New publication on dominant ninths and tonic sevenths

I have published The Dominant Ninth and Tonic Seventh in the Upper Tetrachord of the Major Key on the Texas ScholarWorks platform: link.

Here is the abstract:

Pieter van der Merwe, Derek B. Scott, and Norbert Linke have all written about the freedom with which nineteenth-century composers—especially those writing music for social dance and repertoires influenced by social dance—treated the upper tetrachord of the major key, an essential factor in the history of extended tertian chords and more generally in the history of still more complex harmonies. Examples total about 60; theirs and most of mine come from the 19th century waltz repertoire.

New publications: Dominant Ninth, 1900-1924, Parts 1 & 2

I have published The Dominant Ninth in Music from 1900 to 1924 on the Texas ScholarWorks platform. Part 1: link.   Part 2: link.

Abstract for Part 1:

By about 1890, the major dominant ninth harmony had become firmly established in compositional and improvisational practice. After 1900, this harmony was routinely used in many musical genres. The two parts of this essay sample a few of these occurrences in repertoires ranging from those that are surprisingly conservative (American marches and ragtime) to those that are remarkably adventurous (French Impressionists and the English and American musicians influenced by them). Composers represented in Part 1 include Costa Nogueras, Friml, Hageman, Herbert, Joplin, Kern, Lehar, Lincke, MacDowell, and Sousa.

Abstract for Part 2:

This continues the study of the major dominant ninth harmony in European and European-influenced music after 1900. Composers represented in Part 2 are Claude Debussy, Lili Boulanger, and Charles Griffes. Scholarship by Taylor Greer, Keith Waters, and Deborah Williamson is summarized and discussed. Composers whose stage works are discussed in the introduction are Herbert, Lehar, Mozart and Wagner.

John Phillip Sousa, Marches

Sousa was quite conservative in his use of the major dominant ninth chord, though that should not be surprising because the entire 19th century repertoire of the closely related galop, polka schnell, one-step, march, and even the turn-of-the-century rag were all conservative in comparison with the waltz, the early polka or polka française and related and derivative dances. In general, Sousa employs the ninth chord in the typical variety of ways, but not often with direct resolutions. Here are examples from the Sousa March Album for piano published by the John Church company (Cincinnati/Chicago/New York) in 1902.

One of the most interesting collection of figures comes early, in the march Yorktown’s Centennial (1881): in the first and fourth boxes, an almost direct resolution of V9; in the second box a "free note" ninth drops to ^3 rather than ^5, but (third box) in the repetition makes a direct resolution (that is, B4 over V does go to A4 over I).

The White Plume  (1884): an indirect resolution through pairing (bars 2-3 of the excerpt pair to bars 4-5).

In the trio, another drop from 9 in V9 to ^3. (^5 as C6 does show up in the accompaniment embellishing figure--dotted arrow--but with the octaves that imitate the characteristic orchestral doublings any connection would be weak at best).

The Liberty Bell  (1893): another indirect resolution through parallelism (boxes and dotted arrow),, but also note the repetition of 9 in bar 6, closer to the resolution.

Manhattan Beach  (1893): the first arrow shows an instance of prominent hypermetric positioning of the 9 over V; the other two arrows are yet more drops from ^6 to ^3.

The Directorate (1896): the firmest of the lot, V9 through the bar and a direct resolution.

Hail to the Spirit of Liberty (1900): attention to 9, indirect resolution (dotted arrow).

In the trio, the "classic" figure: descent from ^7 through ^6 (as 9 of V9) and direct resolution.

Finally, Congress Hall  (1901): an indirect resolution (first two boxes with dotted arrow), then a 9 over V curiously extended with a chromatic scale that buries the chord's distinctive sound.

Johann Strauss, jr., later waltzes (2b)

This series of posts began with one in September 2019 (link); a section 1 followed immediately, and section 2a shortly thereafter (link); today's post completes section 2 and the series. Here, in addition to music by Strauss, examples from waltzes by his contemporaries Tchaikovsky and Waldteufel are also presented.

The topic of section 2 is "Consonance/dissonance parallelisms and lines (mostly descending)."

Heading: ^8-^6.

In the second number of Strauss's Italienischer Walzer, op. 407 (1882), between the tonic triad with ^8 in bar 1 and the V7 with ^5 on the last beat of bar 8 lies a series of remarkable dissonances: the relatively rare I7 (the arrow in bar 2 points to ^7), an unequivocal Iadd6 in bar 3, a I with #^5 against an "indifferent" accompaniment, and a prolonged V9 where ^6 "relaxes" into ^5 internally but at the last moment.

Italienischer Walzer, op. 407 (1882), no. 2

Adelen-Walzer, op. 424 (1886),  no. 3b. Here is another I7, made all the more prominent by its hypermetric position. The dissonance is less daring than in the previous example, though, because B4 can be heard in retrospect as "passing" to Bb4 on the way to A4 over IV. The circled notes in bar 6 show a V9 where the ninth is internal--textbooks allowed such parallel sixth constructions (here A5-F6 to G5-E6). With the obvious anticipation of the tonic notes, we can fairly call this a direct resolution of V9.

Heading: line ^6 to ^3

Gartenlaube, op. 461 (1895), no. 3. we hear ^6-^5-^4 and briefly ^3 all over V. The register of ^3 (B5) is left open this way and we subsequently hear it over I when the 8-bar consequent starts up. Bar 12 = bar 4, but the register is immediately left open again, and this time it is picked up by the dramatic cadence chord, vii°7/V (circled).

Heading: line ^7-^3

From the beginning (no. 1, first strain) of the Italienischer Walzer, an indirect resolution of 7 (F5) to E5, so close and clear that it's the sort I like to call "almost direct." Note also that the full range of scale degrees over V is given (the bracket)—^7, ^6, ^5, and ^4.

Emile Waldteufel's Myosotis, op. 101 (1867), is a bit earlier than the late Strauss waltzes I have been discussing in this series. I have included it here to show that Strauss wasn't the only one to indulge in a delightful confusion of scale degrees and accompanying harmonies. The V9 resolution is direct (bars 6-7).

Heading: ^4-^1 (or farther)

Again Strauss: Hochzeitsreigen, op. 453 (1893), no. 2. The pre-dominant or subdominant-function harmony is given unusual prominence, and ^6 acts traditionally as a suspension dissonance (G5 in bars 1-2). As the melody continues down, past ^1, the 8-bar antecedent ends with an "almost direct" resolution of the ninth to ^6 in a Iadd6 harmony. Note also the ninth in V9/V as a cadence accent in bar 15 (not marked). As a point of interest—no V9 involved—I have also shown the waltz's final 8-bar consequent with its tonic ending. The overall design is 16 bar antecedent (itself a period--shown below--then 16 bar consequent, of which the final bars (or 25-32) are shown below.

Tchaikovsky, The Nutcracker (1892), Waltz of the Flowers. The confusion of scale degrees and their harmonies that we saw in Waldteufel's Myosotis is even greater in the second strain of the Waltz of the Flowers. In the antecedent phrase: the F#5 in bar 1 is fine, but what is C#5 exactly? What is E5? B4? D5? Things are just slightly better in the consequent phrase: G5, D5 and the subsequent quarter notes C#5 and A4, but what about F#5 and E5? A wonderful example of the freedom of treatment of melody in relation to harmony that Jeremy Day-O'Connell points out (in connection with a history of ^6), as also have Peter van der Merwe, Derek Scott, and Norbert Linke (I hope to complete an essay on their work before too much longer).

Heading: ^10-^7

Once again to Strauss: Kaiser-Walzer, op. 437 (1889), no. 3. I have remarked in earlier essays on the tendency to expand theme lengths in waltzes from the most conventional eight bars early in the 19th century (most of Schubert's, for example, but also early Lanner) to sixteen (late Schubert, Strauss, sr.) to thirty-two (Strauss, jr., and contemporaries). The most common design is effectively a 16-bar theme with two endings, where the repetition, with its second ending, is written out--see Hochzeitsreigen, no. 2, above for an example. In the Emperor Waltz, however, Strauss writes what I would call a true 32-bar period, where the two halves of the antecedent, bars 1-8 & 9-16, form a 16-bar sentence or antecedent-contrasting phrase. In that way, the distinctive opening of the antecedent doesn't return until bar 17 and the large design is clearly defined. I marked several things: at (a1) a line down from ^3 to ^7 (E6 to B5); at (a2)--the bracket--the considerable expansion of V with a ninth prominent in both color and position; at (a2)--box--and the arrow, C: V9 becomes G: V9 in the parallel position in the phrase; at (b), the theme closes in a quite conventional way.

Heading: Ascending

And, finally, to Waldteufel, Les Patineurs (1882), no. 1, the Skaters Waltz that is at least as famous as the Waltz of the Flowers and the Emperor Waltz. Here again the freedom of the scale degrees is remarkable, but now the motion is ascending and if anything the confusion of melody and accompaniment is greater. A brief hint of Iadd6 (bar 2) comes from ^6 anticipating its role as 9 in V9 (bars 3-4). The F#4 is still there over V in bar 6, but in the phrase parallelism it actually moves up, not down as we would expect in a resolution. It's not impossible to hear the G#4 as "resolving" to A4, but (1) it's interrupted by an expressive upper neighbor B4, and (2) the resolution is of melodic direction, not harmonic function. At the end, as a point of interest, I have included the second cornet's ascending line that is rarely heard over the melody in performance (F#4-G#4-A4).