Analysis by Key: Another Look at Modulation

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ANALYSIS BY KEY any of the vice-presidents. I can think of two pieces in C minor that contain prominent tonicizations of E minor: they are the first movement of Beethoven's Op.13, and the C minor chorus ('Denn es wird die Posaune schallen') from No. 6 of the German Requiem. In the Beethoven, the E minor at the beginning of the development (b. 137) represents a chromatic passing note from a firmly established ES major (III) to an F minor chord that moves through Ft to the dominant, G. In no way is this 'key' the direct outgrowth of the movement's C minor tonic, although it does connect two elements (ES and F) that are projected from a governing C minor diatony. The Brahms, on the other hand, uses the E minor (b.88) as an expanded III borrowed from the tonic major. It occurs within a I-III-V-I progression and is far more startling than the E minor of the Beethoven precisely because of its abrupt confrontation with the prevailing C minor environment, because it occurs at the beginning of the chorus, and because it usurps the place of an important diatonic harmony (III). Aside from the obvious fact that both passages are E minor episodes within C minor pieces, I see no reason to adopt an approach (like Schoenberg's Theory of Regions) that would regard them as equivalent. That theory is interesting and is superior to much previous thought about modulation. But it breaks down, in my opinion, because it tries to systematize the most diverse tonal materials and procedures according to a rigid schema of purely harmonic functions, and because it fails to take into account the contrapuntal structures that create the diversity; how much do we really learn about these E minor episodes from assigning them both to Class 4 (Indirect and Remote) of the Regions? 22 'Illusory Keys of the Foreground' When Schenker writes about modulation in Free Composition, he uses a stock phrase, 'illusory keys of the foreground' (Scheintonarten des Vordergrundes). In some ways the term is an unfortunate one, but tracing its implications can yield valuable insights into Schenker's thinking and can perhaps lead to a clearer conception of modulation in general. First of all, 'Tonart' in German often means local key as distinct from 'Tonalitat', a global concept in which tonal events, including local keys, relate to the centre of a whole piece or large section. English usage also distinguishes 'key' from 'tonality', but perhaps not as consistently. As we have seen, Schenker was using the term 'Scheintonart' as far back as his Hsomonielehre, where he defined it as an expanded harmony subordinate to a framing diatonic structure, but intensified through its transformation into a seeming 'key'. This transformation is effected through chromaticism, rather as in Schoenberg's Theory of Regions. At the time of the Harmonielehre, Schenker's conception of 'diatony', though very broad, did not necessarily encompass whole pieces: in the first movement of Beethoven's Op.7, for instance, the ES diatony of the beginning would give way to a BS diatony later in the exposition; the development, lacking any overarching MUSIC ANALYS IS 6: 3 , 1987 305
CAR I SCHACHTER diatonic framework, would contain real modulations to self-contained keys. Schenker's later writings often retain his earlier terminology, whose meaning shifts with the evolution of his thought; making life easier for his readers by explaining these shifts is not his way. Thus his final formulation in Free Composition includes the notions of diatony, tonality and illusory key. Now, however, the terms diatony and tonality apply to whole pieces. The conjunctly ordered pitches of the major and minor scales, functioning in relation to the tonic centre (rather than as a mere 'collection' as in some other conceptions of diatonicism), form the materials of diatony; this notion is most clearly exemplified in the pitch contents of the Fundamental Line, with its motion directed to the tonic note as goal. It is essentially the practice of counterpoint, based on a clear distinction between consonance (octave, fifth, third) and passing dissonance that organizes the line around a centre rather than leaving it a mere succession of pitches.23 This diatonic structure, no longer conceived as localized, abides implicitly throughout the piece, even where the music is most chromatic or moves into the most distant keys, rather like the pantheists' God, who indwells in every aspect and phase of Nature.24 The term 'tonality' is applied to the enriched tonal contents of the foreground, unified, like the simple elements of diatony, through their relation to the tonic; these contents may include both local chromaticism and modulation to illusory keys.25 If diatony permeates the whole piece, then the 'real modulations' that Schenker discusses in the Harmonielehre - changes of key that cannot be subsumed under a controlling diatonic structure - must be nonexistent. All of the keys of the piece, therefore, turn out to be like the Scheintonarten, or illusory keys, of the earlier theory; and preserving the terms shows how much of Schenker's later theory was already implicit in his earlier. But if all keys (other than the unfolded tonic of the underlying diatony) are illusory, why bother with the adjective at all? It seems less useful than in the Harmonielehre, where only some of the keys in a piece are conceived as illusory. In addition to preserving his own earlier terminology, Schenker probably wanted to emphasize the monotonality of his later theory, which holds that in a deep sense each piece can have only one 'real' tonic. The notion that a piece can be a unified structure in one main key and at the same time traverse several other secondary keys is very hard to express in terminology that does not seem selfcontradictory. Schoenberg has a point when he criticizes Schenker's term 'tonicization'; after all, he says, each key (Tonart) has only one tonic. Yet Schoenberg does more or less the same thing when he uses Roman numerals to analyse music in non-tonic regions. What does 'I' in the Subdominant Region mean, if not a local tonic?26 Schenker's referring to 'illusory keys' gives him a way out of this terminological difficulty, but it is perhaps the quick and safe rather than the scenic route. By lumping all 'keys' together into a single category, Schenker necessarily treats the subject of modulation in a far less differentiated way than in the Harmonielehre, which distinguishes between tonicizations, illusory keys and real modulations. Furthermore, by locating all 'keys' at the foreground 306 MUSIC ANALYSlS 6: 3, 1987
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Page 3 and 4: CARI SCHACHTER of modulation and to
Page 5 and 6: CARL SCHACHTER implicit in every mo
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Page 9 and 10: CARI SCHACHTER Might we say that bs
Page 11 and 12: 11 CARI SCHACHTER historian and the
Page 13 and 14: CARL SCHACHTER linear, contrapuntal
Page 15 and 16: CARL SCHACHTER the movement.'20 Six
Page 17: CARI SCHACHTER of bs 181ff.) Unques
Page 21 and 22: CCARI SCHACHTER example, that the f
Page 23 and 24: CARL SCHACHTER rising to a climax a
Page 25 and 26: CARL SCHACHTER forms a common eleme
Page 27 and 28: CARL SCHACHTER My derivation of the
Page 29 and 30: CARI SCHACHTER 11. David Beach, 'A
Page 31: CARL SCHACHTER reappear until b. 80

Analysis by Key: Another Look at Modulation

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