Analysis by Key: Another Look at Modulation

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13i3SS ANALYSIS BY KEY Example 13 shows how the prolonged F chord of Ex. 12 is continued. If we think of the large bass motion F - (AW ) - C as an unfolded fifth, the D that follows the C would represent a sixth. That D, in turn, leads to the G minor by the motion of a descending fifth. To sum up, the bass line that spans the f1rst two of this section's three inner groupings constitutes the unfolding or horizontalization of the contrapuntal progression 5-6-5 (F-C, F-D, G-D). Ex. 13 Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro, Act II, 'Voi che sapete', bs 35-52 (g)(R @ ? ' b > S_f S 5-h S Ap 4Hl ' ,-? r s 1l - 1 ; j ; ccomC > X j ; becOmes n l-'9P:rEf's6b:-')> r C rtv f>>t [llltOl(lillZ P ( [) (, After the G minor cadence, the vocal line moves to its clax on eS2, intensified by a doubling at the higher octave in the flute (bs 58-9). There is an apparent discrepancy between the melody and the harmony here. The melody note has a higher syntactic value than the brief C minor chord that supports it; eS 2 prepares the seventh over the prolonged V shown in Ex. 11, whereas the C minor has no such large-scale function. This syntactic value is reflected in the sonic emphasis Mozart accords the eW 2 as the event that caps an extended phase of increasinf intensity. Functioning within a larger context (from b.52), the climactic eS relates obliquely to the last high-level bass note, the G of b. 52; the reappearance of G in b.58 helps to clarify this connection. Since the vocal line in these bars unfolds a fourth bS l eS 2, the passage as a whole projects an ES sixth chord (G in bass, Bb and ES in soprano). Understood this way, bs 52-8 continue the earlier 5-6-5 alternation with another sixth, G-EW, an interval of the middleground not literally present on the surface but clearly plied by context (Ex. 14). In b.60, the G transfers from the bass into an upper part (oboe doubled by the violins), where it continues up to A and then on to BS in the reprise. The linear structure that governs the plan of modulation is thus a rising fourthprogression related to those found in the Bach Allemande and Beethoven Sonata discussed earlier (Exs 9 and 10). In addition to the obvious differences in key succession, the Mozart also differs in that the bass adds the root of V below the rising linear progression to allow a strong harmonic resolution into the reprise. Example 15 presents three middleground views of the B section. From it we can see how a repeated detail - the use of the enharmonic note-pair C,tt /DS MUSIC ANALYSIS 6: 3, 1987 311
CARL SCHACHTER forms a common element that persists through the many changes in tonal Ex. 14 Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro, Act II, 'Voi che sapete', bs 52-62 Sce S i S @ @ S @ S A+S #: -#-SD," '.;!r. motion from hecomes inner voice / J / lower 6ths / / b > ^ n h >Xgf- ' ' h r r orientationS, a foreground graph (or a glance at the score) would show more instances.3 One insufficiently acknowledged aspect of modulation is the way a composition's tonal plan might allow for the untransposed repetition of characteristic pitch configurations (like the C,"-D and DS-C here) through changes of key.36 From level (c) we can also begin to view the relation between tonal structure and text setting. The rather Schubertian move to AW, for example, with its sudden jump down a third and unexpected chromatic inflection, occurs just as Cherubino describes how he feels now cold, a moment later hot, and then cold again. Quoting the A section's cadential tag in the remote key of AS gives a false air of stability to this precarious harmonic region and seems to fix Cherubino in his predicament. And the long preparation for C minor, which arrives only to lose itself in the coming G minor cadence, paints his seeking an unknown good, far from where he is.37 More remarkable than any of these beautiful details is the relation between the Arietta as a whole and the dramatic situation. Levarie, who has many valuable things to say about the text setting, suggests that the poem with its fourteen lines hints at that courtliest poetic genre, the sonnet; of course he is quick to add that neither da Ponte's rhyme scheme nor Mozart's ABA design really supports this inference.38 I am not convinced that the fourteen lines add up to a sonnet in any significant way, but the context of Levarie's idea - that the aria expresses a tension between an 'abandonment to free fancy' and the 'decorum' of the social setting - seems right. The aria's configuration as a whole - a wildly modulatory middle section contained within the frame of two rather placid sections in the tonic - is emblematic of its singer, whose adolescent turbulence makes him a compulsive flirt and gets him into one scrape after another, but never causes him to lose his suavity and charm. The song, like the singer, reflects the elegant but disordered society that forms the opera's milieu; like a tiny window strategically placed, this little aria opens out on some of the most important dramatic issues of the opera. 312 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 and 20: CAR I SCHACHTER diatonic framework,
Page 21 and 22: CCARI SCHACHTER example, that the f
Page 23: CARL SCHACHTER rising to a climax a
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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