Dissertation Index
Author: Biamonte, Nicole V Title: The Modes in Romantic Music Institution: Yale University Begun: September 1994 Completed: March 1998 Abstract: A number of 19th-century works, while fundamentally tonal, incorporate elements of modality. Various Romantic impulses contributed to this reawakening of the modes: the historicist preoccupation with the Middle Ages and Renaissance, and an accompanying interest in older religious music; a growing regard for folk music, rooted in primitivism and the cult of nature, in nationalism, and in post-Revolution egalitarianism. The role of these ideas in the other arts is briefly discussed. A purely musical reason for the renewal of interest in the modes, the perceived need for an expansion of major-minor tonality, is explored in more depth. I examine the influence of these impulses in the music of Beethoven, Brahms, Schumann, Chopin, and others, analyzing the forms assumed by mode in the 19th century: harmonizations of a modal melody, whether tonal, modal, or some combination of the two; the construct known as "modal harmony," comprising diatony with an emphasis on secondary triads; and incorporation of a single element of a mode--for example, the "Dorian sixth," and whether this is sufficient to qualify a work as modal, or is merely a temporary modal inflection. I hope to develop a theoretical framework for mode in a harmonic context, and to determine the relationship of modal harmony to earlier modal theory and to harmonic tonality. Keywords: mode, modality, modal theory, modal harmony, Romantic, 19th-century, Beethoven, Brahms, Schumann, Chopin TOC: Introduction 1: Romantic Ideas Classic vs. Romantic; Historicism; Religion; Mysticism; Primitivism; Egalitarianism; Nationalism; Harmonic Expansion 2: On the Modes Middle Ages; Renaissance; 17th Century; Mode as a Pedagogical Tool; Romantic Era; Mode in a Harmonic Context; Mode as "Other" 3: Beethoven Musical Education; Missa Solemnis; 9th Symphony finale; Heiliger Dankgesang 4: Schumann Musical Education; "Auf Einer Burg"; Folksongs for Cello and Piano; G minor Piano Trio 5: Brahms Musical Education; "Von ewiger Liebe"; "Vergangen ist mir Glueck und Heil"; Intermezzo Op. 76 No 7; 4th Symphony slow movement; F minor Clarinet Sonata 6: Other Composers Schubert ("Der Koenig in Thule"); Chopin (Mazurka Op. 41 No. 1); others 7: Conclusion Contact: Nicole Biamonte 87 Turtle Bay Branford, CT 06405 email: nicole.biamonte@yale.edu phone: (203) 488-9621 fax: (203) 483-1897 |