Imagined Sounds: Their Role in the Strict and Free Compositional Practice of Anton Bruckner

397 Pages·2008·3.65 MB·English

by  Brooks, Jonathan

IMAGINED SOUNDS: THEIR ROLE IN THE STRICT AND FREE

COMPOSITIONAL PRACTICE OF ANTON BRUCKNER

Jonathan Brooks, B.A., M.M.

Dissertation Prepare d for the Degree of

DOCTOR OF P HILOSOPHY

UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS

May 2008

APPROVED:

Graham Phipps, Major Professor and Director of
Graduate Studies in the College of Music
Frank Heidlberger, Minor Professor
Thomas Sovík, Committee Member
John Murphy, Interim Chair of the Music Theory,
History, and Ethnomusicology Division
James C. Scott, Dean of the School of Music
Sandra L. Terrell, Dean of the Robert B. Toulouse
School of Graduate Studies
Brooks, Jonathan. Imagined Sounds: Their Role in the Strict and Free
Compositional Practice of Anton Bruckner. Doctor of Philosophy (Music Theory), May
2008, 377 pp., 207 examples, 19 figures, references, 193 titles.
The present study develops a dynamic model of strict and free composition that
views them as relative to a specific historical context. The dynamic view espoused here
regards free embellishments of an earlier compositional generation as becoming the
models for a strict compositional theory in a later one. From the newly established strict
compositional models, succeeding generations of composers produce new free
embellishments. The first part of the study develops the dynamic conception of a
continuously emerging strict composition as the context necessary for understanding
Anton Bruckner’s compositional methodology with respect to the harmonic instruction of
his teacher, Simon Sechter. In other words, I view Sechter’s harmonic theories as a strict
compositional platform for Bruckner’s free compositional applications.
Many theoretical treatises of the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries
such as those by Christoph Bernhard, Johann Philipp Kirnberger and Sechter
acknowledged that strict composition must provide the structural framework for free
composition. The above procedure becomes a manner of justifying a free embellishment
since a “theorist” can demonstrate or assert the steps necessary to connect it with an
accepted model from a contrapuntal or harmonic theory. The present study demonstrates
that the justification relationship is a necessary component for understanding any theory
as a strict/free one.
By examining Sechter as a strict methodology for Bruckner, we can view the free
applications that the latter develops. Bruckner’s own theoretical documents—the
marginalia in his personal copy of Sechter’s Die Grundsätze der musikalischen
Komposition and his lecture notes, Vorlesungen über Harmonie und Kontrapunkt an der
Universität Wien, taken by Ernst Schwanzara—provide extensions and elaborations to
Sechter’s theories. In addition, theorists sympathetic to Sechter’s approach and
Bruckner’s personal students provide further material for understanding Bruckner’s free
application of Sechter’s strict harmonic perspective. The study uses my own
observations, as well as the extensions indicated above, to generate the transformations
used by Bruckner to elaborate the Sechterian harmonic structure.
Copyright 2008

by

Jonathan Brooks
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank my dissertation committee—Dr. Graham Phipps, Dr. Frank
Heidlberger and Dr. Thomas Sovík—for their assistance in completing the document. In
particular, I would like to thank Dr. Phipps for his insight, patience and support as a
mentor over the past ten years helping me to surpass what I thought I could do. Also, I
would like to thank Anderson University for the encouragement provided by my
colleagues and the additional research time made available through a sabbatical. Lastly, I
wish to thank my parents and family for their patience and support through this long but
rewarding process.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS………………………………………………..………………iii

LIST OF FIGURES……………………………………………..……….……………….vi

LIST OF EXAMPLES……………………………………………………………..…….vii

Chapter

1. STATING THE PROBLEM…………………………………………..…….…..……1

2. DEFINING STRICT AND FREE COMPOSITION……………….…………....….24

Origin and Transmission of the Strict/Free Classification System
Multiple Strict Traditions and Updates
Justification Process

3. THREE CASE STUDIES AND A CRITIQUE…………………………..………....53

Christoph Bernhard
Johann Philipp Kirnberger
Johann Georg Albrechtsberger
Gottfried Weber’s Observational Approach

4. SECHTER’S THEORETICAL PRACTICE…………………….…..….................126

Strict Composition (Type One)
Strict Composition (Type Two)

5. BRUCKNER’S COMPOSITIONAL PRACTICE WITH
RESPECT TO A SECHTERIAN THEORETICAL TRADITION…................…..181

Free Transformations in Bruckner’s Compositional Practice

6. IMAGINED SOUNDS IN THE FIRST MOVEMENT OF BRUCKNER’S
EIGHTH SYMPHONY….……………………………………….….………….…246

Imagined Sounds
Free Extensions
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7. CONCLUSIONS……..…...…………………………………………………………272

Sechter’s Influence on Bruckner’s Compositional and Theoretical Practice
Further Study

APPENDIX…….….………………………………………………....…........................291

BIBLIOGRAPHY….…………………...……………………………………….....…...362

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LIST OF FIGURES

Figure Page

1. Static View of Strict Composition..............................................................................7
2. Dynamic View of Strict Composition.........................................................................7
3. Two-step process of assertion...................................................................................39
4. Model for justification process..................................................................................40
5. Sechter, Correct fundamental bass progressions for triads.....................................157
6. Sechter, Correct fundamental bass progressions for seventh chords......................158
7. Sechter, Possible triads and seventh chords in a minor key....................................160
8. Formal reading of the first movement of Bruckner’s Eighth Symphony................250
9. Description of sigla used in the first movement......................................................295

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LIST OF EXAMPLES

Example Page

1. Monteverdi, Compositional Licenses in Cruda Amarillo............................................4
2. Sechter, Suppression of Second Fundamental in an Ascending Step Progression.......5
3. Sechter, Suppression of Second Fundamental in a Descending Step Progression.......5
4. Sechter, Upward-going suspensions………………………………………………...10
5. Bruckner, Placement of ninths, elevenths and thirteenth……….….….….………...11
6. Benjamin, Tonal regions in the first movement Bruckner’s Eighth Symphony…....18
7. Benjamin, Reduction and Harmonic Analysis of opening passage from Eighth
Symphony…………………………………………………………........………...19

8. Subjects from Frescobaldi’s Ricercar primo and Bach’s Fugue in C-sharp
Minor......................................................................................................................41

9. Bruckner, Quotation from Mozart’s Requiem in D minor.........................................42
10. Wagner, Repentance Motive....................................................................................43
11. Bruckner, Quotation in Symphony No. 7, 1st mvt.....................................................43
12. Fux, Justification for passing tone............................................................................45
13. Fux, Justification for suspension..............................................................................46
14. Kirnberger, Unauthentic seventh chord....................................................................46
15. Kirnberger, Reinterpretation of fully-diminished seventh chord.............................49
16. Kirnberger, Reinterpretation of fully-diminished seventh in E minor.....................50
17. Expected resolution of fully-diminished seventh chord...........................................50

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18. Progression expected prior to resolution of fully-diminished seventh chord in E
Minor.....................................................................................................................51

19. Bernhard, Exhaustive list of good and bad consonant progressions for the minor
Third......................................................................................................................56
20. Bernhard, First type of bass cadence with a falling fifth..........................................57
21. Bernhard, Second type of bass cadence with a falling fourth..................................58
22. Bernhard, Usual manner for tenor cadence..............................................................58
23. Bernhard, Unusual manner for tenor cadence..........................................................59
24. Bernhard, Transitus..................................................................................................60
25. Bernhard, Quasi-transitus........................................................................................61
26. Bernhard, Syncopatio...............................................................................................61
27. Bernhard, Quasi-syncompatio..................................................................................62
28. Bernhard, Superejectio.............................................................................................63
29. Bernhard, Subsumtio.................................................................................................63
30. Bernhard, Multiplication..........................................................................................64
31. Bernhard, First type of syncopatio catachrestica.....................................................64
32. Possible justification for first type of syncopatio catachrestica..............................65
33. Bernhard, Quaesitio notae........................................................................................65
34. Bernhard, Transitus inversus....................................................................................66
35. Bernhard, Anticipatio notae......................................................................................66
36. Bernhard, Prolongation............................................................................................67
37. Bernhard, Extension.................................................................................................67
38. Bernhard, Mora........................................................................................................68
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