The Mirror of Tonality: Transitional Features of Nineteenth-Century Harmony

Author(s): Lawrence Kramer

Source: 19th-Century Music, Vol. 4, No. 3 (Spring, 1981), pp. 191-208
Published by: University of California Press
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The Mirror of Tonality:
Transitional Features of

Harmony
Nineteenth-Century
LAWRENCE KRAMER

The transition from Classical to Romantic system. His earliest atonal pieces, the finale of
harmony, and ultimately to atonality, is still the Second String Quartet and Das Buch
commonly described from the point of view der hdngenden Gdrten, quote texts from
that Schoenbergdeveloped to establish the his- Stefan George that intimate the discovery of
torical inevitability of his own music. Seen in something unknown, miraculous, perhaps
this way, the force of harmonic change in the terrifying-all of which the music evokes
nineteenth century was a gradual heightening hauntingly. Yet the rhetoric of discovery is de-
of chromaticism that eventually obscured ceptive; the truth is that Schoenbergwas inter-
tonal functions so much that tonality "broke preting, not discovering, atonality as chromatic
down." As Schoenberg himself put it in a fa- saturation. At the same time, he was rejecting
mous sentence, "The overwhelming multitude the other interpretive prospects opened by
of dissonances [could] not be counterbalanced composers like Debussy, Busoni, and Skriabin.
any more by occasional returns to such tonic Schoenberg's exclusive claim on the territory
triads as represent a key."' of early atonality has gradually evaporated as
Schoenberg clearly felt that this situation the cultural identity of his style has grown
justified, even demanded, his own harmonic clearer: a "classical" expressionism as firmly
style, which tended toward total chromaticism rooted in turn-of-the-century Vienna as clas-
long before he developed the twelve-tone sical psychoanalysis.2 His vision of tonality in
collapse has been more stubborn.
'Style and Idea, ed. Leonard Stein, trans. Leo Black (New
York, 1975), p. 86.
2See Carl Schorske, Fin-de-Sidcle Vienna (New York,
0148-2076/81/010191+18$00.50 @ 1981 by The Regents of 1980), and Allan Janik and Stephen Toulmin, Wittgen-
the University of California. stein's Vienna (New York, 1973).

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 19TH
CENTURY
Persistent ideas endure for a reason, and dary status, made possible by forgetting that
MUSIC this one is no exception. Though most varieties any musical convention sounds logical if it is
of nineteenth-century chromaticism can still accepted. Both the Classical and Romantic
be heard as harmonically directed, and though styles make octave-doubling sound logical;
a good many tonally unstable pieces are not ex- Schoenberg's early twelve-tone style makes it
cessively chromatic, the myth of creeping sound eccentric. Any change of style implies a
chromaticism is clear as an explanatoryprinci- change of norms, as Subotnik herself suggests
ple and dramatically appealing as a vision of when she argues that "listener competence" in
musical entropy. It helps make sense of a body Romantic harmony is fundamentally different
of music in which the structural assumptions from its Classical counterpart.5 What a
are still doubtful and the line of historical de- Classical piece presents as a deviation may ap-
velopment still indefinite. The point can be pear in a Romantic piece as perfectly nor-
made emphatically by referring back to the mative--"quasi-logical." All that can follow
previous period of major harmonic change, the from obscuring the autonomy of separatestyles
mid-eighteenth century. Without pretending to is another myth of entropy.
exhaustiveness, one can accept with confi- A more fruitful approach, present for in-
dence Charles Rosen's characterization of the stance in Jim Samson's recent book on early
transition from Baroqueto Classical harmony: atonality, is to emphasize the evolutionary role
the Classical style emerged from the strong of "extended tonality" in nineteenth-century
polarization of tonic and dominant and an ele- music.6 Ironically, "extended tonality" is a
vation of dissonance from the level of "an un- term employed by Schoenberghimself to mean
resolved interval to an unresolved chord ... to the assimilation of remote or indistinct har-
an unresolved key."3 Unfortunately, the monies to a given tonal region.7It is possible to
movement from Classical to post-Classical argue that Romantic harmony is moved by an
harmony is more intractable. The common ex- insistent impulse to extend tonality in this
perience is that any description of nineteenth- sense. This is a thrust that both affirms the
century music based on the ascendancy of structural force of tonal centers and at the
specific harmonic features is doomed to mis- same time places them under considerable
representation. stress. Some version of key-feeling remains
One possible response to this problem is to paramount, but it is called on to counterbal-
convert the problem itself into a constitutive ance an impulse toward harmonic dispersion
principle: to see nineteenth-century harmony that can become fantastically extravagant.
as a welter of contingency, idiosyncrasy, and What results is a continual testing of the
limited intelligibility. Rose Rosengard Subot- boundaries of tonality. And this creates a
nik has argued for an understanding along steady, undirected inner tension that tends to
those lines in this journal and elsewhere.4 The replace the more linear pattern of tensions in
trouble with this view is that it presents the Classical works, where tonalities move
supposed eccentricity of nineteenth-century dramatically and sometimes dissolve, but
music as a deviation from the conventions of where tonality itself is firm.8
Classical tonality, which are privileged by Extended tonality is not limited to chro-
being called "quasi-logical." Nineteenth-cen- maticism and it does not necessarily lead to-
tury music thus takes on a curious secon- nality to "break down"; it has proved to be a
durable basis for most twentieth-century tonal
music. Yet it may well suggest the severance of
3The Classical Style: Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven (New
York, 1972), pp. 26, 120.
4"The Historical Structure: Adorno's 'French' Model for
the Criticism of Nineteenth-Century Music," this journal S"Tonality, Autonomy, and Competence," p. 158.
2 (1978), 36-60; "The Cultural Message of Musical Se- 6Music in Transition (New York, 1977).
miology: Some Thoughts on Music, Language, and Criti- 7Structural Functions of Harmony, ed. Leonard Stein (New
cism since the Enlightenment," Critical Inquiry 4 (1978), York, 1969), p. 76.
741-68; "Tonality, Autonomy, and Competence in Post- sSee my "The Shape of Post-Classical Music," Critical In-
Classical Music," Critical Inquiry 6 (1979), 153-63. quiry 6 (1979), 144-52.
192

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"extensional" patterns from their tonal still lifes. Applied to tonal music, the concept LAWRENCE
KRAMER
ground, and so lead organically to various of horizon discloses a set of relationships that The Mirror
forms of atonality. By recognizing harmonic clarify nineteenth-century harmony both in it- of Tonality
extension as a primarysource of form, and even self and in its relationship to Classical practice.
of closure, we can interpret the discontinuities Consider a representative moment from a
so central to Romantic works not only as con- Classical work; here, for instance, is the first
gruent with intelligible structure, but as basic measure of Beethoven's String Quartet, op. 18,
to it. We can also clarify the special problem of no. 5 (ex. 1):
describing post-Classical harmony. Where an
eighteenth-century piece concentrates on the Allegro
articulation of an integral tonal structure,
its nineteenth-century counterpart is likely
to exploit the interplay between tonal
structures-removing, in the process, the need " sfp
for formal and stylistic consistency.

I
In this essay, I would like to explore the Example1
transitional force of extended tonality in post-
Classical music, and at the same time to em- In this measure, two "objects" are straightfor-
phasize the analysis of extended harmony as a wardly presented, both of them tonic triads of
basis for interpreting structure. Since this har- A major.The horizon of this presentation is the
monic style involves the continual blurring A-major tonality of the movement as a whole.
and redefinition of tonal centers in the music, The opening triads appear as tonic chords of
it can be studied most fruitfully with the help the tonic key; they embody the center of refer-
of a phenomenological concept designed to ac- ence for a large-scale harmonic process. Later,
count for just such a creative indefiniteness: when E-majortriads appear. they will be pre-
the concept of horizon. As defined by Husserl, sented as dominant chords and situated in the
the horizon of an object is the immediate con- horizon of E major within the tonic A major.
text within which the object has shape and Similar relationships will obtain everywhere in
meaning. Itself indefinite, the horizon em- the movement: tonality, in this Classical
braces everything outside of the object which piece, will always appear both as presentation
renders the object intelligible, and thereby acts and as horizon. The dramatic and expressive
as the source of the object's definition. The ob- design of the harmony will always mirror the
ject can only appear, only be apprehended, tonal identity of the music.
against its horizon. If, for example, I look at In contrast to this, consider an equally rep-
some apples on a table, the apples do not appear resentative moment, mm. 1-5 of an unpreten-
in and of themselves, but "partly pervaded, tious little piece from Schumann's Album ffir
partly girt round by" their horizon: a dim sense die Jugend, "Thema" (ex. 2). The horizon of
of the objects around them and an indefinite this passage is obviously C major, seemingly a
fringe of non-specific perception.9 Horizon, straightforward tonic; the music's presenta-
however, is only metaphorically spatial: if I tion, however, is not at all as obvious.
gaze at the apples with a sense of their sensu- Except in the vicinity of m. 4, the harmony
ous roundness and fullness, the horizon of my here leads unambiguously from tonic to domi-
experience embraces a dim sense of other such nant through a diminished triad, then from
gazes, together with an assortment of other dominant to tonic through an augmented triad.
things from greeting-card covers to Cezanne From the perspective of the horizon, this pat-
tern is the product of passing dissonance, but
Schumann's phrase structure prevents it from
9Edmund Husserl, Ideas, trans. W. R. Boyce (London, sounding that way. The tonic and dominant
1952), p. 102. chords are tentative, featureless: they all occur
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 19TH Langsam.Mit inniger Empfindung
CENTURY y
-F1 M----
M. 1. ?
MUSIC y

P cresc.

. ....
7•"
. I.
t""/ ---; ,P • ..I
t
.- ,
- • r-. r.. Et~j
•...
I" ,
• -_
1•, r
.
... ?
,- .
." iJ•' •" .

Example2

on weak beats, and they close each beat by ab- essentially dialectical and, in its symmetrical
sorbing a diatonic dissonance. The altered arrangement of symmetrical chords, not espe-
chords, in contrast, occupy strong, accented cially tonal (ex. 3):
beats and are undisturbedby harmonic motion.
Furthermore,every phrase in the passage ends
non-cadentially; the movement within phrases
is always from consonance to dissonance. This
. I

design effectively identifies the music with the

pattern of its dissonances, and gives the aug-
mented chords a particular air of dissolving Example3
the harmony as they enhance the disorienting
effect of the diminished chords. Once recognized, this presentation subtly al-
In m. 4 this presentational pattern becomes ters the nature of its horizon, whose C major is
intensified, throwing the music's tonal defini- present less as a palpable tonic than as a real-
tion out of focus. Instead of the augmented ization of tonality itself, understood as a struc-
triad on the dominant that begins the previous turing by major triads. In contrast to the
two measures, a diminished triad on the Classical paradigm,the Romantic one followed
flat supertonic sounds against a tied inner- by Schumann produces tonality only as hori-
voice note, then turns unhelpfully into a zon, not as presentation. Moreover, the Ro-
diminished-seventh chord as the tied note as- mantic horizon involves a certain depletion of
cends a semitone. A minor triad on the leading the Classical one, a reduction of the tonic to its
tone follows, its raised fifth quickly producing premises in tonal organization.
a tritonal dissonance (see ex. 2x).10Strikingly, It cannot be stressed too much that
what restores a sense of direction to the now Schumann's piece is not radical, daring, or
rather perplexed music is not a return to the anything more than a beautifully wistful
tonic, but the reappearance of the dominant Albumblatt. The presentation-horizon rela-
augmented triad at the juncture of mm. 4 and 5 tionship it manifests is perfectly ordinary, as
(see ex. 2y), where it closes the piece's first ordinary for Schumann as a stretch of tonic
large-scale phrase unit. What the music pre- dominant harmony is for Mozart. Either
sents, then, is a pattern of alternating Mozart's or Schumann's tonal language can be-
diminished and augmented triads that first come radical,of course-it would even be nice to
overshadows and then effaces the alternation believe that the radicalization of Mozart's lan-
of tonic and dominant triads-a pattern that is guage led to the extended tonality of
Schumann's, which in turn moved through its
own radicalization to atonality-but neither
loThis dissolution of the tonic-dominant pattern has been version of tonalityis intrinsically either stable or
anticipated by the submediant chord at the close of m. 3. unstable. Neither one is static, though; and it
This chord seems to articulate the "crisis" in the music. Its seems plausible to say that the transition from
tied A, if held long enough, would absorb the Cg-E-G di-
minished triad at m. 4 into V7 of ii. But the A is itself ab- Classical to Romantic harmony involves the
sorbed into the diminished seventh before this can happen. gradualexchange of a horizon-paradigmcharac-
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 LAWRENCE
terized by doubling or overlapping, where to- evitability is almost always allied to the articu- KRAMER
nality appears as both presentation and hori- lation of form. One must be careful here: there The Mirror
is nothing intrinsically inevitable about the of Tonality
zon, for a paradigmcharacterizedby separation
and singularity, in which tonality appears as shape of the sonata, rondo, song or dance
horizon alone. forms basic to Classical music, as any merely
The "feel" of this difference is strongest, competent example of one will show. Haydn,
perhaps, in the contrast between the dramatic Mozart, and Beethoven, however, are able to
flow of time in the Classical style and the more turn the sectional differentiations of Classical
fluid temporality of Romanticism. The contour form into "forcesof tension or expectancy by in-
of a Classical horizon restricts what a work can terpreting them with differentiations of tex-
present at any given moment. The result is the ture, rhythm, harmonic rhythm, timbre, and so
sharply modeled Classical design: an opposi- on.12Mozart, for instance, motivates the return
tion of clearly articulated units which acts as a of the Minuet in his D-Minor String Quartet,
large-scale projection of the tensions within K. 421, by exaggerating the differences in tex-
tonal relationships. The Romantic paradigm ture between the Minuet and the Trio. The
attenuates the restrictive power of the Clas- Minuet, in the minor, is restless, agitated,
sical one-or frees itself from the burden of chromatic, and contrapuntal, with the viola
negativity-by breaking the mirror relation- and cello particularly active. The Trio, in the
ship between presentation and horizon. major, forms a blithe interlude, utterly (even
A romantic presentation may or may not refer ironically) simple in its diatonicism and
to a structure within the horizon during any homophony, a solo for first violin over piz-
passage in a given piece. The boundaries be- zicato accompaniment. The result is an in-
tween discrete segments of music thus tend to evitability that presents itself in emotional
blur because the basis for differentiating those terms. The Trio may systematically turn the
segments has been removed. This effect, I Minuet inside out, but it so obviously fails to
imagine, is what bothered Schenker when he balance the Minuet's passionate urgency that
complained that Wagner's music has no the latter's return not only feels compelling but
background." also fiercely satisfying.
On the whole, the sense of necessity in
II Romantic music does not depend on this kind
Many of the familiar features of nine- of alliance with harmonically-based form. The
teenth-century music can be similarly a-
ligned with the emergence of the Romantic
horizon-paradigm-the increasing reliance on
motivic unity, for instance, or the gradual 12Subotnik ("Tonality, Autonomy, Competence," pp.
154-55) arguesthat Classical form is "implicative," on the
elimination of literal repetition, or the equal model of logical entailment, and that in taking this model
treatment of successive key centers so that it tries to be independent of its cultural specificity. Though
none is an unequivocal tonic. Perhapsthe most logic leaps inevitably to mind (at least to some people's
minds) as a metaphor for aesthetic coherence, this view
basic effect of the Romantic horizon-structure must be rejected.It drasticallyunderestimates the cultural
on musical form, however, is its transforma- allusiveness of Haydn, Mozart,and Beethoven, while over-
tion of the basis of musical necessity, the qual- estimating the cohesive power of pure form-form
abstractly conceived as a pattern of harmonic relation-
ity of inevitable forward movement that most ships. Harmonyis never genuinely implicative, i.e., predic-
composers before Debussy tried to secure. tive, no matter how Classical; its binding force is ex-
Within the Classical style, necessity or in- planatory, interpretive. Nothing could "entail" the slow
movement of Mozart'sPiano Concerto K. 449 to repeat its
Bb solo exposition in Ab;the music's harmonic coherence
explains the Ab as the key of the flatted leading tone of Bb.
Furthermore,the most "logical" of Classical forms, the
"1No background, but certainly a horizon. This is the place sonata, dependsas much or more on elements that can't be
to note that the concept of horizon does not run parallel anticipated-the harmony of the development, varied re-
with the Schenkerian concept of background. For one capitulations, developing codas-as on assured ones. And
thing, a horizon is always an audible element in the music; what of the fact that Liszt and Wagnersaid that their musi-
for another, a horizon does not (necessarily) produce the cal goal was an immediate, culture-free intelligibility,
musical presentation. For further discussion, see below, p. while Mozart was always in trouble with his father for
206. wanting to please the "connoisseurs"?
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 19TH
CENTURY form, in any case, rarely has enough definition heightening and satisfying of the specific ex-
MUSIC to support an alliance. Instead one finds a pat- pectancies that it creates, Romantic music
terning of presentational elements that inti- achieves inevitability when its presentational
mate a sense of necessity by working in opposi- patterns provide a release from the ambiguity,
tion to the music's horizon. In Classical works, the continous tension, of non-specific expec-
presentational patterns normally blend into tancy. (In its acuter forms, this tension can
the horizon-structure that they mirror--a blend into anxiety-one reason why some lis-
mingling of boundaries that occurs precisely teners have trouble with certain atonal styles is
because of the mirror-relationship. The Ro- the absence of any such release.) The power of
mantic paradigm, however, with its disjunc- works that are harmonically fluid and in-
tion between presentation and horizon, se- tensely motivic, like the opening movement of
verely inhibits any such blending. As a result, Brahms's C-Minor String Quartet, or of cycli-
the presentational patterns of Romantic works cally organized works, especially extended
take on a peculiar vividness. Enclosed within pieces in one movement like Liszt's B-Minor
their horizons, the patterns remain unassimi- Sonata, belongs to this peculiarly intense
lated, their boundaries distinct. For them, the sphere of Romantic inevitability. So, too, do
object-horizon relationship is simplified into a small-scale pieces, like most of Chopin's Pre-
figure-ground relationship in which the con- ludes, that are built entirely from a single
tours of the figure stand out sharply. rhythm. There, the rhythmic constancy effaces
From this situation, Romantic music draws instead of relieving the objectless expectancy
a form of inevitability that is uniquely its own. created by the use of extended tonality.
Where Classical works generate a series of On the whole, necessity in Romantic music
specific expectancies, expectancies with a par- is an essentially rhythmic phenomenon, even
ticular object in view-the appearance of the when its elements are not literally rhythms. In
tonic, for instance, at various points in a sonata other words, it is a kind of periodicity,though
movement-Romantic works use their dis- an irregular one, a periodicity that tends to
junctive horizon-structure to create an undi- shape the flow of time rather than to be shaped
rected, free-floating expectancy, one deprived by it. A good example appearsin the opening
of (or not restricted by) particularity. Where Adagio of Brahms's Alto Rhapsody.I quote the
Classical music locates its inevitability in the relevant measures (ex. 4):

Adagio
vn'
a.

w
A
b.

Aber ab - seits,wer ist's?

collavoce
VOC

Example4
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 LAWRENCE
KRAMER
The Mirror
of Tonality
auf, die 0 - de ver - schlingt ihn.

-NI I o~
-- Z--

Spp

Example4c

The sense of necessity that Brahms conveys in word, sustained over a whole measure, is a bare
the Rhapsody is the tragic necessity of charac- tritone, F#-C, articulated ppp across a two-
ter turned into fate through obsessive self- and-a-half octave gulf. The music acts as if it
consciousness, which is the burden of Goethe's were transfixed by the F# octave lodged in its
text. Brahms projects the grim and anguished bass. The resolution of the dissonance is ex-
force of this predicament into a complex pre- cruciatingly slow, and it moves in a curious
sentational pattern set against the horizon of C pattern that goes beyond mere tonal ambiguity
minor. The music opens ambiguously with an by briefly giving the tritone the referential
augmented triad, brought into relief by its sfor- force of tonality itself. After a long moment of
zando articulation (see ex. 4a). After the or- paralysis on the first syllable of "Ode," the alto
chestral introduction is finished, the same drops a vertiginous ninth to B (ex. 4c, x). As
harmony returns, with the same articulation, the leading-tone, this B? invites the F# into its
to cut across the unaccompanied alto's first orbit as a raised fifth, but the F# refuses to be
hesitant phrase, thereby giving a bitter force to pacified. It persists as the B? moves again to C,
Goethe's despairing question, "Aber abseits, and in so doing directs the harmony back to the
wer ist's?" (see ex. 4b). Yet the harmony at this F#-C tritone through the very step that is sup-
point is dramatically less certain of direction posed to yield the tonic (ex. 4c, y). Only then
than it was at first. Brahms allows the am- does a resolution to the tonic triad appear-one
biguity of the opening chord to linger but he deliberately weakened by indirect octaves be-
resolves it by treating the dissonant B? as an tween the voice and the bass and by the de-
appoggiaturato the tonic. The harmonization ferred appearance of the root and third of the
of "ist's," by superimposing the alto's Ebon the tonic chord.
orchestra's solitary B? sforzando, momentarily The drastic suspension of tonal direction at
implies a triad of B major. This is a remote, un- "Ode" is a climactic heightening of the previ-
focused relationship, especially since the alto ous ones, and this not only in effect but in
line has seemed to anticipate the tonic by trac- form. Brahms has chosen to expand the dis-
ing out a dominant seventh chord (ex. 4b,w). orienting force of the symmetrical relation-
The ambiguity only lasts for a single beat, but ships in his earlier augmented chords. From a
its effect is extraordinary,in part because what symmetrical triad set uncertainly within a key,
"resolves" it is the previous ambiguity, the he moves to a non-triadic symmetrical chord
opening augmented triad. The wrenching an- set outside any key. One sonority grows organ-
guish that sounds in the "ist's" is testimony to ically into the other: in the measure preceding
the force of the presentation. "Ode," Brahms brings back his chosen aug-
This anguish is to be consummated near mented triad (ex. 4c, z), then expands its G-B
the close of the Adagiowith the vision of empti- third outward by half step to form the bleak
ness, "Ode," that swallows up the figure of Ft-C tritone that haunts the close of the
Goethe's wanderer. Brahms's harmony for the Adagio.
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 19THI What appearshere, then, is a presentational poser to experiment systematically with re-
CENTURY
MUSIC rhythm consisting of the periodic return to two stricting tonality to the horizon; and he started
intertwined elements at moments of emo- early.
tional extremity: a movement from piano The Finale of the String Quartet in Bb, op.
dynamics to a dynamic extreme, either sf or 18, no. 6, is such an early experiment. The
ppp; and the presentation of a symmetrical movement is, of course, well known for the
chord of increasing remoteness from the hori- wayward harmony of its opening section,
zon. (It should be stressed, though, that the called "La Malinconia" by Beethoven, and for
C-minor horizon itself is secure throughout, the problem raised by the relation of this open-
even at "Ode.")Brahmstakes pains to give this ing to the delicate vivacity of the movement's
pattern a firm foundation by also constructing other music. Beethoven, who early on wrote a
a periodicity on a larger scale. The first four bagatelle called "LustiglTraurig,"was fasci-
measures of the orchestral introduction are lit- nated by the problems that follow from ab-
erally repeated as the accompaniment to the ruptly juxtaposing an emotionally intense,
four measures of song beginning with "ist's"; even feverish passage with something drasti-
the next nine measures of introduction are, in cally lighter in tone. The issue had already
addition, rhythmically identical to the corre- been raised in an acute form by Mozart, in
sponding measures of accompaniment. This the disjunctive two-part structure of his Piano
gives the Adagio a kind of gravitational im- Fantasy in D Minor and in the similar, more
pulse toward recurrencewhich is fully realized disturbing disjunction in the Finale of his
in its leading presentational pattern. Only the G-Minor String Quintet, with its Adagio intro-
measures just preceding "Ode" differ in har- duction. Beethoven returned to the pattern at
mony and rhythm from the correspondingpas- every phase of his career,notably in the Finales
sage in the introduction. And this creates a to the Quartets op. 95 and op. 135, together
moment of uncertainty, so that when the with the Introduction of op. 59, no. 3, and in
tritone on "Ode" is reached, the characteristic the overall design of the Piano Sonatas op. 78
Romantic necessity, the disburdening of an and 90. The early Bb Quartet has been
undirected expectancy, realizes itself with criticized for failing to create an adequate emo-
immense power. By comparison, the tonic and tional balance between "La Malinconia" and
dominant cadences that follow do not sound the subsequent Allegretto,13 but a failure of
inevitable at all. communication between the two parts of the
movement is the basis of the music's design.
III The discontinuity is functional. It is there to
As a structuring force, the Romantic ho- problematize Classical tonality, at least to the
rizon-paradigmcan be studied usefully in any extent of questioning Classical harmony as an
number of nineteenth-century works. As a absolute.
force for change, however, it shows itself to The design of this movement calls for the
best advantage in experimental pieces, works interlocking of elements that are incommen-
that do not simply follow the paradigm but surable not because of a simple emotional dif-
take pains to expose and to problematize it, in- ference but because they belong to entirely
corporating within the musical form a self- different frames of reference-in effect, to dif-
consciousness of the variability that is possible ferent tonal systems. The Allegretto, a model
in horizon-presentation relationships. The Classical composition, follows the Classical
nineteenth century is, with the early twen- paradigm:its tonality appears as both horizon
tieth, especially rich in this kind of music; my and presentation. The Adagio, "La Malin-
examples of it, from Beethoven and Liszt, are conia," is a singularity in its Classical setting,
perhaps pivotal. In this respect as in so many
others, Beethoven is a critical figure. Most of
his innovations, like most of his major works,
represent developments of the Classical style 13By Philip Radcliffe, Beethoven's String Quartets (New
York, 1968), pp. 33-34. Joseph Kerman, The Beethoven
and fall within the Classical paradigm. Yet it is Quartets (New York, 1966), pp. 80-82, takes the opposite
probably fair to say that he was the first com- view.

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and follows the Romantic paradigm:its tonal- the most disruptive dissonance in Classical to- LAWRENCE
KRAMER
ity appears as horizon alone. The relationship nality, the diminished seventh chord, into the The Mirror
between the two sections is competitive, not source of presentational stability in "LaMalin- of Tonality

merely contrastive. In particular, they do not conia." The two halves of the movement are
follow the Classical pattern of a slow, harmon- thus inversely related in the direction of their
ically restless introduction clarified and super- harmony. Second, he unfolds the movement in
seded by an Allegro in the tonic. The Adagio is a way that dramatizes the necessary but in-
too long, too elaborate, and too strongly adequate exclusion of alternativity by the
characterized to be heard as a mere introduc- Classical paradigm. Both patterns will repay
tion, and Beethoven's handling of its double re- detailed analysis.
currence later in the movement clearly estab- One thing that "La Malinconia" must do
lishes its dialectical character.14 before it broaches the matter of diminished
More radically, one can argue that the sevenths is to make certain that it has a secure
Adagio is not even uncertain harmonically; Bb-majorhorizon. Its opening statement, there-
within its own horizon-paradigm, its to- fore, articulates the two main elements of the
nality-Bb major-is perfectly secure. The Adagio, a theme rising by steps and a chord
Adagio and Allegretto are probably best with a triple grace-note upbeat (a turn) in an
thought of as constituting an unresolvable dis- unambiguous Bb (ex. 5):
sonance on the largest possible scale-one so
extreme that the horizon-paradigm of the Adagio
finale proper, as distinct from those of its sec-
tions, is impossible to specify. The effect of
this dissonance is to cloud over the music's
ability to reach a satisfying closure. The final f
cadential thrust must, of course, come from smpre

the side of Classical tonality, yet the closural Example5

force of that tonality is badly compromised, at-
tenuated, by the presence of the Romantic to- Later statements of the same motives in re-
nality that intrudes on it. As a consequence, mote or directionless tonal areas will always be
the cadential effectiveness of the Classical heard in reference to this clear assertion of the
paradigm shows itself to be dependent on an tonic. Beethoven takes pains to reinforce this
ability to exclude other possibilities, to repress tonal foundation. Midway through the Adagio,
an awareness of alternatives. Instead of the ra- he reintroduces the long-suppressed Bb-major
tional, "scientific" disposition of tones pos- triad at the very moment when the music's
tulated by Fux, Rameau, and other Enlighten- chromatic waywardness is reaching its height;
ment theorists, Classical tonality appearsas an a few measures later, a sequence of turn-
act of imaginative choice. Instead of a realiza- ornamented chords appears, alternating piano
tion of nature, it constitutes an expression of statements of diminished triads with forte
subjectivity, temperament, will. statements of diatonic triads related to Bb. The
Beethoven projects these conclusions impressive breadth of this horizon-pattern is
through the music in two major ways. First, he necessary because Beethoven extends his pre-
maximizes the systematic differerence be- sentations beyond the orbit of the tonic for
tween the Adagio and the Allegretto by turning considerable stretches of time.
These presentations occupy three crucial
passages. The first of them begins a piano/forte
alternation of turn-ornamented chords with a
B-minor triad mysteriously produced by the
14Compare Mozart's reprise of the introduction to the first
movement of his String Quintet in D, K. 593. The intro- rising theme. The chords that follow are func-
duction returns before the coda; the coda consists of a re- tionless diminished sevenths. They completely
petition of the first eight measures of Allegro. This prob- suspend tonal definition for four measures,
lematizes the introduction-allegro relationship and then
affirms it strongly; the relationship has at no time been then overlap into a restatement of the rising
negated. theme (ex. 6):
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 19TH
CENTURY
MUSIC

PP

_) f P f P__
x
X
. . ..

Im0
JpcjLZ W P

Example6

This creates a distinctive harmonic texture, a only as the rising theme continues, exchanging
strange blend of stasis and pendulum-like diminished-seventh harmony for dominant-
movement, that defines an area of stability as a seventh harmony (see ex. 6x). Beethoven then
presentational pattern, in contradiction to its sustains and intensifies the presentational dis-
erosion of key-feeling. What makes the stabil- sonance in a remarkablepassage consisting en-
ity possible is the nonrestrictiveness of the tirely of triads. This episode, a mysterious
music's Romantic paradigm. The harmonies fugato full of hushed intensity, turns the tonal
leading up to the piano/forte passage are blur- triad into a source of musical entropy. The
ry and tenuous as reflections of the tonic and primary values of Classical tonality undergo a
amorphous as elements in the rising theme; reversal as the music strips its triads of all re-
the strict antiphonal play of diminished solving or closural power and prepares for the
sevenths is defined more sharply. On its own return of the diminished-seventh chord as a
terms, the antiphonal passage makes more source of resolution. Startingfrom E minor, the
sense as a pattern than what precedes it, even remotest key possible with respect to the tonic,
though it makes no sense at all in the horizon. a series of alternating minor and major triads
The rather uncanny presentational "conso- unfold as if in bewilderment, creating an un-
nance" thus established becomes "dissonant" easy sense of motion without purpose (ex. 7):
Ixwa

Ing iW3J. crerescsc.

TILL• •

Sf
Example 7

Seen from the horizon, this pattern can be un- though, is to disturb rather than to affirm the
derstood as a movement around an upward cir- horizon, because the movement of the har-
cle of fifths if the major chords are taken as al-
tered supertonic steps in the keys of the minor
ones.'s The effect of this strange progression, s50n this point and the next one, see Kerman, pp. 78-79.

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mony in the dominant direction ought to be tions, these Bb triads are not identical with LAWRENCE
KRAMER
leading away from the tonic and is actually themselves as elements in the horizon, and for The Mirror
(though not very distinctly) leading toward it. the moment it is just this difference that keeps of Tonality
Seen presentationally, the same series of har- the sense of Bb from dissolving away.17What
monies is not a progression at all but a tonally sustains the horizon is less its won weak
hazy rhythm of minor and major chords, each definition than the strong, intrusive contour of
of which gestures tenuously toward the tonal- the tonic chord in a presentational texture that
ity of its root.16 Unlike the diminished sev- ordinarily suppresses it.
enths, which occupy an indefinite tonal re- Following this crucial passage, the second
gion unique to themselves, the wandering piano/forte episode and subsequent reminis-
triads give no sense of consistency. They sim- cence of the fugato sustain the tension sur-
ply seem lost. rounding triadic harmony in a more subdued
It is at this point that the Bb-majortriad I way, prolonging the music's uncertainty while
mentioned earlier makes its appearance(see ex. intensifying its emotional agitation. Then a
7x) with a profoundly dissociative effect. The resolution begins at last, with the reappearance
chord is so compromised by the harmonic of a diminished-seventh chord at m. 36. The
fluidity from which it emerges that it has vir- prolonged crescendo that follows constitutes a
tually no tonic feeling at all, even in associa- double statement of the pattern of resolution in
tion with a subsequent triad of the dominant the Adagio. As the bass rises by semitones, the
and other related harmonies. This lapse of music arches climactically to its registral
function is supported, paradoxically, by the high-point; along the way, it presents a resolv-
horizon. According to the modulatory pattern ing sequence of harmonies directed toward the
of the fugato, the tonic triad is only an altered II diminished seventh. Strikingly, this sequence
step of Ab minor on its way to Eb minor, while is exactly the reverse of the tensional one that
the dominant chord is a similar II step of Eb leads from the first piano/forte passage through
minor itself. This means that the chords affirm the rising theme to the fugato. With mounting
the horizon more strongly if they are drawn intensity, the music rises from a minor triad, to
away from it and taken presentationally as an a dominant seventh, to a diminished seventh,
intrusion of tonic-dominant harmony into an then repeats the sequence as it continues to
indefinite extension of Bb major. As presenta- rise (ex. 8):
attacca subito
il Allegretto

p decresc crescff p decresc. Pp

p decresc crec. dcresc ff p PP

decresc.

p
decresc.
;S
cresc.
ff p decresc.
PP-

p cresc p decresc.P
p decresce
Example 8

16Thequality of alternationhere underlines the pervasive- 17Similarconsiderations aprplyto the subsequent Bb-minor
ness of alternation throughout the movement-of piano triad. Though it is producedas a true tonic, its dissociative
with forte, majorwith minor, chordalpassage with theme, context tends to enfeeble it, as does its minor mode.
and Adagio with Allegretto. Alternation is the basic tex-
ture here, a fact that helps subvert the Allegretto's closure.

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 19TH Reinforced by a dramatic octave leap in the
CENTURY horizon-paradigm.This subversion is the effect
MUSIC bass, a thickening of texture in an inner voice, of a series of harmonic adjustments which, as
and its ff articulation, the final diminished Joseph Kerman has pointed out, provide "rea-
seventh emerges in its fierce anguish as the sonable" versions of what has gone before.19As
goal of the entire Adagio.18The force of its pre- a first step in this process, the Allegretto pro-
sentation is so strong, has been so carefully duces a diminished-seventh chord-its only
shaped, that the horizon is almost completely one-and resolves it into the tonic triad that
overshadowed. The effect of this overshadow- opens the Adagio. A truncated version of the
ing is double underlined: by the position of the Adagio's first half follows, somewhat thick-
climactic crescendo as a heightened form of ened in texture. The music seems to be both
the first strangely stable pattern of turn-or- intensified and eroded by this compression,
namented chords in mm. 12-16, and by the and the ambiguity is sustained by its close: the
fact that "La Malinconia" ends in the tonic first pianolforte bloc of diminished sevenths
minor. The reason why the Bb major of the Al- starts to return, but is cut short by a dominant
legretto sounds so curiously hollow-and at seventh that resolves back into the Allegretto.
once, before its emotional character can really This, coupled with the music's "derivation"
define itself-is that it asks us to hear triads as from the Allegretto's diminished seventh,
stable again, after we have just learned by ear presents the fragment of Adagio as a large-scale
not to do so. resolution of diminished-seventh harmony,
Ideally, the role of the Allegretto is to make badly effacing its earlier identity, its rad-
the listener forget what has just been heard. icalism. Yet the harmony of this music does
But the design of the movement suggests that retain its waywardness. The dominant seventh
the mere appearanceof Classical tonality is not belongs to E major, which does little enough to
sufficient to do that. The Allegretto lies con- secure the tonic.
stantly under the shadow of the Adagio, a This tension necessitates the second re-
condition that Beethoven heightens with the prise. Three measures of Allegretto, now in A
upbeat to the Allegretto's main theme, which minor, break off inconclusively into a measure
in its rhythm echoes the Adagio's characteris- of silence, as if under a strain. But the Adagio is
tic turn (ex. 9): under a still greater strain, and returns only on
the brink of erasure, a bare contour of two
Allegretto quasi Allegro measures-the start of the rising theme and
6 L
a turn-ornamented chord-in unproblematical
harmony. Here, for the first time, the music of
P Sf sf P "La Malinconia" can muster neither a di-
Example9 minished seventh nor a forte. The music's
tenuous hold on the movement seems to
(This linkage also satisfies a formal demand for crumble as the Allegretto instantly assimilates
unity in the movement, though only in a pretty the turn to its upbeat and dances blithely for-
tenuous way.) What the Allegretto must do ward. Yet the Adagio has not, even yet, been
somehow is to erase, not merely ignore, the fully exorcised. The shadow of its tempo may
Adagio; and this it does near the close of the seem to fall over the brief ritardandothat pre-
movement by bringing back and gradually ceded the coda, and the Prestissimo coda
assimilating the Adagio to the Classical itself affirms Classical tonality in an almost
manic way. Its whirling energy is an overcom-
pensation for the movement's dialectical
uncertainty.
18The top note of this climactic chord is Gb. As Kerman Why does Beethoven work so hard to de-
(pp. 77-79) shows, this note (as F$) is the chief source of
instability for the tonic; its appearance here thus amounts
to a strong affirmation of the music's presentational au-
tonomy. 19P. 79.

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construct the Classical paradigmat the heart of analogue in the music of Webern'sfreely atonal LAWRENCE
KRAMER
his music, so that it reveals itself, like human period, which works toward a mystical ex- The Mirror
life in Wordsworth's "Intimations" Ode, to be teriority from paradigm itself, in effect at- of Tonality
"a sleep and a forgetting"? Like Wordsworth, tempting to nullify all sense of horizon.
Goethe, and other of his contemporaries, In Nuages Gris, Liszt broaches the territory
Beethoven was interested in finding aesthetic of atonality by interpreting the Romantic
forms that would register not simply the ele- paradigmon the model of the Classical one, as
ments of an aroused consciousness--moods, a force of exclusion-a move quite at odds with
intensities, nuances of feeling-but the activ- the almost promiscuous inclusiveness of the
ity of consciousness itself. Here, by relativizing Romantic style. The piece consists of alternat-
the presumed absolutes of Classical harmony, ing passages in the two paradigms, first
he implies that his own consciousness is de- Classical, then Romantic, creating a structural
tached from them. This gesture represents dissonance much like Beethoven's in op. 18,
his subjectivity as an autonomous imaginative no. 6. Here, though, the Classical tonality is
principle, one set over against the music, not severely attenuated, at times barely recogniz-
circumscribed by it. The technique is essen- able, while the Romantic tonality is equally
tially a version of Romantic irony, something extreme, utterly bare of presentational ele-
Beethoven was fond of both in music and in ments with Classical affinities. These two
life20-one thinks of those famous improvisa- tonalities are woven together seamlessly, their
tory episodes in which he reportedlymoved his presentational borders blurred by the mu-
listeners to tears, then suddenly punctured sic's consistency of mood and texture; the re-
their mood with something coarse and sult is to suggest a gradual dissolution of the
rambunctious. This problematizing impulse Classical areas, which cannot sustain their
changes the Classical relationship between the identity without the clear-cut, "diacritical"
creative ego and its imaginative language from differentiation they get in the Beethoven
dependence to a dialectical equality. Such a movement. At the close, this dissolution con-
position is possible only on the edge between summates in the famous final cadence, which
the two tonal systems. A composer who works produces a whole-tone chord. The tonal in-
wholly within either paradigm may develop a definiteness that results partially effaces tonal-
style of extraordinarysuppleness and imagina- ity as the music's horizon, and retrospectively
tion, but can never posit a consciousness ex- underlines the dependence of the Romantic
terior to it. paradigm on the Classical relationships that
envelop its presentational fluidity.
IV The first section in Classical tonality con-
A similar position of exteriority is available sists of a four-fold repetition of the piece's
at the edge between the Romantic paradigm haunting little wisp of a theme. Lacking a bass,
and atonality. In his later piano works, well and incorporating a tritonal dissonance in its
known for their "advanced" harmony, Liszt, first, rising half, the theme begins in am-
for one, sought that position out-not to affirm biguity. But its second half, a falling phrase,
subjectivity as an autonomous creative princi- spells out the chord of G minor, the key of its
ple, as Beethoven had, but to chastize it, to give horizon. The addition of an ostinato Bb in the
the detachment of the ego from the musical bass briefly clarifies the rising half of the theme
material an austere, mystical negativity.21The as a tonic triad containing a strong non-
feeling in these pieces has perhaps its closest harmonic dissonance (ex. 10):

20See Rey M. Longyear, "Beethoven and Romantic Irony," 21Samson (pp. 15-18) provides an incisive discussion of
in The Creative World of Beethoven, ed. Paul Henry Lang these pieces, together with a useful harmonic precis of
(New York, 1971), pp. 145-62 Nuages Gris.
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 19TH mm. 3-6
CENTURY
MUSIC

Ep
E
Example 10

Liszt makes the fragile harmony seem espe- thickens slightly, in order to articulate the
cially brittle by directing the passage to be same chord.
played without pedal. Then, without transi- Following a pedal release, a stark phrase in
tion, he melts it away. The ostinato bass quick- octaves is sounded twice, more or less affirm-
ens to a tremolando, the pedal is brought into ing Bb;then the G-minor theme returns in the
play, and an Eb-minor triad appears out of bass and the second Classical episode begins.
nowhere. This leads to a non-harmonic presen- Over the four-fold statement of the theme,
tation of four parallel augmented triads, gener- Liszt arches two strange, slow-moving phrases
ated by successive semitonal modifications of in the treble. At the start of the first statement,
the Eb-minor chord. Liszt maintains the he uses the interplay of the two voices to
music's horizon during this passage in a very reinstate the earlier doubling of G minor as
tenuous way, by suggesting that the G-minor presentation and horizon; with a Bb above it,
tonality has dissolved along with its presenta- the rising half of the main theme again implies
tion. The augmented triads are unfolded over the combination of tonic chord and non-
alternate measures of Bb and A tremolando in harmonic dissonance adumbratedearlier. After
the bass, a kind of harmonic ostinato that this, though, the effect of the treble voice is to
seems to combine the tonic and leading-tone of disintegrate the harmony of the main theme's
the relative major, Bb. This decidedly odd im- rising half, and then to reinforce the presenta-
pression is confirmed at the close of this sec- tion of G minor in the falling half. The result is
tion when the semitonal evolution of aug- like a widening hairline fracture, opening up a
mented triads produces one on Bb, at which hopeless gap between dissonance and conso-
point the tremolando in the bass shifts, and nance (ex. 11):

mm. 26-29

Example 11

The theme has become incoherent, split into paradigm leads to a corresponding intensifica-
one fragment too harmonically indefinite to be tion of the Romantic one, a heightening to ex-
resolved, and another fragment too definite to cess that brings the music to the border of an
be believed. atonal horizon. The Bbl/Aalternation now re-
This further weakening of the Classical turns in the bass, but reduced from a thrum-
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ming, pervasive tremolando to a modest se- new middle voices. This time, each triad is ar- LAWRENCE
KRAMER
quence of pedal tones. Above these the earlier ticulated twice, and each articulation coincides The Mirror
sequence of augmented triads is sounded by with an octave in the upper voice (ex. 12): of Tonality

mm. 34-38

emnpre
plegato
Example 12

These octaves move in a pattern of their own, step, the higher tones treated as passing
and their primary effect is to heighten the dissonances-the Ebmoving to D, the F# and A
triads' ambiguity with non-harmonic disso- to G. The B? could either be left alone (produc-
nance. Eventually, the sequence of octaves ing a sort of Picardy third) or returned to Bb.
spells out an entire chromatic scale; and this, What the music does instead is to imitate this
in combination with the semitonal production kind of tonal maneuver, presenting an atonal
of the augmented chords, creates a sharply analogue to stepwise resolution and situating
characterizedpattern of non-tonal presentation that presentation in an atonal horizon-thus
that almost assimilates the Bbl/Aalternation to forming a new mirror relation on the "other
its irresistable movement. In the process, the side" of Romantic tonality. Reading the prob-
music's last link to its G-minor horizon thins lematic chord as an unresolved atonal forma-
out to the vanishing point. tion, Liszt resolves its Fgs to G, just as if he
At this juncture, the horizon must either were moving from leading-tone to tonic, but he
recrystallize or dissipate; Liszt proposes to set- keeps the Eb and the A in place. The result, of
tle the question with a single cadence. After a course, is that celebrated whole-tone chord
suspenseful bar of silence, he slowly arpeg- which closes the piece, a nuage gris spreadover
giates an ambiguous chord (ex. 13): the horizon of tonality (ex. 14):

8.3.
8

hd

Example 13 Example 14

From a tonal standpoint the best that can be A tonal resolution would have deleted the dis-
done for this mysterious shimmer of notes is to sonance from the penultimate chord and re-
read it as an inverted altered ninth chord of G duced it to a triadic skeleton. Liszt's atonal
major. The chord could then be resolved by resolution adds dissonance-in fact, it ironi-
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 19THH
cally makes G, the ostensible tonic, the ture that can neither modify nor affect one
CENTURY
MUSIC climactic dissonant tone-and fills out the another. Moreover, they commit the interpret-
chord as a whole-tone collection, a non- er in advance to stress distinctions that in
harmonic plenitude. This conclusion repre- practice may blur or coalesce. The horizon-
sents the triumph of the movement's presenta- presentation distinction, by contrast, insists
tional system over its tonal foundation. It only on the process of differentiation, not on
provides the logical fruition of the music's specific differences, and its structural areas are
systematic emphasis on the augmented triad. dynamically interactive. Unlike langue, for in-
Both the strength and the weakness of this stance, a horizon is not unaffected by individu-
close is that, unlike Beethoven's, it is satisfy- ation; it is always an interpreted pattern, the
ing. The mood of Nuages Gris is all of a piece, reflection of a system rather than the system
an impressively hazy and mysterious feeling, itself. Though both are Classical, Mozart's
at once precise and indefinite, but its effect is horizons differ from Haydn's, in some cases
to smooth over the structural incongruity on emphatically, as in the composers' treatment
which it depends. Beethoven's exposure of the of sonata movements in the minor. Likewise,
correspondingtensions in his quartet finale is, presentation is not uniquely the area of per-
as is customary with him, perfectly ruthless, a sonal choice or subjective elaboration; the
bold exchange of conventional aesthetic inte- style associated with its paradigminfluences it
gration for a provocation of thought. Liszt, to constantly.
some degree, disguises a beautifully subversive Neither is horizon a background that sup-
construction as a sample of coloristic harmony. ports presentation and holds it within the orbit
Nuages Gris is considerably more than a mere of a harmonic system. Even in Classical works,
exercise in special effects, but it does, so to the relationship between horizon and presenta-
speak, refuse to surrenderits protective colora- tion is tensional rather than supportive, be-
tion as a pretext for harmonic change. cause local patterns can and do contradict the
large forms that subsume them. In the Roman-
V tic paradigm,this tension becomes fully dialec-
To close, I would like to offer a pair of tical. The tonal horizon neither mitigates the
reflections, one on the use of horizon as an harmonic fluidity of the presentation nor com-
analytical concept, and one on the nature of the promises the identity of its more wayward
Romantic horizon-paradigm. The distinction elements. When Jim Samson writes that "even
between horizon and presentation is one of the most tonally unstable passages in Wagner
several available dualities that make it possible are composed against a background which re-
to analyze music both historically and formally tains tonal-harmonic progression as the chief
from the same standpoint. Others would means of shaping and directing the phrase,"23
include both the widely used concepts of fore- what he says is certainly accurate, but the
ground and background--taken in a general, backgroundhe has in mind is a presentational
not specifically Schenkerian, sense, though element of voice-leading whose relationship to
some overlapis appropriate-and a division be- the horizon is not fixed in advance. Presenta-
tween areas of personal and systematic utter- tion and horizon, in sum, are always impli-
ance, corresponding to the structuralist dis- cated one with another; they "feel" interwoven
tinctions between parole and langue, perfor- yet distinct, rather as different parts of one's
mance and competence, self and system.22 body do. Their structural and transitional force
Though valuable, foreground/backgroundand is rooted precisely in that interwovenness-
personal/systematic dualities have a number of something in turn rooted in the conditions of
disadvantages. For one thing, the divisions they perception rather than those of utterance.
make are absolute, mapping out areas of struc- As for the Romantic paradigm itself, a good

22Samson's approach makes use of the foreground/ 23. 17.

backgroundduality, Subotnik's of the self/system duality.
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way to gauge its position both structurally and network of harmonic meanings that results LAWRENCE
KRAMER
historically is to consider the kind of interpre- from the presentation of functional tonality The Mirror
tation that it sponsors. During the Enlighten- encourages the recognition of the music as of Tonality
ment, music was widely understood as a ref- a sign, a mediator; and this supports-
erential or mediating form, an expression of perceptually-a further sense of the music as a
typical emotions. When Beethoven remarked sign of an emotion. When the Romantic
that the first listeners to the Largo from his paradigm breaks the Classical mirror of tonal-
D-Major Piano Sonata, op. 10, no. 3, all recog- ity, thinning out the referential texture of the
nized that it expressed "the soul-state of a harmony, it tends to inhibit perception of the
melancholy being, with all the nuances of light music as a mediating surface and to encourage
and shade which occur in a delineation of an identification of the emotion the music pro-
melancholy," he showed a firm confidence in duces with the music itself. That identification
music as mediation (extended, characteristi- is precisely what Nietzsche saw Wagner's
cally, from the feeling to the feeling subject).24 music as soliciting, and the willful, extrava-
His comment that the Pastoral Symphony is gant, irresistible solicitation is what he called
"more an expression of feeling than painting" sick. His insight led him to make some per-
is even plainer. By the time Berlioz gets hold verse judgements, such as his well-known
of the Pastoral, however, the referential "preference" for Carmen over Tristan, yet
standpoint is less certain and the music begins there is substance to his misgivings. The unre-
to recede into the state of mind it expresses: "It stricted intensity created by merging music
is no longer an orchestra one hears [in the with feeling, something that Wagner him-
"Storm"],it is no longer music, but rather the self associated with Schopenhauer's Will-
tumultuous voice of the heavenly torrents.... "'desiring, longing, raging, languishing-
This is terrifying, it makes one shudder, the il- perishing"-is too enormous to sustain, or to
lusion is complete."25 For Berlioz, the music is want to. Even Wagner,said Nietzsche, used the
feeling, and a unique feeling: an awed percep- Ring to "recuperate"from Tristan.27The same
tion externalized by the composer and reinter- burden prompted Liszt toward the scepticism
nalized by the listener. What is more, the feel- of his later works, and Brahms to his insistent
ing seems to be unmediated, though Berlioz negotiation with Classical forms, and Mahler
(who still accepts the Enlightenment position) to his many-sided irony, really a subtle inter-
acknowledges that this is an illusion. Liszt, in play of paradigms.
his early essay on Berlioz, goes further, Seen against this movement away from the
explicitly denying the idea of reference: "Feel- most extreme implications of the Romantic
ing lives and breathes in music without repre- paradigm, the problematical development of
sentational shell, without the mediation of ac- atonality takes on a new aspect. Late Liszt,
tion or thought.'"26 Brahms, and Mahler all modified Romantic to-
The Romantic paradigm supports the un- nality in order to re-secure the referentiality of
derstanding of music as pure immediacy be- musical presentation. Schoenberg, Debussy,
cause it weakens the referential concreteness and their colleagues developed new paradigms
of presentation. In Classical works, the rich in order to do the same. Their innovations in-
volved a gesture of restitution more than a
simpler rejection, but it was based partly on a
24The quotation: Beethoven, the Man and the Artist, As sense that Romantic harmony could no longer
Revealed in his Own Words, ed. Friedrich Kerst and Henry
Edward Krehbiel (1905; rpt. New York, 1964), p. 42. The be trusted--trusted, that is, in relation to the
rest of Beethoven's remark, a complaint that later listeners self. Schoenberg, whose imagination I have
failed to recognize the melancholy, suggests the com-
poser's awareness of an erosion in the referential view.
treated here as both a help and a hindrance, il-
25Hector Berlioz, "Rossini's 'William Tell'," in Source
Readings in Music History: The Romantic Era, ed. Oliver
Strunk (New York, 1965), pp. 70-71.
26"Berlioz and His 'Harold' Symphony" (excerpts), in 27Nietzsche: Ecce Homo, from The Geneology of Morals
Strunk, p. 109. The text misprints "mediation" as "medita- and Ecce Homo, trans. Walter Kaufmann (New York,
tion." 1969), pp. 248-50. Wagner: Strunk, p. 147.

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 19TH lustrates this point because his acceptance of understands everything; and yet one hasn't
CENTURY
MUSIC the referential understanding of music is as given away one's secrets-the things one
firm as Beethoven's. In a diary entry, prompted doesn't admit even to oneself."28 The only
by a publisher's request for titles to his Five strange thing about this modest recognition of
Pieces for Orchestra, Schoenberg writes that music's referential richness is the upheaval in
"the wonderful thing about music is that one musical history that was required fa
can say everything in it, so that he who knows before it could be achieved. '.

28Reprintedin the booklet enclosed in the record album,

The Music of Arnold Schoenberg, Vol. III, Columbia M2S
709.

208

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