Foote and Spalding, Modern Harmony (1905) (2)

Foote and Spalding's chapter on the ninth chords is distinctive for its generous number of examples from the repertoire, examples that show clearly the range and character of their own stylistic sources and assumptions.* One can see this already in their first page (p. 158). In Lohengrin below, G5 is strongly emphasized by position and duration, achieving the same kind of "climax coloration" that we found in American songs of the same period (see my essay Dominant Ninth Harmonies in American Songs around 1900: link). As with Wagner, Schubert moves the ninth (but ascending) over a stable dominant bass. The two brief excerpts from Beethoven are common instances from the era of the minor dominant ninth.

The next three examples are also concerned with the minor dominant ninth chord.

Amy (Mrs. H. H. A.) Beach's "Fireflies," no. 4 from Four Sketches, op. 15 (1892), has many dominant ninths, both major and minor. This short passage comes less than twenty bars from the end. Something of the flavor of the whole can be gotten by a slightly larger excerpt (see below). "Walküre" is a striking resolution of the minor dominant ninth, with ninth in the alto and fifth moving upward chromatically. "Parsifal" is a passing major ninth within a wedge shape: F-F#-G in the top voice, F-E-Eb in the bass.

Further comment on Amy (Mrs. H. H. A.) Beach, op. 15n4. Below is a slightly larger excerpt (bars -18 to -10). The passage quoted by Foote and Spalding is boxed; instances of the dominant ninth are circled: all but the last are understood as major dominant ninth chords, but see my final comments and the figure below the score. For the moment, notice the strongly marked direct resolution of the ninth in bars -11 to-10. The tonic reached in bar -10 is the final chord, prolonged by figuration to the end.

Here is a reduced view of the harmony and voice leading:

Obviously, this reduction isn't as good as it could be, since the move major-dominant-ninth to minor-triad is problematic. The composer "sneaks in" a minor ninth just before the chord change, and thus it would have been better to notate the entire example as follows:

Beach's "Fireflies" is one of those rare compositions before 1900 in which the dominant ninth is strongly motivic. Here is the opening, the ninth chords marked (minor in bars 1-2, 8; major in 5-6).

And here is a reduction of the harmony and voice leading:

More of Foote and Spalding's repertoire examples will appear in a subsequent post.

------------------
* Such generosity was not typical earlier in the 19th century, but I should point out that by the end of the century multiple examples from the repertoire were commonly used, either for practical compositional or analytical purposes, as with Foote and Spalding, or as examples of historical practices.

Reference:
Arthur Foote and Walter Spalding, Modern Harmony in its Theory and Practice (1905). Source: Internet Archive; digital facsimile of a copy in the UCLA library.

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.

Beethoven, Lachner, and Pechacek

This post begins a historical survey based on the seven categories I presented and discussed in earlier posts, beginning with this one: link.

Beethoven, German Dances, WoO8, were written for a public ball in Vienna in 1795. His Laendler (in WoO11 & 15), published a few years later (1799 & 1802, respectively), are so close to the traditional (that is, earlier 18th century) type that one can readily imagine he heard them, or music very like them, in taverns, restaurants, or open-air performances.

František Martin Pecháček, 12 Laendler for winds (1801). I have discussed them here in connection with ascending cadence gestures: link.

Theodor Lachner, 6 Laendler for pianoforte (1822). Lachner had a long career as organist and music teacher in Munich. The 6 Laendler are early pieces.

Count Gallenberg, Waltz. This was a popular piece in the first half of the nineteenth century. I took it from a pedagogical collection by Carl Czerny, but it can also be found in a number of anthologies for musical amateurs.
---------------------

Beethoven, Laendler, WoO15n3. The instrumentation is two violins and bass, a configuration that was sometimes called the "Linzer Geiger," after popular turn-of-the-century groups, but which was in fact common throughout the Germanophone south of Europe. Here, ^6 is what I called a "throwaway note" or "one note too far." In the usual textbook labeling, it's an escape tone.

Lachner, Laendler n2. The two circled bars show how the expressive figure of a rise to ^6 could be "contained" within stereotypical 18th-century cadential progressions: in the first case, over ii6; in the second, over IV. The traditional violinistic Laendler didn't use S or subdominant types: the harmonies were different arrangements of I and V only.

Lachner, Laendler n3, second strain. Here is the harmonic progression I just described above. In bars 1 & 4, ^6 is a colorful expressive note. In bars 3 & 7, however, I might well read the harmony a V9, especially in bar 3 as a delayed resolution to ^5 occurs in bar 4 (this would be category 2.1).

Pechacek, Laendler n7. Note the appoggiatura treatment of ^6 over I in bars 1-2. The ^6 over the dominant in bars 3 & 7 and also in the second strain I would probably regard as mainly melodic, as well.

Beethoven, Laendler, WoO11n2. Very similar to figures above.

Beethoven, Laendler, WoO15n3. In bar 7, perhaps the clearest instance of the "throwaway note" or "one note too far," as we get the model for it in the previous bar.

Gallenberg, Waltz, in Czerny, 100 Recreations. Sounds very Schubertian, by which I mean an urban waltz or Laendler of the 1820s.

Beethoven, Deutscher Tanz, WoO8n2. Here the neighbor-note configuration probably plays against the strong accent and the repetition of ^6 over I in the subsequent bars.

Beethoven, Deutscher Tanz, WoO8n8. My category 2.1, where ^6 over V resolves over ^5 in a parallel figure 1-2 bars later.

Pechacek, Laendler n1, second strain. Here are direct resolutions (category 2.3) and the occasionally seen impetus to an ascending cadence figure.

Beethoven, Deutscher Tanz, WoO8n2, trio. Direct resolutions (arrows) and a ^6 over ii6, as in Lachner above (circle).