Analysis of 18th- and 19th-Century Musical Works in the Classical Tradition is a textbook for upper-level undergraduate and graduate courses in music analysis. It outlines a process of analyzing works in the Classical tradition by uncovering the construction of a piece of musicāthe formal, harmonic, rhythmic, and voice-leading organizationsāas well as its unique features. It develops an in-depth approach that is applied to works by composers including Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, and Brahms.
The book begins with foundational chapters in music theory, starting with basic diatonic harmony and progressing rapidly to more advanced topics, such as phrase design, phrase expansion, and chromatic harmony. The second part contains analyses of complete musical works and movements. The text features over 150 musical examples, including numerous complete annotated scores. Suggested assignments at the end of each chapter guide students in their own musical analysis.
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A preliminary step in our review of diatonic harmony must be to establish how we will designate pitches and chords throughout this text. When we want to specify a particular pitch in a specific octave, we will follow the system adopted by the Acoustical Society of America, where middle C is C4, as indicated in Example 1.1.
EXAMPLE 1.1 Pitch Designation
Triads are designated by Roman numerals specifying the degree of the scale on which they are built, and in this text we will designate the quality of each triad by upper- and lower-case numerals, upper-case for major and lower-case for minor. Diminished triads are indicated by a lower-case numeral followed by a superscript zero, e.g., viio. Inversions of triads are indicated by the addition of figured-bass symbols (Arabic numbers and/or accidentals) to the right of the Roman numeral, 6 for first inversion and
for second inversion.1 Accidentals are needed where the interval above the bass is altered in relation to the key signature. An accidental alone indicates that the third above the bass is altered; otherwise, the accidental precedes the Arabic numeral, indicating the interval above the bass that is affected, e.g., āÆ6.
Example 1.2 shows the triads and their inversions in both the major and minor modes. Note, however, that we have listed only those
chords representing I, IV and V, since these are the only ones commonly employed.2 In the minor mode we have included the major triad built on the natural seventh degree of the scale as well as the diminished triad on the leading tone. Recall that in the minor mode the leading tone requires an accidental (ā® or āÆ).
EXAMPLE 1.2 Triads and Inversions in Major and in Minor
Triads within a key are commonly referred to by the following names beginning with I/i and ascending to viio: tonic, supertonic, mediant, subdominant, dominant, submediant, and leading-tone triad. These names are easy to remember once you realize the origin of the terminology, which implies a symmetry around the tonic. The dominant is the fifth above the tonic, and the subdominant is a fifth below. The mediant is midway between tonic and dominant, and the submediant is midway between tonic and subdominant. This leaves the supertonic, meaning the triad above the tonic (super is the Latin word for āaboveā).3
During the eighteenth century, the gradual acceptance of the passing seventh (8ā7) as a legitimate chord tone gave rise to seventh chords built on each degree of the scale. In the major mode, there are four different types of seventh chord: 1) the major triad with major seventh on scale degrees 1 and 4; 2) the major triad with minor seventh on scale degree 5; 3) the minor triad with minor seventh on scale degrees 2, 3, and 6; and 4) the diminished triad with minor seventh (known as the half-diminished seventh chord) built on the leading tone. In the minor mode, the major triad with major seventh occurs on scale degrees 3 and 6; the major triad with minor seventh on scale degree 5 (with the raised leading tone), but also on natural scale degree 7 (VII7 = V7 of III); the half-diminished seventh chord on scale degree 2; and the fully diminished seventh chord (diminished triad and diminished seventh) on the leading tone. These seventh chords and their designations in both the major and minor modes are listed in Example 1.3. Note the shorthand designation of the diminished seventh chord, o7, and half-diminished seventh chord, Ćø7. The diminished seventh chord often functions in place of the dominant seventh chord, and occasionally the two occur together forming the dominant ninth chord, as shown at the end of Example 1.3.
EXAMPLE 1.3 Seventh Chords in Major and in Minor
We will not write out all the inversions of all the seventh chords in major and minor. Instead we have shown the inversions of the most common ones, the dominant seventh chord and the diminished seventh chord, in Example 1.4.
EXAMPLE 1.4 Inversions of the Dominant Seventh and Diminished Seventh Chords
The chordal seventh is a dissonance requiring resolution down by step to a note of the following chord. When the resolution does not occur as expected, this is significant. In Example 1.5 we have shown the normal resolution at (a), but at (b) the resolution is transferred to the bass, allowing the top voice to continue its upward motion.4
EXAMPLE 1.5 Resolution of the Dissonant Seventh
Tonal Functions
A logical way to think of harmonic progression is in terms of three basic functions: tonic, dominant, and preparation for the dominant. As we shall see, a considerable portion of the tonal literature can be understood in terms of these three basic functions. The first two, tonic and dominant, are self-explanatory, while the last requires some clarification. When we speak of preparing the dominant, we mean progressing to the dominant, either by a strong fifth progression, that is, from a supertonic chord in root position, or more frequently by step in the bass and most normally from below, thus supporting the subdominant or the supertonic in first inversion, as shown in Example 1.6 at (a) and (b). Frequently there is a 5ā6 linear motion above scale degree 4 in the bass, seemingly creating a harmonic change from IV to ii6, but where this change is the result of linear rather than harmonic considerations, we will indicate this change as shown at (c). In this instance, the 5ā6 motion avoids parallel perfect fifths between the bass and alto parts. Finally, we also find the root of the dominant harmony approached from a step above, supporting either the submediant or, more often, the subdominant harmony in first inversion, as shown at (d).
EXAMPLE 1.6 Harmonic Functions and Cadences
Cadences articulate important points of arrival or division in music. For our present discussion, we need to distinguish two types: the half cadence (HC), which ends on the dominant, thus coming to partial rest, and the authentic cadence, which ends on the tonic. Depending on the final position of the top part, the authentic cadence is called perfect (ending on scale degree 1) or imperfect (ending on scale degrees 3 or 5), abbreviated as PAC and IAC respectively. In Example 1.6, the progressions at (a), (b), and (c) all culminate with perfect authentic cadences, while (d) ends with a half cadence. Not represented here is the cadential
, a common component in music of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The cadential
is the result of linear motionāof the passing sixth and fourth on their way to the fifth and third over scale degree 5 in the bassāand thus the resulting chord is not considered as a separate harmony from its resolution. It, along with its resolution, is labeled as V to show its dominant function. This illustrates a very important point, namely, that the labeling of chords should not result from the mechanic...
