More to recomposition

Today's entry picks up from this post on recomposition. Another version of the dance set creates connections to other existing compositions, namely, D790 and Schumann's Papillons.

As in the earlier sets, the strongly marked promenade piece that opens D783 begins. This number is also D790n2, where it is followed by a trio in D major (D790n3). I have inserted that here as the second dance, but instead of returning to D783n1/D790n2 as the reprise, I insert the first two strains of n3 from Papillons, a piece with a very similar character for which D783n1 may very well have served as the model (since Schumann knew D783 well: see this post). The ending in A major with rising cadence gesture is an invitation to the second trio, the 16-bar version of D779n13. Then D783n1 returns as the final reprise in the AB(A)CA design.

More to Papillons and the single-strain dance

Yesterday I referred to "floating strains" in Schumann's Papillons, by which I meant individual dance strains (usually 8 bars) that "take the place" of a complete dance in reprise sections of dance sets. Papillons does indeed contain such a floating strain, but it acts more like an interrupting reminiscence than a reprise within a dance set: it's the second strain of n6, which reappears in the middle of n10.

As it happens, however, n6 itself is built as a miniaturized dance set in ABACA design (or dance with two trios), where all five sections are single strains.

D924 and dancing

The last two blog entries, which contrasted traditional Urlinie readings with those based on an Ursatz manqué, made an assumption that is typical of these modes of analysis but is questionable, especially for waltzes (or other small-scale pieces, such as songs). Far from being the staid forms that tie the chaos of the foreground to the eternal, these backgrounds are highly contingent -- fragile and easily disrupted. We've met some of the devices before: the stability of its tonal "reference point" -- whether upper voice or bass -- is quickly undermined if it is played as trio to another dance, or enhanced if it is given a trio and a subsequent da capo.

In the double-tonic numbers of D924 there is even another possibility -- that the strains themselves were detached from their companions and played in differing combinations. This is of course speculative -- an extension "backwards" to Schubert's improvisation practice -- but one does find such "floating strains" in Schumann's Papillons, for example, and the topically uniform character of most of D924 makes its both easier and more plausible as well.

I have assembled below a dance-sequence that uses the first strain of n3 as the refrain. More repetition or extension would probably be necessary, but even in this form up to three minutes of dancing would be available. The sequence is n3, a, b, a -- n2, all -- n3, a -- n5, all -- n3, a -- n4, all. The key sequence is c#, E, c# - E - c# - A - c# - A.

D779n13 in Papillons

Still another recomposition story. Given his intense interest in Schubert's music (noted in yesterday's post), we can easily reconstruct Schumann's early cycle Papillons with the A Major Waltz embedded in it. Generally understood to be an early product of that enthusiasm, Papillons is filled with pieces that come readily into view as Schubert-style dances exaggerated in tempo, dynamics, and design to create more sharply drawn "portraits" (as Schumann did more effectively in Carnaval).

Several are obviously waltzes (1, 4, 9, 10) and several others have the rough clarity of some of the gruffer German dances in Schubert's D. 783 (nos. 3, 8, and 12). The A Major Waltz might possibly find a place in Papillons as no. 7, if we were to transpose it to Ab major, use only the first strain. Schumann's no. 8 in C# minor is a very suitable substitute for the A Major Waltz's second strain (the affects are very close, Schumann's, again, being a more exaggerated version of the contrasting forte in Schubert's second strain). In the graphic at the end of this post I have called the C# minor/Db major piece a "trio" and slightly altered its ending to make the return a little smoother.

The key sequence of the numbers in Papillons is D--Eb--f#--A to F#--Bb--d--f to Ab--c# to Db--bb--C--D--D. If that sequence seems rough and abrupt, that's the method in Papillons -- Schumann luxuriates in the haphazard key relations that one often finds in dance collections in the 1820s. There is no question of extracting some perfect overreaching key scheme -- the whole point is to avoid it. With the A major waltz (in Ab) the sequence becomes D--Eb--f#--A to F#--Bb--d--(Ab--c# to Db--Ab (reprise))--bb--C--D--D.

(The graphic is a thumbnail; click on it to see the original image.)