Analysis by Key: Another Look at Modulation

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ANALYSIS BY KEY ('illusory keys of the foreground', keys as 'higher unities in the foreground', etc.), Schenker minimizes possibly valid distinctions between large-scale, structural modulations and smaller, local ones. Surely the dominant key in the second half of a sonata exposition, say the BS major in Beethoven's Op.7, has a different structural meaning from the transient 'keys' of the development; and that difference is obscured rather than illuminated by calling them all 'illusory keys of the foreground'. The BS major of the exposition is the matrix within which a highly ramified structure develops: a subordinate diatony in the form of an upper-voice fifth-progression descending from 2 (supported by a full harmonic cadence), and even an illusory key dependent upon a framing BS major - the C major passage discussed in the Harmonielehre. Despite some obvious shortcomings, Schenker's earlier theory gave a clearer picture of this aspect of harmonic structure than Free Composition does. I do not see on what basis the later Schenker locates structural keys (like the dominant area in a sonata exposition) in the foreground, when he assigns the fifth progression from 2 to the very first level of middleground and acknowledges that this upper line, together with its cadential bass, forms an Ursatz-like structure transferred to a later level.27 When is a 'key' a key? This question has no definite answer, and the wildly varying approaches of different analysts to the same piece indicate just how slippery the concept of key is. In a not uninteresting article about the Andante con moto from Beethoven's. G major Concerto, Klaus Korner reads a modulation to A minor in the first solo passage, and he derives consequences from that 'modulation' (bs 7-8), which consists of one applied 5 chord and one A minor triad.28 Writing about the same movement with greater insight into its harmonic structure, Charles Rosen states that it hardly ever gets away from the tonic and that, except for one brief modulation to D major, it is conceived as an expanded E minor chord.29 Using Schenker's theory of levels (but not his consigning all 'keys' to the foreground), one can at least begin to see the distance from the background at which the impression of a new, temporary diatony begins to emerge. Surely those 'keys' that prAolong extensively a note of the Fundamental Line (like the composing-out of 2 over V in a sonata exposition), those that compose out a structural neighbour note (frequent in ABA and rondo forms) and those that emerge during a stretch of the Urlinie (notably 5-4-3 over III in minor) represent important shaping elements; indeed when the composing-out process leads to an Ursatz-like progression in the subordinate 'key', the modulation can help bring about a relatively self-contained formal section. In all such cases, I think, one is perfectly justified in speaking of structural modulations and in viewing the key sense as arising at a level considerably prior to the foreground. In my view Schenker weakens his treatment of form by his unwillingness to regard any key change as more than an epiphenomenon. Between these large structural key changes and the fleeting tonicizations that some authors call modulations, there is a vast range of possibilities. That range does not lend itself to exact demarcations, so that it is impossible to prove, for MUSIC ANALYSIS 6: 3, 1987 307
CCARI SCHACHTER example, that the first solo in the second movement of the Beethoven Fourth Concerto does not contain a modulation to A minor. Still, one can feel (and I certainly do) that reading new keys at such places is destructive of good analysis in that it isolates details and blurs significant differences. Schenker is certainly right in criticizing analyses that contain an 'absurd abundance of keys', impossible though it is to determine just where an abundance begins to be absurd. Between brief tonicizations and large-scale, generously ramified 'keys', one might distinguish a few important categories. There are 'keys', for example, with full harmonic cadences, but without melodic closure. There are others that have an initial 'tonic' but that end with a dividing dominant harmony. There are still others that lead through what Schenker calls an 'auxiliary cadence' to a closing tonic; often these lack an opening tonic. Among the most curious cases are those 'keys' whose tonics never arrive, as in the Schubert excerpt of Ex. 6; these, if any, are 'illusory keys of the foreground'. Sometimes, however, such 'keys' can play quite a significant role in the design of a piece. In the first movement of Mendelssohn's String Quartet in E minor (Op. 44, No. 2), the second part of the exposition is in a G ma jor (III) that follows 14 bars (!) of what seems to be a prolonged V of B minor, so that the initial impression is V-VI in that key. Related deceptive cadences occur at two significant junctures later on in the movement, before the recapitulation and in the coda; these, however, are followed eventually by the appearance of the tonic initially expected (both times the main E minor tonic of the movement), producing a very special sense of large-scale resolution.30 A Sample Analysis Cherubino's Arietta 'Voi che sapete', from Act 2 of Le nozze di Figaro, provides an appropriate final example for this study. The second section of its ABA design contrasts very little in rhythm and texture with the simple first seciion and its modified da capo; the representation in the orchestra of Susanna's accompanying guitar requires a certain uniformity. Tonally, however, the two seciions could hardly differ more, for the second, after a straightforward beginning in the dominant key, moves suddenly into areas whose connection to each other and to the BW diatony of the whole is difficult to understand. The problem centres on bs 37-52, which contain a fully tonicized AW major (37-44) including a ca(lential bass and melodic closure on AW . Following the phrase in AW is a modulatory part that culminates in a G minor cadence (b. 52); the relation of this G minor to what precedes and follows it is far from obvious. The problematic nature of this passage did not escape the notice of Schoenberg, who discusses the aria briefly in Chapter IX of Structural Functions. Schoenberg reads the AW as W MD (dominant of the flat mediant) and points to Beethoven's use of the same region in the opening themes of his Piano Sonatas, Opp. 31, No. 1 and 53. Because the region is so uncharacteristic of Mozart, and because 308 MUSIC ANALYSIS 6: 3, 1987
Page 1 and 2: Analysis by Key: Another Look at Mo
Page 3 and 4: CARI SCHACHTER of modulation and to
Page 5 and 6: CARL SCHACHTER implicit in every mo
Page 7 and 8: CARL SCHACHTER part of the expositi
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 and 18: CARI SCHACHTER of bs 181ff.) Unques
Page 19: CAR I SCHACHTER diatonic framework,
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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