Review

Author(s): W. Dean Sutcliffe

Review by: W. Dean Sutcliffe
Source: Music Analysis, Vol. 10, No. 3 (Oct., 1991), pp. 388-391
Published by: Wiley
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/853976
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 CRITICAL FORUM

William Rothstein: Phrase Rhythm in Tonal Music (New York: Schirmer, 1990). xi
+ 349pp. $34.95 [no UK price given]

How and in what ways music breathes has not been the explicit concern of many
analysts of the tonal repertoire. Indeed, it is a familiar refrain that certain analytical
approaches, such as those treating motives or signs, tend to neglect the syntactical
character of a work. They can all too easily leave the impression that investigation
is taking place in an atemporal limbo; the manner in which the relevant detail is
projected and paced through the course of the music may well remain unexplored.
Even voice-leading analysis, while obviously concerned with motion towards,
cannot easily address the matter of motion within, the internal dynamics of a
prolongation or linear progression. If this is partly a question of proportions - how
much of a given event or sonority the composer needs and why - then it may be
said that this book by William Rothstein also fails to consider the question as such.
Nevertheless, it becomes an implicit part of the discourse as Rothstein examines
the ways in which tonal music moves or, so to speak, organizes its inspiration.
First of all, though, his title may need some clarification, since the book is as much
about rhythm as about the properties of the tonal phrase. Leaning on the
distinction drawn by Lerdahl and Jackendoff between grouping and metre, the
author divides his nominal subject into two areas: hypermetre refers to 'metrical
phenomena apart from phrases' and phrase structure to 'the coherence of musical
passages on the basis of their total musical content - melodic, harmonic, and
rhythmic' (pp.12-13). If the latter seems rather laboured in the definition,
Rothstein convinces us of its utility when set against the only simpler alternative -
'phrasing'. We are reminded of the manner in which the original and desirable
sense of that word has been compromised by its association with notions of legato
articulation and the 'phrasing slur' (see pp. 11-12).
A great many of us probably share some of the confusion that surrounds this
terminology, and there is no more valuable part of the book than the opening
chapter, which defines the tonal phrase with such clarity that none of us should
ever again be guilty of imprecise use of the word. Rothstein accomplishes this with
an analysis of the first thirty-two bars of the 'Blue Danube' Waltz, in which he
demonstrates step by step that the whole tune ultimately comprises a single
phrase; all the smaller units contained within its boundaries function merely as
stages in this one respiration. The author also introduces some Schenkerian
notation to underpin his argument. Indeed, the use of Schenkerian voice-leading
principles forms an essential part of the orientation of the book - rightly so, since
the Ursatz is after all a prototype for the structure of that large phrase that spans
an entire movement. Part I, 'Introduction to Phrase Rhythm', having defined the
terms, works through the various techniques by which the underlying 'basic
phrase' may be reshaped, to give some indication of what Rothstein calls 'the
endless ingenuity shown by the great tonal composers in manipulating their
listeners' internal senses of rhythm for expressive ends' (p.x). As just implied, the
large majority of phrases can be seen to derive from a regular model that is duple
in metrical construction. From a stylistic point of view Rothstein associates this
'prevalence of duple organization' with the influence of dance and folk idioms on
art music in the tonal era (p.34) - more specifically, on the music of c. 1750
onwards, since the author candidly admits to not understanding Baroque phrase
rhythm to his satisfaction.
Nevertheless, there are some telling comments on its characteristics' at the start

388 MUSIC ANALYSIS 10:3, 1991

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 CRITICAL FORUM

of Part II, which presents four case studies in an attempt to outline a history of
phrase rhythm. The composers chosen are Haydn, Mendelssohn, Chopin and
Wagner. The attempt to weld the analysis of individual works to a stylistic history
presented in terms of compositional technique is for the most part assured, with
few signs of clumsy transition between the two supposedly separate fields. The
chapter on Haydn is described as the most complex of the four ('That says
something about Haydn's music', adds Rothstein [p.viii]). Here the historical
development is launched with an account of the Exposition of the first movement
of the AL major Sonata, Landon No. 31. This is perhaps rather tendentiously
chosen, given Charles Rosen's well-known strictures on its opening in The
Classical Style.2 Rothstein marshalls his evidence well in maintaining that, without
a 'secure organizing principle in its phrase rhythm', the "'passionate irregularity"'
displayed by the movement 'sounds too arbitrary, and, curiously, not passionate
enough' (p.141); yet the rather too traditional subtext of a triumphant march
towards 'Classical maturity' that this analysis initiates falls some way below the
rigorous standards set by the analyses themselves. When Rothstein comes to
discuss the products of the 1780s, the reliance on received opinion is also
somewhat disappointing; Mozart is held to have been an important influence on
Haydn's more regular rhythmic style during the early 1780s (p.150), but this is
almost certainly too early a time for the establishment of any reciprocal influence
by the younger composer. The source of this new greater regularity might instead
be found in Haydn's own music of the preceding years, but Rothstein's account of
the composer's development in the 1770s is an exceedingly token one, again
obedient to the emphasis of earlier stylistic histories.
However, once we have arrived at the inception of this period of greater surface
regularity, the author notes: 'It must be understood that duple construction, for
Haydn and Mozart, was a very flexible norm, not a straitjacket as it sometimes
came to be after 1800. The "tyranny" of the four-measure phrase belongs to the
19th century, not the 18th' (p.151). Indeed, the three studies that follow that of
Haydn are unified by a consideration of 'the Great Nineteenth-Century Rhythm
Problem: the danger, endemic in 19th-century music, of too unrelievedly duple a
hypermetrical pattern, of too consistent and unvarying a phrase structure'
(pp.184-5). It is refreshing to have this issue spelt out in such terms; in other
words, what the nineteenth century gained in harmonic sophistication it may have
lost in terms of rhythmic versatility. A consideration of the strategies adopted by
the three representative composers to overcome this potential problem gives the
relevant chapters a stylistic continuity and sweep that the Haydn chapter cannot of
course match. Thus Mendelssohn, like Brahms a 'conservative' in his time, availed
himself of the musical past in order to stiffen his technique; Chopin worked his
way towards a form of endless melody in an attempt to transcend phrase
boundaries and thus strengthen continuity; and this leads easily to a consideration
of Wagner. Wagner is chosen to complete the survey instead of Brahms because
'the breakdown of classical phrase rhythm in [his] music dramas parallels the
breakdown of classical tonality' (p.250); here the diachronic approach receives its
most obvious justification, as Rothstein traces the development of a 'frankly
inferior composer ... into a composer of genius' (p.305).
In discussing the introduction to Act II of Lohengrin, Rothstein suggests that it
is difficult to tell what is the main thread of musical continuity and what is
parenthetical' (p.272), and in fact this charge could be laid against Part II of the
book itself: the individual analyses themselves are almost invariably rewarding, but

MUSIC ANALYSIS 10:3, 1991 389

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 CRITICAL FORUM

the sheer weight of detail and wordiness they involve seem to erode the clarity
achieved in Part I. The words of course are needed to do justice to the complexity
of many of the examples, and there are a number of useful graphic reductions, but
one is left with the feeling that the book could well be pruned or more gratefully
laid out to achieve greater impact. What is lacking is a more systematic metho-
dology both in terms of analytical procedure and the visual presentation of its
results, though Rothstein does claim to employ one (p.14). A useful addition to
the book would be a glossary that defined succinctly all the techniques discovered
in this repertoire (the various kinds of expansions within and without the basic
phrase, elisions, overlaps, conflicting downbeats and so forth) as well as some
advice about how to proceed with an analysis of phrase rhythm (the matter is most
directly raised on p.100, but the promised return to the subject does not
eventuate). Their absence is indicative of some uncertainty about the intended
readership of the book. 'Part of the purpose of this book is to bring the fruit of
recent advances in rhythmic theory to the less specialized musical reader', claims
the author (p.14), but the pedagogical side is perhaps insufficiently developed for
this to be a realistic target. However, a distilled version of Part I would provide
essential material for any teacher.
Nevertheless, these reservations concerning the presentation and framing of
the book's ideas should not obscure the inspiring quality of much of the analysis,
as the author charts the interaction between the harmonic goal-direction encom-
passed by the phrase and the iterative impetus provided by metre. A good
indication of the rewards of Rothstein's approach may be found by reading his
account of Mendelssohn's Song without Words, Op. 102, No. 2, in which he reveals
the 'metrical drama' of a 'deceptively placid song' (p.209) by focusing on the play
of competing metrical schemes. Without advocacy along such lines a piece like this
might have seemed to promise nothing of note to the analyst. Only occasionally
might one want to call in Carl Schachter's 'Commissar of Metrics' (quoted on
p.100) to settle a question of metrical stress. Such an instance can be found in
Rothstein's account of the hypermetrical organization in Schubert's D major
Sonata, Op.53 (see Ex. 1). The first downbeat is held to occur at b.3 of the
Finale's theme, but surely the composer is utilizing a gavotte conceit, with the
Ex. 1
Rondo

1 Allegro moderato

I ' I "I f I I

7 3 3- 3 3

3 3?
S!Mi -I f I d
5 - Z 6 7 8>

vi w

390 MUSIC ANALYSIS 10:3, 1991

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 CRITICAL FORUM

first hypermetrical downbeat falling with the first note of the melody, halfway
through b.2.
This study will be of use in establishing phrase rhythm not just as a discipline
in itself, though its techniques still require more precise definition, but also as a
means of giving a firmer syntactic context to other modes of analytical enquiry.
There is clearly a need for the theory to be able to cope with larger stretches of
music than it has to here, even though its premises start to be subjected to this
stress in the latter part of the Wagner chapter. As intimated earlier, the matter of
proportions, or simply length, must be confronted more directly; we need to be
able to make sense of higher levels of hypermetre and phrase structure, to observe
how the various disruptions, detours and contradictions interact with each other
over the course of a whole movement. For all that it leaves such issues in the air,
however, this book provides many models to prompt analytical action and is
strongly recommended.

W. Dean Sutcliffe

NOTES

1. For instance, the relatively weak differentiation of beats within the bar
compared to Classical practice (see p. 126).
2. (Faber: London, 1971), pp. 150-1.

MUSIC ANALYSIS 10:3, 1991 391

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