions of peri-
odicity in l'ighteenth-cl'ntury theory. See naker, "Koch and the Theory of Melody"; idem,
Kretzschmar derided the "cult of externalism" and reduced the understand-
"From Teil to '[,,,,sliick: The Significance of the Vl'fsllch ciller A,deitlll,S zlIr COlllpOSilioll by
ing of large-scale form to the comprehension of a basic motive or theme. Heinrich Christoph Koch" (Ph.D. diss. , Yak University, 1978); Elaine Sisman, "Small and
"The task of tracirrg the sense of four hundred measures," for Kretzschmar, Expanded Forms: Ko ch's Model JIld Haydn's Music," MQ, 68 (1982). 444-475; Wolfgang
was tantamount to reducing an entire movement to "four or eight mea- Budday, Cntlldlagerr IIIlI sikaliscI,er Forrnen der Wiener Kla ssik (Kassel: narenreiter, 1983); and
Hermann Forschncr, IlIslntlllmtalmllsik Joseph Haydt,s ails der Sicht Heillricl, Chrisloph Kochs
sures," to "a theme or a period."16 Ernst Kurth similarly advocated an anal-
(Munich: Emil Katzbichler, 1984) .
ysis of "inner" form, 17 and many writers have followed this path in analyz- 22. The histori ca l origins of the organic concept of form will be dealt with at greater
length in Chapter 3.
15. Ibid., p . 296. 23. Prout, Applied Forllls: A Sequel 10 'Mllsical Forlll,' 2nd (London: Augencr, 18(16),
16. Kretzschmar, "Anregungen zur Forderung musikalischer Hermeneutik," jal!rbll(I! der p. I. Unless otherwise noted, all emphases cited are in the original source. On the predom-
Mtlsikbib liotllek Peters fiir 1902, p. 64. inance of organicism in twentieth-century analysis, see Joseph Kerman, "The State of Ac-
17· See, for example, Kurth's Brllckner, 2 vols. (Berlin: Max Hesse, 1925), esp. vol. I, ademic Music Criticism ," in 0,., Criticizillg Mllsic: Five PI!ilosophical PerspectilJes, cd.
part 2, "Die Formdynamik." Kingsley Price (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1981), pp. 38- 54.
rather than the unit of the motive. 24 More recent writers, most notably the rudiments of constructing a movement-length whole. 27 Koch provides
Newman, LaRue, Ratner, Wolf, and Rosen, have since contributed im- extended commentary and numerous examples illustrating the links be-
mensely to our understanding of the process of musical growth and the tween smaller :ll1d larger units (between the Slllz and the Periode), but his
critical role played by such generative elements as melody, phrase construc- methodology ch:lI1ges markedly when he attempts to account for the con-
tion, harmonic rhythm, and texture. The "concinnity" of these elements nections between multiple Periodell in a movement larger and aesthetically
(to use LaRue's favored term) contributes vitally to the construction of son- more ambitious than a minuet. He presents these extended constructs in a
ata form and, for that matter, all forms. far more cursory, descriptive manner, working very much along the lines
In practice, however, it is difficult to bridge the gap between small-scale of a conformationally oriented theory of form.
units and large-scale forms in an entirely convincing manner. Most analysts This change from a generative to a conformational methodology in mov-
of the generative persuasion have chosen to concentrate on these smaller- ing from sll1all- to large-scale structures is by no means peculiar to Koch. 2N
scale units, focusing primarily on events somewhere between a single four- It reflects an aW:1reness on the part of both earlier and later theorists that the
measure phrase and a larger unit of sixteen or thirty-two measures. '; Even principle of growth alone cannot adequately account for the nature oflarge-
Koch, the most eloquent and perceptive of eighteenth-century theorists in scale structural conventions. Koch and others recognized, in effect, what
this field, had to rely on two quite different approaches in dealing with form Leonard B. Meyer has since dubbed the "fallacy of hierarchic uniformity,"
at the level of the phrase and at the level of the complete movement. Koch's the "tacit and usually unconscious assumption that the same forces and pro-
method of teaching composition, based on the expansion and combination cesses which order and articulate one hierarchic level are operative, are
of small phrases into increasingly larger units, is typical of his era. Accord- equally effective, and function in the same fashion in the structuring of all
ing to Koch's generative construct, a unit of the smallest level (the SIlIZ) can levels ." A sonata-form movement, like any complex musical structure, is a
ultimately become a part of any number of forms, such as sonata form, hierarchical system that coheres through various levels of organization. But
rondo, theme and variations. 2(, Through the techniques of repetition, exten- it would be "a serious mistake," as Meyer points out, "to assume that the
sion, and incision, a small, four-measure unit can be expanded into a variety principles or 'bws' governin g the organization of one hierarchic level are
of larger structures. In this respect, he equates the nature of a larger form necessarily the same as those of some other Thus even Wolf, who
with the techniques of expansion applied to an opening unit of thought. argues that a "hierarchical system implies relative autonomy of individual
Yet it is highly revealing that the minuet should be the largest formal components as well as the integration of these components into a larger
stereotype that Koch and others describe in this fashion . The minuet, in whole," follows Koch 's lead in using one methodology to explain the suc-
practice, was a favorite didactic tool a-mong eighteenth-century theorists, cessive concatenation of motives, subphrases, phrases, periods, and double
for it tended to be a relatively straightforward construct made up of fairly periods in mid-eighteenth-century music, yet a quite different approach to
simple and regular metrical units; as such, it was ideally suited to explaining describe the various kinds of standard movement-length patterns con-
structed out of these units. JO Wolf's interpretation of mid-eighteenth-
24. As William A. Pastille points out, however, Schenker espoused a quite different view century phrase structure and form is among the best available, and the fact
earlier in his career; see Pastille, "Heinrich Schenker, Anti-Organicist," 1911l-Ct'IIllIry Mllsic, that he relies on the kind of conformationally oriented diagrams originally
S (1984), 29-36.
25 . Anthony Newcomb is one of the few writers to have explicitly voiced misgivings
devised by Jan LaRue in no way weakens the force of his logic. Indeed, the
about the current preoccupation of analysis with small-scale units: "Those Irllages That Yet very fact that LaRue's diagrams have proven so widely useful is itself a
Fresh Images Beget," JOllrnal of Mllsicolo< U, 2 (1983), 227-245. The esscnce of Newcomb's
remarks, dealing with Wagner's music dramas, could also be applicd to the issue of sonata
form in the Classical era. Musicologists are apparently not alonc in thcir preference for 27. Sec, for CXJl11pk, JohJnn MJIIhcson, Dcr ,)ol/kommci/(' C apel/m,,;sler (Hamburg:
dealing with qucstions of small-scale form: Seymour Chatman, "On Dcfining 'Form'," Herold, 1739), Pl'. 224-225; Joseph Riepel, Zllr 1IIIIsikaiischm Selzkllllsl: De
Ncw Lilcrary History, 2 (1971), 225, points out that "our best formal and stylistic descrip- rllythmop0ei'a, odcy IJllII der (Augsburg: J. J. Lottcr, 1752), p. I; Koch, Vt'rSllch,
tions of individual authors ... are predominantly based on units smaller than the sen- III, 129-130. Sec also below, p. 50.
tencc." Chatman gocs on to call for a stylistics "that Icads to terms for characterizing large- 28. See below, PI'. 79-80, H4-RS, 119-120.
scale structures on their own . .. and, further, an intcgration of these Iterms I with the more 29. Meyer, Mllsir, Ihe Arts, and Ideas: Patlerrts oll(lPredictiolls ill TWl'lllil'th-Cl'IIlII''Y Cllllllrt'
molecular aspects of an author's style" (p. 225). (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1967), pp. 96, 258 .
26. This point is particularly clear from Elaine Sisman'sdiagram illustrating "Koch's 30. Wolf, Thc Symphollies ofJo/WlIII Stamitz: A Stlldy ill the Formatiotl of the Classic Style
Levels of Musical Structure" in her "Small and Expanded Forms," p. 445. (Utrecht: Bohn, ScheltcmJ & Holkema, 198 I), chs. 8 and 9.
-,
testimony to the value of the conformational perspective. But it is impor- work, the form emerging afresh and unexpected, as it were, from a given
tant to recognize the essential distinction between the generative and con- work's germinal unit. The common presence of a repeat sign midway
formational approaches to analysis. The former emphasizes the process of through the movement (and often enough once again at the end, especially
growth common to virtually all forms, while the latter emphasizes the before 1800) further weakens the persuasiveness of a strictly generative ap-
broad structural differences among the various products of growth. proach toward form. 14 And although probably no one would maintain that
By itself, the generative approach ultimately begs the of large- the thousands of manifestations of sonata form are somehow historically
scale form. "Growth" is an essential concept to an understandmg of form, coincidental-that hundreds of composers arrived at the Same solution in-
but it tends to blur the distinction between a work's form and its content. dependently of one another-few analyses openly acknowledge the extent
At what point does a movement's basic idea end and its growth begin? to which composers worked within the context of formal conventions.
Granted, there are undeniable differences in general character and structure There can be no doubt that style and content shape the structural manifes-
among opening themes of rondos, minuets, sets of variations, and so ?n . tation of any well-written movement, and generative approaches to form
Yet it would not be at all difficult to imagine the theme from the openll1g are essential in establishing the relationships that do exist between small-
of the finale to Haydn'S Symphony No. 90, a sonata-form movement, as and large-scale forms. But it would be ludicrous to argue that sonata form
the beginning of a rondo, or the opening theme of the first movement to was not at least in part an a priori schema available to the composer. Hollace
the Symphony No. 4 1 (see Example J .3a) as the basis for a minuet. Where, Schafer's recent sketch studies have confirmed that Haydn, for one, rou-
then, does growth end and form begin? If growth culminates only in a tinely worked within the established outlines of movement-length con-
completed movement, then form and content cannot really be distinguished structs, nupping out specific points of large-scale articulation (including the
from each other. If, in other words, we choose to defl!1e form as "the shape onset of the development :lIld the moment of recapitulation) :It :I rebtivcly
of a musical composition as defmed by all of its pitches, rhythms, dynam- early stage in the creative process. J\ Sonata form, for Haydn, was in fact a
ics, and timbres,"ll then form becomes omnipresent and in effect disappears point of departure, a mold, albeit a flexible one.
The problem in recent analysis, it should be emphasized once again, is
altogether.
Rosen's solution, to treat a range of diverse structures as varieties of so- not one of extremism: most writers employ both generative and confor-
nata form, provides valuable insights into the similarities among a number mational techniques in varying proportions. But there is a disturbing ab-
of these stereotypical structures, but thts approach, as Koch and others al- sence of any theoretiol basis of form that can reconcile the generative and
ready recognized, also has its limitations. To use this one particular model conformation:!l approaches in a convincing fashion. It is altogether symp-
as the underlying principle of so many different Classical forms, as Jan of this state of affairs that the term "form" itself is now becoming
LaRue observes, is "like calling a tricycle an automobile, simply because ll1creas1l1gly rare, and that "sonata style" and "sonata principle" have be-
both vehicles have wheels."l2 And while "form" is a word that Rosen pre- come "the preferred terms."
fers to avoid whenever possible, his own analyses consistently rely on the What is needed, then, is a general theory of form that can account for
reader's (and the list,e ner's) knowledge of what would seem to be an arche- conventional patterns and at the same time do justice to the immense di-
typal pattern of events within the course of an instrumental movemen.t. .l J versity that exists within the framework of these patterns. The issue, in
Still more troubling is the fact that Rosen's approach offers no theoretical effect, is how to reconcile the conventional with the individual, the stereo-
basis applicable to other forms that lie outside the realm of the "sonata typical with the unique. A satisfactory theory of structural conventions like
style," such as fantasia, theme and variations, or fugue. sonata form must be able to account for both intrinsic (unique) and extrinsic
In terms of practical analysis, a purely generative perspective of form (conventional) procedures using a consistent set of parameters. I-low is it
remains especially hard-pressed to explain the remarkable phenomenon of that so many works can follow the same general olltline and yet be so en-
composers' "discovering" sonata form over and over again with each new tirely different in character and content? Why is it that so many composers

3 1 • New Harvard Dictiollary of Music, "Form." Emphasis added. This is the first of twO 34. See Michael Broyles, "Organic Form and the Binary Repeat," MQ, 66 (IYSO), 339-
definitions, the other being "a loose group of general features shared in varying degrees by 360.
35. Scl1Jfcr, "'A Wisely Ordered Phalltasie': Joseph Haydn 's Creative from the
a relatively large number of works."
Sketches and Drafts for Instrumental Music," 2 vols. (Ph . D. diss., Brandeis University,
32. LaRue, review of Sonata Forms, p. 560 .
1987), esp. I, 145-162,212-214.
33. Ibid., p. 559 ·

),\.
<,

from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries relied so heavily on such a "form" itself as "the essence of each thing ." J6 By this line of reasoning, any
small number of stereotypical constructs? And precisely how do the con- \.ar1ability in regard to a particular element automatically precludes that ele-
cepts of "inner" and "outer" form relate to each other? ment from playing any role in the definition of the form. Thus the presence
There are no simple answers to these questions, but there is much to be of contrasting themes within the exposition, a basic element in later nine-
gained from considering the eighteenth century's own approach to these teenth-century accounts, has rightly been rejected as an essential feature of
issues. As I shall argue in Chapter 2, it was the conceptual metaphor of Classical sonata form . A contrasting theme, while often present, is far from
rhetoric that mediated between these two approaches to form throughout universal in eighteenth-century manifestations of the form and therefore
the better part of the eighteenth century and the early years of the nine- cannot be considered a form-defining element.
teenth. What the many manifestations of Classical sonata form do share is a basic
But before considering the contemporary theoretical sources of this pe- harmonic outline, moving from the tonic to a closely related secondary key
riod, we must first reevaluate the extent to which our modern-day accep- (usually the dominant if the movement is in major, or the relative major if
tance of the paradox of form has governed our reading of theoretical sources the mo ve ment is in minor), then to an area of harmonic instability, followed
from the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries-that is to say, sources by a return to the tonic. Within this construct, the number, character, and
from an era that antedates the dichotomy between "inner" and "outer" placement of thematic ideas can vary widely. While this harmonic frame-
form . The continuity that links the Classical era with our own is deceptive. work may be embedded within other forms (for example, the opening sec-
and-Beethoven is among the earliest tion of a minuet, or an individual variation within a set of variations), it is
', to have enjoyed an unbroken tradition of performance in the concert hall : this particular outline as an independent w hole that distinguishes Classical
down to our own day, we have only recently begun to learn just how much , sonata form from other conventional structures.
,the nature of the instruments, performance techniques, standards of tempo, Whatever their differences in interpretation, virtually all recent accounts
I and locales of performance-in short, the very sound and perception of the ...J of Classical sonata form agree that large-scale tonality plays the most im-
\music- -h.a.ve- chall ed. The theoretical premises of musical form have portant role in defining the structure of this formY Leonard Ratner's
undergone changes since that time that are every bit as important. Yet even schema of sonata form, which has won widespread acce.ptance, succinctly
the most widely accepted recent attempts to interpret eighteenth-century' summarizes the nature of this structureY
sources have been influenced, to a degree, by nineteenth-century
I: I (or i) V(or III) :I: X I: I
\ the for attitudes \
toward ClassIcal forms can we begll1 to recogl1lze the dlscontll1Ulty of the- Tonic Major Dominant Unstable Tonic
or (non-tonic)
thought that age_o,f and
Ifrom our own. Sonata form, the most important structural convention of Tonic Minor Relative Major
- . '
the Classical era, provides a useful illustration of these changes.
But by isolating and giving prominence to essential characteristics, a def-
inition can also misshape our understanding of an idea. In the case of sonata
form, the search for form-defining elements has in fact inhibited an accurate
Sonata Form and the Limits of Definition
Definitions, like metaphors, both reflect and shape our understanding of
36. Aristotle, Metaphysics, trans. Hugh Tredennick (Cambridge, Mass. : H arva rd
ideas. And with concepts as problematic as "form" and "sonata form," it is Universit y Press, 1933), I032bl.
clear that our definitions of these terms play an important role in our un- 37· See, for example, Newman , The SOl1ata ill the Baroque Era; The Sonata ill the Classic
derstanding of the musical works that represent their many manifestations. Era; Jens Peter Larsen, "Sonatenform-Probleme," in Festschrift Friedrich Blume zum 70.
In the absence of any formal eighteenth-century defll1itions of sonata Gcbllrtstag, ed. Anna Amalie Abert and Wilhelm Pfannkuch (Kassel: Barenreiter, 1963),
pp. 221- 2 30; Ritzel, Die Etl/wickhmg der "Sotlatel1jorm"; Rosen, The Classical Style, pp . 99-
form, scholars have understandably directed a good deal of attention to- 100; Webster, " Sonata Form," New Crove; and Wolf, "Sonata Form," New Harvard
ward identifying the form's essential features-that is to say, those charac- Dlctiollary oj Music.
teristics common to all its manifestations. Indeed, this search for form- 38. Ratner, Classic Music, p.218 . Ratner's schema w ill be discussed in greater detail be-
low.
defining elements reflects Aristotle's own definition of the very concept of

?" I
\
reconstruction of the eighteenth century 's conception of the form. The need on to discuss at greater length the contrast between the movement's open-
to define sonata form is clear enough; but in the process of working toward ing thematic material and the "middle" or "second" theme of the exposi-
this goal, we must keep in mind that definitions, by their very nature, are tion:
limited in function. Identifying those elements common to all manifesta- Now follows the middle subject, which must consist of a new idea. A good middle
tions of sonata form does not provide an adequate framework for accom- t I subject is much more difficult to invent, than the commencement; for first: it must
modating crucial features that happen not to be form-defining. possess a new and more beautiful and pleasing melody than all which precedes; and
The dispute over whether sonata form is a harmonic or a thematic con- secondly, it must be very different from the foregoing, but yet, according to its char-
struct illustrates the limits of definition . Most scholars today would agree acter, so well suited thereto, that it may appear like the object or result of all the
that the answer depends in large part upon whether one is referring to eigh- preceding ideas, modulations or passages. . . .
teenth- or nineteenth-century theories of the form. Throughout much of When good and beautiful ideas have been conceived, the construction of the first
the nineteenth century and well into the twentieth, writers generally viewed part presents, as we perceive, no difficulty; because, we must always proceed in a
settled form. For, if this order were evaded or arbitrarily changed, the composition
sonata form as a thematic construct. In an account dating from around 18 4 0 ,
would no longer be a regular Sonata. ,0
for example, Carl Czerny introduces the form in the following manner:
Czerny's description and the more subtle accounts by subsequent writers
The first movement consists of two parts, the first of which is usually repeated .
like Adolf Bernhard Marx (1845) and Johann Christian Lobe (1850) reflect
This first part must comprise:
contemporary compositional practice, 111 which the contrast of themes
1. The principal subject.
2. Its continuation or amplification , together with a modulation into the nearest
within a movement plays an important structural role. As the harmonic
idiom became increasingly chromatic over the course of the nineteenth cen-
related key.
3. The middle subj ect in this new key. tury, the traditional polarity of dominant and tonic began to lose its central
4. A new continuation of this middle subject. role in the structure of sonata-form movements: composers began to mod-
5. A final melody, after which the fmt part thus closes in the new key, in order ulate toward more and different keys in both the exposition and the reca-
that the repetition of the same may follow uncollstrainedly. pitulation. Thus the nineteenth century's concept of sonata form placed spe-
The second part of the first movement commences with a development of the cial emphasis on the presence of a contrasting "second theme" in the
principal subject, or of the middle subject, or even of a new idea, passing through exposition.
several keys, and returning again to the original key. Then follows the principal This view of sonata form, with its emphasis on th ematic contrast, con-
subject and its amplification, but usually in an abridged shape, and so modulating,
tinued well into the twentieth century. There were occasional voices of dis-
that the middle subject may likewise re-appear entire, though in the original key:
sent from writers like Tovey and Schenker, who, as noted earlier, were
after which, all that follows the middle subject in the fIrst part, is here repeated in
among the first to point out the inadequacy of descriptions based solely or
the original key, and thus the close is made .]9
; even primarily on thematic content. Tovey, in particular, granted primary
These "textbook" descriptions-so called because they proliferated in \ importance to the structural function of a movement's large-scale harmonic
dozens of instructional manuals on musical composition-place particular
j
outline. But it was not until 1949 that Leonard Ratner, in a seminal essay,
emphasis on the principle oflong-range melodic contrast between an open- t provided historical documentation to support Tovey's view. 41 Citing a
ing "masculine" theme and a subsequent "feminine" theme. Czerny goes number of composition treatises from the Classical era, Ratner was able to
argue persuasively that eighteenth-century theorists, in contrast to their
nineteenth-century counterparts, conceived of sonata form as a fundamen-
39. Czerny, 5(11001 oj Practical Composition, trans. John Bishop, 3 vols . (London: Robert
Cocks, ca. 18 4 8), I, 33 . On the tangled publishing history of this work, see William S. tally harmonic design.
Newman, "About Carl Czerny's Op. 600 and the 'First' Description of 'Sonata Form',"
JAMS, 20 (1967),513-515. There is evidence that the work was either entirely or substan-
tially completed as early as 1840, but no copy of the original German version appears to
have survived. An earlier (ca. 1832) account of sonata form by Czerny appears in his 40. Czerny, School ojPraai(al Compositioll , I, 35.
"Translator's Appendix" to Anton Reicha's Vollstiindiges Lehrbll(h der ntllsikaliscllen Compo- 41. "Harmonic Aspects of Classic Form,"JAMS, 2 (1949),159-168. Ratner's Ph.D. dis-
sition, 4 vols. (Vienna: Anton Diabelli), I, 316-330; see Peter Cahn, "Carl Czernys erste sertation of the same title (University of California, 1947) provides a more detailed exam-
ination of these issues.
Beschreibung der Sonatenform (1832)," Mlisiktileorie, 1 (19 86 ), 277- 279.
:1
To varying degrees, Riepel (1755), Portmann (1789), Koch (1787 , 1793), It is this thematic, tripartite view of Classical sonata for Ill that has been iY- 'f._.';:\,
Galeazzi (1796), Kollmann (1799), and Gervasoni (1800) do in fact discuss so soundly reJect-e<:rClver the-past fo-tty years. The mid-nineteenth-century VS'>-',
the structure in terms of contrasting areas of harmonic stability and insta- concept, with its strong emphasis on thematic contrast, is correctly .. ,}-'
bility.4 2 Kollmann's "plan of modulation," found in "most sonatas, sym- nized today as an anachronism when applied to the musiC-of the /1i'i."

phonies, and concertos," is often cited as a typical contemporary account of . Haydri's' sc)nita=forln
"constructs, in particular, defy
eighteenth-century sonata form: analysis on the basis of thematic many of these movements repeat
what is essentially the opening theme at the onset of the dominant portion
Each section, may be divided into two subsectiolls; which in the whole makes four
of the exposition. In the first movement of the .Symphony No. 104 in 0
subsections.
The first subsection must contain the setting out from the key towards its fifth in Major, for example, the opening idea reappears in the exposition just at the
major, or third in minor; and it may end with the chord of the key note or its fifth, moment when nineteenth-century listeners would have expected a substan-
but the latter is better. The second subsection comprehends a first sort of elaboration, tially different, contrasting theme. Thematic contrasts do exist within a
consisting of a more natural modulation than that of the third subsection; it be great number of eighteenth-century movements, and Galeazzi, for one, de-
confined to the fifth or third of the key only, or also touch on some related, or even scribes this technique in some detail. 4 6 But this kind of contrast is not ac-
non-related keys if only no formal digression is m ade to any key but the said fifth corded the central importance it would assume in later nineteenth-century
in major, or third in minor. The third subsection or beginning of the second section, accounts of sonata form.
comprehends a second sort of elaboration, consisting of digressions to all those keys Since around the middle of our own century, then , the "textbook" con- , ;.,.. \
and modes which shall be introduced besides that of the fifth (or third); and being 1 p
cept of sonata form for the Classical era has given way to a freer, more fluid f;J""tl
the place for those abrupt modulations, or enharmonic changes, which the piece concept defined primarily on the basis of harmonic structure. Recent dis- 'fj-j"\,"-' .,. . '.
admits or requires. The fourth subsection contains the return to the key, with a third
cussions of sonata form in the eighteenth century, accordingly, have em- ' .',,-
sort of elaboration, similar to that of the first subsection. H
phasized the diversity of procedures within this framework and the variety
On the basis of accounts like this, numerous scholars have followed of choices open to composers. Them atic events, to use Ratner's metaphor,
r-'" -< '.' Ratner's lead in viewing eighteenth-century sonata form as a harmonic out- constitute a variable "superstructure" that interlocks into the elemental "ba-
-J - ' line whose thematic conventions are too diverse to be incorporated into any sis" of the harmonic outline; it is the movement's harmonic shape and not
definition of the form . Ratner's schema of I - V :I: X - I also reflects its thematic elements that define the form.47 -, ., .. :j
eighteenth-century thought in that it treats sonata form as an essentially _1. _ Brief and superficial. as the above summary may be,. it at I.east a Ij2>.-l:;1
1 '.··

I bipartite structure, divided by a repeat sign roughly midway through the I


J
.);.·:"movement. Beginning in the early decades of the nineteenth century, this
repeat sign would become increasingly less common-Beethoven's piano
broad outlme of what IS generally accepted to be the hIstOrIcal evolutIOn of
the theory of sonata form: an essentially bipartite harmonic construct in the
eighteenth century, replaced by an essentially tripartite thematic construct
I
,.; sonatas, taken as a whole, are a good example of this shift in practice 44- in the nineteenth, replaced in turn in the mid-twentieth century by the re- I
and within fifty years, most theorists were treating the form as an essentially discovery of the bipartite harmonic model for music of the Classical era. j
tripartite structure, consisting of sections now known as expo§ition, devel- In many respects, this view of the history of the theory of sonata form
opment, and recapitulation. The double bar in the middle of the movement, has much to recommend it, for nineteenth-century writers do indeed lay
if present at all, was considered a mere relic of earlier .convention. far greater stress upon the principle of thematic contrast than their

42. Joseph Riepel, Alljallgsgriillde zlIr musikalischCII Setzklmst: Gnmdregelll zlIr TOilOrdllllllg 45. Jane R. Stevens, in " Georg Joseph Vogler and the 'Second Theme' in Sonata Form :
insgemeill (Ulm: C. U. Wagner, 1755); Johann Gottlieb Portmann, Leichtes Lehrbuch der Some 18th-Century Perceptions of Musical Contrast," Journal oj Musicology, 2 (1983), 278-
Harmonie , Compositioll "nd des Gweralbasses (Darmstadt: J. J . Will, 1789); Koch, Versllch, II · 304. convincingly calls into question the traditional interpretation of one of the few pas-
and III (1787-1793); Francesco Galeazzi, Elemfl1ti teorico-pratici di lIlusica, II (Rome: M . sages in eighteenth-century theory reputedly describing a contrasting "second theme" as
Puccinelli, 1796); August F. C. Kollmann, All Essay 011 Practical Musical Compositioll (Lon- an element of form in eighteenth-century music.
don: Author, 1799); Carlo Gervasoni, La sCl/ola delJa musica, 2 vols. (Piacenza: Nicolo Or- 46 . Galeazzi. Elemwti, II, 256. For other, less explicit references, see Charles Burney, A
cesi, 1800; rpt. Bologna: Forni, n. d.) . These various accounts will be discussed in more GfIleral History ojMIHic, ed. Frank Mercer, 2 vols. (New York : Harcourt, Brace. n.d .; orig.
detail below. pub. 1789), H. 866; and Johann Friedrich Daube, Anieillmg zlir der Melodie Illld
43· Kollmann, Essay 011 Practical Musical Composition, p. 5. ihrer Fortsetzllllg, 2 vols. (Vienna: C. G. Taubel, 1797-1798). II. 38.
44· For a survey of this change, see Broyles, "Organic Form." 47· Ratner, Classic Mllsic. p. 221.

r, ... n ....,,. ,1 ... 'V ..... r _ _ _ _ __


eighteenth-century counterparts . But at a deeper level, this view overem- monic outline. ,,8 And when Marx calls one of Haydn's "monothematic"
phasizes the differences between eighteenth- and nineteenth-century theo- movements an "older type of sonata form," it is important to recognize that
ries of the form. In so doing, it poses a number of problems: Marx considered this movement a manifestation of that form on the basis
of its large-scale harmonic structure, in spite of the fact that it lacks a con-
r,', I. It implies a fundamental and relatively rapid change between eighteenth-
trasting "second" theme. 49
and nineteenth-century accounts of sonata form that is not reflected in con-
.. \ '. ,', temporary sources. ... In this respect, harmoni c (eighteenth-century)
,::, It..-, \< (nineteenth-century) acco..::.n ts ot sonata form is a false ,one. It
2. In its search for a lowest common denominator ' (large-scale harmony), -has ' been fostered, in large measure:-by recent efforts to define Classical
it tends to suppress the significance of other elements that do in fact figure sonata form according to its lowest common denominator. In identifying
prominently in eighteenth-century accounts of sonata form. the form-defining essentials of eighteenth-century repertoire, scholars have
3· It rests strongly upon evidence from pedagogical treatises, sour'ces that tended to exaggerate the differences between eighteenth- and nineteenth-
cannot be interpreted adequately without taking into account their openly century writers while neglecting deeper continuities of thought.
didactic function . From a purely functional point of view, the most important break in crit-
ical thinking about sonata form has in fact taken place only in the last forty
4· It fails to provide the basis for a broader concept of form applicable to years. The basic shift occurred not between Koch and Marx, but rather
constructs other than sonata form itself, such as the rondo, fugue, or theme between Koch, Czerny, and Marx, on the one hand, and Tovey, Ratner, '1') Kr h tf'...
and variations. and Newman on the other. 0 - S-Ollata for,m ,h :).y-e:moved o...\(M f.

5· It imposes an dichotomy between "inner" and "outer" form from a co l1W..o.sitional , didactic context to one that IS more.. and 1

that is not reflected in contemporary eighteenth-century accounts. -lllstori'caJ;Ln;lture. These historically oriented accounts differ not merely J,)
content but more importantly in kind from both the eighteenth- and the
Let us consider each of these points in turn. nineteenth-century views of the form. To limit the overtly derogatory des-
ignation of "textbook form" to writers from the mid-nineteenth century
I. The implication of a fundamental and relatively rapid change betlveen eigh-
onward, beginning with Marx and Czerny, postulates a degree of discon-
teel1th- al1d nineteel1th-century aCCOlll1ts of sOllata form, In spite of a gradually tinuity between Koch and Marx that is historically ·misleading, for it ob-
increasing emphasis on thematic contrast over the course of the nineteenth scures the direct line of pedagogical descent from ' tne eighteenth century
century, accounts of sonata form do not in fact alter in any fundamental into the nineteenth. The earliest discussions of sonata form, after all, appear
sense between the 1790S (Koch, Galeazzi, Kollmann, Gervasoni) and the in treatises directed at would-be composers. Riepel's treatise is in the form
1840S (Czerny and Marx). Theorists of both generations consistently de- of a dialogue between pupil and scholar; Koch consistently addresses the
scribe a movement's thematic ideas in relation to its harmonic outline and "aspiring composer"; and Galeazzi and Kollmann both make frequent ref-
vice versa. The later dialectical contrast between "first" and "second" erence to the reader as a "student." From the standpoint of function, Koch's
themes supplements, but does not supersede, the traditional oljtline of tonal description of sonata form is every bit as much in the "textbook" tradition
progressions. Czerny and Marx, just like Koch and Kollmann, describe as Marx's.
sonata form as a harmonic pattern moving from the tonic to a related but Nor is it accurate to distinguish earlier theorists such as Koch and
contrasting secondary key (the exposition), and from there to a period of Kollmann from Marx and Lobe on the grounds that the later writers "pre-
relative instability (development) before returning definitively to the tonic scribed" the form and gave it a specific name. 50 The charge of prescriptivism
(recapitulation). For mid-nineteenth-century theorists, the presence of a
contrasting "second" theme does not by itself signal a sonata-form move- . 48. Heinrich Birnbach, "Ober die verschiedene Form grosserer Instrumentaltonstiicke
ment. Even by "textbook" standards, the course of events after the expo- aller Art und deren Bearbeitung," BAMZ, 4 (1827), 269. See below, p. 147.
sition must follow an established harmonic outline if the movement at hand 49. Adolf Bernhard Marx, Die Lehre von der l11Hsikalischen KOl11position, 4 vols. (Leipzig:
Breitkopf & Hartel, 1837-1847), III, 563-567.
is to be considered representative of sonata form. Indeed, it is not until 1827
50. A good deal of attention-perhaps too much-has been devoted to identifying the
that any writer specifically equates the form of a movement with its har- earliest use of the term "sonata form" to describe the structure of a single movement. The

_ _ --=:1 ___ _ _
could be leveled with some justification against Czerny, who did in fact take A Closer Examination of Sonata Form
a rather rigid approach toward the teaching of form, but it would be his-
In the previous section, it was important to provide an introduction to the under-
torically inaccurate to extend guilt by chronological association to his con- standing of this form in the most direct manner possible. The importance of this
temporaries as well. Marx, in particular, goes to great lengths to emphasize form will become increasingly clear the farther we progress . But at this rapid pace,
that his description of sonata form represents nothing. more than a heuristic it was impossible to achieve a fully satisfactory understanding; and it would have
norm, and that exceptions to this norm abound. Indeed, Marx's view of been contrary to the fundamental principle of a course of true artistic instruction
form is at times remarkably organicist: "There are as many forms as works had we been more interested in conveying exhaustive insight rather than in leading
of art . . . Content and form [are] inseparably one." 51 Marx is most com- the student once again along the shortest path to the road of learning and creation.
monly perceived to have been an encyclopedic codifier of musical forms, (It is in this respect that a course of artistic instruction is fundamentally different
and his analyses of earlier repertoire do in fact suffer from a markedly teleo- from a purely or predominantly scientific one.) For this reason, we adhered almost
logical biasY But his celebrated "codification" of sonata form is immedi- exclusively to a single model that could be applied in different ways.
We must now turn our attention to a closer examination of (and at the same time,
ately followed by an even longer (yet frequently overlooked) of
the evidence available in) the works of the masters. In this manner, the preliminary
the many exceptions to the norm he has just finished describing. 53 The
fundamentals discussed earlier will be rc lated to the works of others. Understanding
opening of this neglected passage should be sufficient to dispel Marx's un-
and capability will thus ripen simultaneously, without being separated from one
justified reputation as a rigid prescriptivist. Having outlined the "standard" another; the former will not becomc abstract knowledge, deathly as it is dead; while
version of sonata form, Marx steps back to take a more careful look at the the latter will not degenerate into an act of merely empirical imitation (which con-
broader issues:
stantly raises the threat of one-sidedness and mannerism)."

In an appendix to the third volume of his Lelil'e (pp.S68-S70), Marx once


again emphasizes the didactic nature of sonata form's basic pattern (the
table contents to'volume 5 (1828) of Marx's Berliller Allgemeine mllsikalische has Gnmdfo1'ln). Here as elsewhere, Marx was keenly aware of the potential
been cited as the first such use of the term, but Marx had in fact used it as early as 182 4 in abuse of his pedagogically motivated codification, and he explicitly deni-
j
a retrospectIve essay 111 the first volumc of the same journal (pp. 444-44 8). He notes that i grates the empty schematization of which he himself is so often accused. 55
the hIstorIcal perIod of Haydn and Mozart is characterized by "more extended musical ideas It could perhaps be argued that the greater quantity of detail in Marx's
and a richer sequence of melodies: the sonata- and rondo-form became predominant [die ,
;

writings qualitatively alters the nature of his discussion. Marx 's account is
II. ROlldoform IVI/rde henschmd] . . . By the first term [Sollatmform], we mean the ' ",- . i
JOllllng of two sections of melodies (the first in the tonic, the second in the dominant-or j more thorough than those by any of his predecessors, to be sure; but his
the first in the tonic minor, the second in the relative major), usually repeated aftcr an treatment represents a logical continuation and expansion of ideas that can
1l1terpoiatlOn [Zwiuhellsatz , i. c. , development section), with the second section trans- be traced back through Birnbach and Reicha to Koch and to some extent
posed . .. into the tonic, as in almost all mo vements of symphonies, quartets, and sonatas. "
. 51. Marx, Lelrre, II,S, and Ill, 568. On organicism in Marx's theories, see Kurt-Erich
even to Riepe!. The schematization of sonata form was already well under
Der Streit zwisclreJl Adolph Bemlrard Marx IIIld Gottfried Willrelm Fillk 11m die Kompo- way by the end of the eighteenth century, and it continued throughout the
sltlollslelrre (Regensburg: Gustav Bosse, (966), pp. 56-65; Lotte Thaler, Forl/l ill nineteenth. The repertoire considered paradigmatic for aspiring composers
del' Mllsiktireorie des 19. IIIld begillllendeJl 20. jalrrllllllderts (Munich: Emil Katzbichler, (9 84);
and Gudrun Henneberg, Idee Il/Id Beg riff des IIIl1sikalisdlert KlIlIStlVerks illl Spiegel des dCl/tsclr-
spracll1geJl Schrifill/ms del' erstell Hii/fte des 19. jahrlllll/dcrts (Tutzing: Hans Schncider, 19 8 3). 54. Ibid., III, 247.
Ratner argues that Marx's approach is essentially retrospective in its inclusion of 55. Marx's theoretical writings are in need of a thorough reevaluation more sympathetic
musIc from previous generations, most notably Haydn and Mozart: "Theories of Form: than that available in' Birgitte Moyer's "Concepts of Musical Form in the Nineteenth
Some Changing Perspectives," in Haydl/ Stl/dies: Proceedings of the Intemational Haydn COl/- Century, with Special Referencc to A. B. Marx and Sonata Form" (Ph.D. diss ., Stanford,
ference, Washil/gtol/, D.C., 1975, ed. Jens Peter Larsen, Howard Serwer, and James Webster 1969). Partial reconsiderations arc offered by Dahlhaus, "GefUhlsasthetik und musikalische
(New York: Norton, 1981), p. 347. But while Marx did expand the range of repertoire Formenlehre"; idem, "A sthetische Pramissen der 'Sonatenform ' bei Adolf Bernhard
upon whIch the pedagogy of form was based, his self-avowed standard was the music of Marx," AfMlV, 41 (19H4), 73-HS; Ian Bent, Analysis (New York : Norton , 1987); idem, "An-
Beethoven, and his fundamental goal remained the teaching of form rather than its histor- alytical Thinking in the, First Half of the Nineteenth Century," in Modem Mlisical Scholar-
Ical elucidation.
ship, ed. Edward Olleson (Stocksfield, Northumberland: Oriel Press, 1978), pp. 151-166;
53· Marx, Lehre, Ill, "Die Sonatenform," pp. 212-246; "Nahere Erorterung der Sona- and Scott Burnham, "Aesthetics, Theory, and History in the Works of A. B. Marx" (Ph.D.
tenform," pp. 247- 291.
diss., Brandeis University, 1988).
[Galeazzi's term for what would later come to be known as the "second theme"]
changed over the course of time, as might be expected, keeping pace with
transposed to t\:le same fundamental key. S7
contemporary developments in style, but the function of these
didactic accounts did not. In his Swola della musica of 1800, Carlo Gervasoni seems to take t,he si-
The reputed dichotomy between eighteenth-century harmonic and nine- multaneous return of the tonic and the opening theme for. grante.d 111 the
teenth-century thematic views of sonata form has thus tended to distort the first movement of a sonata. He mentions the event twice 111 pass1l1g, an.d
terms of retint debate surrounding Classical sonata form. Largely in reac- his tone strongly suggests that he assumes the reader's with thiS
tion against demonstrably anachronistic models from the nineteenth cen- phenomenon. 58 Johann Gottlieb Portmann, who makes no men-
tury, recent scholarship has tended to emphasize what Classical sonata form tion of thematic ideas in what would eventually come to be deSignated as
is not. In effect, it is our twentieth-century reactions to nineteenth-century the exposition and the development sections of a sonata-form
ideas that for the most part have dictated the focus of how we read similarly cites the simultaneous return of the opening theme and the tomc
eighteenth-century theory. at the beginning of the recapitulation:
The tendency to suppress the significance oj elements other than harmony that In the second half, I begin to modulate by making any number of deviations ...
) 2.

do in fact figure prominently in eighteenth-celltury accounts oj sonata Jorm. In the This [major dominant] then brings me back to D major, the tonic, in ,,:hlch I repeat
process of (rightly) debunking the myth of thematic contrast in Classical the opening theme [Thema] , which I allow to be heard together WIth my other
melodic ideas and turns previously presented in the secondary key. I stay [111 the
sonata form, Ratner and others have exaggerated the contrasts between
eighteenth- and nineteenth-century theories of the form. Almost all recent tonic] and close in it. S9
accounts of Classical sonata form have focused the debate about the role of It is clear from the context that "das Thema" here is not just any theme,
thematic materials primarily on the exposition. Even Bathia Churgin, who but the movement's opening idea, its Hauptsatz .60
has argued eloquently that the "specialization of thematic functions" was "a At various points in his Versuch, Koch also discusses this juncture in terms
cardinal feature of Classic sonata form," concentrates almost entirely on the of both harmonic and thematic content. The "third period," that is, t.he
exposition in her single most important essay on the form. S6 Here again, it recapitulation, "begins generally ... with the opening once aga1l1,
is the focal point of nineteenth-century interests-the contrast first pre- in the main key."61 This "last period of our first allegro, v.: h1ch IS devoted
sented within the exposition-that has shaped the manner in which scholars primarily to the key, usually begins with the theme once
have interpreted eighteenth-century repertoire and theory. . again in this occasionally may also begm With another mal11
If we consider other elements of sonata form beyond the exposition, it
becomes clear that eighteenth-century theorists themselves took a much
broader view of the role of thematic material in the construction of 57. Galeazzi, Elemellti, II , 258-259. Translation from Churgin, "Fr,a ncesco Galeazzi's De-
movement-length form. The moment of recapitulation, for example, is al- scription," pp . 195- 196 .
most always described in terms of both thematic material and tonality. Ac- 58. Gervasoni, La swola della ml/sica, I, 467-4 68 .
59. Portmann, Leiclztes Lelzrbl/ch, p. 50. . '
cording to Galeazzi, 60. See also the entry under "Hauptsatz" in Johann Georg Sulzer's Theone der
schallfll Kiillste, 2nd ed., 4 vols, (Leipzig: Weidmann, 1792-1794; rpt. Hlldeshelm: Ohns,
however remote the Modulation is from the main key of the it must 1967): "The Hauptsatz is generally called the theme"; Koch, Musikalisches Lexi,koll, "Haupt-
draw closer little by little, until the Reprise, that is, the first Motive of Part One in satz"; and Johann Joachim Quantz, Versllch eiller Allweisllllg, die Flote traverslere :<11 splelell
the proper natural key in which it was originally written, falls in quite naturally and (Berlin:J. F. Voss, 1752), p. 115, There is a particularly striking confirmatIOn of thIs II1ter-
regularly. If the piece is a long one, the true Motive in the principal key is taken up pretation of Portmann's account in the autograph score of Haydn's String Quartet Op. 54.
once again, as it has been said, but if one does not want to make the composition No. I, where at m. 126 of the first movement, over a diminished seventh chord 111 the three
too long, then it shall be enql.)gh , to repeat instead the Characteristic Passage , lower voices, the composer notes simply "T[h)ema" on the first violin's line. See LeWIS
Lockwood's remarks on this passage in Tlu Stril1g Quartets ofHaydll, Mozart, alld BrerllOvfII:
Sr"dies of th e Alltograph Mallllscripts , ed. Christoph Wolff (Cambridge, Mass .: Harvard Um-
,:il¥ ' versity Department of Music, 1980), p. 117. On the relationship between Hallptsatz and
Thellla, see also below, pp. 94-95, 99- 100 .
56. Bathia Churgin, "Francesco Galeazzi's Description (1796) of Sonata Form," JAMS,
21 (1968), 182. 61. Koch, Versllch, II, 224·

__ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 7:1...0- Dl....c"
• _ _ _ __
40 W () R n T _1=" D J..f 1= T ('\ n , r
melodic idea."62 Koch also notes that the third period "begins in the m ain prejudice to the overall plan."66 From the standpoint of explaining the the-
key, and usually with the opening theme. After the repetition of the theme, matic conventions of this form, however, this approach conveys little or no
a few melodic sections from the first half of the first period are ... pre- sense of which techniques were typical and which were not.
sented in a different connection ."6 J Ratner's interpretation of these theoretical accounts is worth considering
Even Kollmann's "plan of modulation," quoted earlier, incorporates a in some detail, for his treatment of Classical sonata form has exerted enor-
considerable amount of material on the movement's thematic components. mous influence on more than a generation of scholars, and rightly so. No
In the second edition (r8r2) of his Essay on Practical Musical Composition one has played a greater role in overturning anachronistic nineteenth-
("With Considerable Additions and Improvements"), Kollmann clarifies his century conceptions of eighteenth-century But his readings of con-
earlier use of the term "elaboration" by juxtaposing it with a new concept, temporary theorists are strongly colored by his broader efforts to define the
that of the "proposition." The "proposition" to be "elaborated" is the equiv- form according to its essentials-that is to say, according to its large-scale
alent of what Koch would have called the Hauptsatz . It comprises the "first tonal organization.
subsection of a piece," and its function is "to fix, and impress on the hearer, There is an impressive body of to
the key, mode, and character of the piece." harmonic view of form ; yet testimony from the .!riod
- to suggest that this persRectiv; by-jtself..i2 Ratner has little to
The secol1d subsection begins, as it were, to enlarge upon the first proposition, in the
say about Galeazzi's detailed account of thematic events within a sonata-
nearest points of view; which is what I call the first sort of elaboration ... The third
subsection, or first part of the second section, enlarges upon the first proposition in
form movement, nor does he explain why this author's account of sonata
all those more or less disfal1t points of view, which the nature of the piece admits of, form should appear under the rubric of "On Melody in Particular, and on
and the fancy of a judicious composer may suggest. It is therefore the place where its Parts, Sections, and Rules."67 And while Ratner deals with the accounts
real digressions to other related and foreign keys, are most at home; and compre- of Port mann and Kollmann at some length, he does not specifically address
hends what I call the second sort of elaboration ... The fOllrth subsection once more their accounts of the thematic identity of the moment of recapitulation.
resumes the first proposition, and still enlarges upon it in such nearest points of view, Similarly, he attaches only limited importance to Koch's observations on
as are opposite to those of the second subsection; which is what I call the third sort what constitutes typical practice at the moment of recapitulation. Ratner
of elaboration. 6, ignores two of the three passages by Koch quoted above, and in his most
The "resumption" of "the first proposition" is Kollmann's way of describ- recent discussion of the third mixes. with translation in such a
ing a return to the movement's opening theme at the moment of recapitu- way as to alter its meaning. Koch's original COer letzte Periode unsers
lation. His concept of form, as Ian Bent points out, represents a mixture of ersten Allegro ... fangt am gewohnlichsten wieder mit dem Thema, zu- I , ' .

both thematic and harmonic e1ements. 65 wei len aber auch mit einem andern melodischen Haupttheile in dieser
By Ratner's definition, this tonic reiteration of the theme at the Tonart an") becomes "The recapitulation ... 'begins with the opening
onset of the recapitulation is not an essential element of the form, and none theme or another important melodic figure' .. ."68 In this rendering, the ·
of the theorists cited above in fact prescribes such a return.
But Gervasoni, phrases "am gewohnlichsten" ("usually") and "zuweilen aber auch" ("but
Portmann, and Kollmann offer no other alternative, and Koch and Galeazzi on occasion also") are omitted. What results is a choice between two types
explicitly note the conventionality of this procedure. From the standpoint of melodic material at the moment of recapitulation: (r) the opening theme;
of defining the form, Ratner is absolutely correct in stating that "while a or (2) any subsequent material deemed "important." In Ratner's version,
strong return to the tonic at the beginning of the recapitulation has dramatic the implicit likelihood of a composer's choosing one or the other is more
force, it is not essential to the harmonic unity of the form .. . A play on or less equal. But "zuweilen aber auch" represents a fairly strong contradic-
the idea of return, both harmonically and melodically, can be made without tion. The correct English equivalent is not "sometimes A, sometimes B"

62. Ibid., III, 3 [I. 66. Ratner, Classic Music, p. 229. Emphasis in the original.
63 · Ibid ., III, 420. 67· Galeazzi, Elementi, II , pt. 5, sec. 2, article 3·
64· Kollmann, An Essay 011 Pracrica l MI/sical Composition, 2nd ed. (London: Author, 68. Ratner, Classic Music, p. 229. In his earlier "Harmonic Aspects of Classic Form "
18[2), p. 3. ([949), p. [62, Ratner quotes the first of these two passages only in the original German
65· Bent, "Analytical Thinking," pp. [52-154. but omits the word aber in z/lweilell abcr al/ch.

____ , «( 3 __
________________________________________________________
but rather "most commonly A, but occasionally B ." 69 In Ratner's account trast-and it is one of Ratner's many achievements to have disposed of this
of this passage, the relative normality of beginning the recapitulation with particular myth-one must somehow account for the fact that contempo-
the opening theme is suppressed. rary writers did indeed incorporate thematic elements into their discussions
The importance of a correct rendering here goes beyond this single in- of form.
stance, for B-atner's interpretation is symptomatic of a wider tendency to
3. A strong reliance upon evidence fi'om pedagogical treatises. The recent image
identify harmonic essentials at the expense of thematic conventions . From
of a harmonic framework and a thematic superstructure to explain
the standpoint of defining the form, Ratner is certainly correct to point out
eighteenth-century accounts of sonata form holds a certain attraction, for it
that "this option indicates that the recapitulation was, for Koch, fundamen-
accommodates both harmonic and thematic elements. But it is derived
tally a harmonic matter."70 But in the passage just cited, Koch is in fact
largely from accounts that are essentially didactic in function and thus nec-
describing typical practice, not defining sonata form. The great majority of
essarily restricted in scope. And while pedagogy and analysis have tradi-
recapitulations from the last third of the century, particularly in first·move-
tionally gone hand-in-hand, both before and after the eighteenth century,
ments, do begin with a simultaneous reiteration of the opening theme and
there is a fundamental difference between the goals and methods of these
the tonic. And every major theorist of the time who addresses the issue of
two functions. trow one teaches a concept, as Marx had been at some pains
what we now call sonata form describes this important juncture in terms of
to point out, is often quite differept from how one actually views that con-
both its tonality and its thematic content. Even Riepel calls attention to the
cept. The analytical approach is c!,escriptive ("a circle is the locus .5' \..1'\
return of the opening theme at the onset of what we now call the recapit-
of all points equidistant from a given point"), while the didactic a proach
ulatjon, and he includes such a return within the extended musical example
is essentially prescriptiv.e ("to construct a circle, compass
illustrating his discussion. 71
arm fixed until the other arm has returned to its starting point").74 This
Ratner does concede a degree of significance to thematic elements within
distinction has important implications for how we read eighteenth-century
large-scale constructs, and he attempts to integrate the thematic interpre-
sources.
sonata form into a harmonic framework. The tonal plan, to quote
Early in the second volume of his Versuch, Koch explicitly notes the lim-
In full hiS metaphor cited earlier, "establishes a two-phase basis into which
itations of the pedagogical perspective and the consequent potential for mis-
the three-phase thematic superstructure is interlocked."7> But the value of
understanding:
viewing form from the perspective of thematic events is ultimately dispar- '. ' '':

aged, for such an approach "does not account for the unique rhetorical ele- I now want to . .. attempt to show the aspiring' composer how a piece of music
ments of the classic style that enabled sonata form to attain its breadth and must arise within the mind of a creating composer, if the piece is to achieve the
unity." Because of its flexibility, the harmonic, two-part interpre- intention of art.
tatIOn of sonata form is considered "dynamic," while the thematic three- At the very beginning of the Introduction to Part One [in volume one], I prom-
part view is implicitly deprecated as "static," for it is concerned with "iden- ised to draw a line of distinction between harmony and melody, and to answer-in
such a way that the decision could set one's mind at ease-the well-known contro-
tifying and placing themes."7 Yet eighteenth-century writers are in fact
versy as to whether harmony or melody takes precedence, whether a piece of music
concerned with the identity and ' placement of themes, evc;n if the focus of
can be reduced ultimately to melody or to harmony. I do not know how some of
their concerns is somewhat different from that of their nineteenth-century my readers ... can have got it into their heads that I intended to give it as my
one disregards the chimera of long-range thematic con- opinion there that it must be harmony which first arises in the mind of the composer
in the formation of a piece of music ...
. . . Neither melody nor harmony can constitute the initial substance of a piece
69. Newman's and Baker's translations both give more accurate renditions of this pas-
In Sonata in the Classic Era, p. 34, is careful to specify that for Koch ..
of music. Each carries characteristic features of something which must be presup-
Thema In thIS context denotes the opening theme of the movement. See also above, posed to precede both of them, and this is the . .. key ... This quantity of all the
n.60. musical notes determined by one tonic note constitutes the true primary material of
70. Ratner, "Harmonic Aspects" (1949). p. 162. a work of music; that is, it constitutes that from which all the sections of the entire
71. Riepel, Al1jal1gsgriillde . . . Grulldregell1 zlIr TOl1ordl1ung, pp. 72-74.
7 2 . Ratner, Classic Mllsic, p. 221. See also Wolf, "Sonata Form " : "The basis for sonata
form is the open modulatory plan of binary form." 74. See Herbert A. Simon, "The Architecture of Complexity," Proceedillgs o.fthe American
73. Ratner, Classic Mllsic, p. 220. Philosophical Society, 106 (1962), 479 .

(( S
:1""
work are formed. If this material, these notes, are made audible in succession, then realization of figured bass. This practice is reflected in the titles of such
the material has been used melodically; but if some of the notes that constitute this
material are made audible simultaneously, then the material has been used harmon-
ically.
Seen in this manner, the issue, it seems to me, can be pursued no further from
Ii
I
1
important treatises as Heinichen's Generalbass in der Composition (Dresden,
1728), Sorge's Vorgemach der musikalischen Kompositiorl, oder .. . Anweisullg
zum General-Bass (Lobenstein, 1745-1747), and Kirnberger 's Grundsiitze des
Generalbasses als erste Lillien zur Composition (Berlin, 178 I). 77 Johann
the material point of view. For neither melody nor harmony can constitute the final
level of reduction of a piece of music. The two derive precisely from one and the
same substance; this substance is simply treated differently in melody than in har-
i
l
Sebastian Bach, according to his son Carl Philipp Emanuel, routinely began
instruction in composition with the fundamentals of figured bass. 78
mony. i Melody, by contrast, was not only more variable piece to piece but
From this it is clear that it could not possibly have been my intention to have also pedagogically more elusive. It was considered to be the product of
stated ... that the composer in the act of creation should think primarily of har- 1 creative genius, a phenomenon that could not be described so readily in
words. Even while conceding that "melody has no less expressive force than
mony." t harmony," Jean-Philippe Rameau, the most influential writer on harmony
Koch's remarks, as he himself notes , reflect the perennial eighteenth-

I
in the eighteenth century, insisted that "giving rules" for the of
century debate over the primacy of harmony or melody in music, and his melody was "almost impossible, since good taste plays a greaterpart in this
response is one that had already been suggested by such earlier writers as than anything else." 79 both the
Mattheson, Scheibe, and Mizler. ;6 Less obviously, Koch's remarks are also 1 on melody and the corresponding abundance of manuals on har-
a reflection of contemporary compositional pedagogy. Like so many other mon:y.
theorists of his time, Koch had begun his work with a discussion of har- As the lowest common denominator among sonata-form movements,
mony. In the five years between the publication of volumes one and two of large-scale harmonic structure is an entirely appropriate starting point for
his treatise, however, he sensed that there had been a mistaken perception pedagogical discussions of movement-length forms . Riepc1, Portmann,
of his earlier comments on the role of harmony in the compositional pro- Kollmann, and Gervasoni all present modulatory schemes that can serve as
cess. He realized, in retrospect, that it was necessary to distinguish between points of departure for the aspiring composer's own works. Gervasoni, for
his own pedagogical approach-presenting the fundamentals of harmony example, urges students to study .the compositions of established composers
first-and the act of composition itself. Koch's comments thus foreshadow and to note the "disposition of the themes" as .well as the "progression of
those of Marx quoted earlier: the methodological constraints of pedagogy the modulations," and to use these as norms fot the"'construction of a com-
I
should not be confused with the act of artistic creation or, by extension,

II"
poser's first sonatas, weaving into them a new melody entirely of one's own
with analysis, which can be seen in large measure as an attempt to under- devising."80 The technique of preserving the large-scale harmony of an ex-
stand not only the products but also the process of artistic creation. isting work and creating new themes to fit within this pattern is recom-
That at least some didactic treatises of the eighteenth century should mended by numerous pedagogues of the eighteenth and early nineteenth
structure their discussions of sonata form around a movement's harmonic centuries.
!
plan does not necessarily mean that composers or listeners perceived form
to be an essentially harmonic phenomenon, or that our present-day inter- i The rise of a more specific pedagogy of abstract forms, Formenlehre, on
theather hand, was closely associated with the rise of Melodielehre, as Carl
pretations should view form primarily in these terms. frQm
point of view, harmony had long considered an essentially mechanical I The on mel-

matter and therefore eminently teachable. Indeed, throughout the eigh-


teenth century, a strong tradition linked the teaching of composition to the t 77. On the close relationship between compositional pedagogy and figured bass, see
t Peter Benary, Die delltselle Kornpositiollslehre des 18. Jallrlllllldcrts (Leipzig: Breitkopf &

75. Koch, Versueh, II, 47-50. Translation adapted in part from Ian Bent, "The 'Com-
·1 Hartel, (961), pp. 49-54,61-68.
78. See Bacll-DokumCIlIe III: Dokul11cllte ZUlli Nachwirkell Jollmlll Sebastiml' Bac/ls, 1750-
positional Process' in Music Theory, 1713-1850," M'lSie Analy sis, 3 (1984), 29-30. Bent's
essay includes further comments on portions of this passage.
76. See Mattheson, Capel/meister, pp. 133-134; Johann Adolph Scheibe, Critisclzer Musi-
kus, 2nd ed. (Leipzig: B. C. Breitkopf, 1745), p. 204; Lorenz Mizler, Neu eriijfnete nlllsika-
fisehe Bibliothek, 2 (1743), pc. I, pp. 64-65.
II 1800, cd. Hans-Joachim Schulze (Kassel: Barenreiter, 1972), p. 289.
79. Rameau, Trait'; de I'izarmonie (Paris: Ballard, 1722), p. 142; translation from Philip
Gossett's edition, Trea tise 011 HarmollY (New York : Dover, 1971), p. 155.
80. Gervasoni, La smo la della musica, I, 469-470.
81. See Dahlhaus, "Zur Theorie der musikalischcn Form," 20- 37.

I
ody, Mattheson's Kern melodischer Wissellschaji (1737) offers the earliest ex- Neither Galeazzi nor Reicha was the first to address the issue of melody,
tended account of large-scale form. 82 Important changes in musical style of course, but their belief that they were the first to do so reflects a broader
were creating the need for a new Satzlehre: the shorter-phrased melodies of reality: that treatises on melody in the eighteenth and early nineteenth cen-
the mid-century style demanded novel approaches to the construction of turies lack the kind of pedagogical tradition found in comparable works
individual melodies and their subsequent concatenation into movement- devoted to harmony, thoroughbass, and cou.nterpoint. 88 The small number
length forms.8J In contrast to the more numerous treatises on harmony and of Melodielehren is also symptomatic of yet another contemporary attitude:
thorough bass, it is primarily the Melodielehren of the eighteenth century that melody is the province of genius and not of pedagogy.
that address the issue of movement-length form, albeit with varying de- Throughout the Classical era, form was . more closely associated with
grees of and success. 84 melody than with harmony; this is a point that will be considered in much
Koch's Versuch, written some fifty years after Mattheson's Kem melod- greater detail in Chapter 2. Melody, with rare exceptions, was not an object
ischer Wissenschaji, incorporates the most detailed account of melody in the of sustained pedagogical attention in the eighteenth century. In attempting
entire eighteenth century. By no small coincidence, it also provides one of to reconstruct eighteenth-century concepts of sonata form, we must re-
the two most detailed contemporary accounts of Classical sonata form. The member that the teaching of form was necessarily based on that which
other extended description of the form, by Galeazzi, likewise appears could be taught. And against a pedagogical tradition strongly rooted in the
within a discussion of melody. 85 Other accounts equating melody with for- theory of harmony and the "unteachability" of melody, the importance of
mal structure will be considered in detail in Chapter 2; for the moment, it such references to thematic events in pedagogical accounts of specific forms
is important to note that while accounts of harmony are common, those should not be underestimated.
dealing with melody are relatively rare. Galeazzi, for one, seems rather In the introductioll to his Allgemeine Geschichte del' Musik, Johann
amazed that no one before him had addressed the role of melody in com- Nikolaus Forkel neatly summarizes the inherently problematical relation-
position: ship between pedagogy and practice, harmony and melody:

We have in fact a vast quantity of authors who have written with varying degrees In good musical composition, harmony and melody are as inseparable as the truth
of success on the subject of harmony, but there is not a single one, so far as I know, of ideas and the correctness of expression are in language. Language is the garb of
who has dealt with the principal element of modern music, that is, melody. I have ideas, just as melody is the garb of harmony. In this respect, one can call harmony
made an attempt along this new path, and I must ask forgiveness of my readers ifI a .logic of music, (or harmony stands jn approximately the same relationship to .
have had to create new vocabulary, hitherto unused in music ... 86 melodY ,as does logic, in language, . to expressiel1 ... Clearly, correct thi-;'icing is' J

Anton Reicha voices similar sentirrients in his 'haiti de melodie of 1814. I prerequisite to learning the correct expression of an idea. And in just this way, ex-

r
perience has truly taught us that no clean, correct, and flowing melody is possible
Music rests on "two columns of equal grandeur and importance, melody without prior knowledge of harmony. All skilled teachers of composition-of
and harmony; yet in spite of the many treatises on harmony published over which there are admittedly only very few-have sensed this, on the basis of expe-

I
the past several centuries, there is not a single one on melody." 87 rience, and they have advised their pupils not to attempt any melodic expression of
musical ideas before they have sufficiently sharpened their feeling for the truth .and
correctness of hJrmony through knowledge of the same. In the meantime, both
82. Mattheson's discussion of form in this treatise will be examined in detail in Chapter 2. [harmony and melody1 must be bound inseparably. They mutually elucidate each
83. The emergence of Formetllehre as distinguished from Satzlehre is discussed by Arnold other, and while no one is capable of providing rules for the crafting of a good,
Feil, "Satztechnische Fragen in den Kompositionslehren von F. E. Niedt, J. RiepeJ und H. cohesive melody, without deriving such rules from the nature of harmony-just as
Chr. Koch"(Ph.D. diss., Heidelberg, 1955).
no teacher of language can provide rules for good and correct expression without
84. For a survey of these eighteenth-century treatises, see Guido Kahler, "Studien zur
Entstehung der Formenlehre in der Musiktheorie des 18. und 19. ]ahrhunderts (von W. C. resorting to the art of correct thinking-no harmonic progression, on the other
Printz bis A. B. Marx)" (Ph .D. diss., Heidelberg, 1958). See also George]. Buelow, "The hand, can be good if it is not at the same time melodic. Dry harmony without
Concept of 'Melodielehre': A Key to Classic Style," Mozart-Jahrbuc/t 1978/79, pp. 182-195. melodic connection is like a logic that lacks linguistic expressions. '9
85· See above, p. 43.
86. Galeazzi , Elementi, II, xvii.
87. Reicha, TraUe de melodie (Paris: Author, 1814), p. i. It follows that in his discussion 88. See Lars Ulrich Abraham and Carl Dahlhaus, Melodielehre (Cologne: Hans Gerig,
of sonata form, Reicha, too, takes note of the importance of thematic events, including the 1972), p. 16.
normality of a simultaneous return of the opening theme and the tonic at the moment of 89. Forkel, Allgemeille Geschic/tle der MllSik , 2 vols. (Leipzig: Schwickert, 1788-1801),
recapitulation (p. 48). I, 24.
. Forkel's image of music as a language, as will be seen in Chapter 2, pro-
14I
sonata-form movements; but it does not necessarily follow that harmony
vldes the basis for a more historically accurate metaphor of form. Ratner's therefore constitutes the basis for all forms. No one would deny that a set
image of a harmonic framework and thematic superstructure, by contrast, of variations on a theme is a particular type of form, yet it would be difficult
establishes a false dichotomy, for it is based on pedagogical methods that to define this convention in any meaningful way as a harmonic construct,
eighteenth-century theorists themselves recognized to be heavily weighted particularly at the level of a complete movement. In the effort to define
toward the more teachable of the two elements. And while pedagogical Classical sonata form, scholars have too often lost sight of what the term
manuals remain an invaluable source for reconstructing concepts of form, "form" itself means.
we should interpret these sources within a broader context that call also
accommodate more aesthetically oriented perspectives. Thus, even though 5. The imposition of an anachronistic dichotomy between "inner" and "outer"
Mattheson, Riepel, and Koch all emphasize the use of small-scale dance form. Ratner's original model, it should be empha'sized, WaS never intended
forms (especially the minuet) in teaching composition, all three ultimately to represent anything more than a lowest common denominator for Clas-
deprecate the aesthe'tic value of such forms.9 0 Pedagogically, it nukes good sical sonata form. As he himself points out, its level of detail is not really
sense to begin by emphasizing those qualities of periodicity that all great enough to tell us very much about formal detail. 92 And this is the crux
forms have in common. This is the context of Riepel's assertion that a of the problem: the potential applications of a harmonic schema in analysis
minuet differs from a symphony or a concerto only in the "working are limited. Such an outline can help delineate general proportions, and no
out" (Aus}i:ihrung) of its basic ideas. Riepel's approach is a pedagogically adequate analysis can ignore the relative weight of the viJ.rious sections that
sound effort to boost the confidence of the beginner, one that emphasizes constitute a complete movement. But beyond this rather broad considera-
the commonality of different forms: the distinctions between metrically tion, the schematization of these various sections seldom illuminates issues
regular, small-scale movements like the minuet and metrically irregular, on a more local level. The identification of large formal units is an essential
large-scale movements like a symphonic allegro , after all, can be taught element of description, yet it fails to address important questions of detail.
later-or, as is more likely the case, can be learned through the careful study For this reason, the harmonic concept of sonata form, with its I - V :1:
of paradigmatic compositions. X - I schema, necessarily entails a conformational approach to large-scale
But Riepel's approach is not, by extension, a sound basis for theory and form: the schema is used as a basis of comparison with the work at hand.
analysis, at least not by itself. A sonata-form movement can indeed be The problem, as noted before, lies not so much in the legitimacy of deriving
viewed as an "expanded Classical phrase," to use Rosen's formulation; yet abstract formal types from a large body of works as in the fact that the
so can many other conventional movement-length patterns. As we have applicatiori of these schemas to specific pieces seldom offers any true in-
seen, there is clearly more to the structure of an extended movement than sights. Analytically, such a model can serve as little more than a heuristic
the expansion of a phrase. device, a "bridge," to use Carl Dahlhaus's image, "that one dismantles as'
soon as one has succeeded in making the transition" from describing general
4· The failure to provide the basis Jor a broader collcept ojJorm. Even if one formal elements to describing the individuality of the work at hand. 93
were to accept the premise that "large-scale Classit form" is indeed "fun- This tendency to dismiss the external conventions of form is due not so
damentally harmonic in its structure,"9 1 this lowest-common-denominator much to the nature of anyone particular pattern as to prevailing attitudes
approach still leaves open the question of how to deal with any number of toward the idea of convention itself. There has long been an attitude of
other specific forms. If the basis of Classical sonata form lies in its harmonic implicit disdain in musical scholarship toward the study of convention. 94
plan, we must look for different parameters of form to account for such Most writers have preferred to focus instead on the qualities of novelty and
structural conventions as the rondo, the fantasia, the fugue, or the theme innovation, attributes of more immediate and obvious interest. Conformity
and variations. Harmony is in fact the lowest common denominator among is too often taken to be a foil that is of importance only for the irregularities
against which it can be compared. And while this predisposition is gradu-
90. Mattheson, Capellmeister, p. 224; Riepel, Anfollgsgriillde ... De rhyrhmopoei"a , p. I;
Koch, Versueh, III, 155. See also Johann Samuel Petri, Allleilllllg zur prakrischen Musik, 2nd 92. Ratner, Classic Music, p. 219.
ed. (Leipzig: J . G. l. Breitkopf, 1782; rpt. Giebing: Emil Katzbichler, (969), p. 266. 93. Dahlhaus, "Zur Theorie der musikalischen Form ," p. 21.
91. Leonard Ratner, "Key Definition: A Structural Issue in Beethoven's Music," JAMS, 94. See Janet M . Levy, "Covert and Casual Values in Recent Writings about Music,"
23 (1970), 472.
JOllmol of Mu sicology, 5 (1987), 3-27, esp. 23-27.

<)0

The Paradox of Musical Form 5I


Every composer who has a thorough understanding of how to write for instruments Joseph Kerman has argued in hi s brief analysis of the opening movement
knows that one chooses a certain proposition or theme, which one allows to be of Eirze kleine Nachtmusik, K. 525, even as light and unpretentious a genre
heard first at the beginning, then es pecially in the elaboration of the piece, and then as the serenade can exhibit these sa me qualities of elaboration and coher-
once again at or near the end. Certainly, there are exceptions to this; but I am not ence, albeit to a somewhat lesser degree. Ij8 Thus, we should not be so quick
speaking of them. There are also certain secondary propositions, or secondary to approach Mozart's less assuming genres as "garlands of song-like melo-
themes [Neben- Tizemata], which are elaborated in approximately the same manner,
dies ." '59 The garland-like quality of these works is superficial.
and which at the very least are not to be omitted from consideration once they have
Postulating connections among seemingly diverse ideas need not degen-
been presented. I am not speaking here of the contrapuntal countersubject, of which
erate into the kind of theme-mon gering so common in quests for Substal1z-
much could be said ... instead, I continue to refer to that which a single voice must
gemeirzschafi. The search for such connections, as Dahlhaus points out, can
accomplish.'"
become obsessive, as it unquestionably has in the work of certain ana-
Johann Nepomuk Reichenberger, in 1780, similarly uses rhetorical im- lysts. , 60 But the rhetorical concept of musical form, it should be remem-
agery to describe the nature and function of secondary ideas. Just like the bered, does not insist that a single idea be omnipresent, either within a
orator, the composer movement or across an entire cycle of movements. On the contrary, the
introduces his Satz, or theme, early on; an d he repeats it briefly once or twice at this
metaphor of the musical work as an oration allows for-inde ed demands-
point, in order that it be well understood. He co ntinues ... until he finally brings digressions, secondary ideas, and even genuine contrasts, provided that
together everything announced earlier. And o ften, after he has fou ght his way these ideas are presented within a wider framework of thought that is suf-
through passages and progressions that may at first have seemed contradictory to fici en tly coherent.
his intentions, after he has arou sed, by means of the most refined harmonies and Unfortunately, there are no accepted criteria for determining the thematic
rhythms, all affects and pass ions that are useful to his intention-after all these "coherence" or "unity" of any given work. Connections that are obvious
routes, he finally arrives once again at his sentence and goal in the original key. '" to one analyst may seem preposterous to another. Perhaps the only true
criterion for ev aluating the legitimacy of such an approach, as Peter Kiv)'
Even works as rich in thematic variety as Mozart's piano concertos, so-
suggests, is to consider the extent to which such an analysis can be inte-
natas, and serenades consistently reveal a process of unfolding and elabo-
grated into subsequent hearings of the work at hand. ,(" Much of the prob-
ration. Charles Rosen has convincingly demonstrated the remarkable econ-
lem lies in the fact that one's evaluation of the relationship among thematic
omy of material and the central importance of thematic continuity in the
ideas in any individual work or mo ve ment depends largely upon one's
opening movement of the Concerto in E-ftat, K. 27I: each seemingly new
broader belief in (or skepticism toward) the very legitimacy of such con-
is in fact a new elaboration, spun out of preceding ones. '55 Economy
nections. The evidence pres ented in this chapter sugges ts that, from a his-
IS not a virtue in and of itself, nor is it in any respect "natural"; but the
torical perspective, the search for such links is entirely justified . It mu st,
process of thematic elaboration does contribute to the coherence o f the
however, be approached with the understanding that even two analysts
whole and prevents a work from becoming a mere potpourri of ideas. ,;6
Christoph Wolff, in a similar fashion, has shown how the succession of
ideas within the first movement of the Piano Sonata in F Major, K. 533/
494, is based on an ongoing elaboration of thematic material. '57 And as Klavicrsonate in F-Dllr (KV 533 & 494)," in Das II11lsikalische Klillsttllerk ... Ca rl
Doh/haus ZlinI 60. Gebllrtstag, ed. Hermann Danllser et al. (Laaber: Laab er-Verl ag , 19 88) ,
pp·44 1 -453·
153. Schubak, VOII der l1Iusicaliscizw Declamatioll (Gottingen: Vanclenhoecks Wi[[we, 158. Kerman, "Theories of Late Eighteenth-Century Music," pp. 23 6- 2 39.
1775), pp. 41-42. 159. Walter Wiora, "Die historische und sys temati sche 13ctrachtung der mu si kalischen
154· Reichenberger, Die ganu MIiSikkllllst, 3 vols. (Regensburg: HochfUrstli ch- bisch6f- Gattungen," Delltsches jahrbllch der Mllsik",iss('IIschaft }'ir 1965, p. 8.
liches Schulhaus bey St. Paul, 1777-1780), 111 , 160-161. 160. Dahlhaus , "Zur Theorie clcr musikalischcn Form," pp. 26- 2 9. See also Dahlhaus's

155· Rosen, Tize Classical Style, pp. 199-21 I. "Unite de Melodic," in AIIJkliinlllgCII: Stlldim Zli r dellt5ch-}-allziisischcll illl 18.
I56. On the cove rt assumption that "economy" is an inherently positive and " natural " jahr/lll11dat, II, ed. Wolfgang Binei and Christoph-Hellmut Mahling (Heidelb erg: Carl
a[[nbute 111 works of music, see Levy, "Covert and Casual Value s"; and Leonard B. Meyer, Winter Uni ve rsit atsverlag, 1986) , pp. 23- 2 9 .
Style allli MII<ic H5
. . Theory , 1 ' tVI·y, Id eo I og y (P h·1
1 a d e I pIa
h· : U' . 0 f Pennsylvallla
l1lv erslty . Press, 16 I. Kivy, Mllsic Alolle: P/l i/osophica l Ref/ectiolls Oil the Pllrely Mllsical ExperieHce (Ithaca,
19 89), pp. 193- 195. N . Y: Cornell University Press, 1990) , p. 143; see pp. 130-145 for a critique of the theories
157· Wolff, "Musikalische 'Gedankenfolge' und 'Einhei t des Stoffes': Zu Mozarts of Rudolf Reti, one of the most extrcme advocatcs of Slibstallzgcmeillsc/lO.ft ·

I C(1) t.
r
convinced of the basic legitimacy of this idea and dealing w ith the sa me descending line (motive "a," chromatic in the di atonic in the
work are likely to produce at lea st three different opinions. ,62 Allegro) beneath an ascending line (motive " b," a tritone 111 the 1I1troduc-
The brief analysis that follows, dealing w ith the first movem ent of tion, a perfect fifth in the Allegro) that m oves b y sequence (do w n a step 1I1
Mozart's String Quartet in C Major, K . 465 ("The Dissonant," 1785: see the introduction, up a step in the Allegro). T h e bas ic rh ythm s of thes e twO
Exampl e 2.4), is offered in this spirit, in an attempt to elucidate what Mar- lines from the opening measures are also preserved in the Allegro: a steady
purg and others might have m eant in speaking of ideas that "flow" out of pulse of ei ghth notes in the lo wer voices , and a loilger no te-v alue follow ed
the Hauplsatz. The slow introduction to this movement, with its extrem e by a series of sh orter on es in the ascending line. The underly in g pulse of
and sustained dissonances , is justly celebrated as one of the most demanding the introdu ction's opening m akes the rh y thmic vagueness of the upper
passages in the entire Classical repertoire, for performers and listeners alike; voices there all the more pronounced, while the similarly steady but fas ter
. d' I't f
its harmony and voice-leading hav e been the object of analysis on many pulse of the Allegro underscores the two-plus-two peno IC regu an Y 0
occasions . ,6) Here, however, I would like to take a so m ewhat differen t ap- the fIrSt violin above it (mm. 23-3 0 ). The imitative Coul1terp01I1t that play s
proach and co nsider the slo w introductio n and expo sition of the Allegro su ch an impor tant role in the introduction fi gures prominently throu gho ut
from the perspective o f how the HQl.lptsatz is elaborated. mu ch of the Allegro at later points as well (mm. 32-3 6 , 44-47, 79-
The theme or Hallptsatz of the fir st movement is not a single melodic 83,9 1-99, and so on), as do the chromatic elements that have been the tOCll S
line, but the polyphonic network of all four voices at the beginning of the of so much attention surroundin g this work (mm. 73-75, 93-94, 227- 2 32,
introdu ction. The pitches, rhythms, and harmoni es of these opening mea- 24 2- 244 of the Allegro, and more powerfully still in subsequent m ove-
sures all figure in the subseq uent course o f the movement. Thus the form ments).
of this m ovement cannot be explain ed solel y on the bas is of any one of these Within the Allegro itself, w h at mi ght be considered the " reconstituted "
instrumental lines or anyone of these elements in iso lation, but only Hallpt satz (mm. 23 fO pro vid es a new star tin g point for the subsequent
through their coordination. What follows these opening measures can be ideas that flow out of it. Motive " b" is restated in m. 3 1, transposed down
interpreted either as deri vatives or counterideas to the Hauplsatz -or as a an octave and w ith a new "accompaniment" in imitative counterpoint.
fulfillm ent of both fun ctions at one and the same time, as is in fact most The ex tension o f this statement in mm . 35-39 articulates the previou sly
often th e case. tied eighth-n ote figure wi thin "b," creating a ne w rhythm of JJTI
Given its dense polyphonic tex ture, it is scarcely surprising that the ou t of JJTI. The ori gins of this figure in the three-note group-
Hauptsatz at the very opening canno t be divided into a simple texture of in g of is reca lled in the m arkings of ml11. 36-37. This
melody and accompaniment. But it is surprisin gly difficult to draw such rh y thmic figure is furth er m anipulated in mm. 40-43 : the three-note
distinctions even in the more homo phoni c Alleg ro that follo ws. For while grouping of eighth s return s, but now preceded by eighth-note rests
the middl e voices in mm . 23-30 do ind eed fun ctio n as an accompaniment becomes 7 m ). . . '
to the fir st violin, they also represent a di atonic reinterpretation of the cello's III 44, w e arrive at a root-position cadence on the tOI1lC, whIch IS
111.

pedal point C and descending chromatic line in mm. [-12. What seems to elided to begin the transition to the dominant. Once again, Mozart elabo-
functi on " m erely" as acco mpaniment at the opening of the Allegro , in other rates his m aterial by varying ideas derived from "b."
words, represents the elaboration of an important idea presented within the In mm . 47-50 of the first violin, we hear one of those phrases that at
opening measures of the work. In this manner, certain basic elemen ts o f the first strike us as an elegant but not terribly significant va ri ation of a previous
Hauptsatz are reinterpreted within an utterly contrasting manifestation: a idea. The triad D-B-G ( n J ) is diminuted to become D-B-D-B-G
( J'5'TIJ ). This initially unobtrusive variant becomes a springboard for a
gre:rt" deal that follows . For a time, the forward motion o.f the
162 . J ames Webs ter 's forthcoming mono graph o n Ha ydn's " Farewell" Symphony in- seems to be "s tuck" on this four-note sixteenth-figure, w hich contll1ues (111
cludes an ex tended discus sio n o f this problem. We bster mak es th e imp o rtant
POlllt that w hd e the dI scovery " of them at ic connections depends in large part u po n o ne's
various guises) almost unabated until the cadence on V IV at 111. 55·
faIth
. .III th e eXIs tence of such co nne ctlons
. ("S ee k an d ye s 113 11 fiIII d") ,un
f d amen tal skep tlclsm
. . Later analysts would call the idea in the dominant beginning in m. 56
III thIS rega rd may be as unwarranted as fundamental belief. the "second theme," and it does indeed contrast with the opening of the
163· See Ann Vertrees, " Moz art 's Strin g Qu artet K. 465: The History o f a Allegro : it has a w ide range, against the opening's rather narrow ambitus;
Controversy .. .' . Cllrrellt MIlSlCOlo no. 17 ( ) , 96- 1 14; F
1974 ' La co ur, L es qllalllors de
Mozart dedl es a H aydll. Etllde alla ly tiqlle et esthttiqlle (Paris: Maitris e, [9 85). detached articulation (as opposed to the lega to phrasing in m . 23 ff ); it is
• b
-----
AII'cgro

./1\ Adagio ... b,... f: Pf;


'f) 23 I ---.1
- ,,;.;' .,;,

--
YioliMI p
v,., r en'SC'.
- f
rioli1f-O II
v ,. CTf'SC.
f rOo
v p - I ......... I""""""'" --.......

Viola
P - "---J-- - cresc , f p- ..... -........
p a
PiolOncdlo

" p

-' 29 -.
'f)
'"- r
crf:'!lc.
'"
f)
-..........--
-- -------
-.-/
--

v
.... ,--Y
------- ----- ,...,...,..
.......
-
iI'
f'----'
.....C\
I
12
"
..,.7 ;
.--..-

I If)
JS
,.----...... .-----........
V sf P sf P sf p \' .- ,
f) ......----
-.:r sf sf sf

sf
' ..... _,r" "
'f p,...\ -........sf p
I
17 h. ;"

sf . \p........J p

fp
r..
'f)
41
,'" , J--e
- .. -- ,-

---- -----
f -'----

------' sfp fp
r.. [lJ f
--------- P

" ::;tp fp
f
J
p---.--

2 ·4 Mozart, String Quartet, K. 465, first movement, mm. 1-112. From Wolfgang
:
A madeus Mozart, Neue Ausgabe Samtlicher Wake, series VlII, workgroup 20, pt. I, f ';;I
cc:/
'-...--' •
v. 2, sf I P
Ludwig Finscher (Kassel: Barenreiter, 1962) . Used by permission .
2·4 continueR . l' ,
f&; r A r:N, v \v.

'*" J.L. !"S ". v



R.

I "
"\-- ......
",," '<',0
L· '1..1 ' I
Q J-: <. 'Y , I" .;

,

I
(( rn)
,-, 1

. ,. .. "
/1.

I W 0 R 0 LE SS R H ET 0 _ _ _ _ _ _ __ Rhetoric a/ld Musical Forlll ill the Eielileel1th Century 105


... e"f.-" . tl"ctiL. ... ;.. ... 1\ 61 _________
------.... /"'. ...
/fl
------------ ..

"1\ P I
....

" cresco I - :;r =


, "'iT
,::-- r-n.
---- IL-:..
crebC.
f
..--.--.--. ... ..-------... ... ft .....
"-
:
l'n: s ('. l....-J..-..l-- r >--- '\
:
=- -
r:. I'-r. 1". f'- tr ... --------. ----... ... ...-------- ,..--.
------
-.
/1\ ------
p r p tJ cresco P
"1\ - = ...,
"
------
-
r----- p"-- tJ P
p
" ...-----;:-----. - --- /7' - --=-
p
r p cresco ;;=-- ""---"

--------- ---=-

-
: :
p , --- p

.. :;J k f 1'- ... c:.-.


- ---- "
68
;:::;:;....., f.. ---= -
t - = -
-
tJ
i p
i:::!:::I::j ;;::;:::;:::;--
tJ I
\

--
fl I'l.

OJ
'---'
I
p oJ
r - -
-- ...
--------- -
r p r
:

I
I----
f P I

'1\
58
...- e: /I. .... , \'
-
I
,,71 ,1

- :
I
I
------,.,...---
r-
-- ..

"1\ r -= I' I =--

k------ 1
tJ
fl
p
;\ !

I
"

tJ -.J -.J -.J---.:! p


" r
;;;;
._p -..:::I " p
....... --c--
.-
r p
= t
'!
1
p f
---
'\
i :
r
--- p

continued !f continued
i \

I
..

....-.,/' I';'.
.-- ..,':, " .
i

...
I!
',r:'

100 WORDLESS RHETOIUC Rh eroric alld lvlllsicai Forll1 ill ril e E(<;hteellrh C el/tllry 107
'-' 76 . - ---...

-
90
/" I\- ." - " /"""J'-
...-----
v . -=
-.
p "=' f t!

,----- --r::.,- p..


P
fl .1 ..
" '"

--
t! ....... ........, --..
'-- "-'...J r- r =, ,
--;---., / efL .. , t r..-;;..._ ,
oJ
tr
.. P::::':::-:-

- .1 , - - , ::--.-
p"----

-
P
--------.
"-f--i'-\-' •
"- f
..,;

... - ' - - tr
- -..
f:e fL ..... ".
-'
tr 95
" /" e i'
t! P r ---- .
".:--- r.:--.. ,...,.....,.,.-
--
t!

" " ,..".., ........r:l,,_


t! "'-----" P
...
P-- f
..... I t) ' -.1....-
..-....
I-.lJ
..
. ..

"-
---- P J

P
-- r J

f
.4
"'"
• tIL
-

"\ -. r ..,; "---- '-......-' =


' f'l\.

t)

f'l .....
:::"...
-
N·.... ··
..-.
.... *
• ,,101

t)
-. , ...
=p= -
-- -
"
':"'"' do

-
-
t!
* *
s--.. t! -.1/ '
. t:
----
• sCt"n f
b.. ..
N

.:::;;-
seen do
P"'
......... -----
" -
.--
- do

'" &;
-- _ ... fl.f:. E

- --d- .....
r;.
/f'l
107

:
- -----.... .--

----
t! -.1*
p
" ....-....
-------
.. .. - -----
oJ

--
t!

-----
p"---- -........:..--'

--.
. p
I, •• ___
:
, . p

2. 4 continued 2.4 continued


""".f"
(.'_.\ \ '. r", ;.... t,
f •
t 1. t
loud rather than soft. But there are important points of continuity here as It may thus seem misleading at first to describe the eighteenth century's , ''I''
well: the downbeat attack, the repeated notes in the cello (broken off after concept of form as essentially "thematic." B.u£ t}1SoEghteenth un- ,_". ("
the third beat in m. 56 but more significant than most performances of this der.standing of formjs. that is quite diffexent from
work would lead one to believe); and the continuation of the bustling the nineteenth century's preoccl.1pa!i()I1... ::vith character and placement of \\
sixteenth-n ote rhythm acrosS the three upper instruments, a procedure specific melodic ideas within a movement. ·It is "thematic" in that it confers
clearly derived from mm. 50-55· .
The countersubject to this sixteenth-note figure that appears 111 111. 60,
to the unfolding and of a work's thematic ideas, begin- I
nmg with, and to a large extent deriving from, the Hauptsatz. These
like the sixteenth-note embellishment of 111 . 50, also enters unobtrUSively; are not to be equated with the nineteenth century's idea of "mel- )
but it, too will have an important role to play in the remainder of the odles ; lJ1stead, they are best understood in the rhetorical sense, as the sub- I
movemel1t: Its consequent shows a strong rhythmic resemblance to "b," Jects of a discourse, regardless of whether they are monophonic, homo!
and it is this consequent that Mozart chooses to elaborate. phonic, or polyphonic in texture.
After a full cadence at m . 7 I, the pace slackens (nineteenth-century ana- Describing the eighteenth century's conceptual basis of form as "the-
lysts, if consistent, wou ld have had to have called this the '''second' seco.nd matic" also has the advantage of retaining the era's perception of the link
theme"), and Mozart now returns to the opening of the countersubJect 111- between the fabric of a polyphonic idea and the leadina melodic voice
troduced eleven measures before. The two quarter-note pick-ups on the within that idea. Acco rdin g to context, a Satz can be interpreted as a
same pitch followed by a half-step descent derive from m. 60; the triplet monophonic phrase, a multi-voiced phrase, a complete melody (in the
rhythm and accompanimental texture provide variety, whi le the chromatic elghteenth-cen tu ry's sense of the term), or an entire movement as poly-
line in the second violin (mm. 73-74) and the chroma tic countersubj ect in phomc whole. As a particular type of Satz, a Hauptsatz can be either mono-
the first violin provide a further point of continuity with the movement's phonic or polyphonic. The terminological coincidence is significant, for it 't:'-" ", . '.'
slow introduction . A new triplet rhythm figures prominently in the sub- manifests the deeply rooted associations of theme and melody with form.
sequent passage (mm. 79- 83), while the sixteenth-note passagework of While a "theme" as a single melodic line within a polyphonic texture cannot
mm. 84- 90 is reminiscent of mm. S6ff At m. 91, the reconstituted express the full nature of the work's central idea, it can and more often than
Hauptsatz returns yet again, this time with a pedal-point harmony that re- not does embody the essence of that idea. By the same token, a movement's
calls both the opening of the slow introduction and the opening of the Al- leading melodic line (which, it should oe recalled, can migrate from voice
legro. to voice throughout), usually incorporates the most important elements of
There is ample room for disagreement as to the details of this or any pitch and rhythm that constitute the polyphonic whole. Harmony, althouah
comparable analysis that seeks to show "the manner in which the thoughts not explicitl y present within a single line, tends to be strongly implied.
within an entire melody or period follow one another"-the defl11ition of Melody alone is capable of synthesizing, ho wever imperfectly, the variety
"form" according to Hiller's anonymous lexicographer. But there seems of elemen ts that go into a work of music: rhythm-small-scale periodic
little doubt that these are the kinds of procedures that Riepel, Marpurg, and structures as well as larger-scale cadential articula tions-almos t always
others are referring to when they speak of a movement's unity or coherence. plays a prominent role in a movement's leading melodic line; and harmony,
In the case ofK. 465, the overt and repeated use of the Hallptsatz in a variety by the same token, is likely to be implied within that same line. Clearly,
of guises to fulfill three different functions within the exposition alone- there are exceptions to these tendencies; but melody, on the whole, provides
opening (mm. 23ff), transitional (mm. 44ff), and closing (mm. 91ff)- a framework of form that other elements do not.
illustrates this principle in a particularly striking fashion. The relationship of the theme or Hauptsatz to melody helps explain why
Even this brief review of the matrix of melodic ideas, rhythms, harmon- eighteenth-century accoun ts of movement-length formal coherence, few as
ies, instrumentation, and dynamics within a single section of a they may be, are most often found within the larger context of Melodieleh-
single movement suggests that it would be pointless, in one respect, to reno Indeed, it is only from the perspective of form as the concatenation of
ascribe conceptual primacy to anyone of these elements in the construction melodic ideas-Koch's "individual melodic sections united into a whole"-
of form. It is only through the coordination of these various factors that a that a larger theory of musical form can be developed in such a way as to
work achieves coherence and shape. Each of these elements offers a very accolllmodate large-scale stereotypical patterns and yet at the same time
different perspective on the nature of form, and all of them are legitimate avoid the nineteenth century's aesthetic dichotomy between "inner" and
and necessary to its understanding. "outer" fo rm . To consider form only from the perspective of large-scale

110 WORDLESS RHETORIC Rhetoric and Mllsica l Form ill the


harmony or rhythm (that is, periodicity) only perpetuates the idea of form melodically dissonant especiall . h .
as a framework different from and thus inferior to a work's . -' Y 111 t e tntone motion from G
mm. 4-5 : It projects in linear fash' h to
Db 111
'
"true" substance. Harmony and rhythm, working in tandem, can and do that figure so prominently b t JOhn t e vertical dissonances
help to articulate the melodic unfolding of a movement, but they constitute and rhythms of the All ,e ween
. t e four VOKe s as a woe. h 1 Th e contour
at best only an external kind of form in which the essence of a work-that egro s open1l1g as alread d 1-
the opening five meas f h' ' . y note ,are a so 1I1herent in
which makes it different from all others-remains to be "filled in." The ures 0 t IS same VOICe A d h'l h' . I
its vary nature cannot b d 11 . n w 1 e t IS S1l1g e line by
harmonic view of form, as seen in Chapter I, represents a lowest-common- em 0 y a of the ele h .
focus of analysis it d . £". ments t at must constItute the
denominator approach resulting in a framework for the "thematic super- , oes 111 lact 1I1corporat ffi . b
elements to proiect th b . . e a su IClent num er of those
structure" of some (but by no means all) forms. And while the concept of J e aSIC sequence of th ,.
events, "the manner l' h' I h e movement s most Important
form as a series of concatenated periods articulated by cadences represents n w IC 1 t e tho h .I.
riod follow one anotller. " ug ts WIt l1n an entire melody or pe-
a more flexible approach to the problem, it, too, equates form with the
To the extent that anything less than th fi .
process of articulation. Cadences-Koch's "resting points of the spirit':- of a movement then 't' h . e ull SCore can project the identity
are an undeniably important factor in the matrix of elements that give a , ,lIS t e melodIC trai t f h .
comes closest to preserving't . d.'d . Jec ory 0 t at movement that
movement its form, but an outline of a movement's cadential structure readil,,_j n.telligible of v h' II s IVI uahty. M_ el_o_d after all, is the most A-.('-l)..' " . \,
tends to emphasize the process of articulation at the expense of that which e IC es lor the l i s t ' h :
as w-e ha'v . .e?si.o.n of j /1'
is being articulated. 164 Like the harmonic concept of form, this view per- ' e seen IS a v t I . . ,'-
l ..• , petuates a dichotomy between content and form in which the latter plays
d
.ar:.._ value througho'ut .. .. .,1 21-::
Hal1dbuch bey dem Stlldium d .]J .g cent!:!ty:', In filS late (18 II) :
an aesthetically inferior role. -
h I11ted el ,armOllle Koch elab . "-"
at earlier in both th TJ: J J. orates on an Idea he had "
''If we are to accord any meaning to the term "form" beyond "the shape e versuCl and 111 the Lex·k h
wor k embodies "the ide 1 f h 1 on: t e melody of a
of a musical composition as defined by all of its pitches, rhythms, dynam- a 0 t e composer or at th .
o f the musical picture" Su h I d ' e same tIme the sketch
,'.' ics, and timbres,"16 5 then we must focus our attention on a substratum of ,essence of the TOl1rede. fo . ·- me -h-0 ·}- y, often the Hau
called ----
- - - -----.... t .1 d·.le._l.5..the
_ :P-.lJ1£.LO J

the work, a level that represents something less than its totality. Likewise,
, .· ifwe are to avoid the aesthetic disparity of the form/content dichotomy, we n --'-- - .--
'
.. :. It IS t e eement _oL m\lsic that more th
r a resses Our SpI t . h . ----
ns Inte act o(Rerf 9.rmance."166 -
e melody of a movement also re . rese
-
-... -
an any
-- .
must assign form-giving powers to an element that is neither static (such as dispositio or Al10rdnung J that sta e of Ph nts closely the product of
large-scale areas of harmonic stability) nor present only at isolated junctures preted by eighteenth-century . t e process, as inter-
(such as cadences)·. The trajectory o f- the course of a structure of a musical wh I A eonsts, establishes the large-scale
melody provides such an element. It is an analytical substratum that can be d fi 0 e. composer s sketches m' h fi
om, ragmentary thouohts (th d f . Ig t range rom ran-
expanded through the process of elaboration and not merely "ftlled in." ro
ment just short of a finish d et . uct 0 inventio) to a complete move-
Moreover, it is only melody-in the Sense of the elocutio). What lies in betw e rea IzatlOn of the final Score (the product of
term-that can work or een can cover a very wid b
around the middle of this sp t I' ' . e range, ut somewhere
ambiguously. Clearly, the first violin part in the introduction to the '11 b ec rum Ies a reahza tlOn in h' h I ' .
WI e predominant The p d k w lC me odIC Ideas
-Quartei-K.- 46S, to return to our example, cannot by itself provide the basis h . reserve s etches of Ha d M
t oven all confirm that what w h' k Y n, ozart, and Bee-
for a comprehensive analysis; but it can, at the very least, establish the · e now t 111 of as a " ' .
pre1Iminary version of the sco h . Cont1l1U1ty draft"-a
uniqueness of this work in a way that even the most detailed harmonic or d h re s owmg the general di .. .
an t e Succession of events alb't . h . SPOSItlOn of Ideas
cadential outline could not. The first violin part here incorporates the es- largely of melodic ideas .eI wIt out. consIderable detail-consists
sence of the melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic events that will prove central d . 11les can certam1y be indo d h
an Koch, among others d lCate t roughout
to the movement as a whole. The opening gesture is highly chromatic and 11 " (d' ,urge composers to "think of mId h .'
ca y Ie Melodie harmonisch denkel1) .67 B hI' eo Y armOI11- ·
. ut t e ve llcle for conveying the

16 4. In explicating the importance of rhythmic articulation in Koch's view of form,


166. Koch, Halldbllc/z bey d S d·
Dahlhaus tends to underestimate the importance of thematic events within the course of a pp. S-9. elll II/ l/I/II dcr Harlllollie (Leipzig' J F H k
. . - art noch ISII)
movemcnt. See his "Der rhetorische Formbegriff H . Chr. Kochs und die Theorie der 16 7. Koch, Versl/cli, II 81 On V I ' . . ' ,
Sonatenform," AfMw, 35 (1978), 155-177. Neubacher, '''Idec' und "A ' /i'.h og, er s slmJiar formulation of this conc<:pt J.'
165. See above, p. 28 . A "'1 us u rung' Zum K . . ,see urgen
JH w, 41 (1984) , 197. . OIllPOSItlOnsprozcss bei Joscph Haydn,"

I 12 WORDLESS RHETORIC I I 2,
larger-scale coherence of the movement lies in its melody. Griesinger, for
one, reported that "Haydn completed his compositions in one outpouring; the thematic basis of form for within the If ' .
, rca m 0 II1strumental musIC
for each section he set down the plan of the main voice by noting the prom- these are the only that can legitimately claim to be wholly unrelated
y
inent passages with a few notes and figures. " On ly later did the composer to an kmd ?f stereotypIca l pattern. They are the two "forms" (if the term lfl)'
b
may e apphed to a work wi >, .
"breathe spirit and life into this dry skeleton by means of the acco mpanying lose essence IS a complete lack of any predict-
voices and through artful transitions." 16H Ko ch and Daube describe the com- a bl e pattern) that are ba sed . th , . f l '
I . I . 011 e vanety 0 t l eJr thematic ideas rather than
positional process in much the same terms. 169 °fn .t1 e mdandlpu atlOn and development of a single theme or a limited number
o Ie l ate leas. 171 E laborat" . I
Haydn's "prominent passages," as noted earlier, often correspond to what . d 'd fi' . 1011 can certam y be present within a fantasia and
we would now identify as the opening of the exposition, development, and
111 ee
[;.
0 ten IS' but tillS q
. I '.
r . .
ua Ity IS not essentIal, w h ereas it is to all other
01 ms III t le penod under consideratioll here
recapitulation of a sonata-form movement, and it is significant that the
Mattheson, like most theo" b C" • •
"plan" of each of these sections was conveyed with a single melodic line . It f: t . I . listS eLOre the nl11eteenth century treats the
an aSIa as a stye rather than as a a enre C" " . ' ,
is also significant that Riepel, Galeazzi, and later Reicha, among others, a Me/od ' G . b , LOr It IS not, 111 Mattheson s terms
either intentionally chose or at the very least were able to illustrate the con- le- a/tung. It IS the "freest dI '
ing, sinaing and 1, ' . ' . an east constrained manner of compos-
struction of large-scale forms with musi cal examp les that consist of only a sudden id , ' p aymg lI11aglIlable, for one sometimes lights upon a
single melodic line. melody ea, then as one is bound neither to words nor a
Musical form in the Classical era was thus conceived of thematically in , .. . wIt lOut a torm"ltlve H d'
or subject that is to be an outhne, without a theme

I!
both the musical and rhetorical senses of the term: the elaboration of a cen-
One ofth d" . I'
tral idea was seen to shape the traj ectory of subsequent id eas (including the is the lack ; It:tl.ngulls 11llg characteristics of the fantasia, for Mattheson
recurrence of the central idea) throughout a movement. Leonard Ratner is a a Ollna -that IS, form-shaping H p TI . . '
recurs throughout the century KI,' f - /ll tsatz.. lIS basIC idea
certainly correct to point out that "classic sonata form has something of the melody that binds itself t .. ' em, or examp e,. notes 111 1783 that "a
character of a forensic exercise, a rhetorical discourse, " but it is not "the I 0
a J(mtasia or capriccio ." 173 neIther a Hauptsatz nor a dIstinct rhythm is called

II
opening keys" that constitute the "premises to be argued." For Ratner, the
Thus the fantasia's mid . I .
"forces" of these key areas "are represented by their respective thematic ma- t d eo y-1I1 t l e eIghteenth- centur y sense of the
terial," and the large-scale harmonic units are "colored" by their "rich the- oes not unfold through the elaboration of its constituent elements
matic content."17 0 But· from the theorists surveyed in this chapter, it is 'k' f e rmllled, ll1stead, by the il/vel/tio of the composer. Koch in hi s
I 01/ a I 802, defines the "c . _. " _.' -

I
clearly the themes th emselves, particu larly the Harlptsatz, that provide the poser does not ad '. apncClO as a type of work 111 which the "com-
central premises to be argued in any form, and not m erely sonata form stead' . hele to the conventIOnal forms and modulations but in-
gIves rem to the p T d' '
alone. I thought-out plan ." 17. A /eval mg moo of f.1ntasy, rather than to a
t
The eighteenth century's understanding of fo rm as a process of thematic
elaboration can accommodate a movement's adherence to, or deviation I not mean that such '1 w t le .same t1l:1e, Koch POlI1ts out, this approach does
does not [; Il , o.rk IS chaotIC; rather, the concatenation of its ideas
from , stereotypical patterns of form. The thematically oriented concept of sarily play and the Hallptsatz need not neces-
form is applicable to virtually all forms from the period under consideration scribin hi . pre omlIlant ro e .It does in other forms. Elsewhere, in de-
here, for with the possible exception of the fantasia and the closely related , g s vIew of the composItIonal process Koch sinll'larl h
one so£: "f . ' y
capriccio, there are no truly "athematic" genres. In point of fact, the fantasia N wn antasy, I gIven excessively free rein, will lead to s b 'd' y idea
( ebel1ldeen) that are " too far removed" ti h u Sl lary I 'S
and the capriccio prove to be revealing excep tions that further help elu cidate

I
embodied in the An/age. 175 rom t e movement's central ideas

168. Griesinger, Biographische NorizClI, p. 79.

I'j
171. Hugo Riemann, in hi s C/"Il/1driss der K ." I I
169· Koch, VerSl/ch, II. 79-83; Daube, AllleilulI.g zilr Erfilldllllg del' A4elodie, II , 38. See also 1905) , II ,120, ca 11s t h e fantasia a "Nicht-F Oll/PO>IIIOIIS
" e 1I"e' ' r 1Jl: M . •
2 vols (Be ]"
. 1-' esse,
Ratner, Classic AJIISic, p. 81; Schafer, "'A Wisely Ordered Phantasie'''; Neubache r, "'Idee' 17 M I orm.
2. att 1eso n, Capelill/eisler p 88 H . , .
und 'Ausflihrung '," pp. 187- 207. "perfo rmed " di storts much s· . s translatron (p. 21 7) of " ausgeflihret" as
170. Ratne r, Classic Music, p. 246. Sec also his " Key Definition: A Structural Issue," " . ense 0 t IS passage.
173· KlclJl. Vasl/cil eilies Leill'bl/cils 6
p. 47 2 . I am aware of only One eighteenth-century writer, not cited by Ratner, who likens
the key-areas of J m ovemen t to the pro po siti ons of a di sco urse. In his MI/sical Didiollar), of
174. Koch, A111Sikaiisrhcs Le:o:ikoll
I K
',Y ' I: . "
' C apncClo
. -
. 75 . och, Versllc/I, II, 97. See also C ' '. .
1740 (London: J. Wilcox) , J ames Grassineau uses this analogy in defining the term "Key."

.1 In School of Practical COII/positioll, I, 35. zerny s sllndar comments from as late as ca. 18 40

WI Ann T r: <;:, n 1-1 F T () nIC


This distinction between . f,
orms, " . on
' hthecontemporary
one hand, andrep-
the
.. h other IS borne out 111 t e In noting the failure of younger composers to elaborate a main idea suf-
fantasia and CaprICCIO, on t e '.. . I -those notated without
B h ' "i: "£: taslas In partICll ar , fici ently, Haydn might well have added that such a procedure could be
ertoire. C. P. E. ac s ree an '1 bl vidence of their composer s
. h I t be the best aval a e e . condoned for the genres of fantasia and capriccio; but these genres do not
bar-hnes-are t oug lt o . b'I" They often move from Idea to represent the mains,t ream of composition, and H aydn's views on the im-
I · d ' . atlOnal a I mes o ,
widely acc alme Improvls f t' uI'ty or predictability. Mozart s portance of thematic elaboration are shared by many of his contempo-
t sense 0 con 111
idea with little or no apparen h t' htly organized, exhibit strong raries. I7"
, C . althoug more Ig d
and Beethoven s lantaslas, h 'th a degree of harmonic an
f I ·· isatory c aracter, WI f h In his Handbuch der Aesthetik, published shortly before 1800, the aesthe-
elements 0 t lIS Improv . h t Ha ydn's infrequent use 0 t e tician Johann Heinrich Gottlieb Heusinger sums up this fundamental dis-
d t found In t e sona as. h
thematic free om no I " that his few works labeled as suc tinction between the fantasia-the product of the process o(fontasieren-and
' h prob ematlc, 111 d
term is somew at more H t On the other hand the secon
h d inated by a auptsa Z . ' . " what might be called the more "elaborative" categories of form. Heusinger
are very muc om , '0 0 No 2 labeled notes that an "entirely free fantasia" has "neither a theme nor an intention,"
f h Quartet 111 C Major, p, 2 , ., , hI' '.J .
movement
h 'b' h 0k' t de of thematIc . d'Iscontl11Ul
" ty traditionally associated WIt t lIS I and it "sometimes surprises artists when its imagination flees the reins of
ex I ItSTh
t e 111 I11g
. . .In C M'InO r breaks off abruptly in m . 33, on Y
sectIOn unders tanding." Iso Clearly, neither Mattheson nor Heusinger nor any other
genre. eI opend by a cantabl'1 e sectIOn" 111 E-flat that is of a completely con- d theorist of the day means to imply that the fantasia lacks themes , but rather,
to be supp ante A d Ithough the two h aves I of the movement are relate that it lack s a central theme, a Hauptsatz that governs the remainder of the
trasting character. n a , h >. articulated return to the opening
by subtle thematIc connectIons, t ere IS no work. The_em12hi!sis in centers ?n rather
h 176 , d Allsarbe.itung; inventio takes center. stage of elaboratio. ,
t eme. ' H d . demonstrably assoCIate Heusinger's comment-"when [the fantasia's J imagination flees the reins of
Nevertheless, the term Jantasleren, for ay n, .IS f 'deas Near the end
understa nding "_is particularly revealing, for it touches on the necessity of
with the process of inventio tlhe free method
of his life, he described the 111lt!a stages 0 lIS making the product of il/venfio intelligible through the more calculated pro-
in just these terms: cess of elaboratio, Klein similarly makes a clear distinction between musical
fantasias and the "well-ordered c"reia and artful discourses of Our best spir-
d be an to fantasize, according to whether m y mood itual and secular oratorS."I NI
I sat do w n [at the keybDard] an g I h d . d an idea my entire effort
' I yful Once a seIze ,
was sad or happy, serIOUS or p a . . ' . d' to the rules of art . . . And this This is not to say that notated fantasias are in fact the product of little or
d I b . and sustal11mg It accor mg
went towar e a oratmg
. I k'
osers' they strin g together no reflection, but rather that as a genre they enjoy the option of giving the
va so many of our young comp ,
is what IS ac mg amon h b k ff before they have barely begun , but
one little bit after another, and t ey rea 0 ' ",
impression that they are free of all deliberation. Indeed, the lack of any
nothing remains in the heart when one has heard It. . structural stereotype, and the fact that elaboration is at best an optional
quality for the fantasia, require this genre to bejudged by standards different
The traditional distinction between inventio an'd elaboratio i,s from all others. As Heusinger points out, anyone would concede that "one
dent here. The ideas a7 :; de- can say more about a large piece, e.g., a symphony, than about a free fan-
in one sense beyond hIS contro . t e s. p . f ideas but " eine tasia." Yet "no critic has ever thought to criticize the latter, while the former ,
h' d But once all Idea-not a senes 0 , are rigorously criticized, even if unfortun ately only seldom in print."l s. .j
pends upon IS moo . . h loser begins to apply "I

Id " the Hauptsatz-has been establIshed, t e con p . " d' This distinction between two broad categories of form-the free and the
of his craft and elaborates (fohrt aus) that Idea accor Ing to elaborative-is based at least in part on a distinction between genres, and as
the rules of art." 178 such touches on the crucial link between genre and form. To SOme extent,
all elaborative genres and forms can be viewed from the generative per- :j
I

" ' I e t of the fantasia and capriccio, see A. Peter


[76. For a us eful dISCUSSIOn 5 co lC Pd S ,I (Bloomington: Indiana Univ ersity
Brown, Joseph Haydll's Keyboard MllslC: So.mcs all I) e 179. See Daube, Allieilllllg Zu r Elj111d.l/Ig der Melodie, I, 25; Koch, Vermc/I, II , 13 - 33;
Galeazzi, Elcmcllli, II, 253. 1 1
Press, [986), pp. 221- 22 9.
177· Griesing er, Biog raphische NO lizCII, p. 78, I ' t Ha yd n and the 180. Joh ann H einrich Gottlieb Heu singer, Halldbllcl, der Aeslizelik, 2 vols. (Gotha: Ju st us
Penhes, 1797), 1, 153,
[7
8 For furth er commentary on t h'15 an d ot he r passagesD're atmg S 0leer" 'A Wisely
.
term "fantasiren" , 0 f G"
in the early biographIes nesll1 ger a n dIes , see c lal' , 181. Joh ann J ose ph Klein, Leizrbllciz del' lizeoreliscizclI Mllsik (Offenbach/Main: J oha nn
Andre, 1800), p. iv,
Ordered Phanlasic'," I, 138-[97, and II, 1-3 .
182 . Heusinger, Halldbllciz der Aesrizetik, I, [55,

, .I t
S RHETORIC
spective: the composer begins with a single idea, and the movement grows
Concatenation of Melodic Segments into Periods of Larger Dimensions, or
out of this germinal unit. But this, as noted before, is a process common to On the Ordering of Larger Musical Movements." IS4
all elaborative genres and forms. The various conventional forms, such as
This same general methodology is also found in Ernst Wilhelm Wolf's
the rondo, theme and variations, and sonata form, are differentiated by the
Musikalischer Unterricht of 1788, which concludes its discussion of period-
manner in which they elaborate their thematic ideas.
icity with "Something on the Ordering of Musical Movements," an account
organized according to genre. ISS The fifth part of Jean Baptiste Mercadier's
Nouveau systeme de musique of 1776, "Which Deals with Practical Music,"
Genre, Formal Convention, and Individual Genius includes a chapter on constructing an entire movement ("The Manner of
Dealing with a Harmonic Whole") that also ends with a discussion of such
Our modern-day concept of form as an abstract pattern tends to be divorced
specific genres as sonata and symphony. 186 This basic pattern is evident once
from specific genres. A rondo or a sonata-form movement can appear
again in the second volume of Francesco Galeazzi's Elementi teorico-pratiei
within any number of different kinds of works, from a concerto to ,a sym-
di musica of 1796. Under the heading "On Melody" (part 5, section 2),
phony to a sonata . But to eighteenth-century theorists and aestheticians,
Galeazzi moves from inventio (articles 1 and 2) to dispositio, (article 3), deals
the form of a work, be it an oration or a musical composition, is strongly
briefly with the issue of large-scale modulation (article 4), and concludes
influenced by the genre to which it belongs. The conventions of traditional with a description of various genres (articles 5 and 6).
rhetoric dictate that the nature and effective ordering of ideas in a funeral
The tradition of treating movement-length form as a function of genre
oration, for example, will necessarily differ from those of a sermon, a pane-
continued well into the nineteenth century. In his Lehrbueh del' allgemeinen
gyric, or a university lecture. Within a work of music, the nature of a
Musikwissensehafl of 1840, Gustav Schilling directly equates Formenlehre
Hauptsatz and its subsequent elaboration similarly vary from genre to with the concept of genre (section 5, "Musical FOYl11eniehre, or a Brief De-
genre. Eighteenth-century theorists conceived of genres not only on the scription of Individual Works That Can Be Named").1 87 And Ferdinand
basis of their function and instrumentation but also according to the manner Hand, in his Aesthetik del' Tonkul1st (1841) moves from "The Laws of
in which their thematic ideas are elaborated. in other words, is de- [Melodic] Elaboration" directly into a review of genres. 188 I:9LIl1Uch of the
termined in part by melody, at· least in the eighteenth-century sense of the in fact, the distinction form and genre is far
.ler.m·. fr.o.m..G-Ie-a-r;J·89
The connection between melody, genre, and form is most clearly evident It is a striking testimony to the strength of didactic tradition that Johann
in the methodology by which Mattheson, Koch, and other contemporary Christian Lobe, as late as 1850, adhered ' to the same basic pedagogical
theorists introduce their accounts of specific large-scale forms within dis- method as Johann Mattheson in the 1730S . Lobe explains the structure of a
cussions of genre, which in turn appear under the still broader rubric of
melody. Mattheson entitles the second part of Del' vollko1l1mene Capellmeister
"The True Crafting of a Melody, or a Single Line, Together with its Cir- 18 4. Koch, VerSt/(h, sect. 4, "Von der Verbindung der melodischen Theile, oder von
cumstances and Characteristics," and it is in the thirteenth chapter of this dem Baue der Perioden," ch. 4, "Von der Verbinciung der melodischen Theile zu Perioden
part that he deals with "Genres of Melodies and Their Particular Marks of von grosserem Umfange, oder von der Einrichtung der grossern Tonstiicke." Note the
Distinction." 18 3 The entire second half of Koch's Versuch is devoted to "The similarity of these formulations with Koch's definition of rhetoric (see above,
p. 53).
Mechanical Rules of Melody," and the whole of the third volume deals with 18 5. I, 74-76: "Etwas von der Einrichtung Illllsikalischer Tonstiicke."
"The Concatenation of Melodic Segments, or the Construction of Periods." 186. Mercadier, NOllveall systeme, pt. 5, ch. 3.
18 7. Karlsruhe: Christian Theodor Groos, 1840, pt. 5: "Musikalische Formenlehre, oder
It is in the fourth chapter of this volume, addressing the manipulation of
kurze Beschreibung der einzelnen namhaften Tonstiicke."
periods at the largest level, that Koch describes specific genres: "On the
188. Hand, Aesthetik del' TOllkllIlSt, vol. 2 (Jena: Carl Hochhausen, 18 4 1).
18 9. See Friedrich Blume, "Die musikalische Form und die musikalischen Gattllngen ,"
in his SYlltagllla III1ISiw/ogiwlIl: CeSal1llllelte Rcdcli IIl1d Schri{tell, ed. Martin Ruhnke (Kassel:
Barenreiter, 19 6 3), pp. 480-504; Wiora, "Historische und systematische Betrachtung der
183 · Mattheson, Capcl/mcister, pt. 2, "Darin die wirckliche Verfertigung einer Melodie, Illuslkahschen Gattungen"; and Thomas S. Grey, "Richard Wagner and the Aesthetics
oder des einstimmigen Gesanges, samt des sen Umstanden und Eigenschafften, gelehret
of Musical Form in the Mid-19th Century (1840-1860)" (Ph.D. diss., University of
werden," ch. 13, "Von den Gattungen der Melodien und ihren besondern Abzeichen." California, Berkeley, 1987), pp. 75-76.

I I 8 WORDLESS RHETORIC
Rhetoric aud Mllsical For
minuet as a concatenation of individual units, but he turns to a description At the small-scale level, this intelligibility, as we have already seen, rests
of genres in accounting for more sophisticated forms. The periodic nature on th;-principle of periodicity. Incisions of varying degrees generate units
of the minuet, Lobe notes, cannot adequately explain the structure of the that correspond to the phrases, sentences, and paragraphs of verbal dis-
first movement of Beethoven's String Quartet in F Major, Op. 59, NO.1; Course. At the level, )hjs i ntelligibility rests on the unfolding of a
if one applies the model of a Classical minuet in this particular case, "a few movement's Hauptsatz by means ;;ariation, and contrast. The
things will have remaine d unc Iear " regar d'll1g t h e movemen t's f;or n1 . 190 disposition of thematic events within conventional structures, as both writ-
Lobe's acknowledgment is a magnificent understatement, for the structure ers suggest, is ultimately also a function of intelligibility.
of the fmt movement of Beethoven's F Major Quartet is indeed far re- In discussing the mechanics and aesthetics of music, Forkel relies more
moved from that of a minuet. Something similar to Lobe's recognition of heavily on the imagery of language than most of his contemporaries.
these methodological limitations, as we have already seen, is tacitly present Nevertheless, his ideas on form remain well within the mainstream oflate-
in many earlier accounts of form as well. . eighteenth-century musical thought. In his Ueber die Theorie der Musik
( \ Y,'-J By Lobe's time, conventional forms were widely viewed as somethmg to
(1777), and again in the introduction to the first volume of his Allgemeine
be either avoided or overcome; too close an adherence to conventlon Geschichte der Musik (1788), he calls music an Empfindul1gssprache, a language
smacked of academicism. Fonnell!ehre, as Dahlhaus points out, would even- of sentiments or emotions that exhibits distinct (although not always direct)
tually come to be equated with anatomy: it could describe the physical parallels with the conventional "Ideensprache" of verbal language_ 19 2 As "t'
structure but not the inner nature of a musical composition . 19 1 The essence such, music has its own rules and conventions, which Forkel, like other ,,,.J.Y '
of a work, its moving spirit, remained beyond explication. Yet it was only theorists of his day, divides into the categories of grammar and rhetoric. 1('.
toward the end of the eighteenth century, as musical form began to be de- Grammar governs the relationship between individual notes and chords and
scribed with increasi}1g specificity, that such attitudes began to emerge. At their concatenation into periodic units (Scitze) . Rhetoric, in turn, governs
least some theorists were already troubled by the apparent conflict between the joining and successive ordering of these various small-scale units into a
the genius of the individual composer and the persistent use of a relatively large-scale whole. Forkel goes out of his way, however, to stress that the
small number of formal schemes . Theorists of the Classical era gradually distinction between musical grammar and rhetoric is not always clear: "In
acknowledged a widening gulf between innate genius, which could not be many respects, musical rhetoric differs from grammar only in that the for-
taught or learned, and the mechanical rules of composition, which could . mer teaches on a large scale 'what -the latter had taught only on a small
Two theorists of the late eighteenth century distinguish themselves from scale." 'YJ •

all others by addressing this issue with unusual clarity: Unlike their prede- But because all manuals on musical composition until his time had
cessors and contemporaries, Heinrich Christoph Koch and Johann Nikolaus amounted to "nothing more or less than musical grammars,"' 94
Forkel both confront the difficult question of how to reconcile the concept determined to present a systematic outline of musical rhetoric. He divides
of form as an abstract, stereotypical pattern with the concept of form as the tnefield1nto six bro;d areas:------------- - - - -- ---,----
manifestation of a unique work. Forkel and Koch both provide evidence to _
1. Periodicity (Periodo!ogie)
suggest that the dichotomy between "inner" and "outer" form in the Clas-
sical era is itself misleading unless framed within _!he larger issue of intelli- 2. Styles (Schreibarten): for church, theater, or chamber
gibility-that is, within a rhetorical concept of form. These two writers are
3· Genres (Gattungen)
a so -the last to propose an aesthetic view of large-scale musical form that
sees no fundamental distinction between inspired genius and an adherence 4· The ordering of musical ideas (Die Al10rdnung musikalischer Gedanken)
to convention. It is convention, in fact, that ensures the intelligibility of
gemus. 192. Forkel, Ueber die Theorie der Musik, insofern sie Liebhabern lind Kelmern nothwendig
und nutzliell isl (Gottingen: Wittwe Vandenhock, 1777); idem, Allgemeine Geschichte, I. The
first of these works, a prospectus for a series of lectures, was later reprinted in Carl Fried-
190 _ Lobe, Lehrbuch der mllsikalischen KomposiliorJ, vol. 1 (Leipzig: Breitkopfund Hartel, rich Cramer's Magazin der Musik, 1 (1783), 855-9 12 -
1850), p. 305 - 193- Forkel, Allg emeille Geschichle, I, 21 and I, 39.
19I. Carl Dahlhaus, "Gefuhlsasthctik und musikalische Formenlehre," pp. 505-506. 194· Ibid., I, 38 - Forkel cites Kirnberger's K'Ulst des reillfl1 Salzes as an exception .

I
_ _ T .... r\ \VI n D n r 1: '0 l-t y: T n 'Q T r. I Rhetoric Qnd DI"q'c q l Ficnl'" c' 9 F ' 'tt' G
5. '1 he pertormance or declamatIon ot musI<;al forkel unfortunately does not name the more recent composers he has in
mind, but the few musical examples he presents in his discussion of peri-
6. Musical criticism, 195 odicity feature the antecedent-consequent structure basic to the Classical
The fourth of these categories is of particular interest for the issue of style. And like Mattheson, he preserves the reversed sequence of the refiltatio
large-scale form. A 110 rdllUllg, as note d b elor,
C' e ['eC'er's to the process within
11 . '
and colljir/llatio to reflect more closely the reiteration of the tonic (and usually
.. . b h' I . d'vI'du'al units are arranged 111 theIr the principal theme) toward the end of a movement in most forms.
the act of artlstlc creation y w Ie 1 111 I
· f "A tl t' Ordering" (Die iisthe- Like many earlier theorists, Forkel emphasizes the quality ofintelligibility
proper sequence. 196 Under t I1e ru b riC 0 es 1e IC .
· I A d ) Forkel sets forth the elements by whICh large-scale form in the construction of large-scale form:
tISC 1e 1101' Hung ,
can be described: An orator would behave unnaturally and contrary to the goal of edifying, persuad-
ing, and moving [his audience) ifhe were to give a speech without first determining
a. Exordium
what is to be his main idea [HauptsatzJ, his secondary ideas [Nebcllsdtze] , his objec-
b. Thema (Hauptsatz) tions and refutations of the same, and his proofs .. .
As musical works of any substantial length are nothing other than speeches for
c. Nebensatze the sentiments by which one seeks to move the listener to a certain empathy and to
certain emotions, the rules for the ordering and arrangement of ideas are the same
d. Gegensatze
as in an actual oration. And so one has, in both, a main idea, supporting secondary
e. Zergliederungen ideas, dissections of the main idea, refutations, doubts, proofs, and reiterations.
Similar means to our end (in the musical sense) must be used . This order and se-
f. Widerlegungen quence of the individual sections is called the aesthetic ordering of the ideas. A mu-
sical work in which this ordering is so arranged that all thoughts mutually support
g. Bekraftigungen
and reinforce one another in the most advantageous way possible, is well ordered. '"s
h. Conclusion.
That Forkel should offer no specific application of his system in the AIl-
The influence of Mattheson's schema is immediately obvious. Forkel ex- SClneine Ceschichfe is scarcely surprising. He could not, after all, afford to be
plicitly acknowledges the earlier theorist's efforts in this direction, overly specific, for his outline was intended to serve as a kind of prolegom-
that it was the music of Mattheson's time, and not his theory, that was Jl1 enon and glossary to a history of music. His terms, accordingly, had to be
need of emcndation: broad enough to be applicable to a variety of forms frol11 a variety of pc-
Yet in his day-or rather in the time when De,. liol/kolll/llflle Cape/lllleiste,. first ap- riods.
peared-music was not yet of such a nature that it permitted a coherent mUSICal But in his Mlisikalischer Alllla//ac/z J1r Deutschland auf das Jahr 1784, Forkel
rhetoric to be abstracted from it. Music lacked not only refinement and taste but does apply elements of this outline to a specific piece of music, C. p. E.
above all the coherence of its individual segments that make it into a formed oration Bach's F Minor Sonata for keyboard, Wq. 57/6, from the third set of the
of sentiments-in part through the development of ideas out of one another, in part Clavier-Sonaten lIebst eil'ligen ROlldos Jil'S Forte-Piano Jh Komer lind Liebhaber
through the unity of the style, etc. It attained this highest degree of perfection only (Leipzig, 178 I). In reviewing this work, Forkel observes that
after his [Mattheson's) time, at the hands of a few of our leading composers. '97
one of the main points in musical rhetoric and aesthetics is the ordering of musical
195. Ibid., I, 66-68. Forkel's ideas on musical rhetoric are discussed ,in more in
ideas and the progression of the sentiments expressed through them, so that these
Wilibald Gurlitt, "Hugo Riemann und die Musikgeschichte," Zeilschrijt fiir lHIIslkwl5SCII- ideas are conveyed to our hearts with a certain coherence, just as the ideas in an
sciJ afi , 1 (1918!I919), 574-578; Heinrich Edelhoff, Jahallll Nikolalls Forkcl: Ei" Beilrag zIIr oration are conveyed to our minds and follow one another according to logical
Geschichte der MIIsikwissfII schafi (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1935), pp. 47-5 2 ; principles ...
and Ritzel, Die ElllWicklllllg del' "Sollafelljorll1," pp. 106-1 II. is the basis of the necessity, that in a workgf 2.rUIL a main
196. This concept, it should emphasized, is not peculiar to music. See, for example, sentiments, (3) dissected senti!nents,
Sulzer 's definition of "Anordnung" in his Tlleorie: "Allordllfll means to assIgn
each element to its place. , . in a work of art."
198. Ibid" I, 50,
197. Forkel , Allgelllei,Je Geschichfe, I, 37·

122 WORDLESS RHETORIC


Rhetoric alld A1usical FO,.", ill the Eightecllth Celltllry 123
Inents broken up 111tO 1110lVIOuai 1'+1 ... ·"
_' ' d . ' .' ner these elements are 4. Yet another thrOl:gh the presentation of the Hauptsatz once againl
"etc., must all obtam. When ordere 111 an appropnate man , .
.' h . I I at in the language of Ideas
thus in the language of sentiments t e eqUiva ent to w 1
in a varied form [Gestalt], as in a secondary key related to the tonic. f
(or in actual eloquence) are the well-known elements still preserved by ?ood, 5. A Conclusion that now moves to the tonic, just as the harmony had moved
uine orators and based on our own nature-that is , exordium, proposltlo, refutatlO, to the dominant in the first part. The movement ends in this fashion.2Ol _ :
(onjinnatio, etc. ' 99 This hitherto unnoted description of sonata form assu mes a decidedly
Forkel thus clearly intended that his flexible image of form be applied to thematic orientation. Its concern with thematic events is quite different,
'd . f m Sl' c includin a what would eventually come to be however, from nineteenth-century accounts, which almost invariably focus
a WI e vanety 0 U, 1:> , •
C cor the first movement of C. P. E. Bach s F Mmor on the nature and function of the "second theme." The function of second-
k nown as sonata 10rnl, l'
Sonata follows this conventional pattern quite closely.200 Although Forkel ary themes in Forkel's account is not so much one of contrast as one of
does not state so explicitly, the opening idea in the tonic con- elaboration, based on the nature of the original theme itself.
forms to the Hauptcmpfindung, the contrasting ideas in the relatlve to Why did Forkel suppress this passage? He may have felt that it was too
the Nebenempfindunget1. The extended development presents the zergllederte specific to the music of his own time and inappropriate for the broader
and UJidersprechet1de Empfirldunget1, and the full recapitulation is analogous. to purposes of the introduction to his Allgemeine Geschichte. He was almost
the BekraJtigung, a "certain kind of reiteration of the which certainly aware of the controversy surrounding Mattheson's earlier, related
the interpolations and doubt that had preceded It are repudiated. account, and
_ perhaps he hoped to avoid raisin<>b similar discord over an issue

This interpretation is further supported by a suppressed passage. at the that plays a relatively minor role within a lengthy introduction. Forkel had
end of paragraph 103 in the autograph manuscript of Allgcmemc Ge- in fact already made similar specific equations some ten years before in his
schichte, a passage that was originally intended to Immedia tely after review of the rondo from C. P. E. Bach's Keyboard Sonata, Wq. 9012.203
a discussion of Widerlegung, Bekri:zjtigung, and ConclUSIOn. H ere, ap- But the important point is not so much the application of anyone specific
plies his rhetorically inspired outline to a sonata-form movement directly pattern-sonata, rondo, minuet, theme and variations, and so on-as the
tact that each of these formal patterns is considered to be a function of the-
and unambiguously:
matic elaboration. Forkel viewed the structure of any given movement as a
If one wanted to apply all of this to, say, a sonata, then its aesthetic ordering wo uld sequential presentation of individual units that begins with a main idea and
be approximately as follows:
.rt I. The Hallptsatz, the theme.
2. Then secondary themes derived from it.
proceeds to elaborate this idea, either by variation, contrast, repetition, or
some :combination of these techniques .
It would be simple to dismiss Forkel's approach as yet another of his
I 3· Strengthening contrasting themes [Gegensatze], followed by !
j 4. A conclusion to support the Hauptsa tz, and the close of the first part. . i many anachronisms: he is , after all, one of the las t writers to offer an elab-
1
\..---.. As the first part of a sonata is ordinarily much shorter than the second, there IS orate defense of the doctrine of affections, long after this kind of thinking
no true elaboration [Ausarbeituns], fragmentation [Zersliederung], etc., 111 the
I had gone out of fashion, and his musical ideal was embodied in J. S. Bach,
a composer of a previous generation who toward the end of his own life

I
part; instead, it comprises, just as in the introduction to an oration, only.a prelimi-
nary presentation and mention of the main intention and goal of a musical work. was already considered somewhat old-fashioned. But Forkel first presented
.' The second part, on the other hand, comprises: . these ideas before he had come to perceive a decisive break in the musical
I. The Hauptsatz transposed, or in the key of the dommant. tradition between J. S. Bach and the composers of subsequent generations .
2 . Fragmentation of the Hauptsatz.
t
i
On the basis of his own public concerts, in fact, Forkel's favorite composer
!
199. Forkel, "Ueber eine Sonate aus Carl Phil. Emanuel Bachs dritter
fUr Kenner und Liebhaber, in F moll, S. 30. Ein Sendschreiben an Hm . von ,111 hiS
Mllsikaiischer Aimallaclt fiir Delltschialld auf da s jailr 1784 (Leipzig: Schwickert), pp . 3
I 202. Forkel, autograph manuscript of the Allgemeil1e Gesd,ichte, Deutsche Staatsbib-
liothek, Berlin, paragraph 103. Edelhoff alludes to this deleted passage in his joha/l/l

I
Nikolaus Forkel, p. 50 and p. 125n143. I am very grateful to Kirsten Beisswenger for her
200. Ritzel, in Die Entwicklullg der "Sol1atfllform," p. 128, ma1l1ta1l1s that Forkel s
. d'IVI.dua I movemen.
ts But It. IS transcription of this passage from Forkel's original manuscript.
ments apply only to the sonata as a whole and not to the 111
203. Mllsika/isch·kritische Bibliothek, 2 ([ 778), 28 [-294· For a discussion of this review,
clear from Forkel's concluding remarks in his review that the same standards ap ply to 111-
1 see Malcolm S. Colc, "The Vogue of the Instrumental Rondo in the Late [8th Century,"
dividual movements as well as to the complete work . i JAMS, 22 ([969), 427-432.
201. Forkel, Allgemeine Geschichle, I, 53·

124 WORDLESS RHETORI C


Rhetoric and Musical Form ill the CCl/lury r 25
have been Ulttersdorf.
at the time of the Allgemeine Geschichte appears fto 77 are stylistically ing the Aristotelian distinction between "acciden tal" and "essential" char-
Forkel's own sonatas, the ear lest 0
r f which date rom I ,
,
1
t adhere rather consls-
,
acteristics. But only if read in conjuction with a particular passage in the
. . I' enmg move men s
typical for their day and 111 t 1elr op C 204 And it should be re- earlier Vel'suc!t does the more technical nature of the relationship between
. of sonata lorm. . ,
tently to the structural conventions d '11 t ate musical periodiCIty are these two different ideas of form become clear.
I he use to I us r . f
membered that the examp es . F k' I's rhetorical conceptIOn 0 Under the rubric "On the Intention and the Internal Structure of Musical '.
C h' generation. or e ,
decidedly up-to-date lor IS f' d 'I is on the whole qUIte Works, and Especially the M anner in Which They Are Composed," Koch
I ' . the extent 0 1(S etal ,
form ' although unusua m deals at length in the Vel'such with the distinction between "mechanical" and
epresentative of hiS .'time a
nd part 0 an esta hbl'IS hed tradition that would
f
"aesthetic" concepts of form. The "mechanical aspects of elaboration [AlIs-
r . well into the nineteent century. . '
Persist, as we shall see, 'd' . though he himself did httle fohrungJ" normally embrace a movement's "large-scale plan of modulation
t of thiS tra Iuon, even
Koch, too, was a par h " he perceived in contemporary accounts [Tonausweiclul11g] and its form." And while "the latter" (external form) "is
I "I k of co erence . £ K h determined largely by the former" (the plan of modulation) the two are not
to redress t 1e ac . f f, Throuahout his writings, 111 act, oc
dealing with the rhetonc 0 formb" 1 nc: and uncertainty on the issue of to be equated. "Form depends in part on the particular number of main
. . II dearee 0 am Iva e d
exhibited no sma bdl' contains no entry un er periods, in part on the tonality in which this or that period is directed, but
. L 'k f 1802 as note ear ler,
form. His massive eXl on 0 , dl " h' the context of other also in part On the junctures at which one or another main section [Hauptth-
h . ears repea te y Wit m
the term, even thoug It app . I Th abridaed KurzgeJasstes eilJ is repeated."206 But Koch is quick to emphasize once again that this con-
h h t his earlIer Versllc I. e b d
entries and t roug ou h h hand provides a new an cept of form is restricted to its "mechanical" elements. J;u:gs
d M 'k f 1807 on t e ot er ,
Handworterbuch CI' USI' 0 .' . h i t Koch sums up-unfor- scale harmony" and large-scale thematic repetition the_
,. I tl e sub' ect. It IS ere t 1a ,
entirely ongma entry on 1 J • I modest work-hiS own but do not address the aesthetic of for-;;; -and
. . h I' ' d pace of thiS ater, more
tunately wlthl11 t e ImIte s f ' , d outer form: formal coherence:-rn-elaborating the ideas of the Anlage, "we must attend
scattered attempts to d ea I WI. th the paradox 0 l11ner an f totwo things: that which concerns the spirit or inner character of the piece,
- . h > fme arts, there is much d ISCUSSiOn · ' about the, form . 0 and that which concerns its m echanical elements." 20 7 Koch's Own subse-
Form, In mUSIC, as m the ot er . d rstands th e manncr 111 w hich
ks By the form of a musical work, one un e quent account in the Ve1'Such, as he repeatedly emphasizes, is devoted pri-
art- wo r . h I of the listener. marily to the mechanical as pects of melody and form . Dahlhaus's interpre-
the work is brought before t e sou h t the various genres of musical works
. . Iy teaches us t a tation-that Koch assigns the "soul" of a work to its Anlage, its "body" or
D aily experience certam C d' ff, ent from th at of a concerto,
• h ymphon y has a 10rm I er . ' ,
. • C
differ only m their lorm, t e s Y h tl1e aesthetiCians ma111ta111 external form to the unfolding of these ideas-is misleading, in that it over-
. £i I t of a so ng. et w en
the aria has one different rom t 1a 'I k 'des in its form, thcn there looks Koch's emphasis on the two very different types of elaboration: the
h b of a muslca wor resl .
that what one calls t e eauty I' II" 'dental"] form in which the mechaiii'cal, which develops ideas through periodicity and large-scale mod-
I [ rfi"llige Itera y acCl
certainly must also be an externa zu a , b esent Otherwise, for ex- ulation, and the aesthetic, which is concerned with issues of thematic co-
.. d d d h' h mayor may not e pr . d
beautiful IS mclu e , an w IC . I form would have to be grante herence and continuity. 208 Unfortunately, Koch did not deal with the issue
ample every rondo that corresponds to the usul.afj .
' ,h further qua I IcatlOn. of aesthetic elaboration in any sustained way in the Versuch; his Melodielehre
the character of beauty Wit out any f k I'n the sense by which the within that treatise, as he repeatedly reminds the reader, is concerned with
k · f th form 0 art- wor s f
If then, one is spea mg 0 e . C' to that external form 0 "the mechanical rules of melody."
'. . d b then one IS not relernng .
content IS appropnate to eauty, h he particular manner in wluch va-
Koch's ideas concerning the more aesthetic process of elaboration are
art-works by which genres differ, but rat er to t . h' h the composer h as trans-
riety is boun d to umty,. or the particular manner " m w IC h' 'deal 20j
scattered and fragmentary. He does, however, address the functional link
ferred into a work the moments of pleasure mherent m IS I . between "inner" and "outer" form in one particularly important passage in
mal conventional forms the Vel'such by asking how the genius of the individual composer can be
Koch makes a clear distinction here ork 'by implicitly invok- reconciled with the conventions of large-scale form:
and the specific (besol1dere) form of an 111 IVI ua w

204, , sonatas, see Edelhoff, J oha/l/I Nikolaus


On Forkel's earlier musical tastes and on h,S 206. Koch, Vermcil, II, 10 3.
20 7. Ibid" II, 97,
Forkel, pp, 27, 120. d 111 .'k "Form"
205. K 0 ch, Kllrzoc{asstes
" J' Halldwo l'terbllch er 11>1 , ' 208, Dahlhalls, "Gefiihlsasthctik," pp. 5 0 9-510,

126 WORDLESS RHETORIC Rhetoric and Mlls.ica


I now come to the form of the various sections [Salze] ofa piece. It cannot be denied
that form is something rather incidental, something that actually has little or no the century. As such, they were also among the last theorists not
be by the perceptions of later generations that would draw
influence on the inner character of a piece. On the other hand, one has little reason
to object to the [conventional] form of our various sections, in larger as well as in mcreas1l1gl'y sharper distinctions between the internal, genetic "spirit" of a
smaller works . And this, presumably, is the reason why many great m asters have work and Its external, conventional "form."
constructed their arias, for example, almost entirely according to one arid the same
Fork J' .. . .
. e s wntmgs are partIcularly unusual 111 that they are directed pri-
form . It is equally difficult to deny that a great deal of the beauty of a movement manly at the liste ner, rat h er than i '
t le composer. . the connois-
In addressmg
can be lost through the constant use of one form and one form only. When one has seur (or would b .) f ..
c ' . - e connOIsseur 0 musIC, he notes that a sense oflarge-scale
heard so many arias, for example, constructed according to the same form, this form lOrm IS 111 fact one of t 1 . . .
le most Important prereqUISItes for an understanding
ultimately so impressed upon the mind that after hearing only the first o f teart:
h
period [of a new aria], one often knows with certainty precisely where the modu-
lation is going to go, and what main thematic ideas will be repeated at which points. But the mere amateu f . h
migl t II r 0 musIC as no reason to want to know how he himself
And the movement will necessarily lose much of its strength, unless the <;omposer 1 actua y crea te and .
oric' t d h ' construct mUSical sections according to the rules of rhet-
can enliven his work with a particularly unusual expressive turn .. . , II1S ea, e Wishes to k I I
have already be d now on y lOW they should be put together once they
But in piecing together these various sections, what attitude must one then main- sical 'd . en create . Accordingly, a correct knowledge of the ordering of mu-
tain vis-a.-vis form? Is it better to construct sections always according to the com- I eas IS more Import t C. h' [h
means and w fi an or lIn t e amateur] than a knowledge of all those
mon form, or is it better to begin by trying to construct new forms? The first ays so 0 ten prescnbed to facilitat . . .
of sections by wh' h . . e creativity . .. The proper ordenng
approach would impose unnecessary shackles upon genius and compel it to forgo . ' . . IC every Ulllt IS placed in the most a .
be speCified quite clearly' and thO d>' . ppropnate spot ... can
some of the beautiful turns of expression that it [genius] gives rise to, lest these
of music who wishes be a IS or enng must necessanly be known to any friend
effects spoil the form. The second approach might produce too much nonsense, if
pleasure from the inner who deSires to derive a part of his
one is set on creating new forms for no particular reason-for how often would it
not happen that the essence of art would be lost from view by a preoccupation with The listener who
form, the newly created form thereby losing more than it gains? The best approach, ---------- --.- has
___no concgJt 0 f ClOrmal conventions d' .. '.,

Forkel is like t h · ..- - - - - -- , accor . mg -to l}l .


therefore, is' to choose a rational middle ground . If one is putting together in the .. e vI.ewer s> . a pal11tmg who .. has no gf the CO)l-
conventional form a movement whose content possesses sufficient aesthetic power, . of per:pectIve, or lrke someone who listens to an oration but who "5:::: .
or if one can discover beautiful turns of expression that correspond to the standard grammar nor the construction of sentences much less '"
form, why should one consider altering the conventional form? But if one has a text
... '.' . t e concatenatIon of the
_ .
. . 1 . '
se sentences mto arger Ul11ts of thought 2 11 y, I
to set that calls for a unique form and unusual turns of expression, ... or if one . composer 111 turn th d . . 0 t le
, . ' e proper or erIng of these elements is the most reiiable
discovers out of thin air (and this can also happen in purely instrumental movements courkse. b Y to ensure that the audience will perceive the structure or a
as well) an unusual turn of expression, one should not bind oneself timidly to the wor 111 t Ile ll1tended manner: •
known form, but rather construct it in the manner that the movement demands,
In rhetoric or in poet d
provided one is certain that this will ensure a true perfection of the movement, and . ry, a great eal depends upon the orderin of th
provided that no other accidental infelicities thereby arise. '09 or refutations. It is just this way in music as well is of
Importance that everything b d . ' most
fi . e arrange m such a way that the listener is led toward
Koch's reconciliation of external conventions with internal imperatives or. rom a sensation step by step and in the most natural wa .
rests on compromise. The various conventions serve a purpose-intelligi- thiS a. particular ordering of musical ideas that I might call
bility-but they also carry within them the potential to stifle originality. denng (If It were allowed me to give this obiect a d ' t' aest etlc or-
'1 h b
untl now as een sensed by few but h' h I
J IS mct nanle) an obiect th t
h ' J a
Form and content are distinguishable, and novel content necessitates novel teaching of periodicity. '" , w IC laS nevert eless been accorded to the
form. A conventional form can nevertheless provide a framework within
which the shape of a movement can be better apprehended by the listener; Forkel anhd Koch both recognize that internal imperatives if they are t
deviations from this norm must be justified by the material at hand. b e compre ended by th d' . ' 0
e au Ience, must necessarIly coexist with external
Forkel and Koch were among the last writers to comment extensively on
the nature of large-scale form before its codification in the Formenlehren of
210. Forkcl, Ueber die Theorie, p. 21.
2 I l. Ibid., pp. 8-9 .
209· Koch , Vel"SlIch, II, 117-119. 212. Ibid . , pp. 25-26 .

:..-________ ____________________
---- -
so
anmething"
oration R. .. .I spea k above all of the Ion g reprises . tIlat consmute
. the halves of
conventions. This approach to large-scale form directly confronts the nature . epn ses may have beel d h b' h .
listener did not com 1 goo at t e Irt of musIC, at a time when the
of the relationship between the composer and convention. Forkel explicitly an orat' . fi dPrehend everythmg until the second time around. I know that
states that the conventions for the arrangement of units within a movement
present Ion
eachIS one
0 ten IVlded'
twice. lOS
.
mto two sections; but without a doubt, one does not
are abstractions drawn from "musical-classical m as terworks."2 1) The "ge-
nius " composer, although unrestricted by any set of rules, nevertheless or-
theGretry's diss . a t"IS f:actIon
. . d'Irected not at the imagery of rhetoric but at
IS
dinarily works within a convention of such rules: ..
Gretr' conventIons
. . of con t emporary sonatas themselves. The probl em in
At the same time, one has to abstract the rules from Genius, and no one will main- Inent y w'th'
s VIew, I'IS that the c.0nventlOna . I structure of a sonata-form
. '
move-
tain that the rules precede Genius . .. Yet how were these fIrst utterances of Genius , I ItS Heral repetlt"o f d d . .
oration' "TI . I n 0 exten e sections, IS not en ough like an
created? Were there not at fIrst the most deformed monstrosities, and was it not
necessary that hundreds of such deformed monstrosities had to be brought into this and it is. these 1eretl are also 0 ra t":ons t h at are d'IVlded . into more than two parts,
ut we must ImItate ">1 6
world before one began to notice that they were not yet that which they should
Gretry's remarks remind us tha . h
have been, that the intentions they were meant to fulfIll had not yet been. achieved? explain the natUre f . I _ t t e of rhetoric alone cannot
o mUSICa to rm Yet t Id b .
Genius therefore always precedes the rules of experience . .. and thus it is truly m ate the significance f l ' I . wou e mIstaken to underesti-
Experience alone that clears the path of Genius, that protects it against mistakes, o a metap lor as WId I d h'
how imperfect it mi ht b I e use as t IS one, no m atter
that helps Genius achieve its intentions among a choice of so many means and to particular metaphor y
t wohulld be esfjPeCi all unfortunate to view this
reach its goal, to show it the one true path, and to guide it toward the most effIcien t, as a 0 d over rom Ea h I
torical con cept oflar If,' roque t o ug 1t. The rhe-
a
appropriate means. '" in the ei hteenth c e o rm was 111 fact a fundamentally new concept
Form is thus viewed as both a process and a pl an, o r more specificall y, as of the and Ithactuall y ll1ten sified to ward the beginning
ri sts to come to . . repr:sents t e best. efforts of eig hteenth-century theo-
a process that can be m ade more intelligible through the application of cer-
f, .' gnps WIth w hat rem ams a troublesome iss ue even today
tain plans. It is both generative and conform ational, and these . '1antIes
.. and the differences inherent'
inO [ aIt attempts
b ' to reconcIl . e b o t I1 t I1.e simi
,- two perspectives are united by the concept of musical rhetoric. A
stantlal repertoIre of mUSIc. With its fundamentally thematic .
form is generative in the unfolding of its ideas, and specifIcally its centr;tl
tho ,heto,i"l concept of to,", offm , f"m,w",k ,h" o n
idea. But in o rder to "be 'mace inore re;dily to the listen er, the
ra e t 1e genera tive and the conformational approaches to form. -
sequence of these ideas ordinarily follo w at least the outlines of a con-
'ventional pattern.' Specific ;ch ern ata serve to ni.ake the unfoiding of a move- 2 15. Gretry, Memoires, III , 356-357. The term disc . ' .
m ent's ideas morc ' readily comprehen sible to the listener. And onl y an in- all y tran sla ted as "discourse. " But ti,e E n I" I ". 0111 5 thi S we ll-kn own passage is usu-
cog nate , wh ich is mo re c10s , I g
. d IS 1 disco urse IS more genera l than the French
telligible presentation of these id eas-thro ugh repetition, elaboratio n , and See, for eXJmple the fir st defill't'
c y assoc iate WIth an ora ti o I
..
. I I d .
I , pa rtlcu ar y UrIn g this period.
variation-can produ ce a coherent form , the shape of a satisfying whole. , I IOn given m the Dictil I " d I'A d' . Ii aise th
2 vols (Paris' J J S . " 1I0lle e co e/llle "allf 5 cd
.. . . . mlts, 1798-1799) I 4 '8' "P 11 . , .,
quer ce qu e I'on pense" See ol so K' I' S- '. age de paroles pour expli-
. " ar paz lcr s tran sbt fl'
As a metaphor, rhetoric is necessa rily imp erfect . N o t all elements of mu sical Vers ll ell e iiber die Mllsil< (Leip zig .' B relt
. k o p t"&, H"arte,I 1800) IOnp '23'0 t"E'l1S passage
S . Gretl'Y's
in .
Rede ZlI bctrachten. " ' . - . me onate 1St als eme
structure, as even Mattheson ackno w led ged, can be explained in such
terms. Gretry, too, recognized the imp erfection of the metaphor of rhetoric 216. Grctry, Me,lloil'es, Ill, 357. T he trend ofre catin b h
alrea d y in decline by thi s time but th . g ot hal ves of a mov emen t was
, e practi ce o t rep eating th fi I If .
in his Mem oires of l797, when he criticized the still-common practice of spread. See Broyles , "Organic Form," . 0- 1 . e Irst 1a was stIlI wide-
music from the period 1760- 1810. pp 34 34 , for stati stIcs fro m a WId e sam pl e o f
repeating both halves of a binary movement:
A sonata is an oration [discolIl's). What are we to think of a man who, dividin g his
discourse in half, repeats each half? HI was at your house this morning; yes, [ was at
your house this mornin g to talk with yo u about something; to talk with you abollt

2 I3. Ibid ., p . 26 (" musikalisch-c1assische Meisterstiick e" ).


214. Forkel, A llgellleille Gesellielite, 1,6 1. Forkel's comments onJ. S. Bach's ea rli est com -
posi tions refl ec t thi s same ou tl ook: see his Ucbt"l' j,,fJa II II Sebas tian Baclls Leben , Kllns t lind
KlinstwerRe (Lei pzig: Hoffmeister und Kiihncl, 1802), p . 23·

Rhetoric alld Musical Form ill the Eighteenth emllln' [ 3 I


Tn n I e
ally beginning to wane,95 the traditional prejudice against convention has CHAPTER 2
tended to inhibit efforts to come to terms with what at any given time are
the common and widespread practices of the day. More than twenty-five
years ago, Jan LaRue cited the need "to list in one place the statistically
predominant formal types or variants occurring in sonata movements.
What is the commonest intermediate form between poly thematic binary
and fully differentiated sonata form? What are the favorite tonalities for con-
trasting episodes in rondos?"9 6 The need remains today.
The prejudice against convention is subtle but pervasive. For Ratner,
"each composer could work within the familiar and accepted [harmonic]
Rhetoric and the Concept of Musical Form
framework and modify [it] to express his unique personal message."97 The
"unique personal message" is implicitly that which makes a wo'rk aestheti-
in the Eighteenth Century
cally distinctive and appealing. Even for Dahlhaus, musical form in the late
eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries is a "dialectic between the general
and the specific, between a tonally based framework and individualized me- Rhetoric is not a terIll that is today ordinarily associated with the concept
lodic ideas."9 8 of movement-length form. Yet in his Musikalisches Lexikon of r802,
An aesthetic distinction between the general and the specific is not yet Heinrich Christoph Koch relates the two quite closely:
evident in earlier accounts of form. It is not only the theory of sonata form
that has changed since the late eighteenth century, but our fundamental out-
; Rhetoric. This is the name given by some teachers of music to that body of knowl-
look toward the nature and purpose of form in general. To think of con-
ventional forms as diagrammable models based on lowest coml11on denom-
\ edge belonging to composition by which individual melodic sections are united into
a whole, according to a definite purpose. Through grammar, the matenal contents
of artistic expressions are made correct; rhetoric, by contrast, determines the rules
inators inevitably leads us toward an essentially conformational perspective by which the artistic expressions within a particular work are concatenated, accord-
that perpetuates the aesthetic dichotomy between "inner" and "outer" ing to the end to be achieved. Although a great deal about rhetoric may be found
form . To ignore the conventions of large-scale structures like sonata form, scattered here and there in writings on music, and in writings devoted to the fine
on the other hand, is to ignore the reality of the musical repertoire. The arts in general', :it has nevertheless not yet been the fortune of the human spirit to
conceptual metaphor of the musical work as an oration, as we shall see, bring these writings together in a systematic order and thereby fill those gaps that
offers an alternative that more nearly reflects the eighteenth century's ap- continue to exist. For this reason, the composer must in the meantime attempt to
proach to the paradox of musical form. gather what fragments are available and substitute a sensitive artistic feeling for the
lack of coherence in these writings . I

Far from representing an idiosyncratic, isolated view of either rhetoric or


95. Recent writings that use the concept of convention to good advantage include Tilden
Russell's essay on Beethoven's scherzos, "On 'looking over a ha-ha'," MQ, 71 (1985),27- form-the manner in which "individual melodic sections are united into a
37; Jiirgen Neubacher's monograph on movement-endings in Haydn's music. Fillis coronat whole"-Koch's defmition is but one of many witnesses to a long tradition
opus: UntersllChllllgen zur TCc/lllik der Sch/ussgestalwlIg in der 111strllmentalz1lHsik Joseph Haydns that associates the two. It is part of an important line of thought that in-
(Tutzing: Hans Schneider. 1986); Harold S. Powers's essay on Verdi's arias. '''La solita cludes virtually every major writer of the eighteenth century who addresses
forma' and 'The Uses of Convention'," Acta l1Iusieologica, 59 (1987) , 65-90; AnJtoly Leikin,
"The Dissolution of Sonata Structure in Romantic Piano Music (1820- 1850)" (Ph.D. diss., the broader conceptual issues of large-scale form. work
U.C.L.A., 1986); and Jeffrey Kallberg, "The Rhetoric of Genre: Chopin's Nocturne in G was seen as a wordless oration, and its form was viewed not much as a
Minor," 19th-Century Music, II (1988), 238-261. harmonic or thematic plan but as an ordered succession of thoughts. In the
96. LaRue, review of The Sonata ;'1 the Classic Era by William S. Newman, MQ, 50
interests of intelligibility, these musical ideas-an amalgam of melodic, har-
(1964), 405 . Even LaRue himself appears to have reversed his opinion on the need for such
surveys; see above, p. 25. monic, and rhythmic elements-tended to be arranged within a limited
97. Ratn er, Classic .\1usic, p. 208. number of conventional patterns.
98. Carl Dahlhaus, Klassische Imd romalltiscite MHSikiisth etik (Laaber: baber-Verlag,
1988), p. 12 . I. Koch, Mllsikalisclics Lexikoll, "Rhetorik ."
The rheto'rical concept ot form continued well into the nineteenth century adherents, ... the pragmatic view, broadly conceived, has been the prin-
and was by no means limited solely to didactic treatises , It extended to the cipal aesthetic attitude of the Western world."2
aesthetics of music, in writings directed not only toward the aspiring com- This orientation toward the audience distinguishes the pragmatic view
poser but toward the informed listener as well. The successive ordering of of art from the later "expressive" theories that are more characteristic of
a work's individual sections was seen as a function of the manner in which Romanticism. Wordsworth, in an oft-cited phrase, considered poetry to be
the composer could effectively present a series of ideas to his audience and "the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings." l In the expressive orien-
thereby elicit an intended emotional response, tation, the recipient of these feelings plays a far smaller role in the aesthetic
Koch was nevertheless correct to note that contemporary writings on equation.
rhetoric in music, although plentiful, \wre widely scattered, With the pos- Some degree of self-expression is inherent in most Western art, at least
sible exception of Forkel, no one of the eighteenth century dealt since the Renaissance, and few artists have failed to take their anticipated
with this issue cOIl?-prehensively or systematically, and even Forkel's ac- audience into account to at least some extent, even if only to reject that
count represents only an outline of his wide-ranging ideas. At the same audience as a factor in the shaping of a work. 4 The spectrum that lies be-
time, few writers who dealt with issues of movement-length form were tween the extremes of the pragmatic and expressive orientations consists
completely silent on the matter. References to rhetoric typically appear ,.
(
largely of gray. The ·concepts do, however, provide useful points of refer-
within the context of other topics , such as periodicity, the compositional \. ence by which to gauge critical outlooks and make broad comparisons be-
process, the aesthetic doctrine of "unity in variety," the nature of melody, tween contrasting eras. In_this there are clear distinctions between
_.or the relationship between genius and convention. Accordingly, the ac- the relationship of audience to composer in 1750 and that in 1850. ;
count that follows is arranged neither chronologically nor by author; in-
stead, it approaches the rhetorical concept of form from some of the more 2. Abrams, Th e Mirror alld Ihe Lamp:' Romalllic Theory a/,d Ihe Critical Traditioll (New
important used by eighteenth-century themsei;es: York: Oxford University Press , 1953), pp. 15, 20-21. In some respects, the pragmatic
manner in which contemporary aestheticians viewed the relationship be- orientation actually intensified over the course of the eighteenth century. See Gordon
i.
. McKenzie, Critical Rcspo llsi/lcllcss: A Stlldy of Ihe Psycl",lo.eiral Cllrrelll ill Laler Eighleelllh-
tween rhetoric and the arts in general; the perceived parallels between verbal
Cmtllry Criticism (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of Calitornia Press, 1949); P. W.
language and instrumental mu sic; the distinction between musical grammar K. Stone. The Art oj Poetry, J750-J8zo: Theories oj Poelic Comp,'siti,,,, alld Slyle ill Ihe LaIC
and musical rhetoric; the identity of the "melodic sections" that combine to Nco -Classic atld Early ROl1lalllic Periods (London: Routledge and Ke ga n Paul , 1967); and
make a whole; and the nature of the "end " to be achieved by the composer. Klaus Dockhom. " Die Rh etorik als Quelle des vorromantischen Irrationalismus in der Li-
teratur-und Geistesgeschi chte ," in his Macht Imd Wil'kl/lI.e del' Rh etol'ik (Bad Hon-iburg: Geh-
len, 1968) , pp. 46-95,
3. Abrams, Mirr(//' alld Ih e Lamp , p. 21.
4. Wayne C. Booth, in The Rhclt1ric oj Fir/ioll, 2nd cd. (Chicago: University of Chicago
Rhetoric and the Pragmatic Orientation of Press, [983), traces the continuation of pragmatic elem ents in lit erature beyond the eigh-
-' Eighteenth-Century Aesthetics teenth century and into the twentieth. On the rise of "self-expression" in music, see Hans
Heinrich Eggebrecht, "Das Ausdrucks-Prinzip im musikalischen Sturm und Orang," DVjs,
Both the generative and conformational approaches to analysis tend to focus 29 (1955), 323-349; and Ludwig Finscher, "Das Originalgenie und die Tradition: Zur Rolle
on the work itself. In so doing, they overlook a perspective basic to vir- der Tradition in der Entstehungsgeschichte des Wiener klassischen Stils," in Stl/diell zlIr
tually all eighteenth-century analyses of specific works of music: that of the Traditioll ill del' Mllsik: Kllrt 1'011 Fischer ZIIIII 60, Gebllrtslag , cd. Hans Heinrich Eggebrecht,
Max Llitolf(Munich : Katzbichler, 1973), pp. 165-175.
audience. The predominant critical orientation of all the arts in the eigh- ,
I'
5. Both Bellamy Hosler, in Challgillg Aesthetic Views ojlnstrul/lel1tal Music in 18Jh-Cell/llry
teenth century, as M. H. Abrams points out in his influential study of early Germany (Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press, 1981), pp. xiv-xix, and John Neubauer, in The
English Romantic literature, assigned a central role to the intended recipient Ematlcipatioll oj Mllsic from Lal/guage, pp. 5-7, raise valid objections to the wholesale apph-
of a work. The arts, including music, were considered a means toward an cability of Abrams's concepts to eighteenth-century instrumental mUSIC, but 111 both 111-
stances the objections revolve around distinctions between the expressive orientation and a
end, and that end was to elicit an emotional response in the beholder. third outlook, the "mimetic." Pragmatic and mimetic views do share many features, but
labels this critical orientation "pragmatic" on the grounds that it the essential element of the former-a predominant orientation toward the audience-is not
consIders art to be "an instrument for getting something done." This view, necessarily to be associated with the latter. As Hosler herself points out, early Romantic
as :Abrams observes, has its origins in classical antiquity and has "charac- writers on music like Tieck, Wackenroder, and E. T. A. Hoffmann all devote considerable
attention to the effect of music upon the listener. The key issue is whether these effects are
by far the greatest part of criticism from the time of Horace through
seen as an end in themselves. as in the pragmatic theory, or as a by-product, so to speak,
the eIghteenth century. Measured either by its duration or the number of its of the artist's outpourings. as in the expressive theory.

54 WORDLESS RHETORIC
Rhetoric and Form in the Eighteet1th Cmtllry 55
1 his change nunifests itself in a number of ways. The enormous growth nificant: later generations would interpret these comments in terms of
of musical criticism and analysis il) the early nineteenth century occurred in tis tic self-expression, but the composer himself was more .wuh i\
large part as a response to the growing desire of audiences to understand an what would "elicit" or "weaken" an impression in the minds and SpIrIts of
ever more demanding repertoire. An essay along the lines of Schumann's the audience he envisioned for the work at hand. The concept of Eil1druck
revie w of Berlioz's Symphonie jal1tastique, advocating and elucidating a dif- is central to the pragmatic outlook. Koch defines Ei11druck as "one the '
ficult work to a potentially skeptical public, would have been as unthinkable more common words used to designate the effect that a work of musIc has
in the eighteenth century as the Symphonie jmtastiqlle itself, a work whose upon our spirits when we hear it performed."8 On another. occasion,
original title ("Episode in the Life of an Artist") had announced the com- even uses the same verb as Haydn (hervorbringert, to elICIt), emphaslz1l1g
poser/artist himself to be its focal point. once again the process by which an impression is evoked in an audience:
The social the composer also changed fundamentally between "Through the use of this word [Eindruck], one often m eans, gener.al.' that
1750 and 1850. Throughout most of the eighteenth century, the composer the performance or the act of hearing a piece of music has either ehClted a
was generally seen as a craftsman; but by the middle of the nineFeenth, the certain effect from us, or has left a certain echo of this effect in US." 9 Vernon
most esteemed composers were perceived (and on occasion idolized) as in- Gotwals's widely used translation ("1 could .. . observe what enhanced an
dependent artists. The standard format of the printed opera libretto reflects effect, and what weakened it") 10 focuses on the work itself and does not
this change with special clarity. If the composer of an opera in the mid- convey the composer's concern for his anticipated audience. The critical
eighteenth century was identified at all, it was almost always in very small orientation of Gotwals's translation, in other words, is expressive rather
type, often not even on the title page. By the mid-nineteenth century, the than pragmatic. The difference is a subtle one, but it is important if we .are
compose r enjoyed undisputed top billing. to reconstruct eighteenth-century attitudes toward the nature and function
Exceptions to these very broad generalizations abound in both centuries, of musical form .
of course, and in reality, the shift from the pragmatic to the expressive The pragmatic orientation is reflected even more in ac-
outlook was quite gradual. Haydn's celebrated remark to his biographer counts relating Haydn's views on his own music. A cco rd1l1g to
Griesinger about working conditions at Esterhaza contains elements of both the composer considered the commission for a purely instrumental
perspectives: of Christ's Seven Last Words to be "one of the most difficult challenges of
his career, for it required him to write "seven adagios, all in a row, that
My Prince was satisfied with all of m y works and I received applause. As the direc- .
would not tire the listener and that would awaken in hi111 all the sentiments
tor of an orchestra, I could make experiments, observe what elicited or weakened
inherent in each of the words spoken by the dying Saviour."" Again, the
an impression, and thus correct, add, delete, take risks. I was cut off fro III the world,
no one in my vicinity could cause me to doubt myself or pester me, and so I had to formulation is signifIcant: Haydn saw his task not so in terms. of
become original. 6 expressing the sentiments themselves as in terms of the sel:satlOn
of these sentiments within his anticipated audience. In a hghter vem, the
From an expressive standpoint, Haydn implies that any composer, given famous drum-stroke in the slow movement of the Symphony No. 94 rep-
the proper material support and left to his own devices, would be in a po- resents perhaps the best known manifestation of .orien-
sition to "become original." The image of the artist as an independent ge- tation. The composer, by his own account, had mtended to surpnse the
nius was an increasingly important concept in the second half of the eigh- public with something new."12 To some extent, this attitude is
teenth century, and by the middle of the nineteenth, it would become a sine sive in its own right; but on a more fundamental level, the surpnse drum-
qua 110n.7 Equally noteworthy in Haydn's statement is his open acknowl- stroke was inspired by Haydn's anticipation of the effect this device would
edgment of the crucial role played by the listener: "Ich konnte . .. beo- have upon his audience.
bachten, was den Eindruck hervorbringt und was ihn schwacht, also
verbessern, zusetzen, wegschneiden, wagen." Haydn's formulation is sig- 8 Koch Mllsika/isches Lexikoll, "Eindruck."
9: Koch: KlIrzg£jasstes HalldwiirterlJllcll der MIISik, "Eindruck."
6. Georg August Griesinger, Biographische No(izell aber Joseph Haydll, ed. Karl-Heinz 10. Gotwals, ed. and trans., Josep/z Haydll: Gellllemall alld GetlillS
Kohler (Lei pzi g: Philipp Reclam, 1975; 1st ed. 1810), p. 28. (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1963) , p. 17 ·
7· See Edward E. Lowinsky, " Musical Genius: Evolution and Origins of a Conct'pt," I I. Grit'singer, Biograp/Zisc/le No(izClI, pp. 32-33·
MQ, 50 ( 19 6 4) , 321-340,476-495. 12. Ibid . , p. 45·

f
t\"
WORDLESS RHETORIC _ _ _ _ J:'l L ___ --=- _ • l I' • , T."" _ _

- - _ ., - - - -
Mozart maintained a similar attitude toward his listeners. Writing to his
-r This expressive, work- oriented perspective provides the aesthetic context
for most analysis today. The pragmatic orientation, by contrast, with its
father from Paris in 1778, the young composer described his calculated ma- ,.
emphasis on the composer's responsibility to make a work intelligible, has
nipulation of an audience's expectations for the premiere of a new sym-
not been nearly so conducive to And in point of fact, analyses of
phony (K. 297):
specific works were quite rare up until approximately 1800. This is not to
The symphony began .. . and just in the middle of the first Allegro there was a say that a pragmatically oriented framework is inhospitable to analysis; in-
passage which I felt sure must please. The audience was quite carried away-and stead, we must reconsider the nature of this framework and its implications
there was a tremendous burst of applause. But as I knew, when I wrote it, what for understanding eighteenth-century attitudes toward analysis.
effect it would surely produce, I introduced the passage again at the close-at which In its decided orientation toward the audience, the eighteenth century's
point there were shouts of "Da capo." The Andante also found favor, but particu- aesthetic outlook was most often discussed in terms of rhetoric. Just as it
larly the last Allegro, because, having observed that all last as well as first Allegros was the goal of rhetoric to persuade the audience, so it was the goal of music
begin here with all the instruments playing together and generally I began
to move the listener. Rhetoric was perceived as an instrument of persuasion,
mine with two violins only, piano for the first eight bars-followed instantly by a
and so, too, in its own way, was music. Johann Joseph Klein, in his Verst/ch
forte; the audience, as I t:xpected, said "hush" at the soft beginning, and when they
heard the forte, began at once to clap with their hands. I)
eines Lehrbuchs del' praktischen Musik of 1783, sums up an attitude reflected
over and over again by eighteenth-century theorists: "Rhetoric and poetics
Like Haydn, Mozart was able to appeal to the less musically literate while are so closely related to the art of music that anyone wishing to study music
simultaneously providing the cognosce/lti with a wealth of innovations. His i seriously cannot afford to remain ignorant of them. All of these arts w.or!<-
;1
oft-quoted comment about the Piano Concertos K. 413-415 offers valuable toward a common goal: to master our feelings, and to give our passions a
insight into the composer's belief that an audience could be simultaneously ;1 certain direction."'6
charmed and challenged: In our own time, rhetoric is a term that is used pejoratively more often
than not. Yet its much longer tradition as one of the seven liberal arts has
These concertos are a happy medium between what is too easy and too difficult;
they arc very brilliant, pleasing to the ear, and natural, without being vapid. There been of far greater historical consequence, not only in the fields oflaw and
are passages here and there from which the connoisseurs alone can derive satisfac- politics , but in the arts as well. 17 Rhetoric has long been associated with
tion; but these passa ges are written in such a way that the less learned cannot fail to poetics-so much so, in fact, that the two remained virtually ,i nseparable
be pleased, though without knowing why." for many centuries. 18 It was only logical, as a result, that rhetoric should be
closely allied to the emerging concept of aesthetics in the mid-:eightcenth
I , Beethoven's attitude toward his audiences is more difficult to decipher.
:-'-'
century. Johann Georg Sulzer, in his influential and widely quoted encyclo-
The popular image of his utter disregard for his contemporaries is largely
pedia of the fine arts, first pll blished in 177 1':"1774, points to the central role
without foundation, as is the notion that the majority of contemporary lis-
of rhetorical eloquence for the fine arts in general:
'L teners found his music too difficult to comprehend. 15 The late works are an
exception, of course, for they clearly placed unusual demands upon audi- Eloqu ellce. According to the general concept of the fine arts on which this entire
ences. Yet it is in the favorable reviews of these late works that we see the work [his Allgelllei/u Theol'ie del' sC/zOl1ell Kiillsfe] is based, the fine arts, through their
clearest manifestations of a relatively new attitude, one that places the re- works, make lasting impressions upon the spirit of man that elevate the powers of
sponsibility for understanding a work of art on the listener rather than on the soul. Eloquence, in the broadest sense, seems capable of fulfilling this stipula-
tion. Eloquence perhaps does not create such spiritually penetrating or lively
the composer. As in E. T. A. Hoffmann's celebrated review and analysis of
impressions as those arts whose true immediate goal is the stimulation of the exter-
the Fifth Symphony, -one senses that it is now the audience's obligation to
educate itself, to extend its aesthetic sensibilities, and to come to terms with
the composer and his work . 16, Klein, Versllch eilles Lchrbllchs der praktischCll MJ/sik (Ge ra: C. F. Bekmann, 1783),
p, '5·
17, The best and most recent survey of the history of rhetoric and its influence on a wide
13 · Letter of 3 July 1778 to his father; translation adapted from Emily Anderson's edi- variety of fIelds is Brian Vickers 's [,1 Defelice 0.[ Rhetoric (Oxford: Oxford University Press,
tion, The Letters of Mo za rt alld His Family, rev. ed.(New York: Norron, 1985), p. 558. 19 88 ) ,
14· Letter of 28 December 1782 to his father; ibid., p. 833. 18 . See Brian Vickers, "Rhetoric and Poetics," in The Call1bridge History of Rellaissallce
IS· On the latter point, see especially Robin Wallace, Bee1hovC/I's Critics: Aesthetic Dilem- Philosophy, cd. Charles B. Schmitt (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988),
mas alld Resoll!tiolls Dl!rillg the Composer's L(fctimc (Cambridge: Cambridge University
PP·7'5-745,
Press, '986).

'\ )
_n
nal senses; on the other hand, it can awaken every possible variety of those clear
Alisflihrliche Redekunst, first published in 1736, went through many editions
images that are beyond the scope of the more sensuous arts. This art [eloquence]
therefore deserves to be considered with the greatest attention, in its true nature, 111
over the course of the century. By 1754, Gottsched felt obliged to begin his
its origins and effects, in its manifold applications, and in the various external trans- more modest Voriibrmg del' Beredsal'l1keit with an apology for yet another
formations it has sustained. '9 work on a subject in an already crowded field. 2j
Nor was interest in rhetoric limited to northern Germany or to acade-
Sulzer's view is typical of his time, for the leading aestheticians of the micians. Leopold Mozart used Gottsched's D eutsche Sprachklmst (1748) in
eighteenth century consistently equated rhetoric with poetics. 20 Alexander preparing his violin tutor and eventually requested a copy of each of the
Gottlieb Baumgarten, for one, stressed the importance of "aesthetic persua- writer's major works, including the Versuch einer critischen Dichfkunst and the
sion," and Georg Friedrich Meier considered "rhetoric, in the broadest Ausfiihrliche Redekrmst.26 And Gottsched's wntl11gs, in general, are known
sense" to be "an undeniable element of aesthetics."2I Large portions of the
to have enjoyed wide distribution throughout southern areas of the
latter:s treatise on aesthetics, in fact, read very much like a treatise on rhet- German-speaking realm. 27
oric. According to Meier, all aesthetic objects, to varying degrees, exhibit Among German music theorists and aestheticians in particular, this re-
a basic outline consisting of an Eingang ("exordium, introitus"), a Vortrag newed interest in rhetoric gave fresh impetus to the reexamination of an old
del' Hauptvorstellung ("thesis, thema, propositio per eminentiam"), an idea: that music is a language.
Abhandlrmg ("tractatio"), and a Beschluss ("conclusio, peroratio"). These are
the "general laws by which thoughts, in all aesthetic elaborations, must be
ordered."22 The only real distinction between aesthetics, on the one hand,
and rhetoric and poetics, on the other, rests on the specificity of their re- Music as a Language
spective applications: "[But] as there are so many different kinds of aesthetic The idea of music as a rhetoricai art rests on the metaphor of music as a
elaboration-prosaic and poetic, theatrical, epic, etc.-it therefore cannot language. While this image can be traced back to classical antiquity and
be denied that these laws, in their particular applications, should be subject appeared commonly throughout the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, it
to various additions and limitations. These investigations, however, belong )
began to take on new importance in the sixteenth and early seventeenth
to rhetoric and poetics."2] !,
f
centuries with the concept of l11usica poefica. In describing how the com-
The art of rhetoric, first codified in classical antiquity, was renewed poser, the HlIIsiws poetiws, could create a work of music, theorists' iricluding
-··1
with special vigor in eighteenth-century Germany. The works of Johann Nicolaus Listenius, Gallus Dressler, Joachim Burmeister, and Johannes
Christoph Gottsched, in particular, exerted enormous influence and in- Lippius all drew upon the analogy of the orator manipulating verbal lan-
spired numerous imitators. 24 His most important work on rhetoric, the guage in order to create a persuasive presentation of ideas. 28

19. Sulzer, Allgemeine Theorie, "Bercdsamkeit."


20. See Wolfgang Bender, "Rhetorische Tr adi tion und Asthetik im 18.
Zeitschrijt fiil' dmtsche Philologie, 99 (1980), 481 - 506; Uwe Moller, Rh etorische Uberliefenmg (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1959) , esp. cbs. 4 and 5. John A. McCarthy,
und Dichtungstheorie il1l jrahm 18. jahr/lIlndert: StI/dim ZII Got/sched, BreititIger Imd G. Fr. Meier in his Crossillg BOIl11daries: A Theory al1d Histo ry of Essay Writing in German, 168o-I815
(Munich: W. Fink, 1983); Gerd Ueding and Bernd Steinbrink, Gnll1driss der Rhetorik: Ge- (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1989), empha sizes the role of rhetonc II1
schichte, Tecllllik , Methode (Stuttgart: J. B. Metzler, 19 86), p. 138 ("Fur das 18 . Jahrhundert prose writing, especially the essay. A slightly later renewa l of interest in rhetoric is also
gilt noch ... die Einh eit von Rhctorik und Poetik") ; Robert S. Leventhal , "Semiotic evident in Great Britain in the works of Hugh Blair, George Campbell, Jam es Beattie, and
Interpretation and Rhetoric in the German Enlightenment, 1740-1760," DVjs, 60 (1986), others; see James Engell, Forl1lirIg the Critical Mil1d: Dryden to Coleridge (Cambridge, Mass.:
223-248. - H arvard University Press, 1989), pp. 194-219 .
2 I. Baumgarten, Aesthetica, 2 vols. (Frankfurt/Oder: I. C. Kleyb, 1750-1758; rpt.
jl; 25. Gottsched, Voriibllng der Beredsal1lkeit (Leipzig: B. C. Breitkopf, 1754), p. i.
Hildesheim: Olms, 1970), II, 569-624; Meier, Al1fallgsgn'llde aller schonell Wisset1schajiell , 3 26. See Leopold Mozart's letters of 9 June and 28 August 1755 to his publisher in Augs-
vols. (Halle: C. H . Hemmerde, 1748- 1750), III, 341 ("Diese Redekunst im wei tern Ver- burg, Johann Jakob Lotter.
stande ist unleugbar ein Theil der Aesthetik"). See also Johann Gotthelf Lindner, Kurzer «
It
27. See Roswitha Strommer, "Die Rezeption der englischen Literatur im Lebensumkreis
und zur Zeit J osep h Haydns," in joseph Haydn lind die Lit era /III' seiller Zeit, ed. Herbert
lnbegriffder Aesthetik, Redeklll1st ulld Dicittkunst, 2 vols. (Konigsberg and Leipzig, 1771; rpt. f
Frankfurt/Mai n: Athenaum, 1971).
' 22. Meier, Anfangsgriillde, III, 293-332.
r Zeman (Eisenstadt: Institut fur osterreichische Kulturgeschicbte , 1976), pp. 125-126.
28. See Carl D ahlhaus, "Musica poetica und l11usikalische Poesie," AfMw, 23 (1966),
23 . Ibid ., III, 332. 110-124; Claude Palisca, "Ut oratoria musica: The Rhetorica l Basis of Musical Manner-
11
24· See Eric A. Blackall, The Emergence of Gerl1lan as a Literary LarIgliage, 1700-1 775
I' ism ," in F. W. Robinson and S. G. Nichols, eds., The Meallillg of Mallnerism (Hanover,
fI,
N.H.: Universi ty Press of New Eng land , 1973) , pp . 37-65; Benito Rivera, G erman Music


",.f. .\
L____ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ ,.. ! d
This image continued throughout the seventeenth century in the writings the musician will compose each of these three movements specifically as though he
of theorists like Mersenne and Kircher, particularly in relation to vocal mu- were writing a grand aria in which one or more voices were trying to express emo-
tions that are more or less vivid: he will substitute for these voices the first violin,
sic. But it was not until the mid- to late eighteenth century that the idea of
or other instruments that are easily distinguished; from time to time he will seek to
music as a language in its own right, indepen dent of any text, began to find
imitate the inflections of the human voice by means of instruments ca pable of sweet
widespread acceptance. Once established, this metaphor would remain a or pathetic inflections. ".1 •
commonplace until well into the nineteenth century.'9 And, in certain re-
spects, it is still with us today.3 0 Christian Friedrich Daniel Schubart, wnqng in Germany at approxi-
Throughout the eighteenth century, the issue of whether music actually t, mately the same time, shared this attitude, commenting that "all instru-
constituted a revolved around the question of whether or not in- ments are but imitations of the voice.".14 And to a certain extent, even Koch
strumental music was capable of expressing any kind of meaning. There expressed variations on this same idea, noting that an instrumental concerto
was no question about the capacity of vocal music to convey specific ideas : could be viewed as an imitation of an aria, and that a symphony was com-
thanks to the text, the purpose and meaning of the music could made parable to a full chorus. 35
evident. The notes, in effect, served to amplify and illuminate the words. But Koch's views on instrumental music went far beyond this simple
But instrumental music posed a more difficult problem. How could word- analogy, as we shall see, and increasingly throughout the century, critics
less music express any particular meaning? And how was a listener to make came to concede that instrumental music was indeed capable of conveying
sense of it all? Gottsched's view of the matter is representative of his gen- meaning of at least some kind. Even Fontenelle's compatriot philosophes,
eration: "Music alone, unassociated with words, lacks a soul and is incom- whose opposition to the notion of meaningful instrumental music was es-
prehensible; words must speak for it if one wo uld know what it is that pecially strong, eventu ally conceded, if only grudgingly, that a textless
music intends to say."3 1 In a similar vein, th e celebrated question attributed work could embody meaning, however vague that meaning might remain
to Fontenelle-"Sonate, que me veux-tu? "-found enormou s resonance at times. D' AI em bert, who argued that vocal music was superior to instru-
throughout the continent for many decades . P mental music on the grounds that the latter was "a language without vow-
Other critics held th at instrumental music did have its own expressive els," tacitly acknowledged that instrumental music was a language never-
power, but attributed this quality to the notion that instrumental music was theless.)6 Diderot, too, eventually concluded that "after all, even if one does
essentially an imitation of vocal music. Writing on the symphony in 17 8 5, not speak as distinctly with an instrument as with the mouth, and even if
La Cepede, a contemporary of Mozart, m ai ntained that musical sounds do not portray one's thou g hts as clearly as discourse, they
nevertheless do say something."37
Composers, on the whole, accepted the image of music as a language still
Theory ill the Early 17th CCI/Illry: The Treatises of J ollfllllles Lippills (Ann Arbor: UM[ more readily. Mattheson, in his D er vollkol11l11ene Capellmeister of 1739, calls
Research Press, 1980).
a work of music a "Klang-Rede," an oration in sounds. 38 Quantz, writing
29· The most comprehensive review of this toP')S is Fritz Reckow's "'Sprachahnlichkcit'
der Musik als tcrminologi sches Problem: Zur Gcschichte des Topos Tonsprache " (Habili- in I 752, declares music to be "nothing other than an artificial language by
tatiolls sc hrift, Freiburg i.B ., 1977), w hich unfortunatel y ha s yet to be published but which which one makes one's musical thoughts known to the listener."39 Scheibe,
is summarized in his 1979 entry on " Ton sp rache" in Hans Heinrich Eggebrecht's Hnlldwor-
terbllCh del' I1l1lsikalisc/lfIl Teflllillologie (Wi es baden: Steiner, 1972-). George Buelow's article
"Rhetoric and Mu sic " in th e Nell' Grol'e provides a useful introd uction to the subject and a 3 3. Bernard Germain, Comte de La Cepede, La poetiqlle de la l1Iusiql/e, 2 vols. (Paris:
selective bibliography. Brian Vickers, in his essay "Figures of Rhetoric/Figures of Music ?" [mprimerie de Monsieur, 1785), ll, 33 [ .
i
Rhetorica, 2 (1984), 1-44, offers an overview of the seco ndary literature in the field from ,i,t. 34 . Schubart, Idem ZI/ ciller Asr/Jetik del' TOllkwlst (Vienna: J. V. Degen, 1806; rpt. Hil-
the perspective of a historian of rhetoric. For a broad review of the musico-rhetorical tra- desheim: Olms, 1969), p. 335. Schubart originally wrote his treatise in [784-1785.
f

Ir
dition in a variety of cultures, see Harold S. Powers , "Language Models and Musical An al- 35. Koch, MI/sikalisches Lexik<1ll, articles "Concert," "Symphonie."
ysis," Etllllol/lllsicology, 24 (1980), 1-60. 36. Jean Lerond d'Alembert, "Fragment sur [a musique en general et sur la notre en
30. As reAected, for example, by the titles of such works as Olivier Messiaen's Tec/llliqlle particulier" (ca. 1752), in his Oeuvres et correspolldallces inCdites, ed. Charles Henry (Paris:
de 1/1011 Imlgage mllsicale (1944). Deryck Cooke's The Lnllg/lage of Mllsic (1959), and Donald Garni er freres, 1887; rpt. Geneva: Slatkine, 1967), pp. 182-184.
Mitch ell 's The ofModent Mll sic (19 6 3). 37. Denis Diderot, "Lettre sur les sourds et muets," in his OelJlJres co/llplhes, 20 vols.,
. 3 I. Jo hann Christoph Gottsched, AlIsz/lg ailS des Heml BallellX Schollell Kiillstell (Leipzig: t
\'
cd. J. As sezat (Paris: Garnier freres, 1875-1877), I, 358.
B. C. Breitkopf, 1754), p. 207. 38. Mattheson, Capel/meister, p. 180 and passim. Mattheson's idea of the Klallgrede will
32· See Maria Rika Maniates, '''Sonate, que m e veux-tu?': The Enigma of French Mu-
!
1. be discussed in detail below.
sical Aesthetics in the 18th Century," Cllrrellt Mllsicology, no. 9 (1969), 117-140. 39. Quantz, Vasl/c/J eiller AIIWcisl/lIg, p. 102.
Hiepel, Blainville, Vogler, and numerous other writers would repeat this
metaphor throughout the remainder of the century. 40
Functionally, a good deal of instrumental music throughout the seven-
,
,
the composer's contemporaries in calling him "another Klopstock," but one
who used "notes instead of words."4 6
The perception of a "speaking" quality in C. P. E. Bach's instrumental
teenth and eighteenth centuries did in fact serve as a replacement for vocal music is further reinforced by such openly programmatic works as his trio-
music. A large repertoire of diverse genres, including the ricercar, canzona, sonata representing a "Dialogue between a Sanguineus and a Melancholicus."
Sonata da chiesa, and concerto grosso, had developed in part as instrumental In the preface to this wordless discourse between two violins, Bach writes
substitutions or supplements for elements of the liturgy, especially in Mass that he has tried "to express as much as possible with instruments some-
and Vespers. Mozart's "Epistle" Sonatas, for example, are believed to have thing for which one could more easily use the singing voice and words."47
functioned in place of the reading of the epistleY And as Neal Zaslaw has These rhetorical tendencies in C. P. E. Bach's music derive in part from the
demonstrated, a number of early symphonies by Haydn and Mozart, par- influence of the composer's father-Johann Sebastian Bach's knowledge of
ticularly those with slow opening movements, also played a role within the rhetoric and his applications of its principles in his music have been well
liturgy, either replacing or supplementing spoken texts. 42 The origi'nal in- documented 48-but they need not be seen merely as a relic of previous
strumental version of Haydn's Seven Last Words oj Christ, each of whose generations. C. P. E. Bach's fundamental attitude toward music as a lan-
movements opens with a wordless "setting" of Christ's final utterances, is guage is characteristic of the empfindsal11er StU in general and altogether typ-
a late example of this tradition. By virtue of their function, then, such ical of many composers in the second half of the eighteenth century.
works served to varying degrees as an "ersatz for the art of rhetoric. "'43 In addition to programmatic works by other composers (for example,
In Germany, the redendes Prinzip-the "speaking" or "oratorical" princi- Dittersdorf's symphonies on Ovid's Metamorphoses and Haydn's trilogy of
ple in music-enjoyed special favor during the middle decades of the cen- early symphonies depicting morning, noon, and night) , one also finds pro-
tury and further strengthened the perception of music as a language. 44 Spe- grammatic analyses of instrumental works (for example, a fantasia by C. P.
cifically within the realm of instrumental music, Vogler made a categorical E. Bach interpreted as the celebrated monologue from Harnlet)49 as well as
distinction between dance and military music, on the one hand, and "speak- instrumental recitatives (for exa mple, in Haydn's String Quartet Op. 17,
illg mu sic, the sovereign mistress of our hearts," on the other. 45 The notion NO.5, and the Symphony NO . 7, "Le midi"). Haydn, late in his life, is said
that instrumental music must "s peak" in order to be effective is particularly to have revealed that one of his early symphonies-the composer could no
evident in the works of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach. A reviewer in Leipzig's longer recall which one-depicted a dialogue between God and a frivolous
AllgclI1eine l11usikalische Z eitung summed up an attitude shared by many of sinner. so And the contemporary tapas of the string quartet as a conversation
among four rational individuals adds still further credence to the concept of

'1 0 . Scheibe, Critisch .. r MIISiklls (1745), pp. 86-87, 91; Riepe! , A lifo Ilgsg n'ill de .. . 46. Uoha nn Karl Friedrich) Triest, "Bemerkungen tiber die Ausbildung der Tonkunst in
C;,."lIdrcSelli ZlIr TOI lOrdllllllg, pp. 76-77, 99, 104; Charles-Henri Blainville, L'esp ril de I'art
Deutschland im achtzehntcnJahrhundert," AMZ, 3 (1801), cols. 300-301.
1I111 .< ir(/1 (Geneva: n. p., 1754), p. 86; Georg Joseph Vogler, Betrochlllllgell del' A1allllhcilllel' TOIl- 47. C. P. E. Bach, "Vorbericht " to Zwey Trio (Niirnberg, 1751), quoted from th e partial
slillde, I (1778), 286-287, 3 I I; idem, Zwei IIlld dreissig Prallidiell fiir die Orgel llIld fiir das facsimile edition of Wq. 161/1 by Klaus Hofmann (Neuhauscn-Stuttgart: Hanssler, 1980),
Fortel'iallo. Nebst eil1er Zergliedenlllg ill iislhelischer, rhetoriseher IIlld harmoniseher Hillsirht (Mu- p. 8.
ni ch: Falter, 1806), pp. 37, 47. See Reckow, "'Sp rach ahnlichkeit' ," for num ero us further 48. See, for example, Birnbaum's report on Bach in Scheibe's Crilischer MIISikIlS, p. 997;
CiLllions to this IOpos . Ursula Kirkendale, "The Source of Bach 's Musical Offering: The Illstilt/tio orotoria of
-II. See Stephen Bonta, " The Uses of the Sonata da Chiesa," JAMS, 22 (1969), 54-84. Quintilian," JAMS, 23 (1980), 99-14 I; and Arno Forchert, "Bach und die Tradition der
42. Zaslaw, "Mozart, Haydn, and the Sil1follio da chiesa," jOllm ol of Mllsicology, I (1982),
Rhetorik ," in Alte Mllsik als iistheliscllc Bericizl iiber dm illlen/atio/lOlm
95- 12 4. • IIlllsikwissellschajilicizCl1 KOllgress, Stuttgart , 1985, 2 vols. (Kassel : Barenreiter, 1987), I, 169-
43· Wilibald Gurlitt, "Musik und Rhetorik: Hinweise auf ihre geschichtliche Grundla- 178.
gmdnheit," in his MI/sikgeschirlile Imd G egCll worl, ed. Hans Heinrich Eggebrecht, 2 vols. 49. This and other programmatic interpretations of seemingly non programmatic works
(Wicsbaden: Franz Steiner, 1966), I, 64. will be discussed in more detail in Chapter 4.
44· Arnold Schering, "Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach und das 'redende Prinzip' in der So. Albert Christoph Dies, Biographische Naclnichren VOIl Joseph Hayd(l, ed. Horst Seege r
MlIsik," jahrbllch der MlIsikbibliothek Pelers fur 1938, pp. 13-29. See also Helmut Rosing, (Berlin : Henschel, 1962; 1st ed. 1810), p. 13 I; Griesinger, Biographische NotizeIt, p. 80.
"Mlisik als Klangrede. Die franzosische Nachahmungsasthetik und ihre Auswirkungen bis Hartmut Krones believes that the movement in question is the Recitative and Adagio of
hin ZlIr musique concrete," Mllsicologica AlIslriora, I (1977), 108-120.
the Symphony NO·7; see Krones , "Rhetorik und rhetorische Symbolik in der Musik um
·1.1. Vogler, Belraclltlmgen, I, 287.
1800," Mllsiktheorie, 3 (1988),122-123.
,
""':;,

er. The word instructs us, convinces us: it is the medium of reason . But tone and
instrumental music as a language independent of words. 51 To varying de- ngesture are media of the heart; they move us, win us over, persua de us . The word
grees, all of these phenomena rest on the fundamental assumption that in-
expresses passions only by means of the ideas with which the sentiments arc asso-
strumental music is capable of "speaking" to the listener through the vehicle ciated, as though a reflection of them. Tone and gesture reach the heart directl y,
of a musical language.
without any detour. 53
The metaphor of music as a language was often tempered by the quali-
. hiS
Rousseau, 111 . " Essal. sur I' ong111e
" d es Iangues, "gues
ar that the
. function
.
fication that music was a language of sentiment, of the passions. Instru-
, " h '
of melody IS not merely to Imitate t e passIOns-one 0 fthe dom111ant belIefs
mental music, by its very nature, could not express specific, rational ideas;
as such, it was perceived to be a rather vague language, capable of express- of the century-but also to "speak" in its own right:
ing only general emotions, such as fear, joy, rage, or sorrow. But a few . ImItatll1g
. . ' the lI1flectlons
, ' f h' I ments , cries."of pain or
Melody, III 0 t e VOice, expresses a
writers, most notably Mattheson, Batteux, Rousseau, and Forkel, recog- · 'f
joy, threats, or groans; all the voca I Slgl11 i'
IcatlOns f h
0 t e pass
ions ,are wlthll1 Its do-
nized this vagueness as a potential advantage for instrumental music rather , .
main, It Imitates the . '
ll1flectlons 0
f d'f'
I Lerent Ianguagt:s
,, d an the rise and fall., caused
'
than a liability. The expression of the passions was seen as a more elemen- in each idiom by certain movements of the soul. It does not merely Imitate, It
tal-and thus more "natural"-form of expression. , language-lI1artlcu
speaks; and Its " I ate b ut VIVI
"d , ard en t , pa ssionate-has a hundred
Mattheson, while maintaining the traditional view of the inherent supe- times more energy than speech itself."
riority of vocal music over instrumental, nevertheless suggests that the true
Rousseau's views are based in part on the widely held that
power of music lies in the notes themselves and not in any text to which
music and langu age shared a common origin in earlier societies. Wnters of
they might be set:
the day never tired of reminding tl:eir readers that the t'"':o arts had be.en
If I hear a solemn symphony in church, a devout shudder comes over me; if a strong virtually indistinguishable in claSSICal Greece . , Rousseau s s?eClfic POll1t
choir of instruments joins in, it arouses a great admiration ill me; if the organ begins here, however, is that melody, in the guise of l11artlculate cnes, preceded
to roar and thunder, a divine fear grows in me; and if everything closes with a joyful articulate language . As such, it is closer to the essence of human nature and
Hallelujah, my heart jumps within my body, even if I do not know the meaning of therefore superior. .
this or any other word, be it due to the distance [from which I hear it] or for other In the Introduction to his Allgemeine Geschicilte der MI./Slk of 17 88 , Johann
reasons-indeed, even if there were no words at all , merely through the contribution Nikolaus Forkel makes a similar distinction between the musical language
of the instruments and the speaking sonorities. "
of sentiments and the verbal language of ideas. Music is
In his celebrated and influential Les beallx arts reduits d 1111 meme pril1cipe of a universal language of sentiments . , . whose scope can be and in fact ,is as great as
1746, Batteux, in turn, identifies three means by which man can express his the scope of a developed language of ideas, In a language of Ideas, the highest degree
ideas and feelings: word, tone, and The first of these is the most of development 'is manifested in an abundance of expressions for pOSSible
specific; but the latter two are in many respects the more powerful. Music thoughts and their concomitant relationships; in c?rrectness and order 111 the con-
and gesture, because they lie "closer to the heart," transcend the conven- catenation of these thoughts with one another; and 111 the POSSIbilIty of mal1lpuiatll1g
tiona I languages of individual nationalities, and in this sense are superior to and using all these expressions according to the various ends and goals that an orator
verbal language: can bring to bear upon them . In just this manner, the language of notes must also
have (1) an abundance of combinations among notes; (2) correctness and order 111
I have cited the word first because it possesses the highest rank and because it is the concatenation of the same; and (3) a specific goal. These are the three chief
ordinarily given the most attention. Nevertheless, the tones of the voice and ges- characteristics of a true, good, and authentic musicY
tures have many advantages over the word. Their use is more natural; we have
recourse to thenl when words fail us. Moreover, they are a universal interpreter that . Once again, an anecdote reported by one of Haydn'S early
can take us to the ends of the earth and render us intelligible to the most barbaric sums up a broader attitude of the times. When Haydn was plannmg hiS fIrst
nations and even to animals. Finally, they are devoted to sentiment in a special man-

53. Charles Batteux, Les beaux arts rtduits a IHI l1Ieme principe (Paris: Durand, 174 6),
5 I. This image, often attributed to Goethe, is in fact part of a much older tradition that pp. 253- 2 55. ". ' " 1 .
54 . Jean-Jacques Rousseau, "Essai sur l'origine des langues, 111 hIS Emls SlIr a muslque
has been traced back as far as 1773 . See Ludwig Finscher, Sludiell zur Gesehie/rle des Slreie/r-
quarlells (Kassel: Barenreiter, 1974), pp. 285-289. (Paris: Stock, 1979), p. 229·
52. Mattheson, Capel/meisler, pp. 208-209, 55, Forkel, Allgemeine Geselliellte, I, 19·

6(
n l ._ .. _
visit to England, he was nearing the age of sixty and had traveled very little Rhetoric, then, is at least in part an aesthetic category. Mu:ical grammar,
in his life. Although warned by his friends about the hazards of travel, he as Gotthilf Samuel Stein bart points out, can ensure the techmcal correctness
would not be dissuaded from his trip. According to Dies, it was Mozart of a work, but not its aesthetic value:
who finally pointed out to the elder composer: "You have had no training
. compositIons
[One often] says of mUSICal .. t hat th ey are cor rect in their construction
for the wide world, and you speak too few languages." "Oh!" Haydn is said
to have replied, "my language is understood throughout the entire world."5 6 [Satz] . . appears m
lf nothmg . them t hat wou Id beo firLen s've I to the ear or contrary. ,to
the rules of harmony, even If In suc pIeces t ere IS 0 en neither melody
.. h ' h . ft · , nor spmt.
Regardless of the anecdote's authenticity, its very formulation reflects the ' pomt
According to thIS . of VIew,. the Satz'IS not h'mg 0 th er than that whIch grammar
,
broader belief of the Classical era that musiC-including even purely instru- is in language. A person can speak clearly and correctly as far as grammar IS con-
mental music-was a language. The myth of music as a "universal lan- cerned, and yet say nothing that is worthy of our attention.'S
guage" has of course long since been exposed, but the very recognition of
instrumental music as a language in its own right is one of the most signif- Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg makes a similar distinction between
icant developments in musical thought over the course of the elghteenth which deals with the actual "application" (Ausiibung) and "concatenatIOn
century. The precise nature of this language was (and still is) a matter of (Zusammensetzung) of notes in the process of composition, al:d
ongoing debate, but by the end of the century there was no longer any which in its turn explains the more mechanical "rules of rhetOrIcal mUSIc. '
question that its power could rival and in some respects even surpass the This distinction between the mechanical rules of grammar and the more
capacities of conventional, verbal language. aesthetic qualities of rhetoric recurs throughout the writings of ei.ghteenth-
This gradual change laid the foundation for the rhetorical concept of century music theorists and aestheticians. It is also one o,f the mam
form. For the parallels that were perceived to exist between music and lan- why so few musical treatises of the Classical era deal with the questIon of
guage did not end with their common function: they extended to issues of how one can construct a movement-length work into the shape of an aes-
form as well. thetically satisfying whole. Other aspects of the art-notation,
harmony, counterpoint-lend themselves far more readIly to dlstmctlOns
between correct and incorrect practice. But insofar as treatIses on. these sub-
jects present a body of more or less fixed rules, they are al}, essentIally gram-
Musical Grammar and Musical Rhetoric mars of music. And while Koch is absolutely correct that a great d.eal
Within the conceptual metaphor of music as a language, eighteenth-century rhetoric may be found scattered here and therein writings on 111

theorists and aestheticians recognized that the language of music had its writings devoted to the fine arts in general," he is correct 111 P01?tll1 g
Own grammar and rhetoric. Much of the basic terminology used to describe out that there are no systematic treatments of musIcal rhetOrIc. Forkel s
music reflects the traditionally close historical association between the ver- count to be considered later in this chapter, comes closer to a systematIC
bal and the musical arts. Meter, rhythm, cadence, period, theme, even com- of the subject than any other, but his presentation is only an out-
position: all of these terms are grammatical or rhetorical in origin. 57 line and necessarily lacking in detail. ..
In both verbal and musical language, grammar encompasses the rules of Koch was not the first to express disappointment at thIS lopSIded state of
composition, the manner in which a discourse can be constructed in a tech- affairs, in which the grammar of music was an object of trea-
nically correct fashion. Rhetoric, on the other hand, cannot be codified tises while rhetoric garnered only scant notice. An anonymous reVIew of
nearly so precisely or categorized according to correct or incorrect proce- Christian Kalkbrenner's Theorie der Tonkunst (1789) takes the author to
dures. A work can be considered rhetorically "correct" only to the extent for not presenting more material on the rhetoric of music and concentratll1g
that it is persuasive: two listeners can easily disagree as to.
whether a particular oration has been persuasive or not. In spite of rhetoric's 58. Steinbart, Crlllldbegriffe zlIr Pizilosophie iiber dell Cescizmack . Heji, welches
many precepts, the listener, in the end, is the only true arbiter. allgemeilIe Theorie samtficher sciziinm KiillSte, lIlld die besolldere Theone der Tonklillst wtlzalt
(Ziillichau: Waysenhaus- und Frommanische 1785), p. 192. ,
59· M arpur,g Allranosgriinde
'J' <,
dey rlzeorctiscl!ell M'lslk (LeIpZIg: , J, G. I.bBreltkopf,
e d ' A1757),
56. Dies, Biograplzische NacJlric/lfen, pp. 77-78 .
S · 'I distinctions between musical grammar and rhetOriC may e lOun JI1 ugust
57· For a more detailed discussion of terminological borrowings from rhetoric, see p. 2 . Iml ar ) " 'd 411
Gurlitt, "Musik und Rhetorik," p . 65. F. C. Kollmann, A New Theory of Mlisical Harmony (London: Autho,r, 1806 , p. I, I em, '
Essay Oil Practical Mlisical Compositioll, 2nd ed., p , v; and other treatIses, cited below.

68 WORDLESS RHET()lnr
instead on such issues as periodicity, the use of figures, and the distinction
me that one could thro w a good deal of li ght on this subj ect by :onsidering
among various styles, topics already "known to every amateur who wishes
from
to the perspective
. of pamtmg
. . an d eIoquence, par t'ICU Iarly poetic eloquence. •
to judge the art correctly."60 Joh an n Adam Hiller had similarly noted several
years before that This distinction between the m echanical and rhetorical elements of music
brings us closer to the connectIons. b etween r h ' and
etonc . form . Koch asso-f
as valuable as mathematical, arithmetical, and system atic know ledges may be in and
of themselves, it is nevertheless to be '.vished that less fuss be made about such ciates the "formal" elements of music w ith " the to create works 0
things; and that one should not thrust so much of them upon music to wa rd its music"; an idea is " formal" in the sense that it deals with how a composer
putative illumination . For to conceive of notes as quantities; to represent thei r rela- actually brings forth-forms or formu Iates-a wor. k This. process. ' ultl- d
tions in lines and numbers; to wrap intervals, like a thread, into a ball-this is a far mately based on the act of inver/tio (Erfilldul1g), is the prov1l1ce of genIUS an
cry from that which is required to bring forth a good melody and clean harmony. cannot be taught. 65 The "material" elements of music, on othe: hand,
It would be better to cultivate the rhetorical or aesthetic part of music more, and to constitute "a science that can be taught and learned ." In practice, body
cultivate it more diligently, just as capable men have already done with music's of knowledge should be divided into two parts, grammar and rhetor.lc; but
grammatical part. 6 '
because the available writings on rhetoric are so fra g mentary and dI verse,
Stefano Arteaga voiced similar complaints in his L e rivolu z ioni del teatro rhetoric is most often treated in conjunction with grammar. There are, as
musicale italiallo of the mid-1780s. Teachers feel satisfied with themselves if Koch observes, virtually no works dealing specifically with . that aspect of
they have taught their pupils the basics o f harmony and musical accori1pa- composition dependent upon genius, "unless one to 1l1clude w orks
niment, Arteaga poin ts out; but this is really no thing more than "the g ram- on aesthetics . . ."66 Rhetoric, in this view, is a medlat1l1g element
mar of music," w hich is "more concerned with not com mitting errors than the teachable and the unteachable, between the mechanical and the aesthetJc.
with producing something truly beautiful." Such methods do not teach stu- In spite of its subordinate role, the importance of gra m.mar as a baSIS for
dents "the rhetoric of the art. "62 aesthetics should not be underestimated. Grammar pro:l)des a foundatIOn
In France, Fran<;ois Arnaud had announced a treatise on the rhetoric of for all the rhetorical arts : a work must be correct before It can be eloquent.
music as early as 1754, proposing to show th at rhetoric could serve as a In linguistic terms, grammar encompasses both morpholo gy-the
common ground between two factions: that m ajority of artists who consid- stru ction of individual words-and syntax, the arrangement of the.se 1I1dl-
ered composition to be a m atter of instinct and habit and who never spoke 'd al words into the larger units of phrase and sentence. Syntax, 111
VI u . d' .d I f
of anything other than music's "grammatical part, " and those philosophes "is closely allied to the practice of punctuation, by which 111 IVI u.a UnIts 0 ."
concerned only with mu sic's "proportions, combinations, and mysteries, in thou g ht are set off and related to one anothe.r. Mu sical grammar, 1I1.the
a word, its scientific part. "6J of eighteenth-century theorists, follow s thIS same p attern. It beg1l1s.
. But nothing would ever come of Arnaud 's project, and d'Alembert later individual notes and chords, which join to form small-scale umts, whIch 111
expressed regret that the proposal had remained unfulfilled. Such a treatise, turn combine to form units of ever-increasing size. . .
as d'Aiembert pointed out, was This concept of periodicity-smaIl-scale units concatenated 1l1to l11creas-
ingly larger ones-provides a key link between the and rhetor.lC
greatly needed, as up to the present, one has written almost exclusively about the of bo th language and music. On the smallest falls .wlth1l1
mechanics of this art, that is to say, about its material part. There has been almost the realm of syntax, for it is concerned with the of bnef and
nothing said regarding taste and expression that one could call intellectual. It seems relatively discrete units. On the largest scale, it into the broader Id.ea
of rhetoric, for it addresses the totality of an oratIon or movement, that IS,
60. Anonymous, revi ew of Kalkbrenner, Tiz eorie der TOl/klll/st (Berlin: Hummel, 17 9) ,
Mllsikaliscize Real-Zeitllng , 9 June 1790, col. 178. 8
6.1. Hiller, preface to Georg Friedrich Lingk c's Kllrze Mllsiklelzre (Leipzig: J. G. r. 64. Jea n Lerond d ' Alembert. " Frag ment sur l' o pera" (undated, probabl y from the hte
Brenkopf, 1779) , p. vii. 1750s), in hi s Oel/l/reS et correspolldallccs ill<'dites, pp . 157- 1 58 . " . ,
62. Arteaga, Le rivvlllziol/i del teatro IIIlIsicale italial1o, vol. 2 (Bologna: Carlo Trcnti, 65. Koch , Mllsikaliscizes L ex ikoll, "Komposition, Setzkunst. Th: eighteenth ce lHury s
'7 8 5), p. 79· theory of the compos iti onal process, dealing with the conce pts of IIWeI1/ lO, dlSposztlO, and
63 . Arnaud , " Lettre sur la Musique, a M. Ie Comte de Caylus" (1754), inJcan Benj amin elaboratio wi ll be dealt wi th in more detad bel ow.
de Laborde, Essa i sllr la I11l1 siqlle al/ciell/le et lIIodenle, 4 vols. (Paris: Onfroy, 17 ), III , 55 1. 66. ". '.. o r the musical novel Hild ega rd vo n Hoh en thal" (ibid.) . H einse's n ove l pro-
80
vides a framework for a se ri es o f aes th etic di sco ur ses by its various ch arac ters.

) \
'--_ _ __ 70 D L E S_S "-R-'H'-"
--' E'-'T'-'O
>Lll
R.J..I.... _ __ __ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ ._ _ __ _
the ordering and disposition of all the periods that together constitute the music somewhat resembles an oration, or rather, it is the oration that resembles the
whole. Forkel makes this point in the introduction to his Allgemeine piece of music: for harmony, rhythm, meter, and the other similar things that a
Geschichte of 1788: skilled orator observes in the composition of his works belong more naturally to
music than to rhetoric. Be this as it may, just as an oration has its whole, composed
In concatenating musical expressions into a coherent whole, one must attend to two most often of many sections; as each section is composed ofsentences [periodes!,
points in particular: first, the connection of individual notes and chords into indi- each of which in turn has its own complete meaning; as each of these sentences IS
vidual phrases, and second, the successive connection of multiple phrases ... The composed of phrases [membres), these phrases of words, and the words of letters-:-
precepts for joining individual notes and chords into individual phrases are part of so, in the same way, does the melody of a piece of music have its whole, whIch IS
musical grammar, just as the precepts for joining multiple individual phrases are a always composed of several reprises. Each reprise is composed of[ units demarcated
part of musical rhetoric. 6 ) by) cadences, each of which has its own complete sense, and which often constitute
the sentences [periodes] of the melody. These units are often composed of phrases;
Forkel, along with other writers, suggests that grammar and rhetoric, al-
the phrases of measures, and the measures of notes. Thus, the notes correspond to
though closely related, operate on different hierarchical levels and maintain
letters, the measures to words, the [units demarcated by) cadences to sentences, the
their own distinct qualities. While grammar provides the essential building reprises to parts [parties). and the whole to the whole. But these divisions within the
blocks of music, it is rhetoric that governs the large-scale concatenation of melody are not perceived by all those who hear someone singing or playing on an
these units into a complete movement-or as Koch would put it, the man- instrument. With the exception of those [divisions) that are so obvious that everyone
ner in which "individual melodic sections are united into a whole." can grasp them, one must know the idiom in order to hear them; nevertheless, they
Periodicity is treated in a variety of eighteenth-century sources, and while are marked in the tablature by the bar-lines that separate the measures and by several
theorists almost inevitably disagree on matters of detail and terminology, other characters, each of which I shall discuss in its proper place. 69
there is consensus on several basic points. 68 All authors stress that a hier-
Johann Mattheson, in his Kem melodischer Wissenschafi of 1737, and then
archy of cadences articulates various degrees of rest within a melody: au-
again in Der vollkommene Capellmeister of 1739, provides a detailed account
thentic cadences are generally reserved for the conclusion of a major section
of "The Sections and Incisions within a Musical Oration" ("Von den Ab-
or an entire movement, while half, deceptive, and inconclusive cadences und Einschnitten der Klang-Rede"): "Every proposition, oral or written,
articulate closures of ever-decreasing strength and importance. Almost
consists ... of certain word-sentences or periods; but every such sentence
every writer makes some kind of comparison between this hierarchy of
in turn consists of smaller incisions up to the division [punctuated by] a
cadences and the conventions of verbal punctuation: the full, authentic ca- period. 'o-ut of such sentences grows an entire concatenation or paragraph,
dence is the equ'ivalent of a period; the half cadence is like a colon or semi-
and from various such paragraphs grows ultimately a lnain section or a
colon; and weaker points of articulation are analogous to commas. There '
chapter."7 o Musical compositions exhibit the same hierarchy of articula-
is, moreover, a consistent emphasis on the underlying need for such points tions. A "Period us," for example, is "a brief statement that incorporates a
of articulation. Without them, individual phrases would be indistinguisha- full idea or a complete verbal sense in itself. Now whatever does not do
ble from one another; a movement consisting of unintelligible phrases this, but instead includes less than this, is not a period, not a sentence; and
would be unintelligible as a whole. And the ease with which a work's ideas whatever does more than this is a paragraph, which can and by all rights
be comprehended by the listener is one of the most important qualities should consist of various periods."7 1 This definition of "Periodus," as
In any rhetorical art. The effective expression of ideas and the concomitant
Mattheson himself acknowledges, is derived from Quintilian, whose for-
arousal of sentiments both rest upon the ability of the orator or composer mulation was in fact the basis for most contemporary definitions of a sen-
to articulate the constituent elements of their respective arguments. tence. 72
Saint-lambert's Principes du clavecin of 1702 includes the earliest extended
application of the imagery of verbal punctuation for musical periodicity in
a purely instrumental work:
69. M, de Saint-Lambert, Les prillcipes dIJ claJJecill (Paris: Christophe Ballard, 1702),
The melody of a piece is not composed without order and reason; it is made up of pp, 14- 1 5,

many small segments, each of which has its own complete sense; and a piece of 70. Mattheson, Capell meister, p, 18 L
71. Ibid., p, 182.
72, Ibid" p. 183. See, for example, Johann Christoph Gottsched, Versueil eiller eritiseilm
67· Forkel, Allgemeine Gesehiehte, I, 21. Diciltkllllst (Leipzig: B, C. Breitkopf, 1730) , p. 235: "a brief oration, incorporating one or
68. For recent summaries of these ideas, see above, Chapter I, note 21. more ideas, and which provides a complete sense in and of itself."

. 7 ,. w n n n r J: t;;:: (' n _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __
Smaller u.nits, as Mattheson goes on to explain, are articulated by points
of punctuation comparable to the comma and the colon. Using an aria as it is immediately apparent to everyone that the most moving melody would be
an example, Mattheson derives the musical "resting points," logically completely stripped of all its power and expression if one note after another were
performed without precise regulation of speed , without accents, and without resting
from the sense of the text to be set. By relating the disposition of
points, even if performed with the strictest observance of pitch. Even common [i.e.,
mUSIcal cadences to the text, Mattheson continues a long tradition going
verbal, as opposed to musical] speech would become partly incomprehensible and
back as far as monophonic chant and extending throughout the Renaissance
completely disagreeable if a proper measure of speed were not observed in the de-
and Baroque. Zarlino, writing in 1558, had already observed that the "ca- livery, if the words were not separated from one another by the accents associated
dence is of equal value in music as the period in oratory," and that "the with the length and brevity of the syllables, and finally if the phrases and sentences
period in the text [to be set to music] and the cadence should coincide."7) were not differentiatcd by resting points. Such a lifeless delivery would make the
Mattheson, however, goes on to note that purely instrumental music most beautiful speech sound no better than the letter-by-lettcr reading of children.
must follow these same principles of articulation. Instrumental music Thus tempo, meter, and rhythm give melody its life and power ... Melody is
"without the aid of words and voices, strives to say just as much" as vocai transfo rmed into a comprehensible and stimulating oration by the proper combi-
music. Mattheson's subsequent account of instrumental genres includes nu- nation of these three things. 7"
merous references to the articulation of sentences, paragraphs, and the These factors combine to make individual units within a movement un-
like. 74
derstandable, and the same process applies to the larger-scale ordering of
These same ideas of periodicity appear repeatedly throughout the eigh- these units:
teenth century as part of almost all contemporary accounts of movement-
length form. This is largely in response to important changes in musical In speech one comprehends the meaning only at the end of a sent_ence and is more
style that are characterized by units of increasingly smaller size and slower or less satisfied by it depending on whether this meaning establishes a more or less
harmonic rhythm: short, more or less symmetrical phrases replace the long, complete statement. The same is true in music. Not until a succession of connected
notes reaches a point of rest at which the ear is somewhat satisfied does it compre-
spun-?ut melodIes of earlier generations. While this kind of periodic con-
hend these notes as a small whole; before this, the car perceives no meaning and is
structIon was by no means a new technique in the second half of the eio-h-
anxious to understand what this succession of notes really wants to say. However,
teenth century, it did achieve unprecedented prominence at this time. b
if a noticeable break does occur after a mod erately long succession of connected
No single theorist is particularly succinct in presenting these various ele- notes (providing thc ear with a s.mall resting point and concluding the rileaning of
periodicity, and the problem of terminology further confuses the the phrase), then the ear ;11 these notes into a comprehensible unit.
Issue. KIrnberger, writing in Sulzer's Allgemeine TheOl"ie, recognized this This break or resting point can be achieved either by a complete cadence or sim-
at the time, noting that "the names one gives to the smaller and larger ply by a melodic close with a restful harmony, without a close in the bass. In the
sectIOns of a melod.y have been somewhat indefinite up to now. One speaks first case, we have a complete musical statement that in the mclody is equivalent to
of Penoden, Eil1schnitten, Rhythmen, Ciisuren, etc., in such a way a full sentence in speech, after which a period is placed. But in the other case, we
that one word sometImes has two meanings and two different words some- have a phrase that is indeed comprehensible, yet after which another or several more
times the same meaning."75 phrases are expected to complete the meaning of the period . 77
. these basic ideas are present, with varying degrees of clar- A "series of such periods, of which only the last closes in the main key,
Ity, ll1 VIrtually all contemporary aCCOunts that attempt to describe how a (orms a single composition," and a cadence in the tonic signals the end of
composer actually goes about constructing a work of music. And these ac- "the complete musical oration" (die ganze lI1usikalische Rede). 78
almost invariably emphasize the central importance of intelligibility. One of the most extensive eighteenth-century accounts of periodicity ap-
In hIS Kunst des reinen Satzes, Kirnberger observes that pears in the first and second volumes of Joseph Riepel's Anjimgsgriinde zur

73· Gioseffo Zarlino, Le istitl/tiolli "a,.mollielle (Venice, 155 8), p. 221. 76 . Kirnb erger, Die KIII/st des ,.eillell Satzes ill de,. MI/sik, 2 vols. (Berlin and Konigsberg:
74· Mattheson, Capdll11eister, p. 209. On musical punctuation, see ibid., pp. 224- 2 34. G. ]. Decker and G. L. Hartung, 1771-1779), pt. 2, sct. 1, p. lOS. Translation adapted from
Sulzer, Allgel11ell1e T/zeorie, "Einschnitt (Musik)." See also Koch Musikalisc/zes Da vid Beach and]urgen Thym 's edition, The Art 0.( Strict Mllsical Compositiol1 (New Haven:
Lexlkoll, "Periode'" and Carl D hlh
S ". . ' .. . a. aus,
"s atz un d Peno. de: Zur Theo ne.der' I11uslkahschen
. . Yale University Press, 1982), p. 375 .
yntax, Zelfsc/zriftjl/r MlIslkr/zeone, 9 (1978), issue 2, pp. 16-26. 77. Ibid ., p. 138. Translation adapted from Beach and Thym's edition, pp. 404-405.
78. Ibid. , p. 139.

-,
74 WORDLESS RHETORIC
,
t ··
3lternativc predicates
subj ect
musicalischen Setzkunst (1752-1755). Riepe! presents composition essentially
as a process of expansion: small phrases grow into larger ones, which in
turn combine with other units to produce a movement-length whole. The
composer can begin with a unit between two and nine measures in length,
but a unit with an even number of measures-particularly two and four-
is by far the most common. Regardless of its size, this basic unit can be 2.2 Koch, Versuch, II , 353
expanded by the techniques of repetition , extension, interpolation, and a
"doubling of cadences," that is, a varied repetition of a closing formula.
Again, even- numbered units predominate in practice, as groupings of f Koch's approach to
This very simple example incorporates the essence 0 b I d-
"four, eight, sixteen, and even thirty-two measures are so rooted in our . b·· plemented Y t 1e pre
eriodicity. A two-measure umt, the su IS com . ·t
nature, that it seems difficult to listen (with pleasure) to a different arrange- P . Th Itll1g four-measure um ,
.cate a succeeding unit of the sa me SIze. e resu .
ment."79 The relative strength _of closure for any given unit is de'termined g
1· tu'rn can be expanded through juxtaposition with related or conftrastm
1n , Th· ocess 0 expan-
by the orits cadence. A perfect -tonic cadence is ordinarily reserved
units into a still larger unit of eight measures. IS same pr I r t
for the end of a movement , while a dominant cadence normally articulates sion, concatenating eight- and sixteen-measure units, ultimate y app 1es 0
an internal resting point of some kind. Cadences on other scale degrees are the construction of a movement-length whole as well. .
correspondingly weaker. In this sense, the various units that constitute a The intelligibility of a complete movement depends on the clear artICU-
movement are set off from one another both harmonically and rhythmi-
lation of large-scale units from one another:
cally. 80
. . ·bl
ying degrees are generally
Koch adopted this same basic outlook some thirty years later, and his Certain resting fine arts attain their
account of perio dicity is by far the most comprehensive of his time. Koch's necessa ry 111 ua e namely poetry and rhetoric, if the subject they present 15 to
techniques of expansion are derived from Riepel (repetition, extension, and
resting points of the spirit are just as
doubling of cadences), but he goes into considerably more detail in explain- if it is to affect our feelings. This is a fact whlCh has never yet een c
ing how these units can be combined into increasingly larger forms, and he
uestion and therefore requires no further proof. , . - . . roducts
relies much more heavily on rhetorical imagery than does Riepel. When q By means of these variously perceptible resting pOll1ts of the Splflt, ther. p
Koch first introduces the concept of periodicity, he compares a short verbal of these fine arts can be broken up into large r and smaller units. Speech, _ or exam=
y
sentence (enger Satz) to a short musical sentence. Both have a subject and a ie breaks down into various sections [Periodellj through the most[ rfeadill percte P
P , _ hid-I erceptlble 0 t lese res 111 g
predicate (Example 2. I) . The former establishes the "main idea" of the sen- tible of these resting POll1ts; through t e ess rea I y P [S ··t e] and parts of
tence, while the latter gives it a "certain direction , a certain mood. " The - - b k d - to separate sentences a z
points], a sectIOn, 111 turn, rea sown 111 - - be broken up into
nature of the sentence as a whole, then, is established by the subject, but speech. And just as in speech, the melody of a composition can
can be modified by the use alternative predicates (Example 2.2) . Both sub-
ject and predicate can be expanded by means of elaboration (Example 2.3).
expanded subject

I
\

-
'>.

, ,
predicate
I
1>1 J 1 r I' j JJj I r E j I t? r (fir 1 F f' 8fl
P J 1FI' +891 Fr FIG 0F" p1FJ ±J
* G8 r·
expanded predicate

G8 a @
I
2. I Koch, Versuch, II, 352
, J f' 1 d
79· Riepe!, AII!allgsgriillde . . . De rhytlzlnopoefa, p. 23.
I> p 1 r
80. Riep e!'s concept of periodicity is described in g reater detail in the works cited in Koch, Versllch, II, 355
2-3
Chapter I, note 2 I.

76 WORDLESS RHETORIC
sections by means of ana logous resting points of the spirit, and these, again in turn, Therefore one may call the passage contained between twO cadences a musical
into individual phrases [eh,zel,1e Sa·/ze ] and melodic segments [melodische Theile]." sentence ...
In sum. a composition written precisely according to the fundamental rules of
This structural principle is evident throughout the repertoire of the Classical music is a discourse that is occasionally elegant but that neither moves nor persuades
era. At one point in his treatise, Koch even reproduces a reduced score of [the listener]; expressive music is an eloquent discourse that triumphs over the spirit
almost the entire second movement from Haydn's Symphony No. 42, using of its audience. Sf,
this Andante as a paradigm of the manner in which phrases can be extended,
repeated, combined, and articulated. 81 And in one of the few theoretical treatises published in Vienna during the
The importance of these articulations for the performer is addressed in C lassical era, Johann Friedrich Daube noted that "the entire musical move-
several of the eighteenth century's most important manuals on instrumental ment must consist above all of certain main sections, which in turn can be
technique. In his Violil15chule of I756, Leopold Mozart enjoins violinists to broken down into smaller subsidiary sections or elements, if the movement
7
observe the Abschl1itte and Eil1schnitte of melody, adding that composers and is to elicit a good effect. The alternation of harmony also belongs here." 8
performers alike should be sensitive to the il1cisiolles observed by grammar- Elsewhere, Daube urged composers to apply "judicious incisions, resting
ians and rhetoricians . 81 Daniel Gottlob Turk, in his Klavierschule of 1789, points, etc.," along with "good alternation of the rushing and the cantabile,
similarly notes that it is not enough for the composer alone to articulate the or, to use the language of painting, of light and shadow. And in all of this,
various sections of a composition: it is incumbent upon the performer to the rules of rhetoric must be taken into account." 88 In a later treatise, Daube
bring out the hierarchy of these divisions in his own playing. Otherwise, encouraged composers to study carefully the works of great orators, in-
the weight and clarity of the individual units will be unintelligible to the cluding Cicero, Horace, and Seneca, and to emulate them in questions of
listener. 84 Quantz, almost forty years earlier, had· already pointed to the ad- "symmetry" and the "relationship of all a work's parts."8 9
vantage of the performer's understanding the rhetorical art, invoking a still The concept of periodicity offers an essentially generative approach to the
earlier, complementary idea, borrowed from Quintilian: that the orator has question of form, with small- scale units expanding into larger ones. But
much to learn from the musician. 85 Mattheson and other subsequent theorists, including Koch, sensed that this
The central importance of periodicity and its correlative for the listener- approach alone would not suffice to explain the multiplicity of movement-
intelligibility-were emphasized repeatedly throughout the century and length forms then current. While the mechanics of constructing small-scale
across the continent in numerous accounts oflarge-scale form. The Spanish units could be (and were) described in relatively straightforward fashion,
theorist Antonio Eximeno, writing in 1774, argued that the creation of large-scale forms out of smaller units had long been consid-
ered a more difficult matter, in music as in rhetoric. Sulzer is typical of
with cadences one creates musical sentences , as in a discourse with periods and many other writers in pointing out that
commas. One ends a [musical] sentence with a perfect cadence as with a period.
the art of periodizing well is one of the most difficult elements in all of elo-
quence . .. Everything else can be attained more easily than this, through natural
8 I. Koch , Versuch, II, 342. Translation adapted from Nancy K. Baker's edition, Ilitro-
gifts and without back-breaking study. Work, industry, much deliberation. and
ductory Essay 011 Compositioll: The Mechallical Rilles oj Melody, Sections 3 and 4 (New Haven: great strength in language are required for this. It does not seem possible to provide
Yale University Press, 1983) , p. I. Koch's repeated references to the RlIhepllllcle des Geistes methodical instruction in this area. The best that one could do in educating the
may reflect an earlier association of Geist with "breath" (Latin, spiritlls). orator in this area would be to provide him with a well-arranged collection of the
82. Koch, Verst/eh, III, 179-190. See Sisman's essay, cited in Chapter I, note 21.
83· Leopold Mozart, Versuch eiller griilldlici1e11 Violinsclwle (Augsburg: J. J. Lotter, 1756),
pp . 107-108.
84 · Tiirk, Klavierschule (Leipzig: Schwickert, 1789), pp. 343-344 . 86. Eximeno. Dell'origi/le e delle regole della /Ill/sica (Rome : M. Barbiellini. 1774). pp. 57-
85· Quantz, Versuch einer Alllveislmg, p. 100; Quintilian, Institlltio oratorio, I.X .22-23 . 58 . See also William Jones. A Treatise on the Art oj MI/sic (Colchester: Author. 17 84),
See also. Schubart, Ideen zu einer Asthetik der TOt/kIlIlSt, p. 375: "The composer must know pp. i. 46.
everythmg that the poet and orator know." In his Elemellte der Rede: Die Gesehichte ihrrr 87. Daube. De.- 1I111sikaliscile Dilellallt: Ei,le AbiJOIldll/ng der Kompositioll (Vienna: Trattner.
Theorie i" Deutsch/mId vall 1750 his 1850 (Halle/Salle: Max Niemeyer. 1931). pp. 83-102. 1773). p. 82.
Klaus Wmkler points out that the parallels between music and rhetoric particularly ora- 88. Daube. Der mllsikalische Diletta/lt: EillC WociJetl schrifi (Vienna: J. Kurtzbocken. 1770 ).
torica l delivery. became especially important in German manuals of between 1790 pp.IO-II.
and 1820. 89. Daube. AlIleitllllg zlIr Erjilldllllg der Melodie, II. 58.

, )
best periods, ordered according to the varying character of their contents, and to It should be emphasized that this very brief summary is a composite
show him the value of each through th eir thorou g h dissection. YO drawn from a number of different schemes proposed by a variety of writers
throughout the eighteenth century. 9 1 Among music theoris ts, Mattheson
Among music theorists, the concatenation of individual units into a larger
alone pres ents at least three different versions over a period of some sixteen
whole could help to explain the construction of movement-length forms ,
yea rs . 9 2 Other writers extend the imagery to include the performance of the
but only up to a point. Neither Mattheson nor Koch, significantly enough,
work as well, but this stage lies beyond the compositional process itself an d
was content to conclude his of large-scale form with a discussion
need not be considered here. Yet w hile the terminology may be far from
of periodicity. For while this principle emphasizes the fundamental similar-
uniform, the basic concepts are quite consist'ent throughout the century.
ities among disparate stereotypical patterns, it cannot adequately account
Two points stand out consistently: (1) Form must be comprehensible if a
for their differences . Periodicity, moreover, focuses primarily on the artic-
work is to achieve its goal of moving the audience's pass ions . Large-scale
ulation of ideas, as opposed to the aesthetic coherence of the ideas them-
intelligibility is a prerequisite for any composition that is to penetrate the
selves over the course of an entire movement. It emphasizes" in other
mind and move the spirit of the listener. (2) The process of ordering, elab-
words, the framework of articulation at the expense of that which is to be
orating, and shaping ideas in an effective manner can be taught-this, in-
articulated. Mattheson, Koch, and others viewed form not so much as a
deed, is one of the basic premises of the discipline the pro-
process of articulation-critical as that process may be for intelligibility-
cess of creating these ideas C3nnot. A composition, as Mattheson notes in
but as a process of elaboration. The eighteenth century's theory of the com-
his Das neu-eroffiwe Orchester of 17 1 3,
positional process provides the conceptual context for this idea of form.
1 demands three elements: Inventio (Erfil1dung), Elaboratio (Ausarbeitung), Execucio
l (AusfiUmll1g o r A uffiih rung) , w hich together represent a rather close relationship to

Rhetoric and the Theory of the Compositional Process


! oratory or rh e toric. The las t two elements can be learned ; th e m anner of learning
the fir st ha s never occurred to any diligent m aste r, but rather, so to speak, only to
larcenou s pupils ... 9J
"Composition," as noted earlier, is one of the many terms that music has
borrowed from rhetoric. And in eighteenth-century accounts of musical
form, the manner in w hich a composer "puts together" his work is per-
ceived as analogous to the manner in which an orator constructs an oration.
I
1
Scheibe, in his characteristically more concise fashion, confirms that "we
can give no rules for invention, whereas we can appropriately reduce, ex-
pand, and bring into general ord er that which has already been invented ."94
The final products of thes e two in turn , exhibit close structural There are, to be sure, numerous techniques to aid the composer in the pro-
similarities.
Throughout the eighteenth century, the act of composition, both for I 9 1. Mattheson, Varrede to Capelllllcistcr, pp . 25-26, an d text, pp. 121-IP, 235-244;
rhetoric and for music, is seen as an essentially three-sta ge process. The first
step is what German writers call the Erfilldung or creation (inverztio) of basic
II Meinrad Spiess, Tractaflls mllsicus wmposiforio-practiws (Augs bllrg: J. J. Lotters Erben, 174 5),
pp. 133- 135; Ernst Gottlieb Baron, Abriss ciller Abhmldiling von del' Melodie (Berlin: A.
Haude & J . C. Spener, 175 6) , pp. 8- 9 ; Ign atz Franz Xaver Kurzinger, Gefreller Ull ferri cht
ideas . These ideas, in the rudimentary sequence of their eventual order, con- Z III1/ Sillgm mit Aialliel'm, II/Id die Violill Z II spie/ell (Augsburg: J. J. Lott er, 1763), p. 77;

stitute the Anlage or "groundplan" of the oration or musical movement.


The second step is the Anordmmg or (the dispositio or elaboratio),
in which these basic ideas (Gedanken) are ordered, elaborated, repeated, var-
I
1
,
Johann Nikolaus Forkel, Ueber die Theorie der Mllsik (Giittingen: Wittwe Vandenhiick,
1777); idem, intro . to Aligemeille Gescilicilfe, I; Sulzer, Allgemeille TheO/'ie (e.g., "Anord-
nung," "Ausarbeitung," "Instrumentalmusik"); Koch, Versllch , II, 68; idem, Mllsikaliscites
Lexikol1 ("Anlage," "Ausfiihrung." etc.); Ernst Wilhelm Wolf, Mllsikaiisciter Ulltc rriciI t
ied, and articulated in the sequence of their ultimate deployment over the (Dres den: Hilscher, 1788) , pp. 71-73. Mo st of these works will be di scus sed in grea ter
··course of an entire movement or speech. It is here that large-scale form is detail below.
determined by the orderly arrangement of discrete units; it is at this stage
that "individual melodic sections," to use Koch's terminology, are "united
I 92 . (an Bent examines some of the differences in terminolo gy between Mattheson and
Koch in "The 'Compositional Process' in Music Theory, 17 13- 18 50 ."
93· Joh ann Mattheson, Dos I1cll-eroiti,ete Orchcsfre (Hamburg: Schillers Wittwe, 17 1 3),
into a whole." In the third and final step, the Ausarbeitung (elowtio), the p. 10 4. On contemporary views of il1lJelltio, see Wulf Arlt, "Zur Handhabung der 'inventio'
orator or composer shapes all the remaining details of the argument. in der deutschen MlIsiklehre des fruhen achtzehnten Jahrhunderts," in New Mauitesoll
Sflldies , cd. George J. Buelow and Han s Joa ch im Marx (C am bridge: Cam bridge Uni ve rsi ty
Press. 1983) , pp. 371 -3 9 1.
90. Sulzer, Allgemeine Th eo rie, " Period e. " 94· Scheibe, Critischer 1I,1I1SikIlS, p. 80; see also Ko ch, Versllcit, II , 94.

\1
cess of invention, also borrowed from rhetoric, such as the loci topici and Jmples of actual works. This approach ultilll:lIriv <in ', fi .
, Iv es rom poetIcs
the various devices of ars combinatoria, by which very s mall ideas, throu g h · . Versllch
Gottsched's . . eiller . critischCll DichrlmllSl l'lll'.II' .SlIl ,'I!'l"S t1I I' S same b aSlc .'
processes of permutation, can be expanded into larger ones. In his D er voll- outhne 111 Its subtitle: ... dammcn erstlich die "I/"I'IItI';1I ., 'II /' I
' \ (gc /I (er oesle I P .
kommene Capel/meister, Mattheson himself reviewed these techniques in un- hemaciz aIle besolldere CattHlIgell der Ced;chle tI/,"d, Itl /'/1 f . E I'
.. " ".. ' ., ' " till! /lilt xempe Il
precedented detail. 95 But on the whole, the loci topici and ars combillatoria erlalltett lVelden . .. ( . .. m whIch first the gClll'l' Ii nrlc' )t-
· ' . .\ ,l poe ry, t en a II
t h
were widely recognized to be devices for beginning or struggling compos- gell res l l 'd witll e
partlcular
. . of poems . , are treated and i1hllllill
.' l xal11p /es . ,. ") .
ers. TIllS three-step process appears repea ted ly 1Il pl'li;IJ""I',icd works throu a hout
Nevertheless, these techniques do illustrate the extent to which illventio th e eIghteenth century, both for rheto ric an d. ((II' 1IIII SI'l' ' . M a ttl l Cson ,oK s em
and elaboratio are intertwined, for the former is not limited to the creation Ilt e/odisc/J er Wissellsclzajt and Koch's Versucil cilia i lll/"( C ..
. ' I zu r ompOSIIIOl1,
of a theme ex nihilo; it also incorporates the process by which an id ea can as we sh all see, are two of the more Impornlll ' 11111 .,' 1'(. l ICI ' t Ises ' t Ilat Cto II ow
be varied, including even the derivation of an apparently new idea out of this pattern.
an existing one. 96 But in the end, true invention was held to b e the province It seems all but certain, in fact that MatthesO l1 11 <, . I .
,_, ' .' ' . (( lOll temp o rary man-
of genius and thus outside the manner in which composition-including e;1i III! II 1·1
uals
.
of rhetonc
.
and poetIcs as m ethodoloui t> l S· ,-or I' lIS Kertz me I0 -
form-could be taught. dl scher WlssclIschaft· He makes at least one spccific r ·f··· I
. . . '" I llellee to t le meth od-
It is against this theory of the compositional process that Mattheson's ol ogy of such trea tIses 111 hIS dISCUSSIon of ;111'1'/1/; ) '. I
. . . . " IH)llltlllg out t 1;)t the
celebrated parallel between musical form and the six parts of an oration is subject of I/lVellt,o usually compnses the first or I I I -I· fl' I
9- ' . ) I( l 1.1 pter 0 r 1etonca
best understood. First presented in his Kem l11elodischer WisserlSchafi of I737 manuals. ' And l11 the Capel/meister, MatthesOl1 t'% I" .' I . CI' h
. , ... .. . ) I( II Y cites lnstop
and then again two years later (with minor changes and additions) in Del' \VClssenborn s Cnmdhche ElIIlelfllng zur tculscli('lf IIU" / 1 " . I C) . .
) . _ . '. ' . _ " '1II1SC 11'11 ratone IUl e
vollkommel1e Capel/meister, Mattheso n's account is one of the earliest and ye t al/eh 1 oes le ot I7 I 3 111 conjunction with the /OCI III/ lil i " i< ), ' . G I d'
. ." . . Ilit It IS ottsc l e 5
most fully developed of the va rio us attempts to relate musical form and Vet'slich eiller cntlsc/zen DIC/zti<ulIst and hI S later 1I1I '. jii/IY/· I I' rI k f
_ . . _ . It I,' \ (' C '1lI/s t that 0 -
rhetoric. Even though few subsequent writers embraced the specificity with ter the most stnklllg structural precedents for Mil II . . ' . b
. . . ' Il SO Il S treatise . Pu -
which Mattheson spelled out these connections, his basic ideas exerted a hshed III the years Ju st before the Kern, GOttsciJ!''' '' I ' I d
. . ' 11.11111;1 s, as note ear-
demonstrable influence on subsequent discussions of form throughout the irer, we re among the most comprehensIve :111<1 IIdll l(I) 1,1 wor s 0 ltlelr
' ['. / k f '
.
eighteenth century. klIld. Both works trace the process by which "111·)1 <''' 1 . f I
• . . . . - (-I e UllltS 0 . tloughr
Unfortunately, Mattheson 's treatment of large-scale form has b een can be expanded l11to larger penods , whIch ill II![ I . •
. . . I ,Ife co ncatenated lI1tO
widely misunderstood. His rhetorical imagery has often been dismi ssed as still larger sectIons; and both treatises concludr' '1' 111 - . - 'f!
. . " • . , I ,I revIew ot speC! IC
willful and idiosyncratic. It is neither. The historical importance of M atthe- genres. In hIS Cnllsche Dlchlkut1st, Gottsched CO /r,I,I'T II . C II ' .
son's account for later eighteenth-century theo rists becomes quite clear
when considered within its broad er rhetorical and pedagogical context.
Just as Mattheson's interpretation of the compositional process is framed
I
t!
_. ..
. .
(amo ng others) 111 thIS order: (1) th e character of il ,,· 1 ' 1' ( ) I
use ot ll1dlvldual words; (3) th e constructiOIl of '.J/, ' I)· I I
th e n Jture and structure of VJnous genres (o de. Id")1 ,1·
_ .

'
'. ,

..I
Ie 10 oWlllg POll1t S
"'I _, 2 t le nature an G
,llll arge peno s; (-J. )
/ , C l'gy, tra ge y com-
d
. d
'

in terms of rhetoric, his method of teaching composition is deeply rooted edy, and so on). The Ausfiihr/iche Redekunsl foIl",,;· tnlll h ' ,
. . , . el l e same pattern,
in the traditional pedagogy of rhetoric and poetics . His didactic method, From a mUSIcal perspective, Mattheson s Kern ml'/f;rii <I . "r I
' . . . (1{ r VVISSel1SClajt con-
like the process of composition itself, consists of three stages: (I) a presen- i SIders essentially these same POllltS III much th e: v, '1Jf' ' ( ) I
! .. . . .. , ,l'qlll'nce: I t le qual-
tation of rules and precepts, including the conventions of periodicity, fol- Ities th at a musIc dIrector and composer mu st f,t""., h· d I c: d -
· . . ' , .'> cyon t lC uel or
lowed by (2) a description of genres, and concluding with (3) specific ex- mUSI C; (2) the structure of musIcal peno ds; and ('r If. , d
f .
of sp eCIfic genres (chorale, ana, symphony SO II/.I' , j .
. i/ ') (: n.Jturc an
) M
structure
I does not follow the detaIls of Gottsched's outlill" >
. ' "< -. ,1/1( so on.
Ie
atthesol1
. '.

II
rI"
· . . - ," ·.I.I',l' y, lOr poetlcs and
95 · Cap el/meisler, pp. 121-132. See Leonard Ratner, "Ars Comhi,wloria: Chance and mu sIC each have theIr own peculIar eleme:nts. r) ' I if . I . _
. .. .. . " . le genera outlme or
Choi ce in Ei gh teen th-Century Music." in SI"dies i" EighlCCllth-Ccll/ury Music, ed. Roger thought IS stnkmgly SImIlar.
Chapman and H. C. Robbins Landon (Lon don: George Allen & Unwin, 1970) , pp. 343-
363; idem, Classic Mllsic, pp. 98-102; and Arlt, "Zur Handhabung der 'inventio ' ."
96. See, for example, Friedrich Andreas Hallbau er, Allwcisllllg z ur verbcsserlcII lell lscirell
Oraloric Gena: J. B. Hartun g, 1725; rpc. Kronberg: Scriptor, 1974), pp . 27[-272. I
1
97· Matthcson, Kern , p. 33; CapeI/Jllei5tCf', pp. I J 4'.
!)S. (Frankfurt / Main: C. Pohl, [71 3) ..V!arrhcsol1 '; re""
. ' ,. " . It , r;apeI/JlleislCf', p. [2:::

v \

..... .... ! : :
While Mattheson was by no means the first to comment on the parallels counts of larg e-scale form ordered according to specific genres: sermons ,
between rhetoric and musical composition, he was o ne of the first to de- 'I fun eral orations, panegyrics, and so on.
velop a theory of musical composition within a rheto ri ca l framework . Re- 1 It is highly significant th at thi s change of m ethodo logy occurs precisel y
garding periodicity, he notes so m ewhat sa rcasticall y in the K ern that " at tbe point at w hich genera tive and conformationa l approacbes to form
meet-or do not meet, as is in fact more often the case. All form s, regardless
some years ago a great poet believed that he had discovered something quite un-
of length, are concatenations of individual periods; but this alone does not
usu al: that music and oratory share an almost identical set of circumstances in this
explain the variety of ways in which these perio ds tend to be organized in
respect. What a wonder! Composers may well be ashamed that they have been so
negligent in this regard. For although so me of them, here an d there, may have come prac tice. Mattheson recognized the limitations of ex plaining form solely
upon sound ideas, guided by the light of nature, these good gentlemen have never- tbrough the concept of perio dicity, and he attempted to bridge this gap by
theless remained merely on the periphery of things and have not been able to pen- adopting the m ethodolo g y of conventional rhetoric, moving from a pre-
etrate to the core of the matter, much less to order it, eith er openly or privately, dominantly prescriptive account of periodicity to an essentially descriptive
within an appropriate artistic fashion. account of individual genres.
N ow to help us overcome thi s deficiency to at least some extent, we must make
the effort to take the hand, as it we re, of dea r Grammar and of es teemed Rhetoric
r The close connection between genre and form will be addressed later in

and Poetics. 99 I
1
this chapter; for the moment, suffice it to say that Koch, some fifty years
later, follo ws precisely thi s sa me sequence of ideas in the ' teaching of com-
j position: small-scale ideas ex panding into larger-scale units (of wJ1.!c,!:
Mattheson goes on to describe the manner in which a larger- scale unit,
the paragraph {p aragraph II 111} , is co nstructed ou t of smaller-scale units , larges t w ould b e the min uet), followed in turn by a revie \Y of genres. In
which he calls sentences {periodi}. These smaller units, in turn , are articu- . co ntras t to Mattheson , Koch incorporates considerably more details of spe-
lated internally by elements of cadential punctuation that are analogous to cifiC forms into these later discussions of genre: his most extended account
the comma, the semicolon, and the colon. On a larger sca le, the same kind of sonata form, for example, occurs within his d escription of the sym-
of punctuation also serves to articulate paragraphs from one another. In its phony. lol And while Koch returns to the concept of periodicity at the con-
hierarchical structuring of grammatical and syntactical units, Mattheson's clu sion of his treatise with so me general comments on the construction of
methodology is once again appropriated from the rhetorical manuals of the tb e first and second halves of larger forms, his acco unts of each of th ese
day. halves conclude once again w ith a re view of the procedures characteristic of
When it comes time to elucidate the co nstru ction of still larae r units ' specific genres. 10 2
1:>
ho wever-those built up out of paragrapha-Mattheson shifts gea rs, as it too, had ro unded out his discussion of genres b y returnin g
were, and adopts a new m ethodology. He abandons the units which up to to the broader principles of forms. But h is focus at this point is
that point had been the fo cus of his attention and turns instead to a discus- quite unlike Koch's. It is here in the seventh chapter of th e Kenl-"On In-
sion of genres, describing the typical construction first of vocal genres (aria, vention, Elaboration, and Embellishment in Composition"-tbat Matthe-
arioso, cantata, recitative, du et, trio, chorus, opera, oratorio , concerto, mo- son first presents his celebrated image of musiC31 form as a function of rhet-
tet, and so on), followed by instrumental genres, beginning with "a little oric. calb> the rnusical work a Kla/1grede, an ora.tion
minuet, so that everyone may see what the structure o f such a little thing direct attention to the rhetorical equivalents of dispositio, elalLQ.r4.tiQ, ._decorgtio
con sists of, when it is not a monstrosity, and so that one might learn to 1I1mUSlC:

make a sound judgment by moving from the trifling to the more impor- Regarding now the Disposition, it is, first of all, a proper orderillg oj all the Sect iOllS
tant. "lOo He then proceeds to other dance types (gavotte, rigaudon, gigue, a/ld elemellts ill th e melody, or ill all en /ire musical work, almost in the manner in which
and g O on) and concludes with the larger categories of sonata, concerto, one arranges a building and sketches out a draft or an outline, a ground-plan, in
sinfonia, and overture. This strategy is once again taken directly from man- order to show where, for example, a hall, a room, a chamber, etc., should be placed.
uals of rhetoric, in which discussions of periodicity are followed by ac- Our musical Disposition differs from the rhetorical arrangement of an ordinary [i.e.,
verbal) speech only in the subject, the matter at hand, the Object. Hence it [the
99· Mattheson, Kem, p. 71. A slightly different version of thi s p assage appears in
Capel/m eisler, p. 18 I . 101. Koch, Versruh, Ill, 304-31 I. See above, pp . 4 1-4 2 .
' p. 109. Sec a Iso Capel/meIsler,
100. Matth es on , Ke Ill, . p. 224. 102. Ibid. , Ill, 381-3 86 , 420-430.

84 WORDLESS RHETORIC
musical Disposition] must observe the same six parts that are normally prescribed outline it in the roughest form, and arrange it in an orderly f.1shion, before he pro-
for the orator, namely: the illtrodu[(ioll, the lIarmtioll, the propositioll, the proo.f: the ceeds to the eioClllio ...
rejiltatioll, and the c/ositll!, 'otherwise known as: Exordium, Narratio, In vention demands fire and spirit; Disposition order and measure; Elaboration
Confirmatio, & <OJ cold blood and circumspection. '0<

The imagery of the building or house in the construction of an oration is Mattheson's imagery drew almost immediate criticism from Lorenz
yet another topos of rhetoric, deriving ultimately from Quintilian's 1I1stitlltio Miz!er, who, in an otherwise essentially favorable review of the Kern, de-
oratoria. 104 Gottsched, in his AusJiilzrlicile Redekzmst, introduces his chapter cried Mattheson's rhetorical imagery of form as forced:
on "the ordering or arrangement of an oration" with precisely the same
I do not know if the admirable Marcello would wish to apply the six parts of an
imagery, noting that "stones, wood, and lime do not constitute a building, oration here, in so much as it is not at all necessary to apply everything in every
no matter how good they are in and of themselves. They must be joined section of a piece. Rather, it is highly likely that the incomparable composer of this
together and connected in a certain manner if they are to make a \lou se." 105 aria, while writing it, did not think about exordium, narratio, confutatio, confir-
But in proposing this outline of dispositio, Mattheson is careful to note matio, or the order of how the sa id parts should follow upon one another. The
that its application is intended to be quite flexible: matter thus seems forced, because Herr Mattheson uses one and the same phrase
[Sa tz 1for the introduction , the narration, and the proposition. '°9
In spite of all correctness, things would often turn out quite pedantically if one were
to bind oneself all too anxiously to this lin e and constantly measure one's works Without citing Mizler by name, Matthcsol1 rebutted this attack in the
against it . Nevertheless, it cannot be denied that the dili gent examination of good preface to DcI' tJollkoll1l'l'Icl1e Cape/lmeistcr of 1739. He begins by refuting
orations, as well as of good melodies, will certainly reveal the presence of these what has since come to be known as the "intentional fallacy":
sections, or some of them, in an apt sequence-even if in some instances the com-
posers of these works thought sooner of their dea ths than of this kind of guide. ' 06 Marcello, to be sure, has given as little thought to the six parts of an oration 111
com posing the aria I quoted in the Kcl'll, as in his other works; but one concedes
Even the insistence that this scheme is flexible and by no means fixed is that I ha ve quire plausibly shown how they must be present in the melody. That is
.....-
taken from rhetoric. Gottsched prefaces his account of this same general enough. Experienced ma ste rs proceed in an orderly manner, even when they do not
six- part structure (exordium, narratio, and so on) with the following: think about it. One can observe this in everyday writing and reading where no one
gives spelling a second thought.
It is of course not th e general opinion that everything in a model must be applied But it does not follow that students must regard such a decla ration and its com-
without exception in all complete orations; or that no more ca n be added than what mentary as similarly objectionable, and that no ben eftt can be drawn therefrom.
has been presented here. No, an orator certainly reserves the freedom to add some- \ This is th e principal aim, and if it is attained, then all is well. llO
thing according to his opinion, and to omit so mething, how and wherever he may
be required to do so by the circumstances of his main idea [Hauptsatz J and by his
f Mattheson then calls attention to the careful qualifications he had ap-
listeners. ' 0] .1
pended to his original comments:

Sure enough, Mattheson's subsequent analysis of an aria by Marcello fol - f The fifth paragraph of the seventh chapter in the Kel'l1 is directed against constraint

I
lows his proposed order only loosely. Yet rather than weaken his argument, in these matters so explicitly and precisely that it would be very pedantic indeed if
this application illustrates all the more graphically that his proposed outline one we re to look anxiously for all these clements in their particular order in every
is to be applied with great flexibility: melod y and seek to apply them. That is not the intent. We are distant from that . ..

Thus, whoever ... would make use of the method described above, ill a certain,
ImJorcod way, should sketch out, perhaps on a sheet of paper, his entire concept,
.J
i The ways and means of elaboration and application are not nearly so diverse and
varying in rhetoric as in music, where one can vary things much more frequently,
even though the theme seems to remain the same to some degree. A musical oration

103. Mattheson , Kcl'll, p. 128. See also Capcl/lIleister, p. 235. lOS. Marrh eso n, Kel'll, pp. 137, 139. See also Capel/meister, pp. 240 , 241.
104· Quintiliall, IlIslilulio oraloria, Proemilllll to book VII; see also XI.II. 17-20. 109 . Mizler, review of Mattheson's Capel/meiSler, in Mizler's Nett eroJjilete IIIlisika/ische

,
105· Gottsched, AlIsJiihr/iche Redekllllsi (Leipzig: B. C. Brcitkopf, 1736), "Von der .. Bib/iMhek, I (1738), pt. 6, pp. 38-39.
Anordllung oder Einrichtung ciner Rede," p. 193. 110. Mattheson, Van'Cd e to Capel/lll eister, p . 2). Translation adapted from Ernest C.
106. Matthesoll , Kel'll, p. 128. See also Capel/meiSler, p . 235.
, Harri ss's editio n, ) ohallll J\,/tHlhesoll 's "D el' vol/kollllll elle Capel/meister": A Rev ised n'olls/atioll
107· Gottschcd, AlIsjiilzr/iche Redeklll15l, p. 204. with Critical C'IIIIII('lItary (Ann Arbor: UMI Research Pres s, 198 1), pp. 62-63.

;i
I

86 WI 0 P D [ G S S n J JeT 0 n T C
I I
.- j
· [but] the exordium differs [from the narratio] in five
has a grea t deal more liberty and compatible surroundings than a different [i.e. ver- the same as t h e exor d lum . . . .' . d h'
bal] kind of oration; hence in a melody there might be somethin g similar among the .] in pitch text, elaboration, in its instrumen ts, an d 111 Its an. t IS
[
ways. . . . , d h arne thing Slmllar IS not
exordium, the narratio, and th e propositio, so long as th ey are made different from is not at all one and the same statement, nor one an t e s .
one ano th er by keys, b y being made hi gher or lower, or by similar marks of di s- identical. "J
tinctio n (of which ordinary rhetoric is igno rant). '" . "k" g for at no point does
Mattheson's passing reference to t h e text IS stn 111 , . .
These important gualifica ti ons to Mattheson 's account have been largely
. 11"
he provide the words to Marce 0 sana. e o .
H d es not even gIve a text 111-
.
. . d . fi 11 h elaboratIOn of the baSIC
ignored, and as a result, the thrust of his ideas has been w idely misinter- cipit. "4 Clearly, it IS the musIc-an speCI Ica y, t e
. 1
theme-that M attheson conSIders centra to t e ISP .
h d' ositio In any event, he
preted. His proposed parallels between musical and rhetorical form have ' . .

been either embraced too literally or, more often, rejected outright. 112 . . bl'
felt sure enough of hIS Imagery to pu IS It a g , h' ain with some
. m1110r
Mattheson's central point here is not so much the six-part schema itself as changes and additions, in chapter 14 of Del' vollko111me11e Capel/metster.
the id ea of thematic elaboration. His approach to form begiI}s with the In addition to criticism, Mattheson's rhetorical imagery also found .sup-
.
port. Mlzler . '111 a subseguent revIew
hImself, . 0 f th e sa me basIC matenal
. ' 111 .
theme or Hauptsatz-th e subject of the Klal1grede-and proceeds with its
subseguent elaboration. The numerous musical examples accompanying Del' vollkoml11ene Capellmeister, conceded that in spite of his prevIOus cntl-
his discussion all illustrate the manipulation of the aria's opening idea. cisms, he would "by no means deny that this newly proposed gUlde could
Mattheson's rhetorical concept of form views the musical movement as an lead to order and good ideas."
oration in which a basic idea is presented, developed, and examined again Music is an ora tion in notes [Kla,.,grede 1and seeks to move listene rs just as an orator
in the light of other ideas derived from it. The emph as is in our interpreta- does. Why, then, should th e rules of oratory not be applicable to music? But un-
tion of this account should not be directed so mu ch toward the schematic derstanding and wit [i. e. , the ability to see similarities in seemmgly
nature of the form as tow ard the idea that a central theme can and should jects] are required if no school-like tricks and pedantry are to co me out of thiS. IS

be varied in different ways at different points within a musical oration. a cunning device of orators to give their strongest proofs at the begmnl11g [ot an
oration], their weaker ones in the middle, and thei r st ron ges t o nes brought togeth er
But, by your lea ve, I also have not used (as I have been further accused) one and once again at the end. This can also provide a good artifi ce for mUSical composition.
the same statement for the exordium , for the narratio, and for the propositio, in Above all, a sllccessful composer must well conSider every thl11 g before he advances
such a way that one and the same entity was retained in a unifo rm manner. For first to his work; he must, so to speak, outline his co ncept in th e broade st way on a piece
of all th e disputed phrases are as ditTerent as minor and major; besides, transposition of paper and order it nea tly before he proceeds to elaborate it. The elaboration
and reiteration give them a completely different aspect. High and low are not the [Alisarbeitlillg] then follows much better. He who has dIsposed well IS already half-
same. None of this can be evaluated by the standards of an ordinary [i.e. verbal]
way toward elaboration. " j
oration, in which such things are not found.
... I myself acknowledge, in the Kern, that the narratio in our aria sounds almost And no less an authority than Johann Adolph Scheibe singled out
Mattheson's pioneering treatment of the rhetorical basis of large-scale
with particular enthusiasm. Scheibe calls ,s " cIe.ar an d p Iea.sl:1g "
I l l . Ibid., pp . 25-26. Translation adapted from Harriss's edition, p. 63.
treatment of the Klal1grede an "important serVIce, even If few mUSICIans
112. For example by Rolf Dammann, who speaks of Mattheson's "dogmatisches
would have previously thought it "necessary to observe all the small and
Aufb auschema " in Ocr MlIsikbeg .. deutsehl'l1 Bawek (Cologne: Arno Volk, (967), p. 126;
Ritze l, Die Elltwickllmg de .. "SollatClljorlll," pp. 23-28; Baker, "Koch and the Theory of large divisions one f1l1ds in a well-ordered oration." .
Melod y," p. 3 ("the reader learns a good deal more about oratory th an he does about the
musical structure of a composition"); Giinther Wagner, Traditiollsbez lIg il1l I1lllsikhistorischfll
Prezess zwischell 1720 lind 1740 alii Beispiel 11011 J ohall n Sebastiall IIlld Carl Philipp Elllallllel Bach
113. Mattheson, Vorrede to Capelll1lciste>, pp. 25-26. Harriss (p. 63) interprets the last
(Neuhausen-Stuttgart: Hanssler, 1985), pp . 164-167. At the other extreme, Hans-Heinrich
Unger Die Bezielllmgell zw ischell Mllsik I/Ild Rhetorik im 16.-18. Jahrllllndert (Wiirzburg: K. sentence of the first paragra ph quite differently. , ..
114. A comparison of Mattheson's analysis with Marcello s onglllal work would be
Triltsc h, 1941; rpt. Hildesheim: o Izns , (979), pp. 53-54, offers an extended but ultimately most revealing, but it has proven impossible to Identify thIS particular ana. See Eleanor
unconvincing application of the six-part schema to the first movement of Bach's
Selfridge-Field, The Mllsic oj Belledetto alld Alessandro Marcello: A ThematIC Cata loglle
Brandenburg Concerto NO.3. See also LeonaJacobson's "Musical Rhetoric in Buxtehude's
Free Organ Works," Yearbook, 13 (1982), 60-79; and Daniel Harri so n's perceptive (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1990), p. 197· . .
· I .
I I 5. M lZ er, r eVIew
of Mattheson's Capclll1lcistcr' in Mizler's Nell Cl'Offilctc IIl1lSlkail sche
analysis of Bach's Toccata , BWV 915, in "Rhetoric and Fugue: An Analytical Application,"
Mllsic Theory Spcctl"lllll, 12 (1990), 1-4 2. Bibliorllek, 2 (1742), pt. 3, pp. 104- 10 5.

r•
t R"otO'ojc and l\Auri cal FOYIl' in rlu) 6jollteentlz Century 89
The seventh chapter [of the Kem ] deals at last with one of th e most important issues of melody and them e. Among German theo rists, the term /\IIelodie carried
to be co nsidered in the a rt of mu sical composition. Is it not cq uall y important in th e many m ea nings and connotations through out the eighteenth century, 119
r
elabo ration AlIsarbeilullgj of musica l pieces to be both circum spec t and spo ntaneous, one o f the most important of w hich relates it to the ou tline of an entire
as in rh eto ric and poetics' [f th e elaboration of th e main id ea [Hallplsalz j dev iates movement. W hereas today we routinel y equate " melod y" w ith "theme,"
from the beginning in so noticeable a way th a t o ne no lo n ger kn ows w ha t the sub- eighteenth-century theorists seldom used these t wO terms interchangea bl y.
ject is, there a ri ses in .the listener or reade r an uncertainty v is- a- vis the subj ec t being Thell1a and lIl elodischer Theil were the more usu al designatio ns for small er
deal t wi th, an d one experiences a disdain for the author w hen one perceives such a
units; melod y itsel f was perceived to be bro ader and more general, encom-
di so rd erl y elaboration . ,,6
passing the trajectory of a comp lete movement . .
Mattheson's Capel/lI1 eister eventually became one of the most widely used In the Kem me/odischer WissC1tsc/zajt, for example, M attheson notes that "a
manuals of composition in eighteen th-century Germany. The young Haydn melody mu st not be hindered or noticeably interrupted ill its natural prog-
was among the many composers who used it, and late in his life he would ress for the sake o f a th eme. "1 2o He speaks of " the musi cal work"; but with
recall "its basic premises" as having been "no lon ger new, but no significant change in context, the same phrase becomes "the m elodi c
good.""7 Beethoven , too, owned a copy and is known to ha ve used it on wo rk" two yea rs later in DcI' llollkollllllene Cap el/m cister. Elsewhere, he
more than one occasion . li S speaks of " the form ... of a given work, of a given melody." 121 His dis-
But one need not trace the reception of D el' vol/kOllll11 el1e Capel/lIl eistcr in cuss ions of mu sical punctuation , incisions, sentences, and periods all occur
order to es tablish the influ ence of this rhetorical view of form, for the es- under the ru bric "Von der Melodie. " And his treatment of genres do es no t
sence of Mattheson's approach appears repeatedly in later treatises by other fall und er the head in g of merely "Gattungen," but rather " Gattun gen der
authors. Subsequent writers were relu ctan t to take up Mattheson's precise Melodien." Koch, w ritin g some fift y years later, notes that a "melody, like
and perhaps overly detail ed imagery of the six parts of an ora tion . But it is an ora tion, mu st consist of various periods, w hich in turn can be divided
equally clear that his bas ic image ry and methodolo gy-both derived from into indi vidual sentences."!22 This view simi larly emphasizes the idea th at
the principles of traditional rhetoric-retained their appea l throughout the melody is a unit ex tending throughout an entire movement or wo rk .
eighteenth century and well into th e nineteenth. M attheso n 's rh eto rical W hile-'Melodic and Tllcl11a are seld om interchan geable for Koch, Melodie
metaphors emphasize th at form is essentiall y thematic-not in the sense that and TOl1 stiick o ften are. Midway throu gh his definition of melod y in his
certain themes must appear at certain junctures, but in the sense that a Lexikol1 , yet w ithout a break o f any real kind, Koc h swi tches from discuss-
mo vem ent 's form is determin ed by the m anner in w hich its thematic m a- ing the structure of a melody to the stru cture a movement as a whole.
terial is presented and elaborated. His rhetorical methodology also empha- There is, in fact, li ttle distinction to be made bet ween th e two . The mod-
sizes the close relationship between a work's form and the genre to w hich ulatory con ventions he describes here fun ction as a m ea ns of providing mel-
it belongs. Both of these id eas , as we shall see, are central to virtually all ody w ith the necessa r y balance of variety and unity, but it is melody th at
eighteenth-century accounts of large-scale form. provides the basic structural perspective of any mu sical movement or work.
"Thus it foll ows that m elody is the essential elem ent of any work of music,
and that harmony, in spite of its great importance and however much it
increases the artistic means of expressivity, must nevertheless be subordi-
Melody and the Thematic Basis of Form nate."1 2]
Mattheso n 's idea of form as the unfolding of a work 's cen tral idea is part of Koch's views, w hich echo those of both M attheson and Scheibe from
a ,broader contemporary view that closely associates form with the concepts earlier in the century, were shared by many of his contemporaries. Joh ann

116. Scheibe, "Sendschreib en an Sr. Hoch Ed!. Herrn Ca pellmeiste r Mattheson , iiber J19. See Ratner, Classic MIISic , pp. 81 - 82.
den K c:n melodischer Wissenschaft," in C I'iltige Zellgllisse iib er die Maltizesollisciz- 120. Kenl , p. 36; see also Ca pellmcisler, p. 141.
MlI slcaiIscile Kem-Scizr({ji ... (Hamburg: n.p ., 1738), p. 14. 121. Kem, p. 12 8, and Capel/me isler, p. 235 ; Cap el/lI1 eistel', p. 12 9.
117· DIes , Biograpiziscize Nacizrichte ll, p. 41. See also Griesin ge r, Biograplzisclz e NotizCII, 122. Ko ch, Mu sika li sches L ex ikoll, "Melodie." Sec also the previo usly cited quotati on
p. 20, where Mattheson's Capel/Illeisler is cited along with Fux 's Cradll s ad PamaS511111. from the VerSllciz , II , 34 2 (pp. 77-78) as well as Saint- lambe rt's observation that "the mel -
H aydn also owned a copy of th e K em: see H. C. Robbins Land on, Hayd,l.· C hrollicle alld ody ofa piece ... is made up of many small segments," including units as large as a period
Works , 5 v 01s.. (B I'
oomll1gton .
: IndIana Univ ersit y Press, 1976- 1980), V, 402. (pp . 72-73); and Daube, D er mllsikalisc/ze Dilellallt: Eille WOclzfll scizriJi, p. JO.
11 8. See RIchard Kram er, "No te s to Beethoven's Education ," J AMS, 28 (1975), 94-95 . 123. Koch, MII Siklll isc/l£'s L exiko ll , "Melod ic."
Joseph Klein, in his Versuch eines Lehrb llchs der praktiscl1Cll Musik of 1783, ical," but its ongms in earlier French theory are evident as far back as
clearly considers Melodie to be the larges t structural unit w ithin a move- Mersenne, who in 1627 had noted that "rhetoric teaches one how to order
ment: [disposer] a musical subj ect."' 27
A melody consists ... of sentences [Satz e], each of whi ch is a se ries of successive This sa me imagery is still ev ident in the las t quarter of the eighteenth
notes that together constitute a musical thought or sense. These Satze may consist centur y in Jean Baptiste Mercadier's defll1ition ofdesseill as
of one, two, or more measures, or they may also comprise on ly a part of a sin gle
the manner of directing the harmo ny, the melody, the rhythm, and the modulation
measure; they are analogous to [units delinea ted by] a comma in language. The Satz
in such a way that everything relates to one central idea and only one; for in dramatic
that cons titutes the main idea of a melody is called the Hauptsatz (Thema, subj ec-
music and all music of expression, one must treat a subj ect as in the art of oratory
tum) ... and in all the other fm e arts, that is to say, without deviating from the rules of unity
A melody can also be divided into sections or periods, which are analogous to
that all these arts share. ,,'
the [units delineated by] larger points of articulation in lan guage, and which in
themselves can be considered to be smaller melodies. '" The manner in which this "cen tral idea" (idee commull e) is elaborated ulti-
mately determines the structu re of a mo vem en t. All oth er ideas must stand
Except in the case of a strictly monophonic wo rk (for exam ple, a com-
in some logical relation ship to this idea. It provides the basic material of the
position for solo flute), Melodie is not sy nonymous w ith th e work or move-
movement, and it governs not only the nature of subsequent ideas but also
ment as a w hole, for it represents only a sing le line. But as the predominant
the process by which individ ual units w ill be concatena ted into a w hole.
voice, it is capable of at leas t rep resenting a complete o utlin e of a movement
"Before taking pen in hand," Mercadier observes, " the mu sician must have
by es tablishing the basic elements of a movement's overall stru cture. The
a motif, that is to say, a basic and principal id ea that will determine the
HaJ.lptsa tz, in turn, is the "ma in id ea" of this melody- literally the "sentence
melody, the harmony, the modulation, the tempo, the m eter, and the ar-
at the head"-and as such stands for the identity of the melody as a whole.
ra ngement of the voices, and in general everything that he must do." 129
French theorists express similar v iews on the co nnectio n between the
J ean Benjamin d e la Borde, writing in 1780, end orses Rousseau's d efini-
m ain id ea and the large-scale structure of a movement or work by using
tion of desseill, add in g that it is "a theme one wishes to have predominate
sujet and desseill, terms borrowed from the vis ual arts. 125 In his Dictiolllwire
in the piece one is writin g, and which one is careful to recall in the various
de musique, Rousseau defines the latter as
voices and in the ditTerent tonalities thro u g h w hi ch one passes . . . The
the invention and deportment [colldll;/e] of the subject, the disposition of each part grea t art of the compose r consists in designing first on a large scale, in
[i. e. , voice], and the general ordering of the whole. establishin g his motive firmly, and in reiterating it from time to time for
. . . This idea of the general desseill of a work applies particularly to each of its his listeners. "'lO
movements. It is thus that one designs an aria, a chorus, etc. Havin g thought up a This idea of a connection between a main theme, its elabora tion, and the
subject, one distributes it according to the rules of good modulation in each of the outline of a movement extends throu ghout the century and tran-
parts [voices 1in which it should be heard, in such a way that it canno t escape the scends 11ationalities. Scheibe, in 1737, notes that "a Hauptsa tz is necessary
attention of the audience .. . It is a fault of desse;/1 to let the subj ect be forgotten;
in all musical works; the entire course [of a work] must ineluctably result
and it is an even greater fault to pursue it to the point of tedium . ".
from it."' l ' Riepel ' in 1752, speaks of the "them e or draft, according to
Like so many other theorists both before and after, Rousseau emphasizes w hich the entire musical piece is constructed ."'ll Elsewhere, in a revealing
the central importance of the m ain theme-and specifically, its disposition exchange, Riepel 's discantista confesses that his " heart " tells him " that the
and elaboration-in establishing the structure of a mo vement. Rousseau
himself would probably not have wished to call this view of form "rhetor- I 27. Marin Mersenne, Traite de I'llanllollie IIlli I'erse lle (Paris: G uill aum e Baudry, 1627).
p. 21.
128. Jean Baptiste Mercadier de Belesta, NOIIIJea ll s)'s/fllle de IlIlI siqlle tilcoriqf/e et pratiqlle
12 4. Klein, Versllc!J eh,es LeiIrbllchs, pp. 59-60. (Paris: Valade. 1776), pp. 247-248.
12 5. See Peter Eckhard Knabe, SchtasselbegrijJe des klll15rtheoretisclwl Dwkws ill Frallkreich 129. Ibid .• p. 169.
(Du sseld or f: Schwann. 1972), pp. 165-173. For other relevant excerpts from contemporary 130 . Laborde. Essai SlIr la IIl1l siq ll e, II , 49. See alsoJ. J. o. de Meude-Monpas, Dicriolllla;re
music th eo ri sts, see Ritzel, Die E'ltwick lllllg der "Sollatclljorlll," pp . 76- 8 3. de II/f/siqlle (Paris: Knapen, 1787), "Desscin" and "Sujet."
126. J ea n-J acq ues Rou ssea u , Dicriolllloire de IIl llsiqlle (Pari s: Veuve Duchesne. 1768), I 3 I. Scheibe. C ritiscil er MIISi )",;, p. 82.
"Dessein." 1)2. Riepel, Alljallgsgnillde . .. De ril ytillllopoei"a, p. 13 .

OJ. W n T
first solo in a concerto shou ld contrast with the idea of the upenin =me." the eon . a nal state of the person who is singing. If, then, a musical work had no
The praeceptorJs response is brief and cutting: "Then your heart does not other purpose than to present a sentiment clearly, such a brief phrase, if well thought
know what Thel1la means." The teacher goes on to provide numerous ex- out, would suffice. But this is not the goal of music; it should engage the listener
amples of themes that contrast with an opening idea and yet at the same for a period of time in the same emotiona l state. This cannot be achieved through
time share w ith it certain elements. IlJ The quality of formal coherence, in the mere repetition of the same phrase, no matter how splendid it may be, for the
this view, clearly depends on the technique of thematic elaboration. repetition of the same thing becomes boring and destroys the attentiveness of the
listener. Therefore, one had to invent a type of melody in which one and the same
In Italy, Salvatore Bertezen also emphasizes the primacy of the theme,
sentiment, with appropriate variety and in different modifications, could be repeated
not only for the compositional process, but for the final product itself. "In
often enough to make the appropriate impression upon the. listener.
composing, the first object must always be a melody ... For example, in
\ It is in this manner that the form of most of our usual current musical works has
composing a minuet, a solfeggio, or a sonatina," one must keep in mind ar'isen: concertos, symphonies, arias, duets, trios, fugues, etc. They all have this in
"the principle of sustaining the theme, as in a discourse."I34 Francesco COIllmon: that they are based on a Hallptsatz presented in a main period, brief and
Galeazzi makes a direct comparison between the structure of, a musical appropriate to the expression of a sentiment; that this Hauptsatz is supported or
movement and that of an oration on the grounds that both represent the interrupted by smaller, interpolated ideas [Z1.I'ischellg edallkell ] appropriate to it; that
elaboration of a central idea. "The l1lotlL e is nothing other than the principal
J this Hallptsatz and these Zwis(hwgedallkeH are repeated often enough, in different
idea of the melody; it is the subject, the theme, so to speak, of the musical harmonies and keys, and with small melodic variations, so that the spirit of the
discourse around which the entire composition must revolve."ll 5 listener is sufficiently captivated. '.17
In France, Alexandre Choron sums up this "law of sustaining the theme" In general, then, the musical work or movement was considered :l11alo- '
in his Principes de compositioll of 1808 by invoking "the doctrine of Zarlino gous to an oratorical argument; its purpose was to move, persuade, and
and all masters, be they ancient or modern," who maintain that "in every delight the li stener. The subj ect of this argument, in turn, was equated with
composition there is one subject without which the work cannot exist . . . its main theme, the HOllptsatz or 511jet. Once established, it was essential
Viewed in this manner, composition is the art of discoursing upon a sub- that this idea remain the focal point of the discourse; the thread of the ar-
ject." 1 36
gument would otherwise be lost. At the same time, discourses of any sub-
Significantly, it is in the entry "Hauptsatz" that Kirnberger (in conjunc- stantial len gth required variation and contrast; subordinate or interpolated
tion w ith Sulzer) comes closest to defining musical form: ideas must therefore stand in some appropriate relationship to the sentiment
A Hauptsatz is a period within a musical work that incorporates the expression and embodied in the Hm;ptsotz. The coherence of the arg ument, finally, was
the whole essence of the melody. It appears not only at the beginning of a piece, but seen to be embodied in melody. Koch, after all, had specificall y equated
is repeated frequently, in different keys and with different variations. The Hallptsatz rhetoric, the art by which an arg ument could be made both coherent and
is generally called the "theme," and Mattheson compares it not inappropriately to persuasive, with the manner in which "individuallllelodic sections" could be
the [biblical] text [that provides the basis] ofa sermon, which must contain in a few " united into a w hole."1,18
words that which the discourse will develop more fully. Throug hout the eighteenth century, form was considered to be primarily
Music is actually the language of sentiment, whose expression is always concise, an aes thetic category, a concept having more to do with qualities of coher-
for sentiment in itself is someth in g simple, something that can be presented in a few ence and persuasiveness than with diagrams or lowest common denomi-
utterances. Thus, a very short melodic phrase of two, three, or four measures can nators. In one of the very few eighteenth-century definitions of the term
express a sentiment so definitely and correctly that the listener understands exactly
" form" as applied to music, in fact, an anonymous lexicographer of the late
I7605 calls it "the manner in which the thoughts within an entire melody
133· Riepel, . Zllr Y"lIordllllllg, pp. 105-107.
134. Bertczen, Prill(ipj di IIIlIsica Icori{(J-prattica (Home: Salomoni , 1780), pp. 341-34 2 .
Vincenzo Manfredini uses similar imagery in his Regole a1'll"",ichc, 2nd cd . (Venice: Adolfo 137· Sulzer, Allgcn/cine Yheorie, "Hauptsatz." According to J. A. P. Schulz, "Ueber di e
Cesare, 1797), p. !O3 . in Slllzers Theorie der schanen Kiinste unter dem Artikel Verriickung angef.ihrtcn zwcy
13 5· Galeazzi, £Ielllellli, II , 254. E lsewhere (I, 230), Galeazzi cites Haydn, Boccherini, Beispiele von Pergolesi und Gralln ... ," AMZ, :2 (1800), cols. 276-280, Kirnberger was
Vanhal, and Pleycl as among the best composers of instrumental music whose works are responsible for the musical articles through "Modulation," at wh ich point Schulz himself
available in Italy. began to assist Kirnb ergcr. Schulz then assumed sole responsibility frolll the letter "S"
13 6 . Choron, Prillcipes de c""'pO.,ili,," des tcoles d'llalie, 3 vols. (Paris: Le Due, 1808), I, onward.
xviii. Emphasis in the original. 138. See above, p. 53.

...Q Rhetor;c opd "1f1s;' 1' FOI'I1! in eire Fiu1lfCfJlt/ , Gel/'lli'll 9 5


or period follow one another."I.i 9 In another entry, the same author defines elements, their manipulation, and their correct placement." 14.1 And Carl
"The Whole" (das Ganze) as
Ludwig Junker, writing in 1778, also relies on rhetorical imagery to em-
a general dependence of the scctions [of a movement 1upon one another, by means phasize the quality of intelligibility:
of which all sections contribute to a sing le effect alone. The art of constructing a
Theme. (Motif, principal idea, concentrated sentiment.) Without a theme,. there
whole resides in the concatenation of main, subsidiary, and connective ideas, in the
would be no unity in variety. The composer has his plot, just as ll1 the plastIC and
agreement of rhythms within the main voice, in the juxtaposition of th e secondary
rhetorical arts. sentiment, in the case of the composer; mterest
voices that duly support the main voice, draw the ears to it and delight them. It is
in the hero, in the case of the painter; concentrated moral truth or speculatlOn, 111
not enough that the sections of a composition, each considered on its own, have
the case of the poet. Key, motion, division, and length are all formed accordlllg to
succession, correctness, and due proportion; above and beyond this, these sections
the theme ... Every musical piece is an extension, an alteration, a contrastmg of
must all agree with one another and constitute a harmonious whole. A single section
the theme. The theme must therefore always be prominent, so that the sentiment
can include mistakes, e.g., parallel octaves or fifths, and the whole Can nevertheless
be well put together. ",0 can always be conveyed, so that I always understand the composer and grasp the
expression without confusion. 'H
J:'he final comment implicitly reinforces the traditional distinction between
Gretry, in his Memoires of 1797, extends the imagery of rhetoric to the
musical grammar and musical rhetoric. Form is the province of the latter.
point of calling for "proofs" of a movement's "propositions":
While periodicity, as we saw earlier, is a means of fostering intelligibility,
it is important to remember that the object of this articulation is a move- The first part of a sonata, duo , trio, or quartet can contain elements that are highly
ment's thematic ideas. Numerous theorists of the eighteenth century stress characteristic; and after a pause on the dominant ... these same elements are taken
the importance of presenting and elaborating thematic ideas in sllch a way up again, brought in differently, and varied in their own manner, in their melody
that they can be perceived clearly. In his Abriss einer AbhandIrmg 1/011 der and in their harmony; and this is, so to speak, like supplying proofs to the propo-
sitions one has made at the outset; this would be according to nature.";
Melodie of 1756, Ernst Gottlieb Baron devotes considerable attention to the
manner in which a melody-a coherent series of themes-can be grasped While "proofs" may at first seem inappropriate within a language as
by the listener: vague and nonreferential as that of instrumental music, Gretry is in fact
drawing upon an established distinction between two different kinds of rhe-
A melody must have certain incisions. Thus, where there are no incisions (commas,
semicolons, periods, etc.), as in an oration , the Sense and understanding become torical proofs: those which are logical and rational, that is, persuasIve; and
muddled; this impedes one from grasping what is intended, especially if one cannot those which are psychological and emotional, that is, moving. 146 Proofs, in
distinguish beginning, middle, and end from one another, or perceive any symme- effect, are ideas that either grow out of or reflect directly upon the subject
try among these parts. Would one not laugh at an orator who spoke in one contin- of a discourse. It is in this sense that Gretry's musical proofs are to be under-
uous flow, without such distinctions, without distinguishing a preceding thought stood, as reflections upon a movement's central idea or ideas. One is re-
from a subsequent one? For the main idea intended for the oration-and a clear and minded here of Kollmann's "propositions" and their subsequent "elabora-
distinct understanding of this idea-would be missing altogether. ." tions."
This same emphasis on intelligibility is present throughout Sulzer's
Allgemeine Tizeorie dey sclionen Kl4llste, which equates the structure of musical 143. Daube, Der lllllsikalischc Di/ettallt: Eille Abhalldlllllg der KOlllpo sitioll, p. 162. ..
and rhetorical discourse in many of its entries. 14 2 Daube, writing in Vienna 144. Junker, Betrac/lfllllgell fiber Mah/erey, TOll-lIl1d Bi/dhallCrkllllst (Basel: K. A. SerIm,
p 8'-83
17700) , p. _ . See also Junker's TOllkli/lSt (Bern: Typographlsche Gesellschaft, 1777),
in the early 177os, similarly attributes the success of any given work not to
pp. 25-26.
the variety of its contents but to the "proper ordering of a few melodic 145. Andre Ernest Modeste Gretry, l'vfcllloires, 011 essais sllr /a 111115iqlle, 3 vols. (Paris:
Imprimcrie de la Republique, 1797), III, 357. .. .
146. See, for example, Hallbauer, Anweisllllg, pp. 2 57-260 . . The between
139· Anonymous, "Bey trag zu einem musikalischen W6rterbuch," in Johann Adam
these two categories of proofs is discussed by Roland Barthes rn The Sel11l0l/c ChallCllge,
Hiller's Wochcllt/iche Nachrichtetl IIl1d AlIlIlcr/wlIsetl die Mlisik betrejfelld, no. 39 (27 March
17 6 9), p. 302. trans. Richard Howard (New York: Hill and Wang, 1988), pp. 53-75. Other wrIters refer-
140. Ibid., p. 3 0 3. ring to the "proofs" of a musical work include Forkel (see below, p. 1,2 3), Carpani (p '. 13 8) ,
141. Baron, Abriss eiller Abhalld/lIl1g 1'011 d,.,. Ale/odie, p. 8.
and Friedrich August Kanne, who in his analyses of some of Mozart s plano sonatas 111 the
Wiener allgemeine lnllsika/ische Zeitllllg of the early 1820S used extensive rhetOrIcal Imagery.
142. Sec, for example, the entries for "Anordnung," "Hauptsatz," "Satz; Setzkunst."
On Kanne, see Krones, "Rherorik und rherorische Symbolik," pp. 12 5- 12 7.

96 WORDLESS RHETORIC
R 10Can' s C'zd 01 'S'ca' E ,{ C", d .
Georg Joseph Vogler, in the las t d eca de of the eig hteenth century, ob- For co ntempora ry wri ters o n musi c, rh eto ri c played a central role in ra-
serves th at the techniqu e of variation is itself an essentially rh etorical pro- tionalizin g th e coherence of thematic di ve rsity wi thin a movement . Riep el's
cedure. In his " Impro vc m ents" up on Forkel 's ea rli er set of variations on dis((/Iltista, who, as we have seen, at one point argues in favor of va ri ety,
"God Save the King ," Vog ler asserts that criti cizes an overabundance of contras t in ano ther composition,
variations are a kind o f mu sical rhetori c, in which the sa lll c idea is presented in m aintainin g that th e composer must adhere to hi s theme, just as a preache r
various turns, with the ditTerence that the limitations in music are mll ch more pre- m ust adhere to th e Gospel text that provides the b as is for his sermon. The
cise than in verbal rhetoric . . . In spite of this strict ad herence to the theme, which pracccJ!tor co rrects his pupil once aga in: just as an orato r w ill often delay the
one may ne ve r lose from one's sight, there is, on the other hand, if one is speaking introd uction of an important point , a comp'oser is free to present contrasting
of th e manner of presen tati on, an openin g to the widest possible ficl d.'47 o r subordinate themes aft er the Hallpfsatz: "The master has indeed stayed
w ith the th eme. A preacher cannot con stantl y repea t the Gospel and read it
The process of elaboration, in other wo rds, is more stri ct w ithin the genre
over and over; in stead, he must interpret it. He in fact makes transitio ns ,
of th eme and variations , but the rhetorical concept of elabo rati o n itself is
appli cable to virtu all y all genres. qX etc. In addition to the thesis rSatz], he has at th e very least an antithesis
[Gc,\?cllsatz J.'" jO
Yet a g rea t m an y-ind eed m ost-i nstrumental works from the Classical
Marpurg, w riting in 176 [ , notes that a movement 's predominant idea , its
era incorporate more than a sin g le theme. Hiller's an onymo us lexicog-
Hclllp lsatz, mu st give birth to other ideas (G edank ell ) that " flo w out of it "
rapher, work in g in the late 1760s, had alrea d y alluded to a hierarchy of ideas
and as such are necessa rily related:
w ithin a sing le work : a m ai n id ea, supported b y sub ordi nate and co nnectin g
id eas. This concern reflects a stylistic chan ge in music around the middle of Will not an idea soo n co me flowing out of the main idea [Hallptsatz1of a In
the eighteenth century. Whereas individual instrum ental movements of the e\'Cry musical work there must certJinly be somethin g th at proj ects slightly above
Ba roque era had in fact tended to elaborate a single theme, more and more the rest. This so mething, wheth er it appears immediately at the beginning, in the
mid-century composers w ere beginning to explore the use of overt thematic first section, or in the second, I call the Hallptsatz , which through repetitions, trans-
contra sts within a sin gle movem ent. It was no lon ger deem ed aes theticall y positions , imitations, and fra gmentations mu st be manipulated. The passages that
arise in difTerellt fa shions from these processes serve to preserve the unit y of the
necessary for a single passion or a sing le idea to dominate th rougho ut. The
musical work. If one alterna tes the Hallp tsatz, or the ideas th at flow Ollt of it, with
disposition and elabo ratio n of the m ain them e would rem ain essenti al to the
a new secondary idea, according to an establi shed, rational plan, and if one manip-
structure of the mo vement as a w hole, but subsidi ary themes could no w be ulates this secondary idea in the sa me manner as the ea rlier one, wi thin appropriate
taken into account as well.
pro portions-there arises from thi s connection of the Hallptsa tz with the seconda ry
Contempo rary theorists often j ustified the presence o f co ntrastin g themes id ea (as well as of the respective sections arisin g out of these ideas, which are, so to
w ithin a movement by the doctrine of "unity in va riety," one of the most speak, so man y new movements [Stitzel in their own way) the va riety of a musical
importan t aesthetic doctrines of th e eig hteenth century, not o nl y in music, , \vor k .IS t

but in all the arts. 149 Variety provides the diversity necessary to sustain a "
The anonymo us author of the !V1usii<alis[iles Handworterbuch published
movement-length whole; but the predominance of a m ain them e, a central
in Weimar in I7 86 also uses the ima ge of ideas "flowing" out of the
idea, also ensures the unity necessary to sustain a coherent whole.
Hallplsatz. 1;0 J aco b Schubak, w ritin g in 1775, describes the relationship be-
i tween a melod y's main theme an d its "secondary" ideas in much the same
147· Vog ler, VerbessenlllS dey Forkel'schell
Save thl'
iib,.,. dtl s Volks lied God
(Frankfurt/ M ain : Va remrapp u nd We nner, 1793), pp. 5-6. [ a m g rateful to
EI;vne Sisma n for callin g this pa ssage to Illy attent ion . See also J o nes, A Treatise 011 the Art
of MIISic, p. 46.
it way, again emphasizing the primacy of the Hauptsatz:

f 50. Riepel, . .. Cl'll lI drcgclll zll r TOil ordll illig , p. 76. Thc ima ge of th c
14 8 . On the re btion ship between variatio n technique and th e genre of variation, see
Elaine Sis man, "Haydn's Variation s" (Ph.D. diss., Prin ce to n Unive rsity, 197 8).
149· See Sulzer, AlIgcmeil,e TheMie, art icl es "Einheit" and "Mannichfalti g keit" ; Johann
It prcJch cr and his se rm o n is repeat ed on pp . 99 and 104 . In th e article "Hauptsatz" in the
Th e(1/'ie, Sul zer (assistcd by Kirnberg er) cites w ith ap p rova l Mattheson's ea rli er
usc of th is samc im age.
Ch ri stop h Adelung, Obey dfl1 dClltsch ell S tyl, 3 vols. (Berlin: C. F. Vo ss und So hn, 17 8 5;
rpt. HIidesheim: Olm s, 1974), I, 522-530; F. Fleischmann, "Wie mu ss ein Ton stiick bes- •I• 15 1 . Fricdri ch Wilhelm MJrpurg , Kritischc Brier,. ,'iber die TIlllklll/st, no. 85 (7 No vcmbc r
170 I), p. 101.
chaffen sey n, um gut genannt werden zu kii nnen?" AMZ, I ( 1799). co ls. 209-213, 225-
228 .
!I f5 2 . .\[I/Sika{ isches HalltlllJii rtab'I ch (Weimar: Carl Lud o lf H offma nn s seeJ. Wittwe und
l Erbcn, 1786) . "Thcma."

9
<>
CHAPTER 3 Nor was rhetoric's decline merely academic. While the discipline has

'. never been entirely free from the suspicion of sophistry, anti rhetorical sen-
timent reached new heights in the early nineteenth century. Numerous
writers sought to deprecate the art of persuasion as empty technique, devoid
. of substance. 2
The shift from a pragmatic to a predominantly expressive critical orien-
tation toward the arts around this same time was one important correlati ve
of this phenomenon. With the growing view of art primarily as a vehicle
Continuity and Change in Later of self-expression, the quality of persuasion inevitably began to relinquish
its central role in aesthetic criticrism.
Metaphors of Form It is thus all the more striking that the tradition of rhetoric in musical
thought should continue so vigorously and for so long into the nineteenth
century. The use of rhetorical imagery in dealing with the problem of form
continued unabated not only in contemporary dictionaries of music and
Over the first half of the nineteenth century, the metaphor of the musical manuals of composition, but in broader, more aesthetically oriented trea-
work as an oration gradually gave way to a new image, that of the biolog- tises as well.
ical organism. This shift reflects important changes in the perceived nature Dictionaries tend to be among the most conservative (and derivative)
of form: an organism, after all, is structured according to principles that are genres in the literature of almost any field, and numerous nineteenth-
necessarily different from those governing an oration. century music lexicographers simply quote or paraphrase the work of ear-
At the same time, this new metaphor reveals a certain degree of conti- lier writers on rhetoric, particularly Forkel and Koch. But the very fact that
nuity between eighteenth- and concepts of musical such accounts persist into the third, fourth, and fifth decades of the century
form. For in spite of their differences, the two images have a good deal in is in itself significant. Johann Daniel Andersch, for example, writing in
common, and it is largely for this reason that rhetoric could continue to 182 9, preserves the traditional distinction between musical grammar ("the
function as a useful metaphor of form until well into the nineteenth century. first main division of composition, containing the rules according to which
In many later accounts of form, in fact-most notably in the writings of notes and chords are to be joined in succession") and rhetoric ("the theory
Arnold Schoenberg-the two metaphors are evoked side by side in such a that shows how multiple individual musical units [Sa'tzeJ are to be brought
way as to emphasize their common basis . together into a whole") . J Echoing Koch, in particular, Andersch goes on to
note that rhetoric is "that portion of musical science that teaches one how
to concatenate melodic sections into a whole consistent with the purpose at
hand."4
The Continuity of Rhetorical Imagery in the Nineteenth Century
August Gathy, in his Musikalisches COl1versatiol1s-Lexikol1 of 18 4 0 , calls
.:. As an academic discipline, rhetoric experienced a remarkably precipitous rhetoric "the theory of the rhythmic, logical, and aesthetic ordering and
( decline during the early decades of the nineteenth century. While it never
disappeared entirely from secondary schools and universities, its importance Bosse, "Dichter kann man nicht bilden: Zur Veranderung der Schulrhetorik nach 1770,"
in the curriculum diminished substantially. Many of the university profes- jalirbuchfi1r illtemationa/e CermOitistik, 10 (1978),80-125: Manfred Fuhrmann, Rlietorik Imd
offillt/iche Rede. Ober die Ursacl1en des Verfalls der Rizetorik im allsgehellden 18. jahrhlll1dert
sorships that had long been designated as chairs of rhetoric were reassigned
(Konstanz: Universitatsverlag, 1983) . A convenient summary is available in Ueding and
to other disciplines such as history, literature, and in some cases even the Steinbrink, Crundriss der Rizetorik, section E, "Ubiquitat der Rhetorik. Vom Verfall und
natural sciences. I Weiterleben der Beredsamkeit im 19. Jahrhundert."
2. On the historical conflict between rhetoric and other disciplines, particularly philos-
ophy, see Vickers, III Defelice of Rhetoric.
I. On the decline of rhetoric in Germany around 1800, see Dieter Breuer, "Schulrhetorik 3· Andersch, Mllsika/iscli es Worter/mcl! (Berlin: W. Natorff, 1829), "Grammatik" and
im 19. Jahrhundert," in Helmut Schanze, ed., Rhetorik: Beitriige ;<11 iltrer Ceschiclite ill " Musikalische Rhetorik ."
Deutsch/alld VOIII 16 . -20 Jahr/I1mdert (Frankfurt/Main: Fischer, 1974), pp. 145-179; Heinrich 4· Andersch, Mllsika/isch es Worterbucll, "Rhetorik."

J 1 2 c n
concatenation of homophonic or polypho nic sections into a whole."s And
Gustav Schilling, w riting around the same time, points o ut that while rhet-
oric is "onl y an image, " it is "an established concept" n evertheless . Synthe-
- number of propositions according to g ram matical, lo gical, and or-
ato ncal order. Th e art of compo sing a piece of music lies in conca tenatin g
a certain number of cadences or musical propositions according to these
sizing elements of both Koch's defll1ition and Forkel's elaboration on the same relationships."9
Like mal:y of his contemporaries, Momigny considers the instrumen-
subject, Schilling explains that
tal musIc of hiS own day to have reached heights of unparall eled greatness.
by rhetoric of music one understands that body of kno w ledge pertaining to com- And the of these instrumental compos ers is Joseph H ay dn, w ho se
position by w hich individual melodic sections are united into a whole according to works MomIgny likens to the orations of Bossue t:
a particular goal and standa rd . One distinguishes it ti'Ol11 grammar, which deals w ith
the more material nature of music, the elementary phrases of composition. Rhetoric Considering the immense num ber of masterpieces produced by these immortal men
determines the rules for the concatenation of these same phra ses into a complete, IIIall genres, can one, in good faith, doubt any longer that music has acquired this
expressive (oratorical) whole. At the same time, grammar and rhetoric overlap each pronoun ced charac ter of truth, energy, and charm, which has established it in an
other in an insep3 rable manner. 6 Irrevocable
. manner as any lang uage, an d a b ove aII ,as a Iang uage that IS
. natural? Is
It not a that abo unds in noble locutions, harmonious and touching? The
The continuing presence of su ch imagery in these wo rks ca nnot be as-
sentences (penodes] of . Ha ydn, so eloquent and numerous-do they concede any-
cribed solely to the inherent conservati sm of lexicographers. The persis- thIllg, III theIr own IdIOm, to those of BosSJ4et and o ther great orators? We dare to
tence of these metaphors, as we shall see, reflects th eir co ntinuing u se in say that all great mcn, in dramatic art and in oratorical art, have their true counter-
compositional pedagog y thro u g hout the earl y nineteenth century. parts 111 the celes tial language of sounds. If it were otherwise, all th e heart and spirit
The demand for textbooks aimed at as piring composers increased sub- of man wo uld no t have passed through thc pen of our composers; mu sic wo uld not
stantially aro und this time, largel y in response to the growing number o f yet have arrIved at its present deg ree of maturit y. '0
ITIusical conse rvatories . One o f the earliest and most detailed of these m an-
of first movement of Haydn 's Symphony No .
u als, for the COllservatoire at Paris, was de Momigny's COll rs
103 (. I?rumroll ) refl ects thIS rh eto rical perspective at almost every turn .
complet d'harmollie et de compositioll of 180 3-1 806.7 Momig ny maintain s th e
H e di Vid es the move m ent into an introduction and three Iar a e sections each
traditional distinction betwee n grammar and rhetoric and interposes th e
of which consists o f a series of periodes. In the a of
third membe r of the tri vium, lo g ic:
"admirable simplicity," Haydn presents a subject that "may be called the
Musical grammar .. . is the art of subordinating ideas to one another, and of fo rm- plain-chant" (Example 3. r). II
ing propositions or cadences .
. . . Logic is the art of arra ngin g the ideas, the cadences, in an order that is con-
Adag io H,ob
firmed by good sense or proper reason. It falls entirel y within the realm of judg- ,.--..
ment.
The oratorical art consists of arranging thou ghts in a manner that will produ ce
the greatest impression on the mind and on the heart. 8

Momigny's approach to composition and analysis reflects an essentially


rhetorical view: "The art of composin g an oration lies in concatenating a
I bassi
p e s ostenuto

3.1 Haydn, Symphony No. 103, first movement, mm. 1-7


5. 2nd cd. (Leipzi g: Schuberth & Neumeye r, 1840) , "Rhetorik."
6. Schilling, UlliIJe rsa /·Lcx icOfI dcr TOllk'lllst, 7 vols. (Stuttgart: Kohler, 184 I), "Rh eto- I
rik."
7. On the pedagogical tradition of the Paris COllservatoire 's te xtbooks, see Renate Groth, I, Ibid., I, 134.
<).
10. Ibid., I, "Dis cours prcliminaire," 20-21.
Die jrol1ziisisc/z e KOl1lpositions/ehre des t9. jallt-llllllderts (Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner, 1983), and
Cynthia Marie Gessele, "The Institutionalization of Music Theory in France: 1764- 1802 " I I. Ibid., II, 586. Whethe: or not Momi gny is alluding here to the often-noted similarity
(Ph.D. diss ., Princeton Unive rsity, 1989). of thIS theme WIth the opel1Ing of the Dies irae chant is unclear. Momign y's separate, pro-
8. Momi gny, CO llrs comp/et d'lt amlollie et de (omposi tion, 3 vols. (Pa ris: Author, 1803- gram matIc ana lYSIS of this sa me mo vement, to be discussed below, places th e opening of
1806), I, 14 5.
I the symphon y In a church, but makes no reference to an y chant in particular.

I
1 COl/till/lit v alld r.halH'e il/ Later Metavhors of Form 13 S
Ii
'lIn 1

-------
15

f:.
'lIn 1. ob
- its fullest effect." Following a periode melodieuse in mm. 80ff., Haydn then
concludes the opening section with a period that is "a kind of refrain, or, as
one might wish to call it, a gloria patri, and thus a commonplace [lieu com-
oJ
p
f7 mun]." But the composer avoids banality by connecting this ending the-
vic, b ssi
vln 2
Ii ; matically with material previously heard: he avoids introducing an idea
oJ
p • . "foreign to the preceding discourse" (Example 3. 3).
Momigny's analysis of the "second part"-the development section-is
3. 2 Haydn, Symphony No. !O3, first movement, mm . 14- 1 9 full of remarks about thematic manipulations of the opening idea and their
effect upon the listener. In commenting upon the return of the introduc-
tion's bass line in this section's third periode (mm. 112-120), for example,
he notes that Haydn is "always measured in what he does . .. [He] aban-
"AI ys faithful to Variety, without compromlSlng Unity," Haydn does
wa d ' ,. d dons counterpoint here, so as not to lose his audience; but he does not leave
not subsequently "take up a different motive." Instead: the secon peno e,
it for something unrelated to his subject. Haydn always has something to
. . g l'n m .14
b eglllnlll , produces a "new effect". on the' lIstener
. by means of say concerning his subject" (Example 3.4).
varied accompaniment and a new orchestration of the onglllal theme (Ex-
Admittedly, Momigny's analysis of this movement is far from thorough,
ample 3.2). . . . for he overlooks many of the thematic elaborations he might have pointed
When Haydn introduces the Allegro con spmto, he first hIS s.ub-
out: the repeated use of the half-step auxiliary linking the opening portions
ject piano, so that the subsequent periode de verve (mm. 48ff.) wIll achIeve
I" of the two themes that begin the introduction and the Allegro con spirito,
respectively; or the similarity in contour between the second half of the
Allegro con spirito
introduction's principal theme and the periode melodieuse (rising sixth, de-
scending third, and so on). The "unity in variety" within this movement is
I far deeper than Momigny even begins to suggest: few pieces better illustrate
the manner in which a composer can begin with a simple subject-so simple
that in this particular case it is in unison , without any underlying har-
mony-and explore its implications in a moving and satisfying progression
over the course of an entire movement. But the important point here is not
vic pia.
so much Momigny's ultimate degree of analytical success as his focus upon
tutti

90 117

3.3 Haydn, Symphony No. 103, first movement, mm. 79-93 3· 4 Haydn, Symphony No. !O3, first movement, mm . III-II8

r ., h WI n 1) n T 1==" '" R H F T () R T r
the cOlltinuing elaboration of the "s ubj ect at hand" and the very premise of
.. times , vary it, manipulate it with learning and with grace, always embellishing it
further. In this I appeal to those who have heard the symphonies of Haydn."
his dTort to show the essentially rhetorical motivation behind the structure
of the movement . 12 "Only in instrumental mu sic," Carpani adds, "can the composer be an
Momi g n y 's outlook is b y no means isolated, nor is it a mere holdo ve r Orator; in vocal music, he ca n do no more than tr3n slate into musical lan-
frol11 eighteenth-century thought . A number of subsequent writers likened g ua ge the di scourse of the poet, and therefore he cannot and must not be
Haydn to an orator and his instrumental works, particula rly the sympho- an y thing other than a translator, an imitator, or a para phrast. " 15
ni es , to orations. These comparisons first began to appear only in the nine- Even as late as 1828, the Wurzburg Kapellm eistel' and Professor of Music
tecl1th century. IgndZ Theodor Ferdinand Arnold, in an early biography of Joseph Frohlich (1780-1862) cites Haydn's "tellingly developed musical or-
I'bydn, notes that the composer achieves his effects in his instrumental atory" as one of the composer's most outstanding characteristics. "In his
l11usic symphonies, one hears a gathering of skilled orators who, using noble lan-
ill the m:lI1ner of a clever orator, who, w hen he wants (0 convince us of so mething, g uage before an educated audience, give evidence o f their powers to grasp
pro ceed s from the basis of a sentence that is . universally recogni zed to be'true, one and elaborate an id ea."J6
with which everyone agrees, one th at everyo ne must be able (0 understand; but he Within the realm of m ore strictly technica l accounts of form, Alexandre
11·lJ ydn J kno ws so cunningly just how (0 use this idca, that he can soon convince Choron's Princip es de composition des ecoles d'Italie of 1808 includes an ex-
liS of ;lII ythin g he wishes to , even if it is the very contrary of the original idea. tended treatment of "rhetorique musicale," beginning wi th a discussion of
III this way, Ha ydn 's music enters ou r ears quite smoothly, fo r we have a sense the "formation de la phra se et du discours musica l. " 17 The same writer's
I
that we are hearing something that is easily perceived and already fa miliar to us; but '( NO llveau manl1 el comp let de Il1llsiqlle of 1838, co- authored with Juste- Adrien
I
wc soon find that it is not that which we ha:d thought it was or which we thought de La Fage, borro ws h eavily from Koch's Versllch and incorporates an even
it should becomc. We hear something new and arc amazed at the m aste r, who knew
g reater number of explicit references to tbe art of oratory. IS
so cunningly how to otTer us, under the guise of the well known, so mething never
In Germany, Gottfried Weber's widely us ed Vel's/./ch cineI' geordl1ctell
lX'fore heard . ')
Theol'ic dey TOllsetzhrllSt (1817-1821; second edition 1830-1832) also retains
Giu sep pe Carpani, another early biographer of Hayd n, expou nds on this the traditional divi sio n between musical grammar and rhetoric. Under the
ima ge ry 3t length, emph asizing o nce ag3in the impo rtan ce o f thematic in- rubric "Theory o f Composition," Weber notes that
telligibility over the course of a mo ve ment.
the first and as it werc lowes t requirement for the connection of no tes and the con-
A Inu siu l composition is an oration that is made with fi gurative so unds instead of struction of a musical phrase is that it above all does no t sound wrong or repugnant
wo rds. The /llolil'(, is the proposition, the assumption one scts ou t to pro ve. [n the to thc ear . . . This is so mew hat like the first and lowest requirement of the arts of
S:III1C manner as the orator, who, havi ng proposed his theme, develops it, presents oratory and poetry, to avoid grammatical mistakes . This part of the study of com-
proofs, presses the argument forw ard, and, rccapitulating what he has already said, position, devotcd merely to the technical or grammatical correctness of combining
leads it to its conclusion-in this sa me manner, the composer must proceed with his notes, merely to the purity of the language of notes, is therefore called the study of
work . He returns to the l1Iotive every so often and allows it to be heard again, in correct [rein, literally "clean") composition, or also the grammar of the language of
ordn that the listener be penetrated w ith it quite thoroughly. [f this lIl otive is such notes. [t concerns itself with the rules according to which notes , like musicallctters
that it brings pleasure to the ear, it is then quite likely that by returning to the fore, or the sounds of speech, shape themselves into syllables, then into words, and finall y
it wi ll rene w, confirm, and increase that initial pleasure. But the true di stinction of into a musical sense . ..
the genius is Ithe ability to) givc the theme an air of novelt y each time it is recalled,
not being Content simply to repeat it docilely, passing from one key to another, as /4. Carpani, Le Haydill e, ovvero leI/ere Sll la vita e Ie opere del celebre maeslro Giuseppe Haydll
do lI1ediocrc intellects, but instead, to reinvigorate it, make it more astringent at (Milan: C. Buccinelli, 18 12), pp. 43-44. See also pp . 64-66.
15· Ibid., p. 66.
16. Frohlich, Jos ep h Haydll, ed. Adolf Sand berger (Regensburg; Gustav Bosse, 193 6 ),
1 2. Many other aspects of thi s analysis are considered by Malcolm Cole, "Momigny's p. 28; orig. pub. in the Allgemeille Ellcyklopiidie del' WiSS fllscilafi el1 ./Ild Kiillsle (Leipzig, 1828).
Analysi s of Haydn's Symphony No. 103," Mllsic RClliew, 30 (1969),261-284. 17· 3 vols. (Paris: LeDuc, 1808), book 6.
1.1 . Arnold, Joscph Haydll. Scill e kllrze Biographie Wid iislilelisc/le Darsrellullg seil1f1' Werke 18. 3 vols. (Paris: Roret , 1838). Nancy K. Baker discusses Koch's influence on this trea-
(Erfllrt:.J. C. Miilll'r, ISIO) , pp. 101-102. tise in her translation of Koch's Vcrsllch, p. xxii.

WOHDl.I'SSRHETORIC
I T ,
The study of the correctness of composition is followed by the study of artful sical works as orations, Richter emphasizes the importance of the listener's
composition, encompassing artistic or more complicated manipulation and elabo- ability to -grasp the succession of ideas, which must be presented "simply
ration of musical phrases, of fragmentation comparable to that of oratory, of the and precisely" before they are elaborated. 22 .
many-sided illumination and development of individual musical phrases and ideas In all of these composition treatises, form is still viewed as the manner 111
comparable to a musical rhetoric, or, if one prefers, syntaxis omata, the study of the
which a movement's ideas are presented and elaborated, and the listener still
connection of melodies or of the interweaving of melodies. This includes the study
plays a critical role in the evaluation of a work's aesthetic quality.
of so-called double counterpoint, of fugue and canon and all that is pertinent to
them, as well as the study of the ground-plan [Alllage) and shaping of musical works ticians, too, preserve this line of thought. Gustav Schilling's Versuch e!1W'
as a whole. '9 Philosophic des Schonen in der Musik of 1838 follows the same basic meth-
odology found in Mattheson's Kenl melodischer Wissel1Schafi and in Koch's
The voc'abulary of eighteenth-century theory remains essentially unchanged Versuch einer AIlleifung zur Composition, both of which had in turn been de-
here. Weber preserves the contrast between the mechanical rules of gram- rived from traditional manuals of rhetoric. 2J
mar and the more aesthetic clements of rhetoric and large-scale form, and Ferdinand Hand's Aesthetik der TOllklIHSt (1837-1841) is heavily influenced
he continues to view form as a function of melodic structure, regardless of by Forkel's theories of musical rhetoric. In outlining the "laws of artistic
whether a work's texture is homophonic or polyphonic. musical representation," Hand cites with approval the earlier author's rhe-
Georg Joseph Vogler, in his System ji".ir dm Fligenbau (ca. 18Il) similarly torical analysis of C. P. E. Bach's F Minor Sonata, Wq. 57/6, and applies
argues that the fugue, like other genres, must be intelligible to the listener, the traditional sequence of illventio, dispositio, and elocutio. He concludes his
and he goes on to provide a relatively detailed analysis of a fugue from a discussion with a review of genres. Mattheson would surely have been
rhetorical perspective. 20 Vogler's analysis testiftes that even the structure of pleased to know that his basic ideas and methodology would still be in use
a "strict" composition can be explained according to its rhetorical elabora- more than a hundred years later.
tion (rhetorische Ausji'ihrullg) of the main idea.
The association of rhetoric and large-scale form is even more explicit in
Siegfried Dehn's Theoretisch-praktische Harmollielehre of 1840, in which "mu-
sical rhetoric" is directly equated with FOrlnenlehre. 21 As late as 1852, Ernst The Metaphor of the Organism and the Emerging Paradox of
Friedrich Richter continues to distinguish between grammar and rhetoric, Musical Form
equating the latter with Compositiotlslehre. Richter, much like earlier theo- In spite of its continuing influence, the metaphor of the musical work as an
rists, emphasizes the original sense of the term "composition" from the oration did eventually disappear over the course of the nineteenth century.
Latin "componere." Musical composition, in this sense, is the process of Although isolated references to the rhetorical concept of form continued for
"putting together" units of musical thought. In retaining the image of mu- many years afterwards, 24 the tradition associating
lost its central role during the 1820 and 1850.
-rtTs -rio small coinciaence' that the paradox of form-the seemingly
19· 2nd ed., 4 vols. in 2 (Mainz: B. Schott's Sohne, 1830-1832), I, 19. Weber reiterates
irreconcilable dichotomy between the conformational and generative
the division between grammar and rhetoric at the very end of his treatise (IV, 149).
20. Vogler, System fiir dell FI/gfllbal/ als Eillieitllllg zlir hannollischetl Gesallg-
Lehre (Offenbach/Main: Johann Andre, n.d.). The preface is dated 1811; the work was
published posthumously "from manuscripts left behind at the author's death" in 1814. For
a more detailed discussion of rhetoric in this treatise, see Floyd Grave and Margaret G. 22. Richter, Die Gnmdziige der 1/ll/sikaiiscllC1l FOY1/wI I/Ild ihre Allalyse (Leipzig: Georg Wi-
Grave, III Praise of Harm oily: The Teachitlgs of Abbe GeorgJoscph Vogler (Lincoln: University gand, 1852), p. 5 I.
of Nebraska Press, 1987), pp. 94-97, 115-118. See also Vogler's "aesthetic, rhetorical, and 23. Schilling, Versl/ch eitler Philosophic des Sclliilwl ill de.- Musik, oder Aestlzetik der TOllklHlSt
harmonic analyses" of his own Zwei WId dreissig Priill/dimfllr die Orgel . . . (Munich, 1806), (Mainz: B. Schott's Soh':le, 1838), pp.' 359-360. See above, pp. 83, 1I8-I20.
especially of numbers 3 and 25, in which he meticulously traces the derivation of almost 24. As, for example, in Vincent d'Indy's COl/rs de compositioll musicale, 2nd cd., 2 vols.
every measure from each prelude's opening idea. (Paris: Durand, 1902-1909). Donald Francis Tovey may have arrived at the image of the
21. Berlin: W. Thome, 1840, p. 308: "die musikalische Rhetorik oder Formenlchre." sonata-form recapitulation as a "peroration" independently; but it seems likely that the idea
Dehn's remarks come at the end of his treatise; rhetoric, or large-scale form, is not a topic of this metaphor came to him from some of his older German friends and colleagues. See
he addresses in any further detail. also the discussion of Schoenberg's writings below.
1

Gel1!i'Wi'x qud Change ill Later Metavhors 0CForl1l I t I


perspectives-should emerge during precisely this period. Only one anonymous writer notes in 182T "it desires nothing other than to be-
decline of rhetoric does the conceptual basis oflarge-scale form become frag- come, to grow, to unfold, to bloom."28 What grows and blooms in a mu-
5n·ented. sical movement is its central idea, usually the opening theme. It is this ger-
This fragmentation, although gradual, had a profound influence on sub- minal unit that gives the movement its generative force .
sequent accounts of form. The early stages of this change are particularly In this sense, the metaphor of the organism preserves an essential com-
subtle, for the basic concept of rhetoric, as we have seen, did not disappear ponent of the earlier metaphor of the oration. The process of growth shares
suddenly; it was first supplemented and only later superseded by the or- with the process of elaboration the basic premise of internal mOtlvatlOn,
ganic-generative concept of form . with one thought or part leading or growing into the next. Indeed, the
metaphor of the oration as a living organism can be traced back at least as
far as Plato, and it recurs in the writings of Cicero, Horace, and many
The Organic-Generative Concept oj Form
subsequent authors dealing with rhetoric. 29
The organic-generative concept of form, as noted in Chapter I, ,has been Nevertheless, it is the organic image of form that __
central to much analysis since the nineteenth century.2 5 According to this conceptual metaphor for textbooks'Ol1 composition from s_<:.c.:
outlook, the component elements of every successful work of art ar- ond of the nil-1eteenth 'century onward. Arrey von Dom-nler's mid-
ticulate in a manner analogous to the constituent parts of a living organism. century account of the close relationship between the nature of a move-
The process of growth within a work, moreover, must be internally moti- ment's basic thematic m aterial and its form is typical of its time:
vated. The shape of an organic whole is often held to be inherent in its
Just as the blossom and the fruit lie dormant in the bud , so too does the further
germinal unit, with the whole existing in the part just as the part exists in
the whole. 26 The oak, to use one of the favorite images of this line of
development of a musi cal movement reside .. . in the th eme, and more specifically,
within the theme's individual motives .. . Accordingly, it is obvious that a work of
thought, grows out of the acorn.
art (if it is to be worthy of the name) must always be a free creation of the spirit,
Elements imposed externally upon a work do not threaten its organic the product of an inner drive rather than the result of some intentional, rational
unity: they destroy it. Beethoven's first two "Razumovsky" quartets, ac- combination, or of the "mechanical achievement of imposed demands." Otherwise,
cording to Adolf Bernhard Marx, fall short of being "unified organisms" this work of art would be merely a technical artifice .)O
on the grounds that each features a Russian folk-song theme-that is to say,
Johann Christian Lobe, another influential theorist of the same
an element supposedly either suggested or dictated to the composer by its
dedicatee, Count Razumovsky. 27 ' also stresses the intimate connection between form and the unfolding of a
germinal thematic idea. His COll1positions-Lelzre of r844 bears the alternate
In the absence of such extraneous influences, however, a musical work
title UI11Jasselzde Theorie von del' thel11atischen Arbeit und den 11/odemen Illstru-
will "develop in the realm of artistic genius according to organic laws," as
mentaljormenY The elaboration of a theme, in Lobe's view, is the basis of
composition in general and of the creation of modern instrumental forms
25 · On the rise of the organic outlook in music theory and aesthetics, see Ruth A. Solie, in particular. In his later Lehrbuch det musikalischen Kompositioll (1850), Lobe
"The Living Work: Organici sm and Mu sical Analysis," 19th-Centlll'y MII.<ic, 4 (1980), 147- reproduces in facsimile excerpts from Beethoven's sketchbooks in an at-
156; Broyles, "Organic Form"; Thaler, O'gallische For",; Kerman , "Theories of Late
tempt to show hO\\7 an entire movement can grow from a single, germinal
Eighteenth-Century Music," esp. pp. 219-224; and Meyer, Style alld MIISic, pp. 189-205.
Broader studies of organicism include Jam es Benzinger, "Organic Unity: Leibniz to Cole- ideaY
ridge," PMLA, 66 (1951), 24-48; Abrams, Mirror and the Lamp , esp. chs. 7 and 8; and G.
S. Rousseau , ed., Orgallic Form: The Life of all Idea (London: Routl edge & Kegan Paul,
197 2). Murray Krieger, in his A Reopening ofClos"re: Orgallicism Against Itself(New York: 28. Anonymous, "Soli man bey der lnstrumental-Musik Etwas denken?" AMZ, 29
Columbia University Press, 1989), refutes many of the arguments commonly directed (1827), col. 550.
against organic theories of art. 29· Phaedrus, 264C. On the image of the oration as an organism, with citations to other
26. See, for example, the anonymous review of Beethoven's Second Symphony in the texts from classical antiquity, see Vickers, III DerCllce of Rhetoric, pp. 16 and 344-345.
AMZ, 6 (1804), col. 542: "the individual in the whole and the whole in the individual." 30 . Dommer, Elell1C11te de,. Mllsik (Leipzig: T. O. Weigel, 1862), pp. 169-170.
27· Marx, Llldwig !Jail Bee/hovell: Leben "lid Schaj[etI, 2 vols. (Berlin: Otto Janke, 18 59; 3 I. Weimar: Bernhard Friedrich Voigt, 1844.
rpt. Hildesheim: Olms, 1979), II , 4 2-43. 32. Leipzig: Breitkopf & Hartel , 1850.

WORDLESS RHETORI C _1'Irillltiry and Cha1'l.r;!! ill Later A;fctaphors


_ _____ C_o _..,;1..,;4..3.... _ _ __
Even Ferdinand H and, who had been influenced so strongly by Forkel's To a certain extent , then, the change in imagery used to describe form
notion of rhetoric, ultimately opts for the ima ge of an organism in describ- masks an underl ying continuity. E ven Koch, in one of his last published
ing the essence of a musical work: treatises, could use phras es like "organische Bildung " and "orga nische
Form" alongside the ea rlier image of rhetoric. J 6 In the end , ho wever, the
If, then , in vention gives an art-work its basic idea [Crrmdgedal1ke) and spiritual ani-
new m eta phor refl ects a profound shift in aesthetic outlook. As an organ-
m ation, the work can achieve its existence o nl y w hen its individual sections are
ism, the musical work is an object of contemplation that exists in and of
ordered and arranged into a w hole, and w hen the wo rk in th is shape impresses the
itself. As an oration, the musical work is a temporal event w hose purpose
basic idea completely and clea rly, so that th e spirit beholding it is satisfi ed an d de-
lights in th e appearance of something th at is beautiful. The musical art-work should is to evoke a resp onse from the listener. We can be moved by both modes
also embrace a world in miniature and co nstitute an organic stru cture in which all of experience; but the metaphor of the oration necessa rily emphasizes the
the parts are in keeping wi th the w hole and the w hole is reflected in each of the temporal ity of the work, the role of the listener, and the elem ent of aesthetic
parts. J] persuasion, whereas the model of the biological organism has no need to
account for a wo rk's effect upon its intended audience. Indeed, the audience,
Phrases like "spiritual animation" and "organic stru cture, " virtually non-
for all practical purposes, is irrelevant to the organic model. The orga nic
existent in the eighteenth century, become commonplaces in nineteenth-
metaph or implies that the standards by w hich any given work is to be
century acco unts o f form and compositi on. Yet Hand's remarks also illus-
judged w ill be found within the work itself. This kind of thinkin g further
trate how closely the images of the oratio n and the biological organism are
reinforces the conceptual autonomy o f both the wo rk of art and the proces s
linked: both metaphors em phasize the need for functi onal unity am ong an
of its creation, for the biological metaphor tacitly encourages us to see the
entity's individu al elem ents. J4
artist as a life-giving forceY The. nineteenth century's " religion of art" is
The ima ges of the o rganism and the oration are similarly in tertw ined
manifest in the very metaphor of the art- work as a living creation.
throughout Dommer's Elemente del' M1Hik. Biological an d rhetorical meta- The rise of organic imagery in the early nineteenth century, as Michael
phors are presented side by side when D o mmer claims that Broyles points out, also coincides with an important change in the musical
every musical work , like any oth er art- work, is an organism th at is full of meaning repertoire itself. J8 Literal repetition oflarge sections in binary movements-
and th at has grow n o ut o f the co nditions o f inner life. Its parts stand in illller necessity often the exposition, and sometimes the development and recapitulation as
to one another and in relation to the who le. Ii'uth and unity oj idea, correctness ill th e well-was a practice that declined sharply to ward the end of the eighteenth
sequel1ce oj its developmel1t and the perceptibility oj its expressiol1 arId representatioll-these century. By the 1820S and 1830s , such extended repetition was the exception
are deflllitive conditions just as much for a musical work as for a painting or a rather that the rule. exhortation, that sona ta-form m ovements
poem . .'l
should be organized more like orations, had largely been fulfilled .
Dommer's o rganic imagery is overt, but his emphasis on the quality of The technique of thematic "metamorphosis," to use another term bor-
perceptibility betrays a lingering allegiance to the pragmatic, rhetorical ori- rowed from the biological sciences, also beco m es more widespread around
entation as well. Perceptibility and intelligibility may perhaps be desirable this time. Inter-movement connections are certainly present in the Classical
qu alities in a living organism, but they are scarcely essential to its existence. style, but they are not nearly so obvious, nor do they play so central a role
And while Dommer does not evoke the image of the oration exp licitly, he as in later works like Schubert's "Wanderer" Fantasy, or the sy mphonies of
apparently finds the quality of organic w holeness insufficient to ensure a Schumann and Bruckner. Once again, the image of the organism reflects
work's artistic value. The individual elements that make up the whole must changing ideas of what devices and elements can give coherence to the mu- .
relate to a central idea, and the whole must res t on the basis of inner neces- sical work .
but the elaboration of this central idea must be presented intelligibly,
111 a proper sequence.

36 . Koch, Halzdbllch bey dellz S tudizlllz der Harmollie, pp. 3, 6, 7·


33· Hand, Aesthetik dey TOllkJllIst II 188 37. On the concep t of the artis t as a crea tor- go d, see Abrams, Mirror alld the Lamp;
. 34· Fo r another exa mple of Hand's of o rga ni c and rhetorical metaphors concern- Tzvetan Todorov, Theories of th e Symbol, trans. Ca therine Porter (I tha ca , N. Y.: Cornell
mg form , see ibid ., I , 180-181. . University Press, 1982), pp. 153-154.
35· D omme r, Elfl1lellte der MIIS':k, p. 169. 38. B roy les, "Organic Form ."
The Mechanistic-ConJol'll1atiOiIa/ COllcept oj Form ing of them atic ideas. But by the r 820S, these harmonic patterns themselves
began to emerge as a conceptual basis for form, or at leas t for certain forms.
Fertile in its own ri ght, the organic concept of form also gave ri se to its
Heinrich Birnbach, writing in 1827, was the first w riter to equate the con-
antithesis- or ITlOre precisely, provoked the for a sharpen ed formu la-
cept of form directly to the modulatory pattern of a work:
tion of an outlook already inherent ill th e ea rlier rhetOrIcal
Wilhelm Schlegel, in his lectures on drama and litera ture dehvered III VIenna We must fIrst pose the ques tion: by what means is the form of a musical work
. 8 8
III I 0 , con r
t asts Ol'g' 'anic form w ith m ech ani cal form and extends these actu ally determined? Or what, altogether, is the form of a musical work? . .. Be-
cause a particular key is established as the tonic at the beginning of any musical
images to the fine arts.:
work and because the modulations to other ke ys in any given work must have a
. I alll·cal when it is imparted to any material through an external force,. certain relationship to the tonic if the work is to be good-for this reason, the var-
Form. IS mec 1
· all accidental addition without refe ren ce to its character ... Orgal1lc ious different arrangements of modulation within a given musical work constitute
mere Iy aS ' . -' I
form, on the contrary, is innate; it un fo lds from within , and achIeves that tor whlC 1 the criterion by which one might recognize the genre to which a co mposition be-
it was destined simultaneo usly with the fu llest development of the seed .- . . In the longs, according to established rules of modulatory arrangement .. . It is through
fIne artS, just as in the province of nature-the supreme artist- all genuine forms the modulations present in a work that its form is established, and it is through the
are organic, i.e., determined by the content of the work of art. ·W manipul ation of the corresponding fundamental themes that the relative gradation
of a work's value is determined. ,0
Schlegel's view of organi c form comes very cl ose to denying any essel:tial
distinction betw een form and content, for it is th e content th at determllles Birnbach's approach is remarkably similar to m o re recent efforts to recon-
the form. In this res pect, the organic view ditTers fundamentally from the struct eighteenth-century concepts of form. H e explicitly identifies form
rhetorical view, which consistentl y upheld this distinction w ith out m akmg w ith large- scale harmonic structure, the lo west common denominator
"outer" form aes theticall y inferior to "inn er" form. The fo rm-content de- among a large number of works. T he n ature of any given work's thematic
bate, in o ther wo rds, did not emerge until the organic im age of form began material, as he implies, is too variable to provide such a framework. And
to es tabli sh itself as the onl y "genuin e" kind of fo rm . it is only in the unique qualities of an individual work, Birnbach arg ues,
Koch's ackn ow ledg ment of th e conflict between geniu s and external co n- that the aesth etic value of a work can be judged.
venti ons in the 1790S is a harbinger of thin gs to co m e; but for Koch and Many earlier writers had noted these large-s ca le harmonic conventions,
o ther eighteenth-centur y write rs , the rhetorical concept of form encompas- of course, but these modulatory patterns had never been equated exclu-
ses not only the generative process o f thema tic el abora ti o n but also the ap- sively with the concept of form; nor had they ever been separated entirely
plication of conventional patterns as a means toward achieving artistic 111- from an account of thematic ·e·vents; nor, above all , had the y ever been rel-
telli gibility. In acknowledging a distinction between form and content, the egated to second-class aesthetic status. The eig hteenth century, it should be
rhetorical concept oHo rm had already impli citl y embodi ed the mechal11stJc- remembered, lacked any single term to describe w hat we now think of as
conformational approach in its own ri ght. Large- scale structural conven- patterned form (among German writers, the most common terms were
tions we re recognized as such; but these con ventions h ad been seen as a AI1lage, Ano rdnung, or simply das Ganze). Birnbach, by contrast, explicitly
vehicle for m akin g a movement's central idea intelligible to an audi ence. applies the term " form" to an abstract concept: the structural conventions
With the open em ergence of the form-content deb ate in the earl y nineteenth shared by large number of works .
century, however, theorists were forced to rethink the nature of these large- Divorced from rhetoric, the mechanistic-conformational approach also
scale structural conven tion s. T heorists eventually began to look upon these tends to foster a view of form that is more spatial and synoptic in perspec-
patterns as a qualitatively different (and lesser) category of form, something tive than temporaL The very idea that a structural stereotype can be repre-
to be lea rn ed bllt ultimately overco m e. sented schematically necessarily undermines the fundamentally temporal
Within the rhetorical concept of mu sical for m, the primary function of nature of the convention. And while earlier accounts of specific forms (for
conventional large-scale harmonic had been to enhance the unfold- example, sonata form as described by Koch or Galeazzi) can be translated
into schematic representations , it is significant that the first actual dia gram
.. . 'K d L· ,. , . 1·11111· 5 Kr,·,,·'c"e Sc",.il(eH "",/
ofa form did not appear until r826, in the second volume of Anton Reicha's
39. Schlegel, Vor/cs""ge" "b er dra ma fi SC Ie "li S' "" ,'tla ",, . 'J'
Briefe, vo L 6, pc 2, cd. Edgar Lohner (Stuttgart: W. Kohlhamm er, 19 6 7) , 109- 110 . Trans-

lati on (in part) from Abrams, Mi,.,.or "lid ,"e L amp, p . 2 1 3.


40 . Birnbach, "Ube r die verschiedene Form," p. 269.
Traite de haute compositioll musicale. Reicha's concept of form, to be discussed vergent senses of the term "form" Were unsuccessful. The present-day aes-
in greater detail below, rests on the concept of the coupe, which in the literal thetic dichotomy between the two is a legacy of rhetoric's decline.
sense denotes a receptacle or a container, in this case for musical thoughts.
He conceives of form, in a word, as a mold, as a pattern that can be repre-
sented synoptically, rather than through time. Leonard Ratner's I - V :1:
Three Case Studies: Reicha, Marx, Schoenberg
X - I model, described in Chapter r, is a more recent application of the
synoptic perspective to the Classical repertoire. But insofar as all schemas It is beyond the scope of this book to trace the historical development of
necessarily represent form from a synoptic perspective, they reflect a his- the organic and mechanistic concepts of form throughout the nineteenth
torical shift of aesthetic interest away from the process of temporality and century and into the twentieth. But two composer-theorists already men-
the listener. . tioned-Anton Reicha and Adolf Bernhard Marx-illustrate a critical stage
Both the generative and the conformational perspectives of form, previ- in the emerging paradox of musical form in the early nineteenth century.
ously united by rhftoric, lose their common thread with the rise of FOr111et1- And the writings of a third, Arnold Schoenberg, help demonstrate the man-
/ehre and the detailed codification of external conventions based on lowest ner in which rhetorical concepts have persisted well into our own century
common denominators. It is scarcely coincidental that Koch, the first writer in nonrhetorical guises.
to present a detailed account of what we now know as sonata form, should
also have been the first in a long line of theorists to address the potential
conflict between the external conventions of form and the internally gen- Reicha
erated demands of the individual work. It is precisely because he describes Anton Reicha (1770-1836) is the pivotal figure in the emerging dichotomy
specific conventions in such detail that he feels the need to clarify the rela- of form. A native of Prague who spent his early life in Bonn, Hamburg,
tionship between genius and convention. Koch, significantly enough, is and before emigrating to Paris in the early r800s, Reicha was a pro-
also the last theorist to reconcile the two convincingly, for his account is the ficient composer as well as the author of numerous treatises. He was a per-
last serious attempt that is firmly based on a rhetorical foundation. With the sonal friend of both Haydn and the young Beethoven, and his theoretical
emerging idea of form as an aggregate of lowest common denominators, works consistently extol the music of Haydn and Mozart as stylistic para-
later writers could not resolve (or in many cases, simply did not acknowl- digms. His writings, as a whole, survey virtually the entire field of com-
edge) the paradoxical coexistence of two disparate concepts ofform without position, including treatises on harmony, melody, counterpoint, and or-
deprecating one of them as "outer" form. chestration. Carl Czerny's extensive translation of many of these works ,
The issue of intelligibility, central to so much critical thought in the eigh- published in Vienna in the early r 830s, helped ensure Reicha's international
teenth century, became increasingly less important over the course of the renown as a theorist. 4 ' Reicha 's treatises in fact represent the only systematic
nineteenth, and by the time of Adolf Bernhard Marx's Die Lehre VOIl der corpus of theoretical writings to emanate from a representative of Viennese
musikalischen Kompositiotl (1837-1847), the rift between the generative and Classicism-in spite of the fact that almost all of them were written in
the conformational approaches to form was openly acknowledged. Marx is French; after his move to Paris.
one of the few nineteenth-century writers who made a sustained effort to In one of his earliest published treatises, the Traite de me/odie of 1814,
reconcile the two, and his Lehre includes repeated pleas to his readers not to Reicha adopts a fundamentally rhetorical outlook, citing with approval the
equate the use of stereotypical patterns with the process of artistic creation. Abbe Arnaud's intention to prepare a work on musical rhetoric. In describ-
Nevertheless, his efforts focus on the act of creation rather than on the act ing the purpose of melody, Reicha evokes the celebrated triad of the orator's
of reception. Koch, as we have already seen, was still capable of reconciling three duties: movere, docere, delectare. A melody, according to Reicha, must
this conflict through the conceptual metaphor of rhetoric by emphasizing "strike the listener, move him, or please him" ([rapper, emouvoir, ouftatter);
the role that conventional structures play in facilitating the listener's com- melody cannot "teach," at least not in the traditional sense, but the deriva-
prehension of the composer's ideas. Marx, on the other hand, was not
so concerned about the listener and the processes by which inteIIi- 41. Reicha. COl/rs de colllposiriolJ IIII/sieale . VollsriilJdigcs LeiIrbllcll dcr I1Il1 sikalisclletl COlllpO-
glblhty could be facilitated, and in the end, his efforts to reconcile the di- sirion, 4 vols .• ed. and trans. Carl Czerny (Vienna: Anton Diabelli. preface dated 18 32) .

\
'I

tion of the other two categories from rhetoric is unmistakable. The princi-
£i r £i How a law here that the spirit adopts; for in an
ples by which one composes a good melody, then, are "somewhat compa- it is that our ee mgs 0 'd b developed in an-
orai:ion, there must be an exposition whose I eas can e
rable to those by which one constructs an oration or a poetic narrative. .);.. . "43
h
'

Melody, moreover, incorporates the theory of rhythm, with its points of ot er sectIOn. . f the grande
repose or cadences; the art of concatenating and elaborating ideas in order Reicha goes on to describe the modulatory conventions d b
coupe binaire, noting that this framework IS . use d £ior " gra nd anasf an natas ra-
to make a whole; and the knowledge of periodicity and the manner in which
periods can be combined with one another."42 . . . £i
vura arias; and m mstrumental muslC or t e Ir h fi st movement 0 so
"44 The,

duos trios, quartets, overtures, ' symp h '


omes, and large
, concertos.
I'
Methodologically, Reicha follows much the same strategy as Mattheson
. ' h owever, £ior once again the Istener odu-
basic' perspective is still rhetoncal, pro-
and Koch, He begins his discussion of melody by considering invention
and the nature of musical genius; he then moves on to review the periodic vides the ultimate justifi.cation for these procedures. One must not m
late too much in the first half, for example, .
structure of melody, the expansion of individual units within each
and the concatenation of successive periods into a whole. For Reicha, the . ,
der not to contradict the movement ,s exposltIon,
.. w h'IC h must always be clear
term "melody" generally retains its eighteenth-century sense, referring to ord'stinct-otherwise
111 'd , second half WIll
the . Iose Its
" ll1terest, fi't
or I would .no longer
the span of a complete movement. A melody-a movement-can consist an I f
be connected to the first in an obvious manner. I t e h . . . de.fectIve 'will
IS all the
be
of one, two, three, or more periods, and there are any number of ways of rest will be defective, too, as in an oration, for the attentIon of the 4<

combining these periods. He illustrates one such large-scale combination distracted or lost, or will be engaged too weakly to be able to apprecIate the rest . .
by analyzing in some detail the melody of the Adagio from Haydn's Later in his treatise, offers further observations on these
Symphony No. 44 in E Minor. Koch, it will be remembered, had 'also il- cadres et dimensions melodiques" : "The coupe is the mast:r of the melo bY
lustrated the concatenation of periods by analyzing the slow movement and ofa movement of music in general; and just as an outlme.[ca.dre] e
from a middle-period Haydn symphony (No. 42) . square or round or triangular, so too can the melody vary m Its out me.
But instead of treating the conventions of large-scale form within a dis- The study of th:se outlines is very important for the composer, and yet no
cussion of genres, as Mattheson and Koch had done, Reicha steps back to one has yet spoken of them in the art 0 f muslC. . "46 ..
consider form as a more abstract idea. He introduces the concept of the ,Reicha is not the first to use the term coupe in connection With
"cadre, coupe, ou dimension," terms he uses interchangeably to describe . ,:.;. conventions-Momigny had earlier defined a Jantaisie as a ahns
the various large-scale constructs common to a variety of genres. A move- lequel Ie Compositeur sort de la coupe ord malre ' . des m 0 r ceaux. 47_ d ut de
ment-a melody-consisting of two periods alone is a coupe de fa romance or is the' first to elaborate upon t h e concept a t any length
. ' .Once
. mtro uce . h'n,
a petite coupe binaire. If the melody consists of three principal periods, of the concept of the coupe or cadre takes on slgmficabnlce ,",:,I.t III
which the third isa literal repetition of the first, it is a coupe du rondeau, or Reicha's treatise. More an d more, t h e coupe begms to resem e a dJe hy Ii
a petite coupe temaire. A melody divided into two large halves, each of which mold" a framework for mdivi . "d ua I t h emes. Re'cha
I goes on.to. expan t e
consists of multiple periods, is fa grande coupe binaire; and if divided into conc:Pt of the coupe in order to include forms that are neither bmary nor I
three multi-period sections with a da capo third section, it represents fa ternar . The result is the earliest of an abstract
grande Coupe temaire.
no Ion er constitute the organizatIOnal pnnclple for the
Because of its importance in the contemporary repertoire, the grande coupe . gl constructs', instead , abstract formal types represent speCific
o f conventlona
binaire the bulk of Reich a's subsequent discussion of these conven- genres. These include:
tions. The second half of this coupe is never shorter than the first, for "the
first half is the exposition, while the second is the development." The ter- I. the petite coupe variee for a set of variations on a single theme;
minology seems strikingly modern, yet the metaphor of the oration is never
' far beneath the surface, for in a footnote Reicha observes how "remarkable
43 · Ibid., p. 46.
42 . Reicha, Traite de melodie, p. 9. Numerous other references or allusions to 'rhetoric 44· Ibid., p. 48.
OCcur throughout Reicha's treatise (pp. iii, I, 85, 93, 100, etc.) For Arnaud, see' above, 45· Ibid., p. 47.
p·7°. 46. Ibid. , p. 58 .
47· Momigny, Cours compler, II, 679.

.
2. the grande coupe variee for variations on two different themes one in ma-
jor and one in minor ("double variations"); ' : ".---
---------- ---,
3· the coupe arbitraire for "fantasias and preludes";
4· the coupe libre ou indherminee, in which one presents many periods, with-
out dividing them into two, three, or more sections, as in airs dec/ames; I
II
;/
/ /"" -
/'

MOTIF
ou premiere
"
" . /
\ I
/""

ou
PQNT"
-"..--
Prerruere partie, ou exposition des

........

d'une \.
/ SECONDE'"
IDEE MERE
dans la nouvelle \,
/ IDEES
ACCESSOIRES
"

et conclUSIon de la
\

( idee mere. V Idee a I autre. Y tonique. V premiere partie.


5· the coupe de retour, in which one "repeats the main theme often, but each
time after a new period, as in many rondeaux. "48
--- ._ ---- :-
The fluctuation in

broader. that
terminology is problematic. His alternating
use of coupe and cadre WIth the much vaguer dimension is symptomatic of the
:vhen an external parameter becomes the pri- II
f
/--
//
./ ' "

DEVELOPPEMENT
- " '\
Premiere section de la seconde

"--,/
I/
--
. partie. -....
...

ARRET
.
\

---
mary CrIterIon for the defimtlon of specific forms. His original definition of en modulant sans cesse. sur la dominante primitive. ,

--- - -----
the coupe rests on the concept of periodicity, but his subsequent application
of the term to the "fantasia or prelude" is less satisfactory: the coupe arbitraire

- -
seems a contradiction in terms. Can a "free form," by this line of thought,
-... ,
- '"
". Seconde Section.
really be a form at all? Reicha, moreover, ignores the conceptual problems
/' "'-
of form posed by such contrapuntal constructs as the fugue and the canon. -:::- / .,...- /-,"
And while he emphatically denies that a coupe is the basis of a musical com-
/1 Motif initial \
I Quelques
'" /
Transposition
la seconde tonique \
/ CODA
. \
he also asserts that it is the "patron de la Melodie." The coupe, for If dans Ie ton primitif. modulati.ons passageres\/ dans la tonique primitive,
Relcha, IS organizing force at a level above the period. For the L.L_ _ _ _ _ _ _ I avec les Idees du pont. . avec des modifications. ,_---,_ _ _ __

most part,. 111 fact, It supplants the concept of rhetoric as the organizing force
Figure 3.1 Reicha's schematization of the "Grande coupe binaire," from his Traite
for the trajectory of a melody-which is to say, for the structure of a move-
de haute composition (1824-1826) , II, 300
ment. of a .musical movement as an oration is most clearly
present 111 the earlIer portIOns of the Traite de me/odie, but it gradually gives -
wa y to the idea of the coupe. ercises a subtle but significant influence on the in which form is
Reicha's Traite de haute composition musicale of 1824-1826 continues in this perceived. In its search for lowest common denominators, Reicha's grande
direction, with fewer references to the metaphor of the oration and even coupe binaire suggests that the tonal outline of a movement is the constant
greater stress on the concept of the coupe. The coupe is still viewed as a means element in the equation, that harmony is now the basis of form, and that
for developing a a melody's ideas, for Reicha introduces the term under the the coupe is a vessel for melodic ideas. Reicha argues against this interpre-
rubric "Sur les coupes ou cadres des morceaux de musique qui sont Ie plus tation at several points: the notion of an idee mere evokes organic imagery,
developpement des idees." And the importance of the grande but his concept of the coupe, as we have seen, is ambiguous at best. It is
coupe bmazre IS stressed once again, not only because it is the most common more useful for defining specific forms than it is in providing a broader basis
in music, but because the student, once he has mastered this form, for a theory of form. - .
WIll have no great difficulty in composing in the other coupes. "49 Reicha's schematic representations, with the synoptic perspective they
In the Traite de haute composition, Reicha introduces a new category, the foster, also tend to emphasize a shift in aesthetic and analytical emphasis
coupe du menuet, but the most significant additions to his treatment of form from the act of listening to the work itself. His diagrams make no reference
are the schematic diagrams that represent large-scale conventions synopti- to the listener, and however detailed or refined his prose may be, it is the
cally (see Figure 3.1). The use of schematic diagrams, as noted earlier, ex- visual schematization that inevitably provides the most concise and mem-
orable representation of the concept of form. The perspective is now
48. Traite de melodie pp. 58-60. . squarely centered on the work itself, viewed as an external, autonomous
49· Relcha, Traite de haute composition ml/sicale, 2 vols. (Paris: Zener, 1824-26), II, 296. object.

15 2 WORDLESS in Later 111""""1111 Form 153


Marx
In some respects, Marx's definition of Form comes quite close to Koch's
This work-oriented perspective is integral to the writings of Adolf Bern- ("the manner in which the art:-work is brought before, soul of .the lis-
Marx (1795-1866). Composer, author, and founding editor of the tener"). SJ But Marx's concept of KUl1stJorm, like Reicha s dIagrams, Ignores
Berlmer allgemeine musikalische Zeitung, Marx also relied on schematic dia- the destina'tion of the work-:-the listener-and emphasizes instead the pro-
?rams (albeit less elaborate ones), and he described specific musical forms cess by which the composer shapes the structure of his feeling,
In detail. Li.ke Reicha, Marx begins his account of musical and idea.:' Thus, although .earlier theorists had recognized the eXIstence of
form by reVIeWIng the prIncIples of periodicity. In going beyond the limited conventional structures Marx is the first to make a consistent terminolog-
model of the minuet, Marx follows the traditional precept of urging the ical distinction patterns and the broader concept of
to study the works of great composers. His detailed accounts of form in general.
specIfic forms represent an important additional device by which to brid e Other. terms used by Marx preserve rhetorical categories under the guise
the gap between student and master. .' g of a nonrhetorical vocabulary. The traditional distinction between what ear-
To. an even greater extent than Reicha, Marx treats form from the lier writers had called grammar-the mechanical rules of music-and rhet-
of the rather than that of the listener. He is the first theor- oric-the art of combining smaller units into an aesthetically satisfying
Ist whose WrItIngs the paradox of musical form becomes explicit. To his whole--is now expressed through more neutral ter'minology. Marx calls the
credIt, Marx openly acknowledges this conceptual dichotomy and con- former the "pure theory of the composition," the latter "applied."s4 The
fronts a that Koch had raised only briefly and that Reicha had more change in vocabulary only masks the continuity of a pedagogical tradition
or less aVOIded altogether. Marx's solution to the problem is to distinguish that distinguishes between that which is technically correct and that which
between Form and KunstJorm . The former is "the manner in which the con- is aesthetically moving.
tent of the work-the composer's concept, feeling, idea-becomes an ex- The widening gulf between pure and applied theory, KunstJorm-and Form,
ternal whole. [Gestalt]." This essentially generative view sees form as the made the need to distinguish between genius and convention all the more
(lIterally the "externalization" and figuratively the "expression") acute. Forkel and Koch had already addressed this issue briefly, but Marx
of Its content. Thus, there can be "as many forms as there are works of attacked it with unprecedented vigor and directness. His hierarchical codi-
art." 51 fication of forms, as noted earlier, is balanced by his deep concern that the
KUl1stJorm, on the other hand, is Marx's term for those "essential features , student not confuse pedagogical necessity with the act of true artistic crea-
shared by a . large of individual artistic works." The number of tion. He repeatedly reminds his readers that KUl1stjormen are not to be
IS also lImItless, at least in theory; in practice, however, a rela- viewe'd as matters of mere technique, divorced from content.
tIvely sm.all number of patterns provide the basis for all others. Formlehre is The true purpose of Formenlehre for Marx, in fact, is to teach the student
the teachIng of these KunstJormenY mastery of all forms in order that he be slave to none. Only with the fan-
This terminological distinction between the mechanistic-conformational tasia, the "formless" form, does the aspiring composer reach the true goal
(Kunstform) and the organic-generative (Form) confirms the establishment of Formenlehre. He must give up every "fixed form" and give himself
of a dIChotomy that is still very much a part of theoretical thought today. to "the freedom of the spirit, which knows no law other than itself."sS In
the end, the value of KUl1stJormen is essentially heuristic for Marx: the very
purpose of mastering specific, coiwentional forms · is to transcend them. It
5? For Marx's diagrams, see his Lehre, III, 206, 213, etc. In the preface to volume . is thus all the more ironic that Marx himself has since come to be so closely
of h,s Marx explici.t1y acknowledges Reicha's contributions to the theory of
th/l" I fill, 5. Issued a second edition of volumes one (1841) and two ( 18 4 2 )
with the "textbook" concept of form.
,I del t e three ( 18 45) . In the second edition of volume two he Nevertheless, it is the Classification and description of specific conven-
e, e , 's of sonata form, moving it to volume three (I 845) and· ' re- tional forms in Die Lt;hre von der musika,ltschen Komposition that have re-
there m consIderably greater depth . His general approach to the conce t of
IS essentIallYhconsistent in both editions, however. All citations to volume two L ,rm
here are to t e second edition . eIre
. 52. Marx, Lehre II 5 M 'II b . 53. See above, p. 126, . . .
, wI'th · "fi" : arx vacI ates etween Forllliehre and ForlllCll/ehre apparently 54. Marx, Lehre, I, 4-5; III, 4. See also Marpurg's equation of rhetoric with the "applied"
out any sIgm Icant dISc" C"' , ,
study of "forms") . . me Ion m meanmg {e.g. , between the study of "form" and the elements of composition, above, p. 69.
55, Marx, Lehre, III, J26 ,
mained the work's most enduring legacy. This in itself is a tribute to Marx's dresses, and in that the aforementioned elements of its organization function like the
method, for the pedagogical usefulness of such a taxonomy has proven itself rhyme, the rhythm, the meter, and the subdivision into strophes, sentences, para-
repeatedly over more than a century. But Marx's simultaneous derogatory graphs, chapters, etc. in poetry or prose. .
The more or less complete exploitation of the potency of these de-
attitude toward conventional forms has gone largely unrecognized, even
termines the aesthetic value and the classification of the style in respect to Its
though it, too, persists in present-day pedagogy and analysis. . or profundity . .. ", . Even
. A ntony, w hen add ressll1g
. the Roman
Marx's treatise went through multiple editions throughout the nineteenth ulanty " people ' realIzes.
that he must repeat his" ... and Brutus is an honourable man . over and over, If
century, and no less an authority than Hugo Riemann revised the last of
this contrast is to penetrate the minds of simple citizensY
these editions before preparing his own Grosse KOl11positionslehre of 1902.
Marx's framework has since provided the basis for numerous composition The purpose of form in both verbal and. musical language, as
treatises dO'wn to the present day: specific forms are described, sometimes suggests, is to facilitate intelligibility. He goes on to cite the recurnng
in considerable detail, but ultimately deprecated. Much of the rhythmic pattern of a Johann Strauss waltz as a vehicle by which a musical
ambivalence toward conventional forms I outlined in Chapter '1 has its thought can be made intelligible. But Schoenberg's own goal as a composer
origins in this pedagogical tradition. With the possible exception of was to reach a more sophisticated audience, one that could grasp complex
Czerny-who seems to have been imbued with a particularly strong pedan- ideas at a single hearing. "This is what musical prose should direct
tic streak-no serious theorist has adopted a mechanistic viewpoint other and straightforward presentation of ideas," without the aid of the "patch-
than for didactic purposes. work" or "mere padding and empty repetitions" that a popular
waltz.
Mature people think in complexes, and the higher their intelligence the greater is
Schoenberg
the number of units with which they are familiar. It is inconceivable that composers
As a composer, Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951) took great pride in viewing should call "serious music" what they write in an obsolete style, with a prolixity
his own music within the historical tradition of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, not conforming to the contents-repeating three to seven times what is understand-
and Brahms. 56 As a theorist, Schoenberg did not claim his place in a cor- able at once. Why should it not be possible in music to say in whole complexes in
responding heritage, but he would have been perfectly justified had he done a condensed form what, in the preceding epochs, had at first to be said several times
so. Certain aspects of his writings, in fact, exhibit much closer ties to the with slight variations before it could be elaborated?!'
eighteenth than to the nineteenth century. Schoenberg's complaint is a twentieth-century echo of Gn:try's com-
In what is perhaps his single best-known essay, "Brahms the Progres- ments more than one hundred fifty years before ("I was at your house this
sive," Schoenberg never uses the word "rhetoric," but his stance throughout morning; yes, I WaS at your house this morning ... "). Both composers, in
is thoroughly rhetorical. He views music as a language in its own right; essence, are arguing for a rhetoric of music that more nearly reflects "an
intelligibility is an essential quality of form; and each work must observe oration," to use Gretry's term, or in Schoenberg'S terminology, "musical
what rhetoricians call decorum: its style must stand in proper relationship prose":
not only to its content but also to its intended audience.
I wish to join ideas with ideas. No matter what the purpose ormeaning of an idea
Form ill Music serves to bring about comprehensibility through memorability. Even- in the aggregate may be, no matter whether its function be introductory, establish-
ness, regularity, symmetry, subdivision, repetition, unity, relationship in rhythm ing, varying, preparing, elaborating, deviating, developing, concluding, subdivid-
and harmony and even logic-none of these elements produces or even contributes ing, subordinate, or basic, it must be an idea which had to take this place even if it
to beauty. But all of them contribute to an organization which makes the presenta- were not to serve for this purpose or meaning or function; and this idea must look
tion of the musical idea intelligible. The language in which musical ideas are ex- in construction and in thematic content as if it were not there to fulfil a structural
pressed in tones parallels the language which expresses feelings or thoughts in task. In other, words, ainnsition, a codetta, an elaboration, etc., should not be
words, in that its yocabularymust be proportionate to the intellect which it ad-
57. Ibid ., p. 399. Schoenberg draws on Antony's celebrated oration from Julius Caesar
56. See esp. "Brahms the Progressive" in Schoenberg's Style and Idea, ed. Leonard Stein once again in his essay "For a Treatise on Composition," in Style and Idea, p. 265.
(Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of CalIfornia Press, 1984), pp. 398-441. 58. "Brahms the Progressive," p. 408 .
considered as a thing in its own end. It should not appear at all ifit does not develop, embodied in what eighteenth-century theorists would called the
modify, intensify, clarify, or throw light or colour on the idea of the piece. '9
Hauptsatz, Schoenberg embraces a concept of that IS even
"Rhetoric," in its debased sense, is probably the last term Schoenberg more traditional than he realized. Vogler's descriptIOn of varIations on a
would have wished to use in this context, redolent as it is with the very theme as "a kind of musical rhetoric" is a direct anticipation of Schoenberg's
notions of "empty repetition" and "padding" he sought to avoid. Yet it is formulation. .
precisely rhetoric, in its traditional and more elevated sense, that Schoen- There is in fact a' revealing parallel between Schoenberg's idea of music.al
berg is evoking here, for he seeks a "logic" by which to connect the presen- prose and Ernst Ludwig Gerber's essay on the symphony that appear:d 111
tation of his ideas. 60 The formulation in the last of the passages cited above the Allgemeine l11usikalische Zeitung of 1813. Gerber gives Haydn .credit for
offers a particularly striking parallel with Mattheson's image of a musical having established a new kind of symphonic style, in which an entire
movement 'as an oration. Within his listing of the various functions of mu- ment is based on a SIngle Haup tsatz .6J But in spite of its clear superIorIty,
sical ideas, Schoenberg incorporates the traditional categories of rhetoric Gerber argues, this manner of writing poses certain difficulties for the com-
almost verbatim ("introductory" = exordium; "establishing" = narratio poser, the orchestra, and the listener. The problem, according to Gerber,
and propositio; "varying," "elaborating," and "developing" = confirmatio; lies in the issue of intelligibility and
"deviating" = confutatio; "concluding" = peroratio). There can be no
the receptivity of the public in hearing such complex and artful music. Only some-
doubt that Schoenberg was aware of the rhetorical source of these cate-
one with an ear educated through much practice and the repeated pleasure of hearing
gories, even ifhe was not specifically aware of Mattheson's or ForkeI's ear- great works of art, and with an enlightened artistic sense of the sam.e, is in a position
lier applications of these terms. to absorb and enjoy such beauties and magnificent works, especially in light of the
Closely related to the idea of "musical prose IS Schoenberg's cele- racing tempos that are now common. If one adds to all this the currently predomi-
brated-if rather vaguely formulated-concept of "developing variation." nant mania for modulation and instability, by which no idea is actually allowed to
Its object is the unfolding, the elaboration of a work's central idea or "basic be elaborated, and in which the participation of the ear and heart is often disturbed
shape," its Grundgestalt. 61 Developing variation can also be seen as an essen- and torn away-then it could not be any wonder at all if in hearing such an art-
tially rhetorical concept, for the metaphor of the musical work as an oration work, one should find it, as did the Parisian public, according to its own spokesmen,
encompasses not only the expansion and elaboration of small-scale units but remarkable but fotiguil1g.·'
also the broader coherence of the whole, the manner in which one idea The public's ability to assimilate the expression of Haydn'S
follows another. 62 By giving priority to the elaboration of a central idea, ,music, Gerber implies, is limited. And even: listeners familiar with the id-
iom will be challenged by a work that, while based on a single idea, elab-
59· Ibid., p. 407. The term "musical prose" is not original with Schoenberg, although orates and develops that idea in a dense, demanding fashion. Considered
he used it in his own peculiar way: see Hermann Danuser, Mllsikalische Prosa (Regensburg: from the perspective of his contemporaries, Haydn's music elaborates ideas
G. Bosse, 1975).
in a manner that seems much closer to musical prose than to poetry. In the
60. See, for example, Johann Joachim Eschellburg's EIlfWllrj einer Theorie lind Literatllr
der sclliinen Redektlnste, 3rd cd. (Berlin: F. Nicolai, 1805), in which rhetoric is defined as the early years of the nineteenth century, it should be recalled, Haydn was con-
basis for a "successive and coherent presentation of ideas" (p. 319), and in which music, sistently compared not to a poet, working in fixed meters and rhyme
poetry, and oratory 'are classed together as "sounding" ("tonische") arts (p. 4). schemes, but to orator, who expresses ideas in prose. What constitutes
61. Schoenberg used the term Grulldgestalt in a variety of contexts, and it is a term that "empty padding," in other words, changes with the perceptions of succes-
poses special problems for translators: see David Epstein, Beyolld Orphells (Cambridge,
sive generations.
Mass. : MIT Press, 1979), pp. 17-21. For a convenient summary of Schoenberg's scattered
uses of the term, see Reinhold Brinkmann's appendix to "Anhand von Reprisen," in In this light, Schoenberg's concept of the Grundgestalt appears less revo-
Brahms-Allalysell: Referate der Kieler Tagllllg, 1983, ed. FriedheIm Krummacher and Wolfram lutionary than it is often made out to be. The idea, in fact, shares a direct
, Steinbeck (Kassel: Barenreiter, 1984), pp. 116-II8. Se.e also Patricia "Gnmdge-
link to A. Eo Marx, who 'speaks of "the sensuous representation of the idea
stalt as Tonal Function," Music Th eory Spectrum,s (1983), 15-38; and Carl Dahlhaus, "What
Is 'Developing Variation'?" in his Schoenberg and the New MIISic, trans. Derrick Puffett and that the artist carries within himself, more or less clearly in his conscious-
Alfred Clayton (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987), pp. 128- 133 .
. 62. On the distinctions between "thematic-motivic manipulation" and developing vari- 63· Gerber, "Eine freuridliche Vorstellung tiber gearbeitete Instrumentalmusik, beson-
see Carl Dahlhaus, Die Musiktheorie im 18. und 19. Jahrhllndert, erster Teil : Grundziige ders tiber Symphonien," AMZ, IS (1813), cols. 457-463 .
emer Systemallk (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1984), pp. 135- 1 36. 64· Ibid., col. 459.
ness ... Thus every part of the sensuous form of.a work of art must stem from one subject to another."7 0 Schoenberg's juxtaposition of organic and
from the artist's internal idea, and must be recognizable and demonstrable" rhetorical metaphors reflects the essential compatibility and historical con-
throughout the course of that work. 65 tinuity of. these two images. Like so many composers since the early nine-
And like Schoenberg, Marx hints at, but never clearly formulates, a the- teenth ce;"tury, Schoenberg saw himself as a godlike artist, his works as
ory that all works (and thus by extension all KunstJormen) are based on a living creations; but like his eighteenth-century counterparts, he ultimately
deeper, fundamentaljdea, which Marx calls the Grundgedanke. Early in the appealed to ·such categories as logic, coherence, and above all intelligibility.
second volume of his Lehre, Marx notes that he can "at this point touch "The presentation o'f ideas rests on the laws of musical coherence," he wrote
only briefly on the concept of Grundgedanke, which is manifested in all elsewhere; and the art of presentation is measured in terms of" comprehen-
forms that are not only already known but are also likely to evolve in the sibility" (Fasslichkeit)7'-scarcely a prerequisite of organic life.
future. The'idea can be explained and proven only when the Formenlehre By whatever name it may be known-Grundgestalt, thematic transfor-
has been presented in its entirety."66 Unfortunately, Marx would in fact mation, or metamorphosis-the concept of thematic elaboration is a fun-
never spell out precisely what he meant by the term. From the of damental element of much analysis today, particularly for music since the
other writings, however, it is clear that the term refers to the central idea time of Beethoven. Yet the earlier theoretical basis for this kind of thinking
that unifies a movement or work. In his later biography of Beethoven, has long been somewhat obscure, particularly as regards the music of the
Marx uses the same word to describe the organic growth of the first move- Classical era. There is a vague if largely unspoken sense that the idea of
ment of the Seventh Symphony: "A life has unfolded out of the seed of the thematic transformation is a quintessentially nineteenth-century concept,
Hauptsatz. It began lightly, happily, and delightfully idyllically, then raised and that it plays at best only an role in earlier repertoires. 72 The
itself up energetically and combatively, disputatious and inflamed to anger; nineteenth century did in fact view form as a thematic process, but this was
even its Grundgedanke is incandescent with warlike turbulence."67 an idea inherited from the eighteenth. Richard Wagner's equation of melody
Ferdinand Hand uses the term Grul1dgedanke in a similar context at almost with form is part of a much longer tradition that stretches back more than
the same time: musical works whose various ideas are not unified by a gen- a hundred years before. 73 Some of the basic elements of Schoenberg's think-
erative, germinal idea are without shape (gestaltlos}. 68 Hand, Marx, and ing, in turn, can similarly be traced back to the venerable tradition of rhet-
Schoenberg all use nonrhetorical vocabulary to express an essentially rhe- oric, which ultimately provides a mediating link in concepts of form across
torical concept: the elaboration of a central idea in such a way that it will the centuries.
be intelligible to the listener.
Carl Dahlhaus is thus only partly correct in asserting that Schoenberg's 70. Schoenberg, Fundamentals of Mllsical Compo sitiOli, ed . Gerald Strang and Leon ard
concept of developing variation is based on the metaphor of the biological Stein (London: Faber and Faber, 1970), p. 1.
71. Quo ted in Jonathan Dunsby and Arnold Whiccall , Mu sic Analysis in Theory and Prac-
organism. 69 Developing variation does in fact rest on the process of growth, tice (New Ha ven : Yale Un iversity Press, [98 8), p. 75. '
but in describing the nature of that growth, Schoenberg consistently mixes 72. One notable exception is Karl H. Worner's Das Zeilaller der Ihematischel1 Prozesse ill
metaphors. At the very outset of his Fundamentals of Musical Composition, der Geschichte der Mu sik (Regensburg: Gustav Bosse, [969), a work that has received scant
he notes that "form," used "in the aesthetic sense. . . means that a piece is critical attention to date.
73 . Grey, in "Richard Wagner and the Aesthetics o f Musical Form," convincingly dem-
organized, i.e., that it consists of elements functioning like a living organ- onstrates that theorists of the mid-nineteenth century viewed form as an essentially melodic
ism." But he then goes on to observe that "without organization music construct. But this view is not, as Grey (pp. 77-79) and other scholars have argued, original
would be an amorphous mass, as unintelligible as an essay without punc- to the nineteenth century.
tuation, or as disconnected as a conversation which leaps purposelessly

65· Marx, Die Kunst des Gesang es, theoretisch-praktisch (Berlin: A. M. Schlesinger, 1826),
pp. 240- 241.
66. Marx, Lehre, II, ' 2nd ed. (1842),6. This passage does not appear in the first edition.
67· Marx, Beethoven, II, 198.
68 .. Hand, Aesthetik der Tonkunst, II, 188. See also Dommer, Elemente, p, 170.
69. Dahlhaus, . "Entwicklung und Abstraktion," AJMw, 43 (1986), 91-108.
CHAPTER 4
. ' This change in perception is due in no small part to changes in the music
. itself: Haydn's and Mozart's late symphonies, to take but one example from
a specific genre, are far more ambitious in scope than works
by such earlier ' composers as Giovanni Battista SammartInI or Johann
Stamitz-or by Haydn and Mozart themselves, for that matter. Neverthe-
less, all of these works lack a verbal text, and it is a transformation of atti-
tudes toward what had previously been considered instrumental music's
vagueness of meaning that lies at the heart of the new Romantic outlook.
Rhetoric and the Autonomy of . The absence of specific images, long considered a liability to instrumental
Instrumental Music music, was now held to be its greatest asset. Precisely because it transcended
the representational limits of the word, a number of influential critics came
to see instrumental music as the most demanding and mysterious, and thus
the highest and most rewarding, medium of artistic expression. 4
This new attitude is a common element in the writings of such critics as
I Boo, instrumental music was widely considered aesthetically infe-
Wackenroder, Tieck, Novalis, the Schlegels, and E. T. A . Hoffmann. While
nor to vocal music. This attitude is reflected throughout Johann Georg
the individuality of each writer should not be underestimated, there is a
Sulzer's encyclopedic Allgemeine Theorie der schiinen Kilnste of 177 1- 1774.
remarkable degree of unanimity among the early Romantics that instru-
Instrumental music, according to Sulzer, can be pleasing and at times mov-
mental music, and the symphony in particular, embodies a higher, tran-
ing, but its "meaning" is relatively obscure. Music without a text cannot scendental language.
specify the precise nature of the emotion it expresses or arouses within the
This reversal in aesthetic status among the German Romantics is all the
listener. Vocal music, on the other hand, can make its emotional motivation
more striking in light of the apparent speed with which it took place. The
explicit through the vehicle of the text. Music therefore "achieves its full concept of a "paradigmatic shift" has been invoked to account for this
effect only when it is united with poetry."I This same attitude is evident change;S but such an explanation obscures important elements of continuity
even in the writings of Koch and Forkel, who adopt Sulzer 's position with between the Romantics and preceding generations. Most previous attempts
only minor modifications. Unlike instrumental music, vocal music can af-
. to interpret the Romantic view of instrumental music have tended to em-
fect both the mind and the heart. 2
. phasize the movement's innovations at the expense of its more traditional
. Many eighteenth-century writers, including Sulzer, Forkel, and Koch, do
views. Early Romantic writings on music, moreover, are seldom consid-
In fact extol the power of instrumental music; but not until well into the ered in light of the more technical concepts of late-eighteenth-century
n.ineteenth century was it widely recognized as aesthetically equal or supe- musical theory.
nor to vocal music. In certain circles, however, this change was anticipated The Romantic aesthetic does indeed represent a revolution, but it is a
as early as the 1790S. In the view of the early German Romantics, instru- revolution in the older sense of the term: a I Bo-degree turn accomplished
mental music was actually superior to vocal music. Novalis, for one, could by a transformation of ideas, not an abrupt upheaval. Early Romantic the-
obse.rve at the :nd of the eighteenth century that "music for singing and ories of instrumental music are in fact deeply rooted in the traditional im-
mUSIC for dancIng are not really true music, but only derivatives of it. agery of music as a language and musical works as orations. The Romantic
Sonatas, symphonies, fugues, variations: this is real music."3
understanding of instrumental music's "meaning" develops out of the ear-
lier premise that the structure, if not the content, of instrumental music is
. . . . . . : ..

I. Sulzer, Allgemeine Theorie, "Musik" and "Instrumentalmusik."


. 4. T'he of views in the writings of the early Romantics can be
. 2. Koch, Musikalisches LexikOIl, "Instrumentalmusik"; see also his Vermch, II, 33. Johann
outlined in only the broadest terms here. For more detailed discussions of this phenome-
"Genauere Bestimmung einiger musicalischen Begriffe," in C. F.
Cramer s MagazI/I der Musik, 1 (1783), 106 7-1068. . non see Carl Dahlhaus 'Die Idee der absoluten Musik (Kassel: Barenreiter, 1978), trans. by
Lustig as The Id;a of Absolute Music (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989);
. 3· Novalis, Schriften, 4 vols., ed. Paul Kluckhohn (Leipzig: Bibliographisches Institut
n.d .), III, 349. , Hosler, Changing Aesthetic Views ; and Neubauer, The Emancipation of Music from Language.
5· See Dahlhaus, Die Idee der absoluten Musik, pp. 12-13.

162 WORDLESS RHETORIC


Rhetoric and the Autonomy of Instrumental Music 163
analogous to that of verbal discourse. And rhetoric, as we shall see, was :\11 R· -I d Ti.irk all speak repeatedly of "musical ideas."" Within
Quantz, lepe, an . I k an oration the themes of
important element of continuity in the emerging aesthetic of an Jutono- the conceptual metaphor of the muslca wor as d' If ·'d
mous instrumental music. The concept of the "musical idea" that appeJrs ·t of complete an se -contamc
an instrumental work were seen as um s . I d· .
. h f the mUSlca IctlOnary
for the first time in the second hJlf of the eighteenth century is a dircct thought The anonymous but perceptlve aut or 0 . I.
outgrowth of rhetorical thought, as are the programmatic interpretJtions of publish;d serially in Hiller's Wachentliche Nachrichten of 17 69 emphaSIzes t 11S
absolute music that first began to appeJr Jround this samc timc. Both quality, particularly for a movement's Hallptsatz:
represent transitional stages on the path from early-eighteenth-century . f I d h . rthcless must have their own
attitudes toward instrumental music, which are largely condescending, Ideas, /IIl/sica/, are small sectIOnS 0 a me 0 y t at neve . .
.. .I . 'coldary and connectIVe Ideas .. .
to those of the early nineteenth century, which are nothing short of reveren- sense. One dlst1l1glll S les among. main, S f '
. d , '
ding to an esta bl·IS I1ed pIan
The ideas are thc first thmgs one writes own accor .. . d
tial. for their ebboration. Here one abandons one's self to the fire of ImagmatJon an
. I e · ·t hould have lde:ls :Ire em-
only bter brings the proposed plcce to t lC perlccnon I S ·
pl13sizcd if the preceding and succeeding ones exhibit less liveliness, and
elaboration . These secondary Ideas . must nevert h e essi t rI·b u te by emphasJZ\ng the
con
Rhetoric and the "Musical Idea" main idea and by giving it greater importance. Thus it should not be assumed that
The image of music as a language, as seen in Chapter 2, took on special secondary ideas are to be neglected. n"at h i t
er, t le composer mus know how .to e1c-
importance over the course of the eighteenth century, particularly in con- vate the main idea in such a way that it enters the listener's ears most prom\l1ently
and makes the strongest impression both upon his hearing and upon his spirit.'
nection with instrumental music. Mattheson's analysis of MarceJlo's aria as
a Klangrede, significantly enough, had provided neither the text nor any The main idea [J-/al/J1t,l!cdallkc] is the most important [idea] within the melody.
indication of the aria's dramatic context. Music accompanying a verbal text Therefore, it must be presented within every section, for injust this W:lY, one knows
was seen as an amplification of that text; music without any text at all was that the sections belong together, and because the unity of the melody [I.e., the
considered a wordless oration embodying a language in its own right. movement] is determined through the main idea.'
This kind of imagery helped lay the foundation for later interpretations Johann Ncpomuk Reichenberger, in the third of. his .Die gal7ze
of instrumental music as a meaningful, autonomous art . Whether this Mlisikkllnsl (17 80 ), similarly views a work's theme as Its leadmg Idea:
"meaning" is representational or nonrepresentational is a basic issue that
remains a matter of dispute even today. But from a historical perspective, • Dy the word "theme," we mean :I brief musical passage consisting of a few notes,
the very notion that untexted music can have a significance of any kind is
an idea that first gained widespread acceptance during the eighteenth cen-
tury.
I . or a musical idea, as one calls it, presented in a few notes, much as one gencrally
m:lkes known the content or essence of a sermon with a word or two. This idea is
subsequently the ongoing objcct, the continually recurring material and goal of
either the musical work or the oration.·
The belief in instrumental music's expressive power in the first half of the \
eighteenth century rested primarily on the idea of music as a language of The rcpresentational, affective qualities of a theme, in these accounts, are
representational, if rather vague, ideas like sorrow, joy, and anger. But by no longer central. What is basic to the musical idea is its potential for sub-
the end of the century, the Baroque concept of Affikt had been largely sequent elaboration, its ability to provide an intrinsically musical focus for
eclipsed. Even though it continued well into the Classical era, this doctrine
was for the most part no longer a vital aesthetic concept by the early years 6. Scheibe, Crilischa MII.ii/ills; C. P. E. Bach, VaSt/ch ii/H'r die wahre Art tlas Clavier ZI/
of the nineteenth century. The equation of a movement's theme with an s)Jid,.". I (Berlin: Author. 1753), 117. 132-133, etc.; Quantz, Versl/ch. pp. 13. 17, 102,
intrinsically musical, nonrepresentational idea, on the other hand, became 104- 10 5. 115- 111i • 30 4 ("gute Ordnung der Gedanken"). etc.; Riepe!, Alljallgsgriilldl'; Tlirk .
Klal'ienr/lllie. pp. 340-341. For other similar citations. see Ulrich Leisinger, "Was sind nll1-
increasingly prevalent over the second half of the eighteenth century. The
sikalische Gedanken?" A{MII'. 47 (1<)<)0). 103- 11 <).
perception of Thema as Gedanke reflects the growing belief in an inherent, 7. Anonymous. "Bey trag Zll cinem musikalischen Worterbuch." in Johann Adam
self-referential meaning within musical works that have no text. Hiller's WOchellllichc Nnchrichtel1, no. 39 (27 March 17 1i9), p. 30 3.
The concept of an intrinsically musical idea is implicit in the writings of 8. Ibid., no. 40 (3 April 171i9). p. 3 13.
virtually all of the theorists cited in Chapter 2. Scheibe, C. P. E . Bach, 9 . Reichenberger, Die gallze AI11sikk,ltIst, 1Il, 175 ·
an entire movement. It is within this broader tradition that Friedrich Schlegel's "meditation," moreover, is not to be as a kind of
Schlegel's celebrated aphorism on instrumental music is best understood :
transcendental self-communion, but rather 111 the more of
Many a person tends to find it strange and ridiculous that musicians should talk . .
contemplatll1g a sll1g e 0 I b' C II
[rom a POSSI 'ble perspectives. . MedItatIO,
, as
about the thoughts [Cedarlken, i.e., themes] in their compositions; and indeed, it .
numerous WrIters on r le o n , I t 'c point out is the true source of lI1VentlOn,
.. . as
often happens in such a way that one perceives musicians to have more thoughts in opposed to the more mechanical ars combinatoria or the loci whIch
their music than about it. But whoever has a sense for the wonderful affinities . e £iiiect, a tenl p Ia te [Icor meditatio . '4 The content of an lI1strumental
provl'd e, 111 " .
among all the arts and sciences will at least not consider the issue from the flat work consists of a musical idea and its elaboration; the content of a phIl-
perspective of so-called naturalness, according to which music is supposedly only osophical sequence of ideas" differs only in that the idea is verbal rather
the language of sentiment; and this person will not find it inherently implausible
than musical.
that there is a certain tendency of all purely instrumental music toward philosophy.
Yet it is also important to recognize that the aesthetic orientation in
Must not purely instrumental music create its own text? And is the theme [of an
Schlegel's formulation is no longer pragmatic. The musical oration, a public
instrumental work] not developed, confirmed, varied, and contr:lsted in the same
manner as the object of meditation in a philosophical sequence of ideas?'Q event directed to the listener, has now become a philosophical discourse, a
private act that requires no audience, and indeed probably functions better
Far from being a "fleeting spark of anticipation" of an idea that would without any audience at all. Coherence is still important, but now primarily
not be fulfilled for another half-century, Schlegel's views represent the con- as a validation of the work's autonomous integrity, rather than as a prereq-
tinuation of a well-established tradition." Schlegel himself explicitly ac- uisite for moving an audience. Persuasion has relinquished its central role
knowledges that musicians had already begun to talk in terms of "musical in the aesthetic eqlI:ltion: the composer is no longer a musical orator but a
ideas." Carl Dahlhaus has interpreted this passage as a basis for the notion musical philosopher, and his ideas arc to be interpreted on their own terms.
of the thematic process as a "sequence of ideas ... that would represent the The language of music, if referential at all, is now self-referential.
epitome of musical form in the nineteenth century," 12 and it is certainly this. The decline of rhetoric in the late eighteenth century coincides with the
But it is also the basis for the eighteenth century's understanding of form. rising tendency of the Romantics to see all works of art, including music,
The concept of the Ideenreihe had been advanced as early as the 1730S by as nonreferential. The art-work, in this view, is symbolic rather than alle-
Mattheson and subsequently amplified by Forkel, Koch, and a number of gorical, a vehicle of "intransitive signification": the signifier is also the sig-
other eighteenth-century writers. Schlegel himself had heard Forkel's lec-
tures in Gottingen and was familiar with the Allgemeine Ceschichte der
I

nified . I; Even language itself began to be seen from this perspective: "If only
one could make clear to people," Novalis laments, "that the condition of
Musik. 'J
I language is like tlut of mathematical formulas," which "constitute a world
in and of themselves, express nothing beyond their own wonderful nature,

10. Schlegel, Athenaums-Fragment 444, in Kritisc/,e II, cd.


I and are therefore all the more expressive. It is precisely for this reason that
they reflect in themselves the remarkable play of relationships among
Hans EIchner (Mu111ch: Ferdinand Schoningh, (967), p. 254.
things ."'6
I I: Dahlhaus, Die Idee der absoilltell Milsik, p. 110: "Aiichtig auf1)litzcnde Antizipation"
(Lustig trans., p. 108). Dahlhaus cites this very passa ge as being in opposition to Forkd's But attempts at "absolute poetry," as Dahlhaus has noted, would remain
concept of harmony as the "logic" of music. Dut this interpretation ignores Forkcl's broader unrealized for almost another century. '7 Instrumental music, on the other
concept of musical rhetoric, particularly the central role Forkel assigns to thcn13tic ideas hand, could be compared to poetry in its syntactic structure yet at the same
and their elaboration. Only a few years later, Karl Spazier, in his annotated translation of
time transcend the referential limitations of verbal language. In calling C.
Memoires, all but quotes the better part of Schlegel's comments, obliquely attrib-
utll1g them to a "recent writer" (Spazier, Cretrys Vers/uhe, pp . 18 3- 18 4). P. E. Bach "another Klopstock, who used notes instead of words," Triest
12. Dahlhaus, Die Idee der absoilltw Milsik, p. 112 (Lustig trans., p. II I). See also
Dahlhaus's Betweell Romanticism alld Modertlislll, trans. Mary Whittall (Berkeley: University
of California Press, 1980), pp. 43-44. 14· See, for example, Hallbauer, pp. 212-210,403.
I 3· Edelhoff, Johanll Nikolaus Forkel, pp. 31-33, 120-121. Thi s is not to suggest that 15· Sec Todorov, T/ltwit's of lire Symbol, p. 102.
Schlegel s Ideas are necessarily based on Forkel's concept of musical rhetoric: his comments 10. N o valis, Scl/rijicII, cd . Kluckhohn, II , 430-431.
on the elder theorist are for the most part derogatory (" he und erstands as much about musi c 17· Sec esp. the final ch3pter of Dahlhaus's Idre der absollltt'll MIISik, "Absolute Musik
as a castrato does about love"), but his exposure to Forkcl's ideas is well documented . und pocsit, absoluc ."
argued in ISOI that Bach "showed that pure [i.e., instrumental] music is Schlegel, Herder, Triest, and Novalis, in of the variety
not merely a cloak for applied [i.e., vocal] music, or abstracted from it, but agery, all agree that the essential element of musIC IS not Its
rather strives to elevate itself to the level of a poetry that would be all the . £i d specifically its form 111 the eighteenth-century
b
content ut ItS o r m - a n , I' k' I £i
more pure ifit were drawn less into the region of common thought through . f > t I 'dea Hans IC sater or-
sense of the term, as the eIa b oration 0 a cen ra I . . .
the use of words; which always have their secondary connotations ."'" A .
mulatlon 0
f musIC. as "..
tonen d b e wegte Formel1 ," as we shall see, was 111
few years later, Michaelis similarly argued that "pleasure in music does not .
large measure the contll1uatlOn. f d' . I t · pl13sizes the process of
0 a tra ItlOn t 1a em
necessarily derive from the significance of melodies or modulations, which elaboration over the process of representation .
is often indeterminate ... We usually do not contemplate the sounds of
music as symbols at all, but rather derive pleasure directly from the har-
monious interplay of their variety."'9 This is essentially the same conviction
that Johann Gottfried Herder had expressed in his I Roo, that
Rhetoric and Analysis in the Late Eighteenth and
"every moment of this art [music] is and must be transitory. For precisely Early Nineteenth Centuries
the longer and shorter, the louder and softer, higher and lower, the greater A similar transformation of traditional ideas regarding the process of the-
and lesser is its meaning, its impression. The victorious power of the note matic elaboration can be seen in the growing number of analyses of instru-
and of sentiment lies in its coming and going, its becoming and having mental music that began to emerge in the late eighteenth century. Two basic
been."20 approaches can be discerned in these writings. The first and far more com-
The prevailing emphasis of these views has little to do with the earlier mon is the technique of interpreting instrumental music through a program
mimetic concept of A.ffekt. It is the process of artistic elaboration itself that of some kind. The second is what we today recognize as more typical of
now becomes the focus of attention. Herder does not concern himself with "mainstream"-analysis: the technical description of a work's elements and
the representational associations of a musical work's prevailing idea, but an account of their functional coordination within the musical whole. On
rather with its treatment. the surface, these two approaches would seem to have little or nothing in
Novalis makes much the same argument for the arts in general. The true common. At a deeper level, however, they are united by the idea of the-
interest in a work of art lies not in its main idea per se, but in its elaboration. matic elaboration.
And although he does not evoke the concept of rhetoric explicitly, his vo-
cabulary is decidedly rhetorical: .
Ideas interest us either for their content-their new, striking, and correct function-
or for their origins, their history, their circumstances, their dispositions,
I Programmatic Analyses oj Nonprogrammatic Music
The idea of program music-instrumental music that attempts to depict or
narrate an extra-musical object or event-was a well-established tradition
their various application, their utility, their different formations. In this manner. a
by the beginning of the eighteenth century. Programmatic interpretations
very trivial idea can allow itself to be manipulated in a quite interesting fashion .. .
I-Ie're it is the method, the procedure, the process that is of interest and agreeable to of absolute music, on the other hand, did not begin to appear in any real
us . . . That which is new interests us less, for one sees that so much can be made quantity before approximately 1780. To a considerable degree, they are
out of the old. In short, the more one has a feeling for the infinity of the particular, manifestations of the growing effort to explicate instrumental music's
the more one loses one's desire for variety. One learns how to do with one single "meaning." The form of these works, in turn, rests upon the elaboration of
instrument something for which others need hundreds, and one is altogether lI10re a main idea.
interested in elaboration than in invention." Carl Friedrich Cramer, in one of the earliest of such accounts, notes, "It
is difficult ... to say anything specific about instrumental pieces . Never-
18. See above. pp. 64-65. Triest. "I3cmerkungen," AMZ, 3 (1801). col. 301 .
theless, in order to account for my sentiments at least somewhat, I will try
19· C. F. Michaelis, "Ein Versuch. das innere Wescn der Tonkllnst zu cntwickeln ," to imagine some kind of character that could correspond to a particular
AMZ, 8 (1806), col. 677. piece." He then proceeds to describe the first rondo in a collection of pieces
20. Herder, Kalligone. Von Kllnsl lind Klln slrichlerei (1800), in his Siil1ll/icite Wrrk", vol. by C. P. E. Bach through the imagery of "a young girl who has gotten an
22. ed . Bernhard SlIphan (I3erlin: Weidmann, 1880; rpt. Hildesheim: Olms. [967). p. [87 .
21. Navalis. Gesallll1leile Werke, ed. Hildburg and Werner Kohlschmidt (Glitcrsloh: S.
idea into her head" and is "determined to get her way through humor and
Mohn. 1967). p. 427. Emphasis added. pleasing persistence." Another sonata in the same set is interpreted as an
"innocent maiden sitting beside a stream on a summer e vening," and so A change of mood and meter sets in with the Allegro modera to ("Spiel end
on. 22 The details of Cramer's account are of little import here. What is sig- durchschwarmt, unbekummert von Sorgen, / fr6hlich der Knabe des Le-
nificant is his attitude that the music at hand does convey a meaning of some b en s M orgen... ") , and corresponding verses are provided for subsequent
kind, and that intrinsically musical events , including the elaboration of the movements as well.
work's central idea (for example, the repeated return of the rondo's main J o hann Friedrich Reichardt, in 1782, attempts to associate a poetic
theme) can be related to extra-musical scenarios. with the creation of one of his own compositions. He confides that readmg
Many subsequent attempts to explicate instrumental music go well be- a " grea t or beautiful" passage of literature can inspire him to compose.
yond Cramer's relatively vague imagery. And while it would be outside the "Fi lled b y such a passage, I set the book aside, turn to the clavier, and fan-
scope of this book to provide any systematic or detailed account of the tasize, staying within certain emotions. then afterward write down that
programmatic and qu asi-programmatic analyses of this pe riod, the exam- whi ch has remained." 2) He then provides a specific example: a sonnet by
ples presented below offer some sense of the scope and nature qf such inter- Petrarch in the original Italian and in German translation, together with the
pretations. 2) These range from the association of a poetic tex t with a specific keyboard work it had inspired. Althoug h Reichardt's account is more di-
work (August Apel, Johann Friedrich Reichardt) to the application of a nar- rectl y con cerned with the compositional process than with analysis per se,
rative plot (Momigny, A. B. Marx) to the underlaying of a specific litera ry there is an implication that the poetic inspiration of the work must neces-
text (Herden berg, Momigny) . sarily play an important role in its analysis.

ASSOCIATION WITH A POETIC TE XT ASSO C I AT IO N W ITH A NARRATIVE

In an essay published in 1806, the poet August Apcl poin ts o ut that mu sic In addition to the rhetorical analysis of Haydn's Symphony No. I03, dis-
and poetry h ave in common the "presentation of an idea." To "transpose a cu ssed in C hapter 3. Momigny presents an "analyse pittoresque et poc-
symphony into poetry," then, requires that one separate the idea and its tique" for the same movement. 26 A brief excerpt from its beginning should
characteriza tion from its original medium of expression . Ape! pro ceeds to give a suffi cient sense of its method :
illustrate his point through a poetic interpretation of Mozart's Sym phony
The scene takes place in the country.
in E-flat. K. 543. The first movement's introductory maesfoso, for
A frightful storm may be imagined to have raged for so long that th e inhabitants
example, is interpreted thus :
of a vilbge have gathered in the church. After a thunderclap, played by the timpani,
Praise, honor and renown to the imm ortal we hear the prayer begin.
First children of the old, chaotic night! [n the fifth and sixth measures, an exclan13tion is portrayed by the flute and the
Eternally begotten and begettin g, birth and bearer, oboes . [t seems to emanate from the hearts of some young maidens who say only
Never separated, each calling forth the other; two words: Grea t God!"
Praise to thee, Eros, and to thee, Anteros, praise! A. B. Marx's interpretation of Beethoven's "Eroica" Symphony includes
You bring the gifts of the gods an a ttempt to trace the work's Napoleonic associations in a surprisingly
to humans below ; literal fashion. The opening chords are a call to attention ("Hart! Hart!"),
etc. '4 the h armonic deflection away from the tonic in m. 7 a cry of "Not yet!"
"How often Napoleon sa id just this in the heat of b attle, when his generals

22. Review of C. P. E. Bach's Sonatell ... fiir Kel1ller IIIla Liebltaber, 4th book, in
Cra mer's der MIIJik, 1 (1783 ), 1243-1 245. Cramer quotes with approval Fo rkel's
earl ier description of the rondo ·as cons isting of a etc. Diskussion die Asthetik der Sinfonie im friihen 19. Jahrhundert," in Stlll/ieu z lIr
llll1

23· Robin Wallace, in Beet/IOIIet/'S C ritics, presents a good overview of this practice and Z IIIII 60. Cebllrtsta.,?, ed. Ankc Dingmann, Klaus
IllStYIIIIIl'lIto/lIIl1sik: Lot/lar H"jflll ollll- Erbrecitt
argues persuasively for its historical sign ifi cance in the emergin g aesthetic of program mu- Hortschansky, Winfried Kirsch (Tlltzing: Hans Schneider, 1988), pp. 267-281.
sic in the nineteenth century. The first chapter of Arnold Schering 's hi ghly problematic 25· Reichardt, "Instrumentalmusik," in his Mllsika liscltes KllI1stmagozill, I (1782), 64 .
Beetltolletl I/IU/ die Diclttllng (Berlin: Junker und Diinnhaupt, 1936) provides a more deta il ed Note the similarity of Reichardt's account of his co/npositional procedure (after setting
compendium of such interpretations from the ea rl y nineteen th centur y. See also Krones , as ide his book) with Haydn's, as reported by Griesinger (see above, p. 116).
"Rhetorik und rhetorische Symbolik." 26. A more detailed discussion of this analysis is available in Cole, "Momign y's Analysis
24· Apel, "Musik und Poesie," AMZ, 8 (1 806) , cols. 449- 457, 465-470. For a more of I-bydn's Symphony No. 103."
detailed discussion of Apel's analysis, see Gernot Gruber, "Johann August Apel und cine 27· Momigny, COllrs colllplet, II, 600-601.
called too early for reinforcements!" The first movement of the Seventh None of these efforts, moreover, is wholly without from
Symphony, in turn, conjures up images of a rural folk in valleys and ion Beethoven made expltClt reference
composers t h emse Ives. On occas , . . . to
vineyard-covered hills, "to whom battle and war is a game."'s Marx goes
extra-musical ideas in his works, such as the Plano 111 E-flat r:t:;or,
on to distance himself somewhat from this kind of interpretation, but he o . 81a ("Les Adieux"), the Pastoral Symphony, or the es sem, Es
does not deny its validity altogether, and it is clear that there was at least p sem!. " of the Stnng
. Q uartet maJor,
. FM ' Op . 135 . Accordmg
muss . , to Anton
limited room for it in his aesthetic outlook.
Schindler, Beethoven's plan to supervise a new edition plano
in 18 16 was based in part on the composer's desire to mdlcate the. poetIc
TEXT UNDERLA Y
idea" at the "core" of many of his works, in order to "facilitate thelr com-
In 1767, the poet and playwright Heinrich Wilhelm Gerstenberg provided prehension" by listenersY This and similar references by other
the C Minor Fantasia from C. P. E. Bach's Versuch iiber die wahre Art das aries led Arnold Schering, in the 1930S, to pursue literary aIIuslOns 111
C lallier ZH spielen with not one but two texts: Hamlet's m(;mologue "To be Beethoven's instrum ental works, often to unfortunate extremes. More re-
or not to be," and an original text based on the last words of Socrates. '9 cently, has pursued similar connections that rest on more con-
Momigny carried out a similar plan in his COHrS comp le! of 1803-1806, un- vincing evidence. JJ Almost all of the composer's hints remain cryptic:
derlaying the first movement of Mozart's String Quartet in D Minor, K. Beethoven was doubtless leery of interpretations that would be too literal.
421, with a text based on a scene from the legend of Dido and Aeneas. JO But there is sufficient evidence to indicate that, for certain of his instrumen-
tal works, literary programs are more than a mere possibility.
From our perspective today, all of these efforts-especially the underlaying Haydn, too, blurred the distinction between absolute and program music
of a text to an instrumental work-seem rather naive and simplistic, and on more than one occasion, as in the Seven Last Words of Christ, the instru-
in one respect, they represent attempts to impose meaning where none is mental depiction of Chaos at the beginning of The Creation, and the trilogy
explicit. But most critics of the time perceived no essential contradiction of Symphonies Nos. 6-8 ("Le matin," "Le midi," and "Le soir").
between a musical analysis and a corresponding verbal "translation ." Composers even occasionally sanctioned the more extreme idea of un-
Momigny's "Analyse pittoresque et pottique" for the first movement of derlaying a literary text to a complete movement. Haydn endorsed and im-
Haydn's Symphony No. 103, for example, is presented as a complement to proved upon Joseph Frieberth's vocal arrangement of the Sellen Last Words
his previous, more technical "analyse musicale" of the same movement. In of Christ, and Beethoven apparently approved of Franz WegeIcr's poetic un-
his Cours camplet, Momigny was attempting to reach a wide audience (noth- derlay (entitled "Die Klage") to the Adagio from the F-Minor Piano Sonata,
ing less than "tout Ie monde," according to the work 's subtitle), and his Op. 2, No. I. The composer is rcported to have subsequently commis-
programmatic analysis would clearly have been more appealing to the mu- sioned Wegeler for another text to the theme of the variations in the Piano
sically nonliterate. The two approaches are complementary, not contradic- Sonata in A-flat Major, Op. 26 . J4
tory: both are consistent with the view that "music is a language, and each Late in the eighteenth century, Grctry proposed a similar undertaking for
work of music is an oration of greater or lesser dimension."J' One of these Haydn's symphonies: "What devotee of music has not been filled with ad-
interpretations simply pursues the consequences of this imagery in a more miration upon hearing the beautiful symphonies of Haydn? A hundred
literal manner. times I have given them the words they seem to demand. And why not
give them?"J , In his annotated translation ofGrctry's Memoires, Karl Spazier
I argued that Gretry's suggestion had not been to underlay a specific text to
i
28. Marx, Beel/IO I'ell, I, 258-259; II, 197.
29· See Eugene Helm, "The 'Ham let' Fantasy and the Literuy Element in C. 1'. E .
Bach's Music," MQ, 58 (1972), 277-290; and Peter Schlellning, Dieji'cie Falllasi('.· r;;11 Beilrag 3 2 . Schindler, Ili"gl'llJ'hie """ "all Be('I/",,,m (Miinster: Aschendorff, I X4 0 ),
z lIr der k/assisc/1rI1 KIt",ieYIIlIlsik (Coppingen: Alfred Kiilllllll'rle, 1'.)73), Pl'. I S3- p. I SIS.

220. More recently, Wolfgang Wiemer has suggested that this fantasia is a lament on the JJ. Schering, Il,'I'1/",,,,'" 11111/ die Owen "[kethoven's 'Orpheus in
death of Johann Sebastian Bach . Sec "Carl Philipp Emanuel lhchs Fantasie in c-Moll-rin Hades': The Alldallle COli 111010 of the FOllrth Piano ((o ncl' rto," 191/I-Cmlllry lVllISiI', X (I'.)SS),
Lamento aufden Tod des Vaters?" Bach-jahrlJllcll 1988, pp. 163-177. I Sl5-2 1 2. See also Myron Schwager, "Beethoven's Programs: What is Provable?" Bal/"'I"'II
30. See Albert Palm, "Mozarts Streichquartett d-moll, K V 421, in der Interpretation Nell's/elll'r, 4 (ISl89), 49-55.
Momignys," Mozarl-Jahrbllch 1962163, pp. 256-279. For an illustration of this analysis from 34· Wegclcr and Ferdinand Hies, NOlizfII iiba Llldwig vall Befl/wvell
Momigny's treatise, see Ian Bent's "Ana lysis" article in the N,'w Grove. (Koblenz: K. Badeker, 18)8), pp. 47- 48, 69 .
3 1 . Momigny, COllrScomp/el, II, 405 . 35· Cretry, MCIIIOiYl's, I, 348.
an instrumental work in the "literal, syllabic sense"; but on the whole, he I am happy! all cares cease; joy smiles; could I wish?") ,that in
concurred with the essence of Gretry's comments. In Spazier's view, it was the original German could easily be underlaId to hIS four umts of the open-
"to the credit" of instrumental music that a symphony could be capable of .
sustaining an association with a literary text. J6 1I1g t h eme (see, Example 4. J b) Over the course of the movement, these
' "f: h
"happy ideas" arc occasionally presented in a "somewha.t ,as-
In one respect, Gretry's idea of setting words to purely instrumental . every mstance,
.
ion, but JI1 th ey" soon b ecome JO . yflll aga1l1 . J8 Gerber
. . s fu-
works represents the antithesis of all the German Romantics stood for.
slOn of a programmatIc JIlterpretatlon WI'tl1 a Inore technical 'motJvlGllly
• ., >'
.
Schlegel, Wackenroder, Tieck, and Hoffmann consistently emphasize that . . b ase d on t I1e premIse
. t I1at t h e· t w 0 approaches are 111 fact
onented account IS
the very essence of instrumental music is its transcendental quality, its abil-
closely related.
ity to touch the emotions in a way that words cannot. The addition of a
In a similar fashion, Ludwig Tieck acknowledges the COmmon
literary text to a purely instrumental work, from this perspective, denies basis of vocal and instrumental music even while drawing a sharp dlst1l1c-
music's true essence and its capacities for subtlety and fiuidiny. In their own tion between the two:
way, however, these programmatic and quasi-programmatic interpretations
of absolute music represent an important intermediate step in the elevation Pure vocal music should move within its own force, without any accompaniment
of the status of instrumental music above that of vocal music. of instruments ; it should breathe its own unique element, just as instrumental music
follows its own path, without concerning itself about any text, about any underlaid
All of these programmatic analyses emphasize the idea of thematic elab-
poetry. It poeticizes for itself, it comments upon its own self poetically. Both kinds
oration. The "story" of an instrumental composition, as one writer notes
[of music] can exist pure and separate from each other.'"
in 1826, is "the story of one and the same musical thought." .17 The gulf
between programmatic and more strictly musical analysis is not nearly so
wide as it may seem to us today. The differences in interpretation are issues
of form rather than content, for the form of each work continues to be seen
as the unfolding of the work's central idea.
Gerber's essay of 18 I 3 on the symphony, cited earlier, illustrates the close 4.1 a Haydn, Symphony No. 104, first movement, mm. 1-8
relationship of these two approaches. Among other works, Gerber analyzes
Haydn's Symphony No. I04 in 0 Major, breaking down the opening
theme of the first movement into its constituent units and commenting on
the manner in which Haydn bases virtually the entire movement on a rel-
atively small quantity of seemingly simple material (see Example 4. 1a). [Nun bin icb frob)

"One divides this statement [Satz] into four phrases," Gerber observes (see
Example 4.Ib). All of these units, as Gerber points out, are elaborated at
'al. Ie Sor· gen 5chwei .. ,caJ
various points throughout the first movement. This technique of motivic
analysis, by which larger units are dissected into smaller ones, is familiar to
us today; indeed, it is a basic element of many technical :malyses. Yet almost I Freu.. de la- chdt I
without transition, Gerber slips into a quasi-programmatic account of the
symphony, comparing it to an individual's feeling of joy through a variety
of circumstances, ending with a "true dance of joy" in the finale . He inter- {was will ich wei.. ter,?1

prets the main theme of the first movement as a series of statements ("Now
4· 1 b Gerber's division of the theme to Haydn's Symphony No. 104, first move-
ment
36. Spazier, Cretrys Versl/cile, p. [87. For a summary of the critical debate f3ised by
Gretry's original remarks, see Wallace, Beetilovetl's Critics, pp. 79-8 [. From a somewhat
different perspective, Wallace demonstrates the close relationship between the "symbolic"
(representational) and "descriptive" (analytical) analyses of this period. 38 . Gerber, "Eine freundliche Vorstellung," AMZ, 15 ([8[3), col. 46[-462.
37· Franck, "Ueber das Verhaltnis der Form zum lnhalte in der neueren Mu sik," BAMZ, 39· Tieck, "Symphonien" (orig. pub. [799), in Wilhelm Heinrich Wackenroder, Wl'rke
3 (1826), ]26. //I'ld Bril'Je, ed. Gerda Heinrich (Mun,eh: Carl Hanser, [984), p. 35 2 .
Thus, although the notion of adding a text to a purely instrumental work Technical Analyses oj Instrum ental Music
is foreign to the aesthetic of the early German Romantics, there is a deeper Given the low esteem of rhetoric around the turn of the century, it is not at
parallel between the processes of the verbal arts and of music, in that a all surprising that the early Romantics would seldom use the term itself.
central idea functions as an object of elaboration. The course of a movement Nevertheless , these writers were members of a generation whose formal
becomes a "poetic commentary on itself." The concept of the autonomous education included a thorough grounding in rhetoric, and their writings,
musical idea, independent of external reference, is an outgrowth of rhetor- like those of Marx and Schoenberg later, frequently introduced rhetorical
ical thought and imagery and is essential to the early Romantics' view of concepts outside an overtly rhetorical framework or under the guise of
music. Wackenroder emphasizes the self-referential quality of instrumental nonrhetorical terminolo gy.
music in chiding those who would provide a program for every untexted The unspoken framework of rhetoric is particularly evident in the music
composition: criticism of E. T. A . Hoffmann , whose reviews in the Allgemeine musika-
What do they want, these timorous and doubting sophists, who ask to have lisclie Zeitlin,'? incorporate analyses that are remarkably technical for their
hundreds and hundreds of musical works elucidated in words and yet who ca nnot time. These essays have already been examined elsewhere at length;4l the
acknowledge that not everyone of these works has J nameable mean ing like a paint- discussion here focuses primarily on the tradition of rhetoric in these writ-
ing? Do they strive to measure the richer language by means of the weake r and in gs, at the conscious expense of the many other novel and quite provoca-
solve with words that which disdai ns words? Or have they never felt w ithout tive issues they raise.
words? H ave they stuffed their hollow hearts with only descriptions of emotions? One of the b:!sic premises of Hoffmann's mu sic criticism is his distinction
Have they never perceived in their souls the mute singing, the mummer's dance of between the rational and irrational elements of music, which he associates
unseen spirits? Or do they not believe in fairy-tales?'o with the qt13lities of Bcsonnenheit and Genie, respectively. Romanticism is
A work of art, from this perspective, can only be understood through not based entirely on irratiOl1:l1 genius, but on the coordination of genius
the same emotion that originally gave it birth, and emotions can only be with the more ration:!l, measured perspective that is the essence of
understood in terms of emotions. Feelings can be expressed only in terms BcsO/'lIIclI/reit. Genius, while closely allied to BC501111C11heit, cannot be taught;
of themselves; ordinary, verbal lan g ua ge is wholly inadequate in desc ribing the 1l10re dct:1Ched, ration:!1 qualities of reRection, on the other hand, can
the emotions raised by instrumental music. 4 ' be fostercd throu gh the "diligent study of :!rt."44
This of course did not prevent the Romantics from tryin g to do just that. These categories, which Hoffmann probably appropriated from Jean
Their rhapsodic musings have fostered the widespread misconception that P:!tJl's Vorsr!lIIle de/' ASlhclik,4; arc in fact little more than new designations
the new and distinctive element of early Romantic musical aesthetics was for the rhetorical concepts of inIJentio, on the one hand, and dispositio and
its emphasis on the emotions. This notion, as Dahlhaus has observed, is one cloClltio, on the other. The terminological preference for Besol1llenhcit over
of the "most resilient prejudices of intellectual history."· > More important the more traditional dispositio and elaboratio is typical of the Romantics and
to the early Romantic aesthetic is the abandonment of a fundamental belief anticip:!tes Schoenberg's similar avoidance of overtly rhetorical terminol-
in the need to justify instrumental music through extra-musical associa- ogy. l3ut as with Schoenberg, the rhetorical origins of such categories are
tions, and the corresponding acceptance of the notion that an idea can be never far beneath the surface.
expressed and elaborated in a purely musical fashion . Wackenroder, Tieck, Hoffmann's traditionalism is further reinforced by the central importance
Novalis, Herder, and Friedrich Schlegel had all expressed this new outlook he assigns to the quality of intelligibility. Like earlier critics, he is still very
in general terms; E. T. A. Hoffmann, as we shall see, was the first to trans- much concerned that a composition be constructed in such a way as to
late this view into the more technical vocabulary of musical analysis.
43. Peter Sch,nus, in his E. T. A. f-{oIflllallll "Is B('e/ilo,J,,"-Rezt'lsc"/ dey Al/gelileillt'll
1I11"ik"liscilt'1I Zei/ '"'g (Munich: Emil KatzbichIer, presents an especially valuabk
40. Wackenroder, "Das eigentlimliche innere Wesen der Tonkunst und die Seelcnlehre survey of Hoffmann's views on a variety of issues. See also Wallace, Bee/iloIJell'S Critics.
der heutigen Instrumentalmusik" (orig. pub. 1799), in his Werke IIlId Byiefe, p. 326. 44. Hoffmann, revi ew of Beethoven's Symphony NO.5, AMZ, 12 (1810); quoted from
41. Ibid ., p . 325. his Schl'i{tell ZIIY MIISik, ed . Friedrich Schnapp (Munich: Winkler, 1963), pp. 36-37.
42. Dahlhaus, Die Idee dey absoill/w MIISik, p. 74. 45. See Schnaus. E. T. A. pp. HI-H2.
facilitate the listener's comprehension. 46 Besonnenheit emphasizes the objec- domain of genius, while disposition and elaboration are products of circun:-
tive side of art, the process by which the creator distances himself from his spection. Hoffmann's categorization of the compositional process, then, IS
creation and exercises criticism upon it. For Hoffmann, the perspective of fundamentally no different from that of his predecessors and
this objective process is that of the composer's intended audience . aries. It is entirely consistent with Mattheson's view, echoed Jl1 .v.ano.us
Hoffmann's celebrated review of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony provides guises throughout the century, that ".invention demands and
a good illustration of the rhetorical elements in his criticism. Hoffmann position order and measure; elaboration cold blood and CIrcumspectIOn.
relies heavily on the organic metaphor of unfolding (entfolten), yet in so Like Schoenberg almost a century and a half later, Hoffmann scrupu-
doing he alternates, like so many bter critics, between organic and rhetor- lously avoids using the term "rhetoric" as a broader category; both
ical imagery.47 With its recurring ideas throughout all four movements, Schoenberg and Hoffmann probably judged, with good reason, that refer-
Beethoven's Fifth Symphony is today recognized as one of the qrliest man- ence to this much-maligned discipline would only confuse the issueY As
ifestations of thematic organicism, and Hoffmann was the first to present an art of deception or empty padding, rhetoric represented precisely the
this kind of account in such specifically musical detail. Speaking of the first opposite of what both writers intended. But as the art of making an idea
movement, Hoffmann observes: intelligible (and by extension persuasive), rhetoric provided an important
context for both Hoffmann and Schoenberg.
there is no simpler idea than that on which the master based the entire Allegro. It is
The importance of inteIligibility and its relationship to the idea of
with great admiration that one becomes aware of how he knew to order the se-
thematic elaboration are even more evident in Hoffmann's review of
quence of all the secondary ideas and all the transitional passages through their
l3eethoven's Op . 70 piano trios. Speaking of the composer's instrumental
rhythmic relationship to that simple theme, and in such a way that th ese ideas serve
to unfold gradually the character of the whole, which that theme could only suggest.
works in general, he observes that "a .simple but fertile, cantabile theme,
All the phrases are short, consisting of only two or three measures, and even these capable of the most varied contrapuntal turns, fragmentations, etc., lies at
are divided by the constant alternation of the strings and winds . One might think the heart of every movement. AIl other secondary themes and figures are
that from such elements only something fragmentary could arise, something diffi- intimately related to the main idea so that the greatest unity is inextricably
cult to understand; but instead, it is precisely this ordering of the whole and the entwined and ordered through alI the instruments. Such is the structure of
consistent, successive repetition of brief phrases and individual chords that grips the whole."\! Hoffmann emphasizes that it is the composer's responsibility
one's feelings in an ineffable longing. " to articulate the work's unity by bringing out the main idea clearly, in order
that it impress itself sufficiently on the mind of the listener. He quotes the
Many traditional categories of rhetoric are preserved here: a central idea
opening eight measures of Op. 70, No. [, in score with the comment that
(Gedanke), with derivative secondary and connective ideas (Neben.Redallken,
Zwischensiitze); the successive presentation of these ideas in the "ordering the first four measures contain the main theme, while the seventh and eighth mea-
of the whole" (anreihen, Einrichtlmg des Ganzen); and attention to the listen- in the violoncello contain the secondary theme. The entire Allegro is woven
er's ability to grasp the trajectory of the musical argument. "Longing" out of these two phrases, with the exception of a few secondary figures that arc
(Sehnsucht) is a new and quintessentially Romantic category, but the struc- inserted betwecn the elaboration of these main ideas. It was thus all the more ap-
tural process is the same as in Schlegel's "meditation": a central idea is con- propriate to present thc idea that predominates the entire movement in unison over
four octaves. This idea is deeply and distinctly imprinted upon the listener, who
sidered from many different perspectives and unfolds into a unified whole.
docs not lose it from his sight, like a bright silvery stream moving through the most
The work is "invented with genius and elaborated with deep circumspec-
remarkable contortions and turns. ' .'
tion" ("genial erfunden und mit tiefer Besonnenheit ausgefiihrt-emphasis
added)."49 Here, even the vocabulary of rhetoric is retained: invention is the
50. Mattheson, Kenz, p. (39. See above, p. 87·
4 6 . On the importance of the listener in Hoffmann's musi c criticism, see ibid., 5 (. Sec, for example, the disparaging usc of the term in an carlit'r issue of the same AMZ
pp. 63-6 7. in which Hoffmann was writing, (0 (1808), col. 304" within an anonymous review of
47· On Hoffmann's organic imagery, see ibid., pp. 72-80. Ferdinand Ries's Cral/d Tria COl/certal/te, Op. 2, which equates rhetoric with overladen lig-
4 8 . Hoffmann, review of Beethoven's Symphony NO·5; quoted from Schrifiw zlir ures of speech. This, of co urse, is rhetoric in the debased sense of the term.
MIiSik, p. 43. 52. Hoffmann, review of Beethoven's Piano Trios, Op. 70, AMZ, IS (1813); quoted
49· Ibid., p. 50. See also p. 43 : "wie der Meister das Ganze ... nicht a!lein im Geist from Scizri{tfll zlir MI/ sik, p. ( 2 ( .
auffasste, sondern auch dllrchdaclzte" (emphasis added). 53. Ibid., p. (22.
it IS tYPIcal ot Hottmann s tIme that techl1leJi I11USleU analysIs should CHAPTER 5
coexist with such typically Romantic visual images as "a bright silvery
stream." And it is equally typical that both of these elements should func-
tion within an essentially traditional rhetorical framework, exemplified by
Hoffmann's aesthetic categories and vocabulary; by his concern with the
effect of an idea upon the listener; by the central importance of intelligibil-
ity; and by the understanding of form as a succession of events unified by
the unfolding of a central idea.
This gradual transformation of rhetorical ideas provides an important
link between theories based on the earlier representational, mimetic theory
Rhetoric and the Role of the Listener in
of Affekt, and the later, quintessentially Romantic idea of music as an au- the Analysis of Large-Scale Form
tonomous, self-referential art. E . T. A. Hoffmann is a central figure in this
changing perspective.
It is remarkable, in fact, how much of Hoffmann's-and in turn
Mattheson's-thinking is present in that supreme mid-nineteenth-century The eighteenth century's metaphor of the musical work as an oration and
manifesto of absolute music, Eduard Hanslick's Vom Mllsikalisch-Schonfll. its form as a function of rhetoric anticipates several important trends JI1
Hanslick accepts the traditional premise that music is a language, even if its recent critical thought. With its focus on the role of the listener, the rhetor-
semantic premises cannot be compared directly to those of a verb:d lan- ied perspective represents a historical forerunner of current listener-oriented
guage. He also acknowledges the importance of the intrinsically musical approaches to form. And in emphasizing the functional, syntactical role of
idea. His dictum that "music is a language that we speak and understand music:tl ideas within a small number of stereotypical constructs, the rhetor-
yet are not capable of translating" has often been quoted, but the explicitly ical concept of form also anticipates recent attempts to relate theories of plot
rhetorical imagery of the sentences that immediately follow should not be to musical form.
overlooked: It would be impossible to do justice here to these present-day approaches.
Instead, I wish only to point out some of the historical foundations for these
That one also speaks of "thoughts" in musical [as well :IS in vcrbal] works rcprescnts
perspectives and suggest avenues for further investigation. I sl13l1 conclude
a profound insight, and as in speech, a traincdjudgmcnt casily distinguishes genui-ne
thoughts from empty phrases. In just this way, wc rccognizc thc rationally self- with a brief analysis of the first movement of Haydn's Symphony No. 46
contJined quality of a group of notes in that we call this grouping a "sentence" ill B Major.
[Satz]. We feel precisely where its sense is completed, just as in :I logical sentence,
even though the truths of the two propositions arc entirely incolllll1cnsur:tblc-"

Hanslick's view here, in the light of eighteenth- and early-nineteenth- Listener-Oriented Theories of Form
century discussions of musical rhetoric, is profoundly traditional. He em-
The emergence of a dichotomy between "inner" and "outer" in the
phasizes the form of music rather than its affective content. "The sole con-
first half of the nineteenth century led, as we have seen, to the establIshment
tent and object of music," in his most famous statement, "is forms set in
of two aesthetically disparate categories of form . The very theorists who
motion by sound" ("tonend bewegte Formen"). The forms constructed of
described such conventional patterns as sonata form and rondo were the
musical sounds are free of associative content: their "meaning" is intrinsi-
same writers who consistently disparaged the conformational view of form
cally syntactical. Their spirit is generated from within ("sich von innen her-
as categorically inferior to the generative. This attitude persists in current
aus gestaltender Geist"), and in this sense, Hanslick allies himself with or-
analysis.
ganic theories of form. But it is the intelligible elaboration of musical ideas
One of the most important reasons behind this change in attitude toward
that is, for Hanslick, the essence of autonomous music, the essence of form.
large-scale cOllventions has been a change in attitude toward the role of the
listener in analysis. Since around 1850, most serious analyses of form have
54- Leipzig, 1854; rpt. Darmstadt: Wisscnsclnftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1981, p. 35. tended to focus on the work itself. The eighteenth century's rhetorical con-

T 0 r'l ' '' '('1 f"),-,r , (' (' fl1rr 'T'n nT r '
cept of form, by contrast, had considered the technical structure of a work unfolds . Leonard B. Meyer, in particular, has consistently emphasized that
not so much in terms of the work itself as in terms of its effect upon the the "understanding of form is learned, not innate.") The perception of the
listener. Conventions of periodicity and large- scale harmony were seen as relationship between small-scale events and the larger-scale whole, as
means toward the intelligible unfolding of a work's central idea-in a word, Meyer points out, depends to a considerable degree upon the listener's com-
its form . petence within a particular musical idiom and his preconceived or evolving
While not without its own problematic aspects, this listener-oriented :lp- understanding of form. Repetition, for example, "has one meaning in a
proach to form offers a useful alternative to the work-oriented perspective. movement which is believed to be a fugue, another in one which is believed
Recent reader-oriented theories of literary criticism can help ensure that a to be a theme and variations, and still another in one believed to be a sonata
listener-oriented approach to musical analysis need not return to the im- forn1."4
pressionistic subjectivism that characterizes so much of eighteenth- and The listener's comprehension of a musical event is thus based in large
early-nineteenth-century analysis (see Chapter 4) . measure upon his knowledge of a "set of conventional signs and schemata"
The chief value of the listener-oriented approach is heuristic, for it helps and a "system of internalized probabilities" as to what will happen next at
to focus attention not only on the text but on our responses, as analysts, to any given moment. j By extension, the understanding of movement-length
that text. I As Stanley Fish points out, there is no way to separate the process form rests on the listener's internalized patterns of expect:ltions derived
of describing a text from the process of analyzing it. We cannot, in other from repeated exposure to a relatively small number of basic conventional
words, distinguish between the work being analyzed and our own reactions constructs. Although Meyer generally limits his discussions to small- and
to it, for the process of description is itself based on an interpreter's "exten- middle-scale events, the basic elements of his approach could be applied
sion of an already existing field of interests." The very points to be singled profitably, tIIl/tatis mlltandis, to issues of large-scale form as well.
out for analysis are shaped by the reader's or listen er's previolls experiences. Analysts have nevertheless been unwilling, for the most p:!rt, to extend
In the absence of any preexistent guid elines, "there is no way of deciding these principles to issues of movement-length form. Eugene Narmour's
either where to begin or where to end" a description, "because there is no "implic:ltion-realization model," based on the listener's knowledge and con-
way of deciding what counts ." A pattern of repetition within a work, for comitant expectation s of style, has much to say about the ever-changing
example, has no meaning in and of itself. More important is what "a reader horizon of the listener's expectations of style in general, yet very little re-
[or listener]' as he comes upon that . .. pattern, is d(Jing, wh:lt assumptions garding specific issues of large-scale form. Fred Lerdahl and Ray Jackendoff
he is making, what conclusions he is reaching, what expectations he is open their Gel/eratil/e Theory (Jf Timai MI/sic by proclaimin g that "the goal
forming, what attitudes he is entertaining, what acts he is being moved to of J theory of music" is "a form:!l description of the musical intuitions of:!
perform." 2 listener who is experienced in J musical idiom."6 But they, too, tend to
Openly or covertly, a good deal of musical analysis has long been b:lsed concentrate on smJIl-scale events, as does Robert O. Gjerdingen in his v3lu-
on the process by which an implicit listener reacts to a given work as it able recent study of phrase structure in the Classical era. 7

I . Fo r a survey of such theories, with an extensive annotated sec SlI s;m 3. Mcyer, EIIIOI;OIl O//(/ M"all;IIX ill MlIs;c (Chi cago: University of Chicago Press, 1956),
Sukiman Jnd Inge Crosma n, cds. , The Reada ;11 Ihe T":>:I: Essays all Alld;fll((, "",IIlIlapre- p. 57·
101;011 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 19Ho); and Jane P. Tompkins, cd., Reader- 4 · Ibid., p. 153·
Respollse Crilicism: Frolll Forll/alism 10 Posl-Slwclllral;slII (Baltimore: John s Hopkin s Univer- 5. Meyer, I'dIlS;C, Ihe Arls, alld Idl'as , p. X. Since the publication of EII/OI;OIl alld
sity Press, 1980). On comparable issu es in what C laudio Guillen oils the "generic process," Meyer has di stanced him self from the idea of "cxpectations," prdcrring in stead to fnme
see his "On the Uses of Literary Genre," in hi s Lileralllre as Syslelll (Princeton: Princeton his inquiries in terms of rhe "implications" genl"rared by a given musical event (sel' J1.1I1S;C,
University Press , 1971) , pp. 107-134 . Peter J. Rabinowitz, "Circumstant ial Evidence: Mu- lit,. IIrls, "lid Ideas, p. Hn). This chan ge in terminology, according to Meyer, avoids the
sical Analysis and Theories of Reading," Mosa ic: A )ollrl/al for Ih e IlIlml;sc;plillary SllIdy of potcntialmisunderstanding of "expectation" in a simplistic sense, for a single musical event
Lileralll"', 13 (I 9R 5), 159-173, considers some of the problems associated with applying the may give rise to a varicty of comp le x 'lI1d even contradictory expectations . l3ut the listenCf
literary concept of the reader to the field of mu sic but is les s informative about the potential him se lf remains the source of these impli ca tions; in spite of his more recent terminology,
benefits of such an approach. Meyer's listenl"r-oriented ;\pproach remains essentially unchanged.
2. Fish, "What Is Stylistics and Why Are They Saying Such Terrible Things about It?" 6. C ambrid ge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1983, p. I.
in his Is There a Tt'xt ill This Class? Thr AlllllOr;l)' of Illterpn'lal;"c COIIIIIIIIII;I;rs (Cambridge, 7. Gjerdingcn, A Class;c Ttml of Phras,': Mlls;c alld Ihe OfCotlvt'IJtioll (Philadel-
Mass.: Harvard Universi ty Press, 1980), PI'. 94,92. phia: University of Pennsy lvania Press, 1988).
The absence of corresponding studies for movement length structures is because of our understanding of style that we recognize the drum-stroke
in part a reflection of the difficulties inherent in dealing with conventions early in the slow movement of Symphony No. 94.("The Surprise") as the
and expectations that can cover as much as several hundred measures within . I't'IS, [Icor this is not the way a set of variatIOns on a theme
surpnse .
(or. for
I
a single movement. Those relatively few writers who have approach ed th at matter any symphonic slow movement) begins. It. IS precIse y
large-scale form from the perspective of the listener have tended, as a result, because these procedures violate such clear conventions for endll1gs and be-
to be somewhat general in their level of detail. In the [930S, Kurt Westphal, ginnings that they are so readily apparent. .
under the influence of his teacher Ernst Kurth, proposed that form be Con- But the application of a listener-oriented approach to more subtle pomts
sidered a VerlauJskurve, a processive act in which form is perceived not of movement-length structure IlaS b een 1· , d pnman
ImJte . 'Iy to comparable
'
merely as the sum of a work's parts, but rather as the functional relationship . . d d I
deVIatIons from accepte norms, an laS remall1e , . d largely intuitive
. and'un-
of those parts to one another. Westphal further suggested that form be con- systematic. Charles Rosen's success in analyzing Classical repertOIre rests ll1
sidered a phenomenon that becomes actualized only during the process of part on his ability to relate a listener's expectations to the unfoldll1g of .mu-
listening ("ein im Horvorgang werdendes Phii nomen"), the,reby emphasiz- sical events within a specific work; but his efforts to establish the baSIS of
ing the temporal elements of form rather than its synoptic "architecture." these extra-opus expectations are informal at best. II Other analysts have
Form is not a given, nor an entity in itself, but a process the listener himself similarly been content to use formal archetypes as a foil to highlight the
must create. 8 Unfortunately, Westphal did not go on to pursue these ideas, originality of works that deviate from the norm, such as Beethoven's oft-
nor did he suggest the manner in which the listener's expectations might be cited modulation to the mediant in the first movement of the Piano Sonata
established. Op. 53 ("Waldstein"), or the return of the slow introduction in the opening
More recently, Carl Dahlhaus has also hinted at a theory of large-scale movement of Haydn's Symphony No. !O3 ("Drum roll"). It is, in any
form based on listeners' expectations, asserting that "the anticipated whole event, easier (although by no means easy) to establish a taxonomy of phrase
is analogous to the visibly presented whole, and the anticipation may be structures covering a span of four to eight measures than it is to establish a
defined more closely by a title announcing the whole as representative of a comparable matrix of formal types encompassing the breadth of an entire
type-sonata form or rondo-so that a system of relations is specified in movement.
advance, and the listener's expectation can fasten onto it." If a work is to be Taxonomic surveys of defined movement-length repertoires, however,
perceived as a complete entity, rather than as a mere medley of ideas, ac- would be a welcome fIrst step toward establishing a historically accurate
cording to Dahlhaus, any perceived detaillllu st exist not in and ofitsclfbut theory of expecta tions for large-scale form. Jan LaRue cited the need for
as a consciously anticipated part of the whole. . just such a survey of music from the Classical era more than twenty years
The idea of basing an analysis oflarge-scale form on the process of large- ago, noting the need "to list in one place the statistically predominant for-
scale expectations is, as noted before, scarcely novel. 10 Almost my analysis mal types or v:1riants occurring in sonata movements." Yet today, the pros-
of the finale to Haydn's String Quartet Op. 33, NO.2 ("The Joke"), must pect for such :1 listing seems remote; even LaRue :1ppears to have reversed
make at least some reference, if only tacitly, to the listener's a priori under- his opinion on the value of such surveys. 12
standing of what the finale of a Classical-era work should sound like. Even Still, if our expectations Jre a product of remembering "various statistical
someone with only a passing f.1miliarity with the era's sense of form will recurrences of syntactic relationships" within a given style, then it would
recognize that this particular ending is atypical. In a similar vein, it is only be to our benefit to have a more precise notion of what these statistical
recurrences actually arc. IJ Scholars have tended to shy away from this kind
of taxonomic classification in the past on the grounds that it smacks too
8. Westphal , Der der IIIlIsikalisciJcn Form ill dl'Y Wimer Klassik, (Leipzig: Kistner &
much of the "textbook" approach to fonn. But if applied carefully, such :1
Siegel, 1935), p. 53: "Sie [Form] ist nicht ein Gegebencs, sonckrn ein Aufgegebenc-s."
9· Dahlhaus, Mlisikiisthetik (Colo gne: Hans Gerig, 19(7); trans. adapted from William
W. Austin, Esthetics of Mllsic (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 19H2). p. 78. II. Sec above, p. 2B.
10. Three recent examinations of this methodology, each of which rev iews substantial 12. LaHue, review of Till' SOllall1 ill tile Classic Era by William S. Newman, MQ, 50
quantities of earlier literature on the subject, are Thomas Clifton, Mllsic as Heard: A Stlldy (1904),405; idem, review of SOlll1ta Forms by Charles Rosen, JAMS, 34 (19 MI), 500. See
ill Applied (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1983); David Lewin, "Mu sic above, pp. 25, 52.
Theory, Phenomenology, and Modes of Perception," Mllsic PercrptiOlI, 3 (19Bo), 327-392;' 13. Eugene Narmour, Beyo,,,1 Sch,."keris/l/: Tire N eed for Altl'Ylll1tiv('s in Mllsical Allalysis
and Nicholas Cook, Mllsical A,ralysis arid the Liste/ler (New York: Garland, 19B9). (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1977), p. 127 .

1 ('I, 'V I"'" " ...--. • .... n T' r ..•. " "' • , .,
categorization could be of considerable value in advancing our understand- specifically as regards the idea of plot. A literary plot, as Pe.ter
ing of large-scale formal conventions . An instructive example of how dif- gues, constitutes the "logic or perhaps the syntax of a certall1 kll1d of dIS-
ficult it is to assume an "informed listener's" expectations in the absence of course, one that develops its propositions only through temporal sequence
such a survey is evident in Rudolf Kelterborn's recent attempt to apply a and progression." Plot is the "principle of interconnectedness '.' '. which we
matrix of anticipations to the music of Mozart. Limiting himself principall y ca nnot do without in moving through the discrete e1ements-1I1C1dents, ep-
to the piano sonatas, Kelterborn offers a series of analyses that are based on isodes, actions-of a narrative ." " For eighteenth- and early-nineteenth-
an implicit comparison of the listener's expectations of sonata form's "ar- century theorists, as we have seen, form serves much the same function.
chitectonic outline" with the individual works themselves. But the lack of Yet it was not until the mid-nineteenth century that the image of the
an available census of techniques leads Kelterborn to call such devices as a musical work as a drama or novel began to gain popularity. In describing
"mirror" recapitulation (in which the general order of ideas is reversed in sonata form in the r840s, Carl"Czerny mixes organic imagery with the met-
the recapitulation) "entirely unconventional," when in fact tf.Jis procedure aphor of the musical work as "a romance, a novel, or a dramatic poem ":
was not particularly unusual for Mozart (or other composers) as late as the We perceive that this first movement has a well established form, and makes an
I770s. 14 organic whole; that its various component parts follow each other in a settled order,
The most difficult conceptual task in compiling such a survey would be and must be entwined together; and that the whole structure presents a musical
to establish the specific formal parameters on which expectations could be picture, in which a precise idea can be expressed, and a consequent character devel-
based. The foundations of a listener's expectations, as Narmour points out, oped.
are constantly shifting. How far back in time should one go? What geo- Ju st as in a romance, a novel, or a dramatic poem, if the entire work shall be
graphic reach would be appropriate? How should the correlative limitations successful and preserve its unity, the component parts are: first, an expo-
implied in a work's genre be treated? Should a work written by a composer sition of the principal idea and of the different characters, then the protracted com-
plication of events , and lastly the slirprising catastrophe and the satisfactory conclu-
acknowledged as a master (such as Haydn) be given more weight than a
sion :-even so, the first part of the sonata-movement forms the exposition, the
comparable work by a lesser composer? second part the complication, and the return of the first part into the original key
These are not easy questions to answer, yet they rep resent the kinds of produces, la stly, tlut perfect satisf.lction which is justly expected from every work
questions that analysts already answer routinely, iflargely intuitively, in the of Jrt. 'f>
very process of outlining the broad dimensions of a sonata-form move-
ment's parts: exposition, development, and recapitulation. The important The mctJphor of the novel or drama retains at leJst some of the elements
point, in any case, is to move away from an analytical methodology that basic to the metaphor of the oration, for it emphasizes the role of the au-
distinguishes between the "mere" description of a movement-outlining its dience Jnd the temporal nature of the musical work. Like the organic met-
modulatory plan, identifying its moment of recapitulation, and so on-and aphor, it tends to anthropomorphize the work: themes become "charac-
the "true" (that is, generative) analysis that focuses on the more individu- ters"; the central idea of a movement or work functions as a kind of
alistic elements of that movement. By joining the two processes and rec- protagonist, Jnd the unfolding of this idea is the fate of that protagonist. To
ognizing the act of description itself as an act of interpretation, we can re- use Schoenberg's imagery, "a piece of music resembles in some respects a
structural conventions as issues of more than merely secondary photograph album, displaying under changing circumstance the life of its
Importance and begin to resolve the aesthetic dichotomy of form. basic idea-its basic motive."' ? But unlike the organic image, the idea of
musical form as a plot avoids a dichotomy between "structure" and
"expression" by positing form in the very process by which content is made
intelligible.
Listening for the Plot: The Rhetoric of Formal Archetypes
The idea of basing the analysis oflarge-scale forms on an informed listener's 15 · Brooks, Readillg jor the Plot: atld Illt l'lI tioll ill Narrative (New York: Knopf.
expectation of events suggests further parallels with recent literary theory, 19X4). p. xi.
16. Czerny, School of Practical CO II/positioll, I, 34. Czerny's reference to J "picture" is
B" I 4· ZIIIII Beispiel Mozart: Ein Beitrag zlIr IIIlIsikalischetl Analyse, 2 vols. (I3asel:
probably not a reference to painting (which would represent yet another mixed metaphor),
arenrclter, 1981), I, I I . See the review by Juliane Brand injMT, 27 (1983),306-313 ; for but 111 all likelihood an overly literal translation of Bild ("image," "representation") in the
a more favorable account of Kelterborn's work, see Carl Dahlhaus's review in the Mozart- ongll1al German text, now lost (sec above, p. 32n39) .
jaIJrbllch 1984/85, pp. 23 2- 2 33. 17· Schoenberg, Fundamentals oj Mllsical Compositioll, p. 58.
If form is the unfolding of events or ideas, then stereotypical forms are
moment 0 f recapl't u Ia t'on
I is concerned
, even a cursory review of the instru- .
analogous to archetypal plots. Czerny implies that the listener's familiarity . f I con1posers as Haydn and Mozart reveals that a Sl-
menta I musIc 0 suc 1 . .
with the "settled order" of sonata form will help to make the presentation multaneous return of the opening theme and the tomc key IS extremely
of the various characters, the "complication of events," the "surprising ca- 19
common, particularly in works written after 177 0 . . .
tastrophe," and the "satisfactory conclusion" all the more intelligible. Ad-
Exceptions to this practice do exist, and it is for tillS reaso.n that, as diS-
herence to the conventions of paradigmatic "plots" like sonata form, rondo,
cussed earlier, the simultaneous double return cannot be conSidered a form-
theme and variations, and so on, facilitates the listener's comprehension of . we consl'd er more cIose lone of the
defining clement. Yet If y . works
' most
events; deviation from them heightens his awareness of an exceptional turn
often cited as an example of just why the moment of recapitulatIon cann?t
of events. A relatively small number of widely used formal archetypes, such
be defined in terms of its thematic material, we shall discover once agall1
as sonata form, rondo, and theme and variations, function as the Illusical
that expect3tions 3nd definitions rest on two quite different bases.
equivalent of plot archetypes. Just as we expect certain elements and 3 gen-
In the first movement of Moz3rt's Piano Sonata in C Major, K. 545, the
eral sequence of events within specific literary genres, from the BildllllgSro-
opening theme returns in the subdomin3nt (m. 42); only in mm. 58-59.
man to the murder mystery, so, too, do we expect certain thematic types
the tonic reappear, with materi31 first heard 3t mm. 13-14 of the exposltlon .
and sequences of events within the v3rious movements of a given musical
The thematic recapitulation, in other words, begins in m. 42, while the
genre. These expectations are fairly fluid, of course, but they provide im-
harmonic return is debved until mm. 58-59 . But it is important to recog-
portant points of reference to the listener in his apperception of Luge-scale nize just how unusu31 technique of "bifocal recapitubtion" really is .
musical structures. Mozart never used the device in any other movement of his entire output,
In recent years, several scholars have explored the analytical implications and Haydn never used it at all. The only two composers who appe3r to
of viewing musical form as a plot, principally in connection with the rep- have cultivated it with any regularity were Florian Leopold Gassnunn (in
ertoire of the nineteenth century. 1M This concept is equ:llly valid for Illusic his symphonies of the 1760s) and Muzio Clementi (in his pi3no son3t3s of
of the Classical era. Even a schema as broad as Ratner's harmonic outline the 1780s) .'0 Th3t this technique existed cannot be denied; but its 3ctu31use
of sonata form fosters certain implications of plot. The pattern of I - V :1 : is far too infrequent to have 31tered the luture of 3 listener's expectations of
X - I stipulates (among other things) a return to the tonic key at some point events-their understanding of the plot archetype-within the course of a
during the second half of the movement. This moment of recapitulation is sonata-form movement.
an event that any informed listener of the late eighteenth century would Similarly, the "binary rec3pitulation," in which the opening theme is
have had reason to expect, particularly after a modulation from the tonic to omitted 3ltogether from the recapitulation , becomes increasingly unusual in
the dominant (or relative major) in the opening allegro movement of such fast opening movements after 3bout 1770. While not ne3rly as r3re as the
important genres as the symphony or string quartet. Yet the implications bifocal technique, this p3rticular device is limited, in practice, primarily to
of this archetypal structure have gone largely unexamined to date. The slow movements (hence its occasional design3tion as "slow-movement son-
preoccupation with defining sonata form, with identifying its lowest com- 3ta form") .' 1 Ag3in, the existence of this procedure necessarily 31ters our
mon denominators, has fostered a widespread suspicion that this particular definition of sonata form; but it need not therefore playa fundament31 a
construct is not really a form at all, or that eighteenth-century audiences, role in our expectations of form, particularly in fast movements.
faced with such an immense diversity of procedures within this very broad _ Most important, the concept of the paradignutic plot offers a rationale
framework, could not have entertained any substantial preconceptions by which we can integrate conventional 3nd unconventional elenients
about the form of a movement within any given work. But as far as the within a given work. Ag3in, Iiter3ry theory provides some useful parallels
of methodology. Critics dealing with verb31 discourse have long concerned
18. Anthony Newcomb, "Sound and Feeling," Criti(ni IlIqlliry, 10 (I <;84), 014-043;
idem, "Once More 'Between Absolute and Program Music': Schumann's Second Sym- 1 <;, For a detailed study of the articulation of recapitulation in the works of Haydn, sec
phony," 19t1l·Cmtllry MIISi(, 7 (1<;84), 233-250; idem, "Schumann and Late Eighteenth- Bonds, "Haydn's False Recapitulations."
Century Narrative Strategies," 19th·Century Mus;(, I I (1<;87), 164-174; Siegfried Schmalz- 20, George n.. Hill, "Bifocal Recapitulations in 18th-century Sonata Forms" (paper rcad
riedt, "Charakter und Drama: Zur historischen Analyse von Haydnschcn und at the annual meeting of the American Musicological Society, Denver, 1980). I am grateful
Beethovenschen Sonatensatzen," A/Mrv, 42 (1985), }7-66; Fred Everett Maus, "Music as to Dr. Hill for sharing his findings with me in writing.
Drama," M,IS;c Theory Spectrum, 10' (1988), 56-73. 21, See Bonds, "Haydn's False Recapitulations," pp. 270-286.
themselves with questions of formal conventions, readers ' anticipation of er's understanding of conventional patterns by violating those very norms .
events within large-scale patterns, and the implications of both adherence Its "falsification of expectations" works precisely because the
to and deviance from these norms. Frank Kermode, in his interpretation of could assume a cert:1in rigidity of expectations on the part of the lIstener
the Aristotelian concept of peripeteia, emphasizes the extent to which the regardin g sonata form. .
unfolding of a plot depends upon a listener's familiarity with specific struc- In the case of Beethoven's String Quartet Op. 59, No. I, the same IS true
tural conventions: . . 'Juncture 0 f sonata form.
for another cnncal i · tI1 e articulation between the
exposition and development sections . As we have seen from the
Peripeteia ... is present in every story of the least structural sophistication. fIt 1 score Beethoven had already decided not to repeat the movement s first
depends on our confidence of the end; it is a disconfirmation followed by a
half even while considering a repeat for most of its second I:alf
consonance; the interest of having our expectations falsified is obviously related to
(development and recapitul ation). For the opening movement of a strIng
our wish to reach the discovery or recognition by an unexp ected and instructive
qu:trtet in the first decade of the nineteenth century, the repeat of a
route ... The more daring the peripeteia, the more we m ay feel that the work
respects our sense of reality . .. The falsification of expectations ... obviously .. .
ment's first half was still part of its "paradigmatic plot" even though thiS
could not work if there w ere not a certain rigidity ill the set of Ollr expectatiolls. The repeat was no longer as standard an element as in earlier decades. '; In a work
de,fIree of is a matter of profolmd interest in the stlldy of litera ry fictions." of such unpreced ented dimensions, the composer was faced with a di-
lemma: a large-scale repeat would have been of great help to listeners in
Such an approach toward form in the arts of the late eighteenth century, assimilating such an unusually large quantity of material; yet to repeat this
based on the recipient's awareness and anticipation of structural archetypes, particular exposition would have created a still larger and longer argument,
has ample historical validity as well. Sulzer, for one, notes three b3sic con- which would also have taxed the attention of listeners, albeit in a different
siderations for the overall plan of any artistic work: the precise connection w:ty. In the "Eroica" Symphony, Beethoven had already opted in favor of
among all the work's parts; sufficient contrast between the parts; and finally a literal repeat, in sp ite of the size of the first movement; in this first of the
"a complication of events" ("Verwicklung der Vorstellungen") in order that "Razumovsky" Quartets, however, Beethoven's solution was to avoid rep-
"the unfolding of the essentials is suitably delayed, so as to provoke increa s- etition by drawing attention to its very absence. In cutting short the expo-
ing curiosity, until at the end everything is unified once again into a single sition repeat and proceeding directly to the instability of the development
main idea."2] The resolution of ide3s is 3nticipated, but its 3rrival is inten- section, he constructed an ingenious so lution to the problems of both length
tionally delayed. The effect of Sulzer's " Verwicklung"-Aristotle's peripe- and form-the unfolding of the movement's central idea-by playing upon
teia-thus relies heavily on the audience's anticipation of a resolution to- the listener's understanding of Iarge-sc3le structural conventions.
ward the end of the work. Sulzer's comments, significantly enough, appear The concept of archetypal patterns as paradigmatic plots ultimately re-
within his discussion of Anordnllng, the most important stage within the lates back to Mattheson's effort to compare musical structures to the outline
compositional process for the construction of large-scale form. ' . of an oration. It was not the identity of the thematic material presented
Kermode's interpretation of peripeteia provides a direct bearing on the throughout a movement that Matth eson h:td tried to emphasize, but its
two analyses I introduced in Chapter I . The false recapitulation in Haydn's function at any given juncture, be it introductory, expository, develop-
Symphony No. 41 is an unusually striking instance of:1 "disconfirmation mental , contradictory, or concluding. And while subsequent theori sts of the
followed by a conson:1nce." Somewhat paradoxically, it respects the Iisten- eighteenth century avoided the precision of Mattheson's rhetorical analogy,
they did promulgate the essence of his ideas, often using less overtly rhe-
torical vocabulary. The continuity of this tradition becomes clear when we
conceive of form primarily as a process of thematic elaboration, in which
22. Kt'rmode, Tire S('IIse of (/11 Elldillg (New York : Oxford University Press, 1<)07),
pp. 18-1<). Emphasis added. See also Kenneth Ilurke, Co/llller-Slatl'II"'III, 2ilci cd. (l3erkeley:
convention:tl patterns function as a means to a pragmatic end.
Univers ity of California Press, 1<)68) , p. 124: "Form in literature is an arousing and fulfill-
ment of desires. A work has form in so far as one part of it leads a reader to anticipate
another part, to be gratified by the sequence."
23· Sulzer, Allgemeille Theorie, "Anordnung ."
25. Sec Broyles, "Organic Form ."
24· See above, p. 80.
Analyzing the Musical Oration: The First Movement of Haydn's
Symphony No. 46 in B Major
One of the more troublesome issues associated with the theory of stereo-
typical forms, as we have seen, has been the question of how to reconcile
"inner" and "outer" form, the genius of the individual composer with the
--=-
i__
00.'"
--- _ - _ __
L-'_'_
__.:e=- - -- -- '","
- :t
-
--
__
- -J-

conventions of his day. But eighteenth-century theorists, as shown in Chap-


ter 2, saw no real need for reconciliation, for they viewed form not so much
from the perspective of the composer or even of the work itself as from the
perspective of the listener. Conventional forms were seen as a means to 3n
end: the intelligible elaboration of a movement's central idea.
At the same time, eighteenth-century theorists seldom eng3ged in what
tod3Y would be considered technical analysis. How, then, m'ight the theo-
retical perspectives of the Classic3l era be applied to current-day analysis?
The following discussion of the first movement of Haydn's Symphony No.
46 in B Major for two oboes, two horns, and strings (I772: see Example
5· I) draws on the various accounts of form considered earlier in this book,
with particular emphasis on the role of the listener in the understanding of
form. It is not presented as a hypothetical eighteenth-century analysis, but
rather as an analysis informed by eighteenth-century perspectives.

Vivace

35
,"

10 tutli

Oh, htos

5· I Haydn, Symphony No. 46, first movement, mm. 1-77


5. 1 continued
The Hauptsatz, relatively straightforward on the surface, provides the im- harmonizing it and providing it with a new, tuller instrumentation. But
petus for virtually all that follows in the first movement. Haydn begins with while mm . 5-6 represent a varied restatement of mm. 1-2, the idea of the
an antecedent-consequent phrase, four measures in length, whose conven_ original antecedent is followed by a new and quite different consequent.
tional rhythmic structure makes it readily intelligible: Koch might easily have used these opening measures as 3n eX3mple of how
different predicates can be linked to an essentially identical subject within
Vivace the same movement .
The new predicate (mm. 6-8, labeled "c" in Example 5.2) is in fact not en-
tirely new, but derived from elements of the opening subject. The rhythm
( i m I J J ) serves as a new anacrusis, replacing the original antecedent's
rhythm of t;-o quarter-notes: J J I J J becomes im IJ J,
with legato articulation replacing the original detached. The pitches of the
i m figure , moreover, represent an inversion of the opening's distinctive
minor sixth (G tt - E). But most important for the forward momentum of
It,
the movement, Haydn introduces here the idea of counterpoint: the figure
of the new predicate (c) provides a contrapuntal answer to itself four times
in succession (rum. 7-10) before returning to a unison restatement (mm.
10-1 I) with the full orchestra .
The contr3st of textures, in fact, is an issue that is developed early on.
Within the space of only ten measures, Haydn introduces three distinct
5·2 Haydn, Symphony No. 46, first movement, mm . 1-8 kinds in order of increasing complexity, yet all in conjunction with material
that ultimately derives from the same source: unison (mm. 1-2), followed
by polyphony (mm. 3-6), and then imitative counterpoint (mm. 6-10),
The elements of this musical idea to be unfolded over the course of the before finally returning to unison (mm. IQ-l I). This remarkable variety of
movement are based on the contrasts inherent in the antecedent (a) and textures, adumbrated in the opening four measures, will be expanded still
consequent (b) portions of this statement: further over the course of the movement.
The idea (d) that appears in m. 13 offers a strong contrast to what has
I. Pitch: disjunct (a) versus conjunct (b). The antecedent moves down a gone before: an upward contour, a new drum-like figure in the bass, and a
sixth (B-O tt) and up a major third (E-G tt), with a half-step (0 tt- new rhythm U. Jjj j I J) in the melody. But the underlying continuity of
E) between (mm. r-2). The consequent moves principally in step-wise this moment-the the "interconnectedness" of the elements
motIOn down a fifth (F tt -B, mm. 3-4) .c.' that constitute the whole-derives from the phrase's consequent in the
2. R.hythm: slow and even (a) versus fast and uneven (b). The antecedent
winds (m. 14), which reiterates the all-important B-O tt descending minor
sixth. Rhythmically, this consequent is a variation of the original conse-
conSIsts of two rhythmic units, each of which consists of two notes of equal
quent (b), a relationship that becomes all the more explicit in tn. 19 (see
value (J J and J J ); both units begin on the downbeat. The two units
of the consequent both begin on an upbeat, with the first marked by syn- Example 5.3).
copation (J I 0
J ), the second by a dotted rhythm (J I J ). n Even the connective tissu e in m. 12 linking (c) with (d) is derived from
the opening theme. The intervals F tt -A tt -B-again, a descending minor
3· Dynamics: loud (a) versus soft (b). sixth, followed by an ascending half-step-correspond precisely to the
4· Texture: unison (a) versus polyph?ny (b). transposed version of the (a) theme that will be heard at m. 22 (see Exam-
ples 5.43 and S.4b). More important still is the broader connection illumi-
Together, these elements constitute the theme of this musical oration, its n3ted here between the original subject and predicate presented in mm. 1-
Hauptsatz. Haydn begins to "link ideas with ideas" (to use Schoenberg's 4· The F tt -A tt -B-O tt in m. 12 is preceded by the interval of E-G tt,
phrase) as early as m. 6. He varies the opening half of the main idea by drawing the figure as a whole still closer to the movement's opening four
measures. The outlines of the twO passages emerge as parallel to each other
(see Example 5·5) ·
This parallel also calls attention to the presence of a descending minor
sixth and rising half-step within the original (b) phrase, thus linking it to
(a) . WI13t had 3ppeared 3S a contrast between 3ntecedent and consequent at
the beginning is now revealed to have been based on the principle of elab-
oration. Thus within the brief space of three measures (I I-I3), Haydn not
only elides two main contrasting (but related) themes by reinterpreting ear-
lier material but also demonstrates the relationship of the twO main ele-
ments of his original subject (mm. 1-2 and mm. 3-4)·
These kinds of connections can be pursued throughout the remainder of
the movement. Here, I would like to call attention to only a few of the
1110re outst:lI1ding events as they relate to the broader eighteenth-century
concept of form as a function of rhetoric. The move to the dominant at m.
5.3 Haydn, Symphony No. 46, first movement, mm. 13-21 22 is part of the archetypal "plot" of sonata form; and while the reappear-
ance of the opening theme at this juncture is not necessarily common, nei-
ther is it altogether surprising. The opening theme here, moreover, is not
10 tutti
really the same at all, as Mattheson would have argued ("similar is not the
sa111e"), for it is presented within a new texture (imitative, with a counter-
subject) and in a new key (F j:1:, the dominant) . Thematic contrast had not
yet established itself as a sille qUIl non within the archetype of sonata form
by 177 2; what WIlS expected was a process of thematic elaboration, which
could take the form of ei ther variation or contrast-or, as is most often the
C;lse :11ld as is seen here, a fu sion of the two.
The contrast in 111111 . 22-25 is provided by the tonality, the reduced tex-
ture (violins only), ;lnd the counterpoint in the second violins. But once
again, the variety masks the process of elaboration and continuity: the
two rhythms of the counterpoint in m . 22 (i m) ;lnd in m. 23
(IJJJ IJJJ) have been heard before (m. 6, m. 13), :lI1d the rhythms in mm .
. 26- 2 7 (J J 1 IJJJ) also relate to previous material. The running eighth-
note figure in ;:;:3 I covers the span of a major sixth; its contour is remi-
5·4a Haydn, Symphony No. 46, first movement, mm. 10-17
niscent of the counterpoint in m. 23, and its rhythm, although familiar from

:1

_ J.
Haydn, Symphony No. 46, first movement, mm. 22-25 5.5 Haydn, Symphony No. 46, first movement, mm. 2-4 and mm. I I-13

I
I
'I
at m. 70 (see Example 5.1) .2(, By this point, it is clear that interruption is
mm. 13, 23, and 29, acquires an air of novelty through its articulation,
one of the basic strategies of this movement (see Figure 5· I). Measures 70 -
combining staccato and slurred notes with a decided accent on the leading
74 constitute an interpolation, an interruption that is itself interrupted. This
note midway through the measure. The (c) rhythm returns once again as a
sudden and unexpected turn to the minor is, in effect, another manifestation
kind of consequent phrase in m. 33.
of the procedure heard earlier in m. 36. The disconfirmation of our expec-
The abrupt turn to the minor at m . 36 introduces yet another clement of
tations has now become more than a merely local device: it is basic to the
variety-mode-but within the context of familiar material, a reinterpre- 27
tation of (d). The continuation of this section is si milarly based on earlier very idea of elaboration within this movement.
Somewhat paradoxically, the remainder of this movement contains no
material: the (c) rhythm returns in m . 42 and is subject to the sa me kind of
comparable surprises of structure. Further destabilizing techniques would
imitations originally associated with the (c) motive as first introduced in
only have undermined the very basis on which the listener's expectations
mm. 7-10. In mm. 45-48, this motive is superimposed on the opening (a)
rest. The structural surprises already presented, moreover, create a certain
rhythm. The abrupt entry of this entire minor-mode section is mirrored in
tension that carries over into the more or less conventional continuation of
the equally unanticipated resumption, in m. 52, of the very same material
events. At least part of the interest in the slow movement of the "Surprise"
the minor-mode section had earlier interrupted . This kind of abrupt en-
Symphony, it should be remembered, lies in our anticipation-unful-
trance and departure is not a part of the archetypal "plot" of son at::! form;
filled, 35 it turns out-that the drum-stroke heard early on might return
rather, it is a distinctive feature of this movement and an essential clement
at some later point.
of its form.
The return of the running eighth-note idea in m . 52 marks the unexpected
To say that this first movement of Haydn 's Symphony No. 46 is in sonata
reappearance of an entire unit of thought, unchan ged. Even the orchestr:1-
forlll is to S:1Y very littl e. It shares the structur:11 har monic olltline of
is the as in mm. 31-32: it is almost as if the utterly contr:lry,
I: I - V :1: X - I :1 with :l gre:lt Illany other movements , but from the per-
mmor-mode lI1terpolation of mm. 36-51 Iud never occurred. This , too, is
spective of eighteenth-century theorists, its form is the m:1nner in which its
a portent of future events. The juxtaposition of contrasts becomes even
l-Iallptsatz is ebborated. In this instance, the elaboration incorporates the
more remarkable when we realize that the "true" continuation of m . 56
large-scale h:1rmonic outline of son:1t:1 form but goes beyond this to include
takes us back to precisely the same idea of the minor-mode interpolation,
techniques of thematic m:l!1ipulation and the "aesthetic ordering" (Forkel's
but this time in the major mode. The exposition thu s closes with an ide:1
(d). that is being heard already for the third time within the exposition, ful-
fillll1g a very different function with each appearance: as a continuation of 26. Whether this passage represen ts a "false re cap itulation " depend s on how one defines
the opening idea (m. 13), a large-scale consequent, as it were; as a minor- that problematic tcrm . This passage docs not. in an y event, re present the kind of perfunc-
mode contrast (m. 36); and as a closing theme (m. 57). tory restatem ent of the main theme in the dominant and then briefly aga in in the tonic at
the beginnin g of the development section as described by Koch (Versllch, II, 224 and III,
The of the development section follows the plot archetype of
11.\, 3<)(,- 3<;7). In the works of Haydn. at lea st, such passa g es almost invariably have a
sonata form m exemplary fashion-so much so, in fact, that it can be said formulaic qu;dity: four m eas ures in the dominant , followed by a retransition to the tonic
to represent a condensed, almost exaggerated manifestation of the kinds of by means of a descending bass line from the fifth to first scale degree; then a single restate-
techniq.ues one expects at this point within a movement. The opening m e nt of th e theme in the tonic. again covering four measures; and finally an abandonment
of the tonic by means of a F-IV or F-ii progression (see Ilond s, "Haydn's False Hecapitll-
IS not. only fragmented but also subjected to stretto-like points of
lations," Pl'. 30} -3 10). Th e open in g of Haydn's development section here is anythin g but
ImItatIOn. WIthin the idiom of the time, it could sca rcely be more unstable formulaic, and the' fact that the opening theme and the tonic return toO early to be heard as
harmonically, touching on several tonalities without ever settling on any a recapitulati on is consistent with th e strategy of interpolation throu g hout this f,rst move-
one of them. But without warning, the music comes to a halt on V /vi in IlH'tH.
27. There is an interes tin g co unterpart to this device in thi s symphony's compa nion
m. 68; the texture thins out to a single line of violins, and what sounds like piece, the Symp hony No. 45 in F-sharp Minor ("Farewell"), also written in 177 2 , and also
the recapitulation sets in abruptly at m. 70. Just as the exposition had in a highly unu sual (and related) key. The new and seemingly contrasting 0 Major theme
seemed to be heading for a premature close (m. 35), so now the develop- that appear s in m. 108 and departs just as abruptly in m. 140 anticipates the bizarre events
ment seems to be concluding in an even more summary fashion. of the work's finale. Jame s Webster deals with both the Symphony No. 45 and No . 4 6
(especially the last two movements) in his forthcoming monograph on the "Farewell" Sym-
. the turn to the minor mode in m. 74 and the resumption of desta-
phony.
bIiIZll1g, developmental techniques eradicates the sense of return esta blished

I
·1
Mvt. 3, mm. 15-20

Mvt. I, mm. 1-4

F++

5.6 Haydn, Symphony No. 46, third movement, mm. 15-20; first movement,
to:
0 Vl mm . 1-4; fourth movement, mm. 1-4
'p N
oj

O-} c
fr
<lJ
u
>
0.. o phrase) of ideas. Perhaps the most important (and unusual) strategy of elab-
.5
...E oration in this movement is the process of disruption and the concomitant
...
Vl

<.;:: interpolation of ideas heard previously in a different context. The very effect
OJ
..;: of disruption depends upon the listener's knowledge of convention, includ-

J 0..
.5 ing the conventions ·of sonata form. If form is equated with the process of
thematic elaboration, there is no need or reason to distinguish between the
movement's "outer" form and its unique "inner" form. The listener's fa-
miliarity with the conventions of sonata form can be readily reconciled
is:' with-and indeed, is essential to an understanding of-the more unconven-
N
N
tional aspects of this movement.
The strategy of interruption and the interpolation of material heard earlier
i/l in different contexts is even more readily apparent in the work's finale. The
N
,....;
.!.!..- opening of this last movement is based on the same F:j:f -A :j:f -B figure so
basic to the first movement (see Example 5.6), and the second consequent
of the second restatement of this idea (mm. 7-8) makes use of the
to:
0
'p
oj
syncopated j J n rhythm once again. The exposition, development, and
O-} recapitulation are repeatedly interrupted by sudden and unexpected silences
fr
<lJ (mm. 29, 70-71, 77-78, 152). The interpolation of earlier ideas does not
.5 begin until the recapitubtion has more or less run its course, but when it
is:' appears, it arrives all the more forcefully. At m. 153, the meter and tempo
Vl N
<')
of the minuet return within an almost exact repetition of mm. 15-26 of that
movement. All of this is followed by a fuller statement corresponding to a
Q' repeat of the entire second half of the minuet. After yet another pause (m.
Vl
N
.!!... 187), the original theme and meter of the finale return, and the movement
ends-but not before still another series of interrupting silences (mm. 195-
is:' N=Il: 196, 198- 200).
Vl
NI.L.
But why begin the interpolation of the minuet into the finale with a
theme from the middle of the minuet and not its opening idea? Measures
0.. 15-20 represent an inversion of the movement's initial idea, and it is in this

I
N
guise that the idea bears the closest resemblance not only to the opening of
the finale but to the opening of the first movement as welL
;.: 0..
r.L1
Charles Rosen, who was the first to point out these resemblances, calls
the "thematic logic" of this interpolation within the finale "isolated." But it
is "isolated" only if we consider the work's thematic materials in isolation.
When coupled with the broader strategy of interruption and interpolation,
the return of the minuet within the finale (as well as its abrupt dismissal)
marks the culmination of an attempt to create a coherence between move-
ments that goes beyond the mere recycling of similar themes. This tech-
nique would become a basic element of much nineteenth-century music,
particularly within the genres of the symphony and concerto, but also in Originals of Quotations Given m Translation
the sonata and string quartet.
In the overtness of its cyclic integration, Haydn's Symphony No . 46 is Index
admittedly unusual for its time, more than thirty years before ' Beethoven's
Fifth Symphony. But it is by no means isolated in its attempt to apply spe-
cific principles of elaboration not only within a single movement but also
among multiple movements. ,8 Throughout this particular symphony, a
germinal idea has been elaborated in a variety of ways, and both the con-
ventional and the unconventional processes used to elaborate this idea have
themselves become elements in the work's coherence.
The "meaning" of this symphony will necessarily vary from listener to
listener, and the essentially formalistic analysis presented here suggests only
one kind of analysis that in no way precludes others. One could, for ex-
ample, argue that there are extra-musical associations in this particular
work. At the same time, the "logic" of this musical oration need not be
judged solely in relation to external ideas or emotions, nor in its deviation
from an archetypal progression of ideas. Haydn's work exhibits the kind of
qualities eighteenth- ,and early-nineteenth-century theorists had in mind
when they used rhetoric as a metaphor of musical form.
28. See, in particular, Webster's forthcoming monograph, which deals at length with
issues of cyclic integration in a number of -Haydn's instrumental works, including the
Symphony No. 46.

Potrebbero piacerti anche