Monday, February 4, 2019

Benjamin, Horwitz, Koozin, and Nelson

When I retired three years ago, I gave away almost all of my library, including textbook copies, and am now living in an area where I don't have easy access. That is by way of explanation for no more than a modest internet search, which pulled up just one textbook table of contents detailed enough to list examples. That TOC is for the excerpt anthology to one of the standard texts used in college-level two-year music theory sequences: Music for Analysis: Examples from the Common Practice Period and the Twentieth Century, 8th edition, by Thomas Benjamin, Michael Horvit, Timothy Koozin, and Robert Nelson (2018).

Here are their examples of the dominant ninth chord (the titles are lightly edited for clarity and completeness):

326. J. STRAUSS, Künstlerleben (Artist's Life) Waltzes, op. 316, no. 3
327. FRANCK, Sonata for Violin and Piano, first movement
328. BEETHOVEN, Six Easy Variations, WoO 77, theme
329. CHOPIN, Grand Valse Brillante in Ab major, op. 34, no. 1
330. SCHUMANN, Liederkreis, op. 39, no. 3: "Waldesgespräch"
331. CHOPIN, Prelude in Db major, op. 28, no. 15 "Raindrop"

Secondary Dominant Ninths
332. BACH, St. Matthew Passion, no. 78: final chorus "Wir setzen uns mit Tränen nieder"
333. SCHUMANN, Genoveva, op. 81: Overture
334. GRIEG, Lyrical Pieces, vol. 9: "Grandmother's Minuet," op. 68, no. 2
335. SCHUMANN, Kinderszenen, op. 15, no. 7: "Träumerei"

Comment on each of these below. As a reminder, here are the categories I have developed for the different uses of the dominant ninth:

1. Internal resolution (within the V chord)
    1.0. Element of melodic shape (step)
    1.1. Element of melodic shape (leap, off the beat)
    1.2. Element of chord, weak beat
    1.3. Element of chord, strong beat
2. External resolution (to the following chord, usually I)
    2.1. Indirect resolution to ^5
    2.2. Indirect resolution to ^6
    2.3. Direct resolution to ^5 or ^6

To each of the book's examples:

326.  J. STRAUSS
I have written about this waltz set on my Ascending Cadence Gestures blog: link. In the first instance the chord is inverted (the bass shifts the chord back and forth between second and first inversion), category 2.2. In the second instance it is a "waltz ninth" in the cadence—that is, ^6 moves upward to ^7—and fits category 1.3.
327. FRANCK
One of the most striking cases of an extended (prolonged) dominant ninth before 1900. I will post a separate study of it at a later date.
328. BEETHOVEN
The ninth chord (beginning the theme's B section) is an incidental result of parallel tenths moving against a dominant pedal tone. Category 1.0.
329. CHOPIN, op. 34, no. 1
In the introduction, category 1.3 (an element of an extended dominant chord). In the second strain (bars 33 ff.), direct resolution, category 2.3.
330. SCHUMANN, "Waldesgespräch"
In the piano introduction, direction resolution of the ninth with expressive repetition on the strong beat. Category 2.3.
331. CHOPIN, "Raindrop" Prelude
Category 1.2 (element of the chord, weak beat emphasis) in the cadences of the exposition and reprise (more prominently in the latter). The appearance of ^6 in bar 3 is category 1.0, a melodic element coincidentally arising from parallel 6ths. This figure is marked enough (repeated) that one could very likely develop a reading based on it as a key to interpretation, an "odd" moment that is developed motivically and harmonically—but I am not concerned with that kind of work in this blog.
Secondary Dominant Ninths
332. BACH
In the introduction and in the chorus's opening phrases. I assume this was included because it allows an easy comparison of the chords with minor ninth and major ninth. Category 1.0.
333. SCHUMANN, Overture
Here again, perhaps the choice is the comparison between minor and major ninths, the former very dramatic at the beginning, the latter appearing more than once in the major key area that follows (which I presume is the subordinate key area of a sonata form exposition)
334. GRIEG
Clear example of V9 of V at the very beginning (bar 1). Category 2.3.
335. SCHUMANN, "Träumerei"
Category 1.1 in bar 3; category 1.2 strictly speaking in bar 22, though I would like to call it 1.3 because of the special emphasis of the fermata; possibly the same in the final bar because of the octave leap down from ^6 (D5) over ii to ^6 (D4) as ninth of V.
 Note: These are my own comments on the examples. I did not have access to the textbook itself, only the list of examples.