New blog: On the Dominant Ninth

The number of blogs I maintain has recently grown to four. This was the first of them: it was (and still is) meant to create rich contexts for that curious A-major waltz that is so out of place in the Valses sentimentales, D. 779 (publ. 1825). As material accumulated on ascending cadence figures (which D. 779n13 offers in the most direct and both structurally and expressively consequential way) and on formal designs in early waltzes and related dances (there also D. 779n13 is an anomaly), two new blogs emerged as spin-offs, the goal in both being primarily to document occurrences and patterns, primarily in 19th-century music but also in earlier music where relevant. These blogs are Ascending Cadence Gestures in Tonal Music and Dance and Dance Music, 1650-1850.

Continuing the derivations, On the Dominant Ninth is a spin-off mainly from Ascending Cadence Gestures, given (1) that it was treatments of scale degree ^6 in the major key that enabled the ascending cadence lines that one finds already in Schubert and then more and more often in others as the 19th century moved on; and (2) that in the majority of cases the chord of the dominant ninth was involved. In the new blog, however, the work is not restricted to cadences or to rising figures. Instead, it "is intended to document [the variety of treatments of scale degree ^6 as the ninth of a dominant ninth chord], especially in the essential 19th century European repertoires of the musical stage and music for dance" (quote from the first post to the blog, 21 June 2018).

The new blog has also inspired two publications on the Texas ScholarWorks platform: most recently Dominant Ninth Harmonies in American Songs around 1900; before that Dominant Ninth Harmonies in the 19th Century. A new series on the blog—documenting presentations of the dominant ninth in theory textbooks and treatises in the 19th century—began with a post today on Catel's Traité d'harmonie.

New historical survey

I have published two sets of files on the Texas ScholarWorks platform for a series Ascending Cadence Gestures, New Historical Survey.  Part 1 is the general introduction: link.  Part 2 surveys European Modal Music (to 1650): link.

The abstract:

This new documentation of traditional European and European-influenced music with ascending lines and cadence gestures includes compositions from the fifteenth through the early twentieth century. The work is gathered in five parts, published separately. Part 1 contains the general introduction and a bibliography. Parts 2a-c cover music to 1650, Part 3 from 1650 to 1780, Part 4 1780 to 1860, and Part 5 1860 to the US copyright barrier, which is currently the end of 1923. [Please note: Parts 1-2 are available now. Parts 3-5 will be published as they are completed.] 

Note 10-29-2019: I have published an additional file—2e—which includes seventy compositions found since the publication of Parts 2a-d: link to Part 2e.

Information

This blog began as a place to present multiple examples of analysis of a single composition, the thirteenth number from Schubert's Valses sentimentales, D. 779 (1825). Several related topics emerged soon in the work, ranging from social dance in Vienna to contemporary form theory. I eventually organized a guide to the blog (link updated 2022-02-03) according to the four main areas given attention:

Topics 1: Analyses of Schubert, Valses sentimentales, n13, Waltz in A Major
Topics 2: Schubert, Playing for Dance, Dance in Vienna 1815-1830
Topics 3: Formal Design and Functions in Music for Social Dance
Topics 4: Responses to Criticism of the Ascending Urlinie

Since publishing the Guide in July 2016, I have made just over a dozen posts to the blog, all but two of which have been notices of essays published on Texas ScholarWorks (link to my author page).

New series of essays published

I have published a seven-part essay series titled Formal Functions in Menuets by Mozart. Part 7 is "Contemporaries and Successors, 1780-1828" and includes discussion of named menuets by Schubert.   Link to Part 7.


Here is the abstract.

This final essay in the Mozart series charts formal functions (after Caplin) in named menuets written by other composers during the last ten years of Mozart’s life, 1780-1791, and by three composers active in Vienna thereafter, through the death of Schubert (1828). The repertoire includes menuets by Carl and Anton Stamitz, Franz Joseph Haydn, Luigi Boccherini, Giovanni Viotti, and Adalbert Gyrowetz, and several others. The three later composers are Beethoven, Hummel, and Schubert. Concluding comments return to questions of musical form theory.

Here is a link to Part 1in the series: Formal Functions in Menuets by Mozart, Part 1: Orchestral Works and Independent Sets. And the abstract:

A study of formal functions (after Caplin) in named menuets by Mozart, the larger goal being to historicize more fully form-design practices in European music during the second half of the eighteenth century.

Finally, titles for Parts 2-6:

Part 2: Sonatas and Chamber Music.Part 3: A Comparison with Johann Christian Bach.Part 4: His Older Contemporaries, to 1770.Part 5: More to Theoretical Issues.Part 6: Contemporaries, 1771-1780.