Open Collections

Tonal voice-leading in Schoenberg’s opus 15

University of British Columbia

This study deals with the processes of tonal counterpoint inherent in the songs of Schoenberg's Opus 15i "Book of the Hanging Gardens" and, by implication, in related works. Chapter I, "The Concept of Harmonic Voice", introduces the conceptual key to the manner of investigation presented herein. Simply stated, "harmonic voices" consist of the strongly-directed, predictable motions by semitone and whole-tone, and the common-tone connections which occur from one chord to the next in a tonal progression. Examples of strongly-directed motions are the rising of the leading-tone and falling of the minor seventh of a dominant-seventh chord, and the diverging motions present when an augmented sixth progresses to an octave on the dominant. To show how the harmonic voice concept may be applied in analysis, passages from Opus 6, Number k are examined. Chapter II, "Harmonic Procedures Which Minimize Diatonic-Chromatic Differences", deals with specific types of harmonic voice motion which are common to chromatic passages and simpler, more overtly tonal ones. The lack of importance which the harmonic voice concept attributes to the presence or absence of the root of a chord is emphasized. The harmonic procedures discussed come under the following subject headings: "The Tritone-Substitute", "The Minor-Seventh/Augmented-Sixth Potential of 'Whole-tone' Chords", "Double-Neighbor Pairs in 'Whole-tone' and Other Contexts", "The Minor-Third Relationship", and "The Minor-Second Relationship". Passages from songs of Opus 3i 6, 12, and 14 are analyzed. Chapter III is a detailed analysis of Opus 1$, Number 5$ which applies the harmonic voice concept and attempts to expose the harmonic devices dealt with in Chapter II. Chapter IV is a detailed analysis of Opus 15, Number 11.

Text

2010-03-29

For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use.

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/22941

Music

University of British Columbia

Graduate