A B STR A C T T itle of D issertation: R EB O R N IN TH E 20TH C EN TU R Y : TH E C H A C O N N E A N D PA SSA C A G LIA TH R O U G H O U T V IO LIN LIT ER A TU R E P yung-K ang Sharon O h, D octoral of M usical A rts, 2021 D issertation directed b y: P rofessor Jam es S tern, S trings D epartm ent In the late 16th century, the chacona w as the m ost energetic and w ild type o f ba ile, a popular Spanish dance. It w as a lively, suggestive, and festive peasant dance, w hich, b y the early 17th century, had developed into a distinct variation form involving a repeated bass line or chord progression. This perform ance dissertation explores the sym bolic significance of both the chaconne and the passacaglia in perform ance as w ell as in w ritten form . The perform ance w as a recital program w hich com prised the B ach Partita N o. 2 for Solo V iolin and the Shostakovich V iolin C oncerto N o. 1 , each featuring the chaconne and passacaglia respectively in their em otionally clim actic m ovem ents. I perform ed the recital w ith pianist H siang-Ling H siao, on N ovem ber 1 , 2016, in the G ildenhorn R ecital H all. In th is docum ent, I explore how the chaconne in violin repertoire has changed over tim e by analyzing the repeating units, stylistic changes, and historical backgrounds. The paper is organized into tw o parts. Part I su rveys the B aroque period chaconnes. The earlier, celebratory chaconnes include w orks by M onteverdi, B ertali, and C orelli. The elegant and courtly chaconnes include w orks b y Schm elzer and Lully; the chaconnes representing fate include w orks b y B iber, Purcell, and B ach. In the C lassical and R om antic periods, the chaconne w as discontinued, but it becam e revitalized again in the 20th century. Part II d iscusses 20th-century chaconnes and the im petus for its rebirth after a long hiatus. It surveys w orks w ritten during the w ar periods b y R avel, B ritten, and S hostakovich. T hese works seem to speak for the victims and ex press profound sorrow in ways words cannot. L astly, the study ex plores the innovative works by two contemporary A merican composers, J ohn A dams and J ohn C origliano, who infused the centuries-old form with modern musical language. REBORN IN THE 20TH CENTURY: THE CHACONNE AND PASSACAGLIA THROUGHOUT VIOLIN LITERATURE by Pyung-Kang Sharon Oh Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctoral of Musical Arts 2021 Advisory Committee: Professor James Stern, Chair Professor Robert DiLutis Professor David Salness Professor Myeong-Gu Seo Professor Rita Sloan ? Copyright by Pyung-Kang Sharon Oh 2021 D ed ica t ion To m y m other, w ho alw ays encouraged m e. ii Acknowledgment I thank Dr. Stern, who advised me through my ups and downs during my studies at the University of Maryland. iii T a b le of C on ten t s D edication v A cknow ledgem ents v i Table of C ontents v ii L ist of M usical Exam ples ix L ist of A bbreviations x i In troduction 1 Part I: B aroque Period 6 C hapter 1: C elebratory D ance 6 M onteverdi: Zefir o tor na 6 B ertali: C hia cona 12 C orelli: La F olia 17 C hapter 2: E legant and C ourtly D ance 29 Schm elzer: C ia ccona 29 Lully: C ha conne from the opera, P ha ?ton 36 C hapter 3: R epresenting Fate 41 B iber: P a ssa ca glia 41 Purcell: D ido a nd Aenea s La ment 51 B ach: C ia conna from P a r tita No. 2 in D minor (S. 1004) for Solo Violin 59 C hapter 4: C onclusion? D ecline of the C haconne: C lassical and R om antic Period 72 Part II 75 C hapter 5: Idealized B eauty D uring D ifficult T im es 77 R avel: P ia no Tr io 78 B ritten: Violin C oncer to 87 Shostakovich: P ia no Tr io 97 iv Shostakovich: Violin Concerto No. 1 107 Chapter 6: Looking Back to the Past and Uniting with the Present 117 Adams: Violin Concerto 118 Corigliano: The Red Violin Chaconne 124 Chapter 7: Conclusion?Chaconne, the Timeless Musical Form 132 v L ist of M u sica l E xa m p les 1 .1 .1a: M onteverdi Zefir o tor na basso continuo 10 1 .1 .2a: B ertali C hia cona bass line 12 1 .1 .2b: C hia cona bass line alteration 13 1 .1 .2c: The bass line in A m inor, exem plifying i-v-V I-iv-V 14 1 .1 .2d: The bass line in F m ajor, exem plifying I-V -vi-IV -V 14 1 .1 .2e: The rapid runs in B ertali C hia conna , sim ilar to V ivaldi 15 1 .1 .2f: The rapid runs in V ivaldi Summer from F our Sea sons, 3 16 1 .1 .3a: Sarabande rh ythm s 18 1 .1 .3b: The early folia 21 1 .1 .3c: The late folia 22 1 .1 .3d: C orelli ?Folia? T hem e 26 1 .2 .1a: The succession of 5ths (m . 11?12) 31 1 .2 .1b: The succession of 5ths, 3rds, and 6ths (m . 22?25) 31 1 .2 .1c: The succession of octaves, 5 ths, and 6ths (m . 40?43) 31 1 .2 .1d: Schm elzer Sonata N o. 4 bass line 32 1 .2 .1e: M . 22?26: long notes on beat tw o follow ing a big in terval leap 33 1 .2 .1 .f: M . 39?47: a dotted half note on beat tw o 33 1 .2 .1g: B ird calls 34 1 .2 .1h: Schm elzer C iaccona in A M ajor bass line 34 1 .2 .2a: A n excerpt from the chaconne from Pha?ton 39 1 .3 .1a: The violin tunings of M ystery Sonatas N os. 2?15 44 Ex . 1 .3 .1b: N o. 11 scordatura indication and an excerpt of Sur r exit C hr istus hodie played on the violin in octaves 45 1 .3 .1c: N o. 15 scordatura indication, and an excerpt that sounds like Paganini C aprice N o. 24 46 1 .3 .1d: The picture prefacing N o. 16 and the bass line 47 1 .3 .1e: A half cadence (V /V -V ) in m . 91?92, then back to G m inor in m . 93 48 vi 1.3.1f: M . 73?75 (an octave higher bass line played alone), m . 76 (str etto), m . 77 and onw ard in B ? 49 1 .3 .2a: The bass line from M onteverdi?s La mento della ninfa 52 1 .3 .2b: F ea r No D a nger to Ensue 54 1 .3 .2c: I a m P r est 54 1 .3 .2d: W hen I am Laid ground bass 56 1 .3 .2e: ?R em em ber m e? m otif 57 1 .3 .3a: The chaconne statem ent in the beginning 66 1 .3 .3b: V ariations in pairs, the second one intensified 66 1 .3 .3c: The chrom atic ground basses 67 1 .3 .3d: G round basses in a natural m inor scale 68 1 .3 .3e: A lphanum eric code 70 2 .5 .1a: M . 5?8 of m vt. 1 . N otice the zor tzico reference of 5/8+3/8 80 2 .5 .1b: P a ssa ca ille clim ax 83 2 .5 .1c: The Wehela ute m otif from W agner, P a r sifa l, A ct 1 , starting from the key change 84 2 .5 .2a: The first passacaglia statem ent 90 2 .5 .2b: The first them e from the opening of the C oncerto 91 2 .5 .2c: Solo violin at the beginning of P a ssa ca glia 91 2 .5 .2d: The violin entrance m im ics the passacaglia them e, accom panied by trem olo from the cello 93 2 .5 .2e: Solo violin passacaglia them e from num ber th irty-seven 94 2 .5 .2f: Solo violin passacaglia them e from num ber forty-tw o 94 2 .5 .2g: The passacaglia them e at num ber forty-three 95 2 .5 .3a: The repeating harm onic progression in Shostakovich P iano T rio N o. 2 104 2 .6 .2a: The Red Violin them e and the chaconne them e 129 2 .6 .2b: A nna?s them e (m . 46?56, 57?) and the chaconne them e (m . 49?56, 57?) 130 vii List of Abbr eviations Ex. Example M. Measure Mvt. Movement viii R eb or n in th e 20th C en t u r y: T h e C h a con n e a n d P a ssa ca glia T h r ou gh ou t V iolin L it er a tu r e C haconne and passacaglia are m usical form s involving variations over a ground bass. B oth form s em erged in the early 17th century in Spain. The term s passacaglia and chaconne appear to have been used interchangeably b y com posers of the B aroque era, although som e theorists or com posers drew a distinction betw een the tw o. Som e com posers even had them appear side b y side or in the sam e collection. H ow ever, w hen one or the other appears b y itself, the distinctive features m ay be less evident or altogether absent. C om m only, the chaconne has been understood as a com position containing a repeated harm onic progression, w hile the passacaglia has been understood as a com position containing a repeated bass line. H ow ever, the harm onic progression and the bass line are o ften closely associated, m aking it d ifficult to differentiate. Essentially, both form s are based on a repeating harm onic progression over a bass line. A s a result, identification as one or the other seem s to depend on the local tradition or individual preference o f the com poser.1 W hat is clear is that both are built up of an unspecified num ber of brief units such as tw o, four, eight, or six teen m easures, each un it ending w ith a cadence, w hich then, in turn, leads to the nex t unit w ithout a break. This provides a platform for continuous m om entum or energy over a potentially length y period. A lthough the tw o fo rm s have som ew hat m erged, each has its ow n individual h istory. The chaconne seem s to stem from the Spanish popular culture tow ards the end of the 16th century. In its first usage, chacona w as the m ost energetic and w ild type of the ba ile, a popular Spanish 1Louis Horst, ?Chaconne and Passacaglia,? chap. 12 in Pre-Classic Dance Forms: The Pavan, Minuet, Galliard, Allemande, and 10 Other Early Dance Forms (Princeton, New Jersey: Dance Horizons, 1987), 105?107. 1 dance.2 D eeply rooted in the unrestrained and celebratory aspects of peasant life, the chacona w as lively and festive. Its nature w as rather suggestive and w as even said to have been invented by the devil. G regorio Lam branzi, an Italian dancing m aster, provides a scenario of dancing the chacona in his book, New School of Thea tr ica l D a ncing (1716): ?A G ypsy is dancing a C iacona alone, w ith castanets in her hands? . A necrom ancer enters and touches her w ith his w and. She becom es transfixed w hile he dances alone; finally, they both dance together to the end.?3 The chaconne w as to be perfo rm ed fleetly and passionately, and its h igh spirits w ere expressed in the length y tex ts, usually beginning w ith som e variant of ?V ida, v ida, v ida bona! /V ida, v?m onos ? C hacona!? m eaning ?Let?s live the good life; let?s go to C hacona!?. It is reported m an y could not resist the call to jo in the dance, regardless of their station in life.4 In the beginning, the chaconne generally used a variation technique but no t necessarily the ground-bass technique. The m usicians, w ho played the short repeating units, inevitably im provised and changed the m elodies, therefore, created variations. H ow ever, the early chaconne alw ays had a short m elodic m otive, w hich probably m ade the song catch y and easy for an yone to sing along. O ften, guitars, tam bourines, and castanets accom panied, and in fact, it has been proposed the term chacona derived from ?chac,? the sound of the castanet. H ow ever, there are other theories surrounding the etym ology of chaconne. Johann M attheson, an im portant G erm an scholar of 18th-century G erm an m usic, w rote in his D er Vollkommene C a pellmeister (1739, 2 Thomas Walker, ?Ciaccona and Passacaglia: Remarks on Their Origin and Early History,? Journal of the American Musicological Society 21, no. 3 (1968): 300?20, accessed Aug 8, 2020. doi:10.2307/830537. 3 Louis Horst, ?Chaconne and Passacaglia,? chap. 12 in Pre-Classic Dance Forms: The Pavan, Minuet, Galliard, Allemande, and 10 Other Early Dance Forms (Princeton, New Jersey: Dance Horizons, 1987), 101. 4 Walker, ?Ciaccona and Passacaglia,? Journal of the American Musicological Society 21, no. 3 (1968): 300?20, accessed Aug 8, 2020. doi:10.2307/830537. 2 ?The Perfect C hapelm aster?) the follow ing: ?The largest am ong these dance form s is indeed the C iacona, or C haconne, w ith its brother, or its sister, the Passagaglio , or Passacaille. I find that C haconne is really a fam ily nam e and that the adm iral of the Spanish fleet in A m erica, a nno 1721, w as nam ed M r. C hacon.?5 N evertheless, the m ore likely theory is that it gained its nam e from an unidentified place near Tam pico, M exico, as referred to in som e tex ts.6 The passacaglia originated in the early 17th century in Spain as brief im provisation betw een the strophes in songs com prised of a few rhythm ic strum m ed cadences, sim ilar to a vam p. The Spanish w ord , pa sa ca lle, com es from pa sa r (to w alk) and ca lle (street), likely derived from outdoor perform ances or from a p ractice of popular m usicians taking a few steps during the in terludes.7 A nother in teresting theory o f the origin of passacaglia, given by Schubert, is that it com es from the Italian w ord pa ssa ga llo , m eaning cock-tr ea d or cock-tr ot.8 L ikely because the w ord pa ssa m eans to pass and ga llo m eans rooster. S im ilar to the early chaconnes, the early passacaglia seem s to have had provocative or at least flirtatious qualities, if th is description by Larrousse w as an y indicator. ?? an air on the guitar w hich serenaders played in the streets as a m eans of seduction.?9 To sum m arize, the early passacaglia and chaconne had m inor distinctions from one another. The passacaglia grew out of im provised ritornellos betw een the strophes of songs, and the chaconne began as a row d y, festive dance-song featuring a short m elodic m otif. H ow ever, these contrasts are rather insignificant as these form s are virtually identical in that both present a 5 Horst, ?Chaconne and Passacaglia,? in Pre-Classic Dance Forms, 101. 6 Thomas Walker, ?Ciaccona and Passacaglia: Remarks on Their Origin and Early History,? Journal of the American Musicological Society 21, no. 3 (1968): 300?20, accessed Aug 8, 2020. doi:10.2307/830537. 7 Ibid. 8 Horst, Pre-Classic Dance Forms, 107?108. 9 Ibid. 3 repeated m otivic line or set of chords. N ot only that, they share a sim ilar purpose or connotations. B oth w ere ?passacalle? (readily available street tunes), far rem oved from the later chaconnes and passacaglias of B uxtehude and B ach that are characterized as severe and dignified.10 Therefore, for the purpose of th is paper, chaconne w ill be used in reference to either form . The early chaconnes are festive, fast-paced, folk dances w hich are a stark contrast from the chaconnes from B ach?s tim e and onw ard. The chaconne from B ach?s tim e onw ard takes on a deep sym bolic significance, w hich can be observed in term s of three paradoxes. The first paradoxical aspect is that the chaconne retains the m arks of its row d y origins, yet it conveys deep spirituality. A rguably the m ost im portant chaconne in the violin repertoire, the B ach chaconne from the Solo V iolin Partita N o. 2 in particular, testifies to that. Seem ingly com pletely different from the earlier chaconnes, B ach?s chaconne is solem n and has a transcendent quality, yet its form is the sam e as that o f the row d y chaconnes that w ere supposed to have been invented b y the devil. The second paradoxical aspect of chaconne is that it can com bine the aspects of joy or ecstasy w ith the tragic in a single piece. A s show n in B ach?s chaconne, the piece em braces the com plex em otions of sad, happy, excitem ent, m ourning, peace, and life. A nd w hat b inds these various em otions together is its m usical form , chaconne. It seem s to reflect the conflicting em otions of the com poser: grieving the loss of his w ife and celebrating the eternal life she w as to enter as B ach believed she w ould, being him self a deeply religious person. 10 Paul Nettl, ?The Baroque Period II?French Ballet, French Dances, Suites and Keyboard-Music,? chap. 8 in The Story of Dance Music, (New York, NY: Philosophical Library, Inc., 1947), 180. 4 The third paradoxical aspect of the chaconne is the contrast between the compositional restrictions and the seeming boundlessness of what it is able to express. One would think this repeating harmonic progression or the melody would limit the creativity, yet many examples of the form prove that to be wrong, as what the music can do seems to be boundless. It is stunning that even the most ornate and complex themes in the upper voices are sustained by a persistent and repeating harmonic progression. In many instances, the persistence of the bass line can seem to play the role of inexorable fate in the unfolding drama. These forms allow great complexity despite a seemingly restricted framework. Even a simple harmonic progression or a bass line can grow into a mind-boggling piece. In this respect, the chaconne form seems to mirror a human life?at birth, we are bound by the limitations of our body and intellect, yet as we grow, our potential expands to nearly boundless possibility. In this project, I will explore the emotional and symbolic significance of the chaconne over the course of centuries ranging from the Baroque to the contemporary eras. In particular, I will explore the three recurring paradoxes in the passacaglia and chaconne. 5 P a r t 1 : B a r oq u e P er iod The chaconne began its long journey tow ards the end of the 16th century and becam e popular in the 17th century. In th is chapter, w e w ill explore chaconnes in the B aroque period in three categories: those that are celebratory, those that are elegant and courtly, and those that invoke a sense o f fate. C h a p ter 1: C eleb r a tor y D a n ce C la u d io M on tever d i: Zefir o tor n a O ne of the earliest exam ples of a chaconne for violin is C laudio M onteverdi?s m adrigal Zefir o tor na from the collection Scher zi Musica li w hich w as published in 1632.11 M adrigals w ere poetic and m usical settings of various types and form s of secular verse. These w ere som etim es interchangeably sung or played b y instrum ents. Som etim es, the instrum ents m erely doubled the vocal parts; periodically, instrum ents replaced vocal parts; som etim es, the tex ture w as reduced to a single vocal part accom panied b y either an instrum ental ensem ble or a single instrum ent. It is likely that w hen doubling or replacing singers, the instrum ents did not lim it them selves to playing the parts as w ritten but added im provised divisions. In fact, it w as com m on for the instrum ents to fill in w hen there w ere m issing parts because o riginally, m adrigals w ere p rim arily designed for perform ances by groups of talented am ateurs w ith an active audience. In th is instance, the violin could be played in the place of one of the voice lines as a violin can successfully im itate the voice.12 T ypically, the instrum entation w as not specified. H ow ever, 11 Denis Arnold, ?Madrigals with basso continuo,? Monteverdi, rev. Tim Carter (London: J.M. Dent, 1990), 86. 12 Manfred F. Bukofzer, Music in the Baroque Era (New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company, 1947), 15. 6 M onteverdi indicated in his fifth and six th books of m adrigals that the instrum ental bass part w as optional in the ensem ble m adrigals. M onteverdi (1567?1643) w as an im portant Italian com poser w ho stood as a transitional figure betw een the R enaissance and B aroque, 1600 being the approx im ate starting date for the B aroque era. H e excelled in nearly all genres, including m adrigals and operas, as w ell as devotional m usic. N onetheless, he is arguably m ost know n for his n ine books of m adrigals consolidating R enaissance and B aroque styles. H e is credited for developing tw o individual styles of com position? the heritage o f R enaissance polyphon y (pr ima pr a tica ) and the m onophony w ith the B aroque?s new basso continuo technique (seconda pr a tica ).13 Zefir o tor na follow s seconda pr a ctica . It featu res the basso continuo and exhibits characteristics such as the m usical setting largely driven by the tex t and the liberal uses of dissonances w ith ex trem e freedom as an expressive tool. The delightful song, scored fo r tw o tenors and basso continuo, is the first know n exam ple of a vocal duet featuring a ciaccona accom panim ent.14 It is based on a sonnet b y O ttavio R inuccini, a m em ber of the C am erata de?B ardi, a F lorentine noble and poet recognized as the first opera librettist. H ow ever, it is w orth m entioning that th is is not M onteverdi?s only m adrigal titled as such, as he alread y had w ritten Zefir o tor na e?l bel tempo r imena , a five-voice acapella set on a sonnet by Petrarch. The one based on Petrarch?s sonnet w as published in M onteverdi?s S ix th B ook of M adrigals in 1614. For the purpose of th is paper, w e w ill be discussing the Zefir o tor na based on R inuccini?s poem . 13 Claude V Palisca, ?The Baroque Ideal,? Baroque music (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1991), 8?12. 14 Arnold, ?Madrigals with basso continuo,? Monteverdi, rev. Tim Carter (London: J.M. Dent, 1990), 86. 7 W hen the B aroque style of m usic w as first in troduced, it inevitably received a num ber o f harsh criticism s. A side from its ?new ness,? the term baroque derived from the Portuguese term ba r r oco, w hich had the derogatory m eaning of a pearl in an irregular o r bulbous shape.15 Therefore, the B aroque w as interpreted as a degenerate form of the R enaissance, a ?dark age? or ?a corrupt dialect? o f the R enaissance.16 In the R enaissance era, m usic had stricter uses of expressions or dissonances com pared to the B aroque. In the B aroque era, m usic w as increasingly used for religious, social, and celebration purposes. H ow ever, at the beginning o f the B aroque era, the new style ex isted side by side w ith the old , rather than replacing it com pletely.17 A ccording to B erardi and his teacher Scacchi, the core difference betw een the pr ima pr a ctica and seconda pr a ctica lay in the changed relations betw een m usic and w ord. In R enaissance m usic, ?harm on y is the m aster of the w ord?; in B aroque m usic, ?the w ord is the m aster of harm ony.?18 B oth R enaissance and B aroque m usic acknow ledged the representation of w ords in m usic, but they differed fundam entally in their application m ethods. The R enaissance favored the affections of restraint and noble sim plicity, w hereas the B aroque preferred the ex trem e affections, ranging from agonizing pain to overflow ing happiness. S ubsequently, the expression of in tense affections resulted in a richer vocabulary than before, and Zefir o proves that.19 The song?s lyric concerns the w est w ind Zeph yr 15 Palisca, ?The Baroque Ideal,? Baroque music, 1?2. 16 Bukofzer, Music in the Baroque Era, 2. 17 Ibid, 3. 18 Ibid, 4. 19 Ibid, 5. 8 that brings Spring and its attendant opportunities for a little romance. The following are the lyrics and English translations.20 Zefiro torna, e di soavi accenti l?aer fa grato e?l pi? discioglie a l?onde e mormorando tra le verdi fronde fa danzar al bel suon su?l prato i fiori. Inghirlandato il crin Fillide e Clori note temprando amor care e gioconde e da monti e da valli ime e profonde raddoppian l?armonia gli antri canori. Sorge pi? vaga in Ciel l?aurora el Sole sparge pi? luci d?or pi? puro argento fregia di Teti il bel ceruleo manto. Sol io per selve abbandonate e sole, l?ardor di due begli occhi el mio tormento come vuol mia ventura hor piango, hor canto. Zephyr returns, and with sweet accents enchants the air and frees the waves? feet, and murmuring among the green leaves, makes the flowers dance to his sweet sound. With garlanded hair, Phyllis and Cloris sing love-songs, dear and joyful to them, and through the mountains and valleys, high and low, the echoing caves redouble their music. Dawn rises beautifully in the sky, and the sun pours down the brightest gold, embellishing the sky-blue mantle of Thetis with the purest silver. Alone I wander through a lonely and deserted wood, the ardor of two lovely eyes, and my torment, as my fortune demands, now weep, now sing. As the lyric suggests, the song is playful and teasing. To highlight the character of the piece, the performers are expected to use dissonances freely to express rather than performing in a ?strict manner? as they did before 1600. The score itself is rather simple, leaving an ample amount of room for improvisation from the musicians. For example, for long sustained notes, 20 Claudio Monteverdi, Ciaconna, SV 251, ed. Julius August Philipp Spitta, (Breitkopf and H?rtel, 1927). 9 one m ay add ?shakes? o r trills to elaborate. For m oderately long notes, one m ay add m ordents, turns, or even add short scales or arpeggios betw een notes to bring m ore joviality. The string player m ay also experim ent w ith breaking up long notes to shorter notes to generate even m ore rhythm ic energy and bring buo yancy to the piece. There are m an y instances of w ord-painting, a technique w here the m usic reflects the m eaning of the lyrics. From the beginning, w hen the tw o voices exchange ?zefiro zefiro? in syncopated and dotted rhythm s, a listener can alm ost hear the tw o lovebirds chasing one another around, calling Zeph yr adm irably. W hen the singer sings ?M orm orando? (m urm uring), the voice is set to a w avering, m urm uring figure that runs on for an excessively long tim e. A nd on ?e da m onti? (and from the m ountain), the pitches dram atically ascend, and on ?e da valli? (and from the valley), the pitches descend. Lastly, tow ards the end, both singers sing pitifully ?piago? (w eep) on descending no tes to convey the sadness. D espite a few m om ents of grief, the song is cheerful overall. It exhibits ciaconna elem ents such as a recurring bass line and a trip le m eter (6/4). The recurring tw o-bar bass line, in the key of G , is deliberately syncopated, natu rally generating jovial energy, as show n in Exam ple 1 .1 .1a. E x. 1 .1 .1a : M on tever d i Zefir o tor n a B a sso C on t in u o21 21 Claude Monteverdi, ?Zefiro Torna,? Scherzi musicali (1932), ed. Pierre Gouin (Montr?al: Les ?ditions Outremontaises, 2006), 1. 10 W ith this simple yet spirited line underneath, the two upper voices show off elaborate variations. M any of the voice lines also start on weak beats, creating a sense of urgency. T hey are often imitative of each other, sometimes mimicking, sometimes mirroring ex actly but a measure later. A lthough most of the song is in the ciaconna form, there are two interruptions. F rom the point where the singer sings, ?A lone I wander through a lonely and deserted wood? to ?now weep,? the music changes to duple meter, and the mood becomes statelier and more melancholic. I t then goes back to ciaconna followed by a brief duple meter again before ?hor canto? (now we sing). F rom there, the song comes to a happy ending with a final bril l iant, cadenza-like section. 11 A n ton io B er t a li: C h ia con a U nlike M onteverdi?s Zefir o tor na , w here the violin is to substitute or com plem ent the voice lines, A ntonio B ertali?s C hia cona w as specifically w ritten for violin . B ertali (1605?1669) w as a successful Italian v iolinist and a com poser w ho produced notable operas, oratorios, liturgical w orks, and cham ber m usic. H e w as a court m usician for Leopold I, the H absburg em peror, w here he w as a C hapel-m aster and a com poser for the em peror?s m usic.22 Som e of B ertali?s sonatas included sections w ith contrasting instrum entation, com positional textures, m eters, and tem pos. H is m usic had a significant influence on im perial m usicians, especially Johann H einrich Schm elzer. H is reputation spread through all of Europe, reaching as far from V ienna as Sw eden and G reat B ritain .23 U nfortunately, half o f h is w orks are lost, but out of the rem aining w orks, C hia cona , w hich he w rote for a solo violin and basso continuo, m ay be the m ost w ell-know n. It is unclear w hen C hia cona w as w ritten, but it is assum ed it w as in 1662 or earlier as the piece is in the collection called P a r titur buch Ludwig by Jacob Ludw ig, published in 1662.24 The piece is in C m ajor and set in a trip le m eter of 3/2 . The one-m easure, repeating bass line underlies the chord p rogression of I-V -vi-IV -V (C -G -A -F-G ). See Exam ple 1 .1 .2a. E xa m p le 1 .1 .2a 25 22 Charles E. Brewer, ?The Dissemination and Dissolution of the Stylus Phantasticus,? The Instrumental Music of Schmeltzer, Biber, Muffat and Their Contemporaries (Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing Company, 1988), 46?47. 23 Charles E. Brewer, ?Context for and Functions of Instrumental Music in Central Europe,? A Companion to Music at the Habsburg Courts in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, ed Andrew H. Weaver (Boston: Brill, 2020), 327. 24 Brewer, ?Stylus Phantasticus,? The Instrumental Music of Schmeltzer and Their Contemporaries, 343?349. 25 Antonio Bertali, Chiacona, ed. Charles Everett Brewer (Middleton, WI: A-R Editions, 1997). 12 The chord progression largely rem ains unchanged , though it m odulates to various keys over the course of its 159 repetitions. M ost m odulations occur from m easure fifty-six through sixty-five. B ertali seem s to enjoy utiliz ing the circle of fifths w ith relative m ajor and m inor keys as a tool to m odulate. It essentially goes from C m ajor to F m ajor to B ? m ajor to E? m ajor and finally back to C m ajor w ith their relative m inor keys in betw een. M easure fifty-six is the first tim e the chaconne m odulates to its hom e key?s (C m ajor) relative m inor, w hich is A m inor. It stays in A m inor fo r five m easures, then it m odulates quickly in every bar. In m easure six ty-one, it goes to F m ajor (fifth below C ), then in the follow ing m easure, it goes to D m inor (the relative m inor of F m ajor), then to B ? m ajor (fifth below F), then to G m inor (the relative m inor of B ?), then to E? m ajor (fifth below B ?). H ow ever, in the follow ing m easure, m easure six ty-six , instead of m odulating to C m inor as expected, it goes back to the hom e key, C m ajor. It is w orth noting before m odulating to a different key, the bass line alters slightly. For exam ple, in m easure fifty-five, the bass line is C -G -A -D -E instead of the o riginal C -G -A -F-G before it m odulates from C m ajor to A m inor in m easure fifty-six . The alteration is in the last tw o notes, in w hich the note D serves as iv /A and E serves as V /A , w hich then leads to i of A in the follow ing m easure. S ee Exam ple 1 .1 .2b. E xa m p le 1 .1 .2b 26 26 Bertali, Chiacona. 13 In the m odulated keys, the bass line m aintains the sam e chord progression of I-V -vi-IV -V or i-v- V I-iv-V depending on w hether it is m ajor or m inor keys. See Exam ples 1 .1 .2c and 1 .1 .2d. E xa m p le 1 .1 .2c: T h e b a ss lin e in A m in or , exem p lifyin g i-v-V I -iv-V (A -E -F -D -E ).27 E xa m p le 1 .1 .2d : T h e b a ss lin e in F m a jor , exem p lifyin g I -V -vi-I V -V (F -C -D -G -A ).28 There are other brief m om ents of m odulation again in m easures seventy-tw o and a hundred-six through a hundred-ten, in A m inor, the relative m inor of C m ajor. B ut for m ost of the piece, it rem ains in C m ajor. D espite the m odulations, the chord progression stays the sam e, although listening to the brilliant and varied violin part, one m ay not notice. The violin part, w hich floats and com plem ents the bass line beautifully, is rh ythm ically charged and virtuosic. A considerable num ber of accidentals are found in the violin part w hen the m usic m odulates or as expressive notes during the com poser?s sporadic usage of chrom atic lines. In m easure six ty-one, C # and B ? are added, in m easure six ty-three, E? and F# are added, in m easure six ty-four, A ? and E? are added, and m ore E? notes are added in m easure six ty-five through six ty-eight. A nd m ore A ? notes in m easures six ty-nine and seventy. This liberal usage of dissonances feels quirk y, but it certainly m akes the m usic m ore colorful. It seem s to reconfirm the idea of ba r r oco, not afraid to use dissonances w hich can be interp reted as ?irregular shapes.? 27 Bertali, Chiacona. 28 Ibid. 14 The piece starts quietly and peacefully w ith the bass line strum m ing alone, sim ilar to the m odern-day vam ping. The violin com es in several m easures later in a calm m anner, but in dotted rhythm , fo retelling the w ild dance w hich w ill unfo ld . The violin part boasts florid passages, often in rising or in falling m otions outlin ing a scale. It is also notew orth y that the com poser specifically indicates the dynam ics, including pia n issimo, pia no, and for te. Those seem to be used for theatrical purposes. For exam ple, w hen the sam e sequence repeats, B ertali w rites in pia no or pia nissimo if it is the th ird tim e the sequence repeats. This creates an echo-like effect, w hich is often follow ed by a sudden for te for a surprising effect. B ertali, as an established violinist h im self, m ust have know n how to bring out the brilliance of the instrum ent using advanced techniques. O n num erous occasions, one w ill find big register leaps that w ould require ex tensive string crossings as w ell as quick position changes. O ther advanced violin techniques found in the piece include utiliz ing the th ird and fourth positions and double-stops. S tylistically, the piece seem s to incorporate fast repeating notes and rapid runs, anticipating the characteristic featu res of the great Italian violin m asters, including C orelli and V ivaldi. See Exam ples 1 .1 .2e and 1 .1 .2f. E xa m p le 1 .1 .2e: T h e r a p id r u n s in B er t a li C h ia con n a , sim ila r t o V iva ld i29 29 Bertali, Chiacona. 15 E xa m p le 1 .1 .2f: T h e r a p id r u n s in V iva ld i Su m m er fr om F ou r Sea son s30 30 Antonio Vivaldi, L'Estate (Summer): Concerto for Violin, Strings, and Basso continuo, ed. Simon Launchbury (Mainz, Rhineland PalatinateL Ernst Eulenburg & GmbH, 1996) 16 A r ca n gelo C or elli: La F olia The La F olia (1700) by A rcangelo C orelli (1653?1713) is an im portant w ork in the violin repertoire that u tilizes chaconne fo rm and displays its traditional characteristics. The piece is a collection of tw enty-three fascinating variations, built upon a repeating eight-m easure chordal schem e and w ritten in 3/4 m eter, w hich are the defining traits of chaconne. The piece?s w ide popularity and catch y tune seem to have contributed to it being one of the m ost transcribed pieces in all m usical instrum ents? h istory. C om posers such as V ivaldi, B ach , and even later com posers like Liszt, N ielsen, and R achm aninoff have w ritten transcriptions based on La F olia . H ow ever, C orelli?s F olia w as not the original folia, though it m ay arguably be the m ost recognized one. C orelli?s F olia becam e a very fam ous piece, but in itially, folia w as, in fact, a type of folk dance that later cam e to be associated w ith a popular m usical fram ew ork. The w ord ?folia? m eant m adness, folly, and em pty-headedness because the dance w as so fast and boisterous that the dancers seem ed preposterous. The Folia also seem s to be closely related to another popular B aroque dance, the sarabande.31 The sarabande appears to share m an y sim ilarities to both the chaconne and folia in term s of its realization and the developm ent of its styles. It originated as a sung dance in Latin A m erica and Spain during the 16th century.32 In the 17th century, it cam e to Italy, first in troduced as a part of the Spanish five-course guitar repertoire. A course here refers to a unit of strings that are tuned in unison or an octave, w hich are placed close together to be 31 Nettl, ?The Baroque Period (II),? The Story of Dance Music, 177. 32 Richard Hudson, ?The Folia Dance and the Folia Formula in 17th Century Guitar Music,? Musica Disciplina 25 (1971): 199?200, accessed November 20, 2020. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20532136. 17 played as one string. The Spanish five-course guitar w as a Spanish B aroque guitar w ith five courses, unlike the other European guitars w ith four courses. In itially, the sarabande w as based on harm onic schem es, although later, it developed distinct characteristics in rhythm and tem po. E arly on, it w as a casual and im prom ptu dance that perhaps did not sh y aw ay from profanity. In 1583, the za r a ba nda (the Spanish spelling of sarabande) w as banned for obscenity, w hich of course, d id not stop people from further utiliz ing it. U ntil around the early 17th century, it w as the m ost popular type o f Spanish ba ile. M uch like chaconne, sarabande w as executed in a trip le m eter and w as accom panied by the guitar, castanets, and possibly other percussion instrum ents. each being a vulgar and energetic dance.33 A fter arriving in Europe, the sarabande started developing the characteristics that m odern listeners w ill recognize and w ill typically associate w ith it. The exam ple below show s the rhythm ic features w hich becam e the tradem arks o f the sarabade. They often have an em phasis on the second beat by having a longer, dotted note: E xa m p le 1 .1 .3a : Sa r a b a n d e r h yth m s The sarabande later becam e a slow er dance, especially in France and G erm any. It carried serious affects and som etim es had qualities of the tender and gracious, w hich are quite opposed to its original natu re. The sarabande could be either in m ajor or m inor keys, although the m ajor one 33 Nettl, ?The Baroque Period (II),? The Story of Dance Music, 174?176. 18 seem s to be faster paced (Italy). The m inor sarabande is the one that suggests being closely related to the folia.34 There w ere, in fact, tw o distinctive periods of the folia? the earlier and the later.35 The tw o w ere quite distinct from one another yet shared som e sim ilarities. B oth seem ed to be influenced b y a certain chordal schem e, and both utilized the repeating chordal progressions, a deciding facto r in the chaconne. The earlier folia w as a popular dance-song in Portugal and Spain in the late 16th century, w hich then w as im ported to Italy around 1600. It is speculated to have started as a folk dance. H ow ever, according to som e sources, it w as perfo rm ed during popular festivals and courtly entertainm ents. A ccording to the Spanish dictionary Tesor o de la lengua ca stella na from 1611, the dance w as described as ?a noisy perform ance w ith m any paced figures, to the m usic of castanets and other instrum ents; som e of the dancers carry m asked figures on their backs, w hile others in girls? garm ents w ith pointed sleeves, turn on their heels, p lay castanets, w hile the noise is so great as if they w ere all out of their m inds.?36 N ot m uch w as know n about the early folia until recently. The essence o f it does not appear to be a specific them e or a fixed sequence of chords but rather a com positional- im provisational process that could generate these chord sequences. The earliest ex isting com position adopting the folia progression as a repeated bass line or chordal schem e is F a nta sia que contr a ha ze la ha r pa in A lonso M udarra?s Tr es libr os de m?sica en cifr a s pa r a vihuela of 1546. H ow ever, the first p iece w ith the nam e ?folia? in the title is in Francisco de Salinas?s D e 34 Horst, ?Sarabande,? Pre-Classic Dance forms, 45. 35 Richard Hudson, ?The Folia Melodies,? Acta Musicologica vol. 45, no. 1 (1973): 98, accessed on February 27, 2019, doi:10.2307/932224. 36 Paul Nettl, ?The Baroque Period II?French Ballet, French Dances, Suites and Keyboard-Music,? chap. 8 in The Story of Dance Music, (New York, NY: Philosophical Library, Inc., 1947), 178. 19 musica libr i septem of 1577.37 A s show n in Exam ple 1 .1 .3b, the early folia?s harm onic progression seem s to be loosely based on i-V -i-V II-i-V -i-V II-i-V -i. The low er staff gives the sim ple type of guitar accom panim ent w ith the stem s indicating w hich direction the chords should be strum m ed. The upper staff is the m elod y, w hich provides a basic outline for the tune, but the notes can vary.38 37 Gerbino and Silbiger, ?Folia,? Grove Music Online (2001). 38 Ibid. 20 E x. 1 .1 .3b : T h e ea r ly folia 39 The later folia, the one w e are concerned w ith in th is project, is credited to Jean-B aptiste Lully, w ho com posed the earliest know n exam ple of the new folia m odel in 1672.40 This is the 39 Richard Hudson, ?The Folia Melodies,? Acta Musicologica vol. 45, no. 1 (1973): 104, accessed on February 27, 2019, doi:10.2307/932224. 40 Ibid., 114. 21 m odel that p lays an im portant role in the late histo ry o f folia as m ore than 150 com posers used this m odel to com pose upon for the nex t tw o hundred years or so , including C orelli. E x.1 .1 .3c: T h e la t e folia 41 Lully?s fo rm alized folia had a huge influence on French m usicians, and it becam e the definition of the folia. It is possible that artists like Francesco C orbetta, a v irtuoso guitar p layer w ho im m igrated to France in 1648, m ight have been behind the re-defining of the folia, as m an y of C orbetta?s w orks show ed m an y distinguishable characteristics of the fo rm m ade fam ous b y Lully. S im ilarities betw een the earlier and later fo rm s include like-num bered bars and com parable chord progressions. B oth w ere six teen bars long, not including the ritornelli (the later folia w as eight m easures long but, because of the repeat, it w ould have been six teen m easures long), and the only significant d ifference betw een the tw o-chord progressions is the absence o f the III chord in bars six and thirteen of the earlier form . In the early folia, the em phasis w as given on V (because the pickup notes are in I and the first fu ll m easure is in V ), 41 Gerbino and Silbiger, ?Folia,? Grove Music Online. 22 w hereas in the later folia, the em phasis w as given on I (first m easure), and it relaxed on V (second m easure). A lso, unlike the early folia, the later folia had no ritornelli, w as alm ost alw ays in D m inor (Exam ple 1 .1 .3c has been transposed to G m inor to easily com pare to the early folia), and can be described as slow , elegant, d ignified, and stately. B ased on Lully?s new ly structured folia, C orelli com posed his arguably m ost popular w ork, La F olia , Sonata N o. 12 for V iolin and C ontinuo, O p. 5 in 1700. C orelli, an Italian violinist and a com poser w as a hugely im portant figure in instrum ental m usic, influencing the form , style, and technique of violin repertoire for generations to com e. H is 48 trio sonatas, 12 sonatas for violin and continuo, and 12 concerti grossi had an im m ense im pact on the future of instrum ental m usic. H e w as also know n for im posing strict standards o f discipline for the period, such as bow ing. In m odern orchestras, unanim ous bow ing is som ething that is required, but it w as not so in C orelli?s tim e. It is said that w hen the com poser directed string ensem bles, he insisted on m atching bow ings fo r each part.42 C orelli?s personality and m usical style seem ed to be alike, although the anecdotal accounts of the com poser do not alw ays m atch. C ontem poraries of C orelli m ight agree w ith S ir John H aw kins?s description of him as ?rem arkable for the m ildness of his tem per and the m odesty of his deportm ent,? and such qualities w ere adm ired in a m an of his position. H is playing style, described as learned, and elegant m ay w ell have m atched his personality. H ow ever, at least one w itness contradicts th is im pression, saying ?it w as usual for his 42 Michael Talbot, ?Arcangelo Corelli,? Grove Music Online (2001), accessed on February 21, 2019, https://doi- org.proxy-um.researchport.umd.edu/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.06478. 23 countenance to be distorted, h is eyes to becom e as red as fire, and his eyeballs to roll as if in agon y.?43 H e is know n to be one of m any ?firsts,? as he w as the first com poser to gain recognition solely from instrum ental com position, the first w ho did so largely due to the activity o f the m usic publisher, and the first to produce ?pure? instrum ental w orks w hich w ere appreciated and revisited long after the id iom becam e outm oded. C orelli?s influence w as largely m ade th rough the distribution of his w orks in tw o w ays? printed m usic and teaching.44 H is reputation coincided w ith the huge increase in m usic publications around 1700. The num ber of reprints of C orelli?s m usic w as higher than an yone until H aydn. C orelli?s O p. 1 w ent through 39 know n editions betw een 1681 and 1790, and his m ost popular collection, O p. 5 , w ent through 42 editions by 1800.45 H is m usic and style also lived on through his pupils. H e had several notable students, including Francesco G em iniani, P ietro Locatelli, P ietro C astrucci, and others. C orelli?s O p. 5 is a collection of 12 violin sonatas. The official title of the w ork is Sona te a violino e violone o cimba lo, w hich calls for a violin to be accom panied by violone or a harpsichord. N onetheless, the basso continuo w as w ritten in figured bass no tation, w hich could be played b y other instrum ents, including lute, theorbo, organ, or guitar. N os. 1?6 are sona ta da chiesa (church sonatas), w hich have abstract m ovem ents. They usually consist of four m ovem ents, in the follow ing order: a slow introduction, a fugue, a slow m ovem ent, and a highly im itative, fast-paced finale. N os. 7?12 are sona ta da ca mer a (cham ber sonatas), w hich have specific sets of m ovem ents such as pr elude, a llema nde, cor r ente, sa r a ba nde, ga votte, and gigue. 43 Marc Pincherle, ?The Life of Corelli,? Corelli: His Life, His Work, transl. Hubert E. M. Russell, (Paris: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1956), 46. 44 Pincherle, ?Corelli?s Influence,? Corelli: His Life, His Work, 140. 45 Michael Talbot, ?Arcangelo Corelli,? Grove Music Online (2001). 24 H ow ever, C orelli?s F olia , N o. 12, the last sonata in O p. 5 , is a stand-alone w ork that has a single m ovem ent. It does not fit in to the typical of either sonata da chiesa or sonata da cam era. N evertheless, using the versatile chaconne form , F olia surely seem s to encom pass as m an y various ideas as other sonatas of O p. 5 w ith m ultiple m ovem ents. R egarding the length, th is single-m ovem ent w ork has three hundred fo rty-eight m easures, and it is just as length y as other sonatas of O p. 5 w ith their several m ovem ents com bined. L ike Lully?s folia, the one by C orelli uses the harm onic progression, i-V -i-V II-III-V II-i- V over eight m easures. B ecause this pattern is p layed tw ice in each variation, the last tw o m easures of the repetition (m easures fifteen and six teen) are often altered to achieve harm onic com pletion; thus, i-V (in m easures seven and eight) is replaced b y i-V -I (in m easures fifteen and sixteen). O verall, the harm onic progression creates a pattern of strong bars alternating w ith w eak bars over the course of the six teen-bar cycle. The piece is w ritten in D m inor, so naturally, the overall m ood is m ore serious and m elancholic than the chaconnes of M onteverdi or B ertali. The bass line consists of D -A -D -C -F- C -D -A , and its overall h ierarchical shape is that it rises tow ards m easure five (the bass note F) before it falls. This shape seem s to m irror the tension betw een the notes as w ell because the tension rises tow ards m easure five, w hich is the m idpoint of the phrase, before falling again . This sym m etrical shape of tension seem s to contribute a sense of balance to the m usic. 25 E x. 1 .1 .3d : C or elli ? F olia ? T h em e46 The piece is w ritten in trip le m eter, although there are a few exceptions in the m iddle part of the piece. D espite having the constant chordal schem e over tw enty-three variations, it is a full d isplay of different characters. S tructurally, there are three different p laces in the piece that specifically call for Ada gio, and they are the them e, variation 8 , and variation 14. A lthough F olia is a single m ovem ent, one m ay w onder if those slow m arked variations w ere som e sort of landm arks to group different variations together. O ther sonata da cam eras in O p. 5 (N os. 7?11) start w ith slow preludios except for N o. 7 , w hich has Viva ce p reludio. The them e, w hich is in slow tem po, proudly exhibits the m ajestic and elegant French style, fittingly, as it w as Jean-B aptiste Lully w ho m asterfully constructed folia. The them e also presents im portant aspects of the sarabande, w hich are the dotted rh ythm s and em phasis on beat tw o. The dotted rh ythm s not only help em phasize the second beat but seem to bring in m ore dram a to the m usic. A dded ornam ents and other im provisations w ould be encouraged, w hich w ould further bring out the graceful yet dazzling effects. From variation 1 , C orelli starts adding 46 Arcangelo Corelli, ?XII. Folia,? in 12 Violin Sonatas, Op. 5, ed. Pierre Gouin (Montr?al: Les ?ditions Outremontaises, 2006), 1, https://ks.imslp.net/files/imglnks/usimg/4/4c/IMSLP128007-WIMA.e61f-Corelli_Follia_Violino_bc.pdf. 26 more moving notes, slowly building up more drama and tempo. In variation 2, constant eighth- notes are added, and in variation 3, fiery exchanges occur between the violin and basso continuo playing rapid sixteenth-notes. Each voice seems to carry equal weight in these musical dialogues. Variation 6 and 7 seem to be the storm before the calm (the next Adagio variation). They present perpetual sixteenth-notes with constant string crossings, outlining the chord on every beat. Qualities like this certainly seem to speak of the wild and mad qualities of the early folia and chaconne. Variation 8, Adagio, abruptly changes the tone with calm and flowy eighth-notes outlining the harmony. The presence of the melody is not strong in this one. Rather the focus seems to be harmonies and the general calm mood. However, the calm does not stay long as variation 9, Vivace, starts off with faster sixteenth-notes. In this case, the two parts almost seem like they are one voice. One of them starts off on beat one, and the other finishes off the same gesture on beats two and three. This variation ends on V (note A), finishing on a half cadence. It effectively lands on i in the next variation, which simultaneously starts as it ends the previous variation. Variation 10 is in 3/8, resulting in very fast-paced harmonic changes. It features many big string crossings, such as string crossing from G or D string to E string. The very fast harmonic changes, and the huge leaps seem to produce instability, which leads to the next few variations with unusual meters. Variations 11 through 13 are astonishingly in duple. The harmony here changes in every half bar instead of every bar. Variations 11 is in 4/4, and here the violin seems to imitate the sound of an organ with sustained double-stops. Variation 12 is still in 4/4/, but marked Allegro, picking up the tempo once again. The last variation before the final Adagio, variation 13, is in 12/8, a compound meter executed in four, and it features capricious runs. 27 V ariation 14, the third of the three A dagios, is aria-like and tranquil. T he violin l ine is so minimal that it seems almost barren, and this balances the intensity of the variations around it. T empo starts picking up again in variation 16 with off-beat eighth-notes, and variation 17 shows off abundant use of syncopations, which creates a sense of urgency. V ariation 18 consists of more raucous six teenth-notes of descending and ascending scales, and variation 19 presents highly imitative, canon-like dialogues between the two instruments. V ariations 20 and 21 introduce the faster motion of triplets, adding ex citement and leading to a climax . V ariations 22 and 23, which are similar in nature to variation 6, show off rapid double-stop six teenths. T hese variations unequivocally seem to be related to the madness, folly, and empty-headedness of the original folia, as well as the original chaconne, which originated as a wild, raucous baile. O ne may think the repetition of the same chord progression over twenty-three variations would result in rather dull, and uneventful music. B ut as C orelli? s F olia proved, the repetition and its persistency can, in fact, work the opposite way and create a sense of hypnotic focus and unex pected drama. In normal variation forms, where the theme is a longer, complete unit, the repetition is not frequent enough to induce this kind of reaction in people. B ut the relentless repetition in the chaconne can bring about a state of frenz y or an altered state of consciousness. C orelli? s F olia demonstrates that the chaconne can be ex traordinarily versatile. It is a single-movement piece that is written using the seemingly unimaginative form of a repeated chordal scheme. H owever, it offers an abundance of characters and styles, from pompous and elegant to fiery and maddening, all held together by the common grounds. D ue to its minor key, the overall mood of C orelli? s work is more serious than the chaconnes by M onteverdi and B ertali. N evertheless, F olia i l lustrates the early chaconne?s symbolic significance as an ex citing and boisterous dance. 28 C h a p ter 2: E lega n t a n d C ou r t ly D a n ce In th is chapter, w e w ill be exploring the chaconnes that can be characterized as elegant and courtly. Exam ples w ill include the w orks b y Johann H einrich Schm elzer and Jean-B aptiste Lully. J oh a n n H ein r ich Sch m elzer : C ia ccon a Johann H einrich Schm elzer (born betw een 1620 and 1623 and died in 1680) w as an im portant A ustrian com poser of instrum ental m usic w ho m ade substantial contributions to the developm ent of violin technique and the developm ent of sonata and suite form s in A ustria and South G erm an y. It is not clear w hom he studied w ith, though it is possible he m ay have had elem entary training at the m onastery in his hom etow n, M elk. A n early docum ent indicates that he began his career as a court m usician, probably as a violinist, in 1635?6. In 1649, he w as officially appointed as a violinist in the court orchestra, although it is not clear w hat his position or role w as.47 H e also enjo yed a close relationship w ith the em peror, Leopold I. Schm elzer w as the director of instrum ental m usic at the em peror?s coronation in Frankfurt and the em peror?s assistant in his ow n com positions. In 1671, Schm elzer w as appointed vice-K apellm eister at the im perial court and started sharing the responsibilities of the K apellm eister, G .F. Sances. In addition, in 1673, the em peror granted Schm elzer?s petition to be raised to the nobility, and the title ?von Ehrenrueff? w as added to the com poser?s nam e.48 In 1679, only after Sances?s death , 47 Charles E. Brewer, ?Johann Heinrich Schmeltzer and Music at the Viennese Court,? The Instrumental Music of Schmeltzer, Biber, Muffat and Their Contemporaries, 45?53. 48 Ibid. 29 Schm elzer officially becam e the K apellm eister but soon died due to a w ide-spread plague in 1680. O ne m ay argue that h is greatest achievem ents are his instrum ental m usic, including ballet suites and cham ber m usic. There w as an am ple need for ballet m usic during the reign of Leopold I, as dance m usic w as a regular part of the ro yal entertainm ent. D ance suites or individual dances had evolved from the jousts and tournam ents of earlier tim es, and m ost w ere featu red in dr a mmi per musica (Ita lia n oper a ser ia ), ser ena ta s, and even in a num ber of spoken dram as.49 In these ex travaganzas, the visual aspect w as very im portant, and the perfo rm ers w ere often in costum es dressed as n ym phs, tritons, spirits, or even anim als, and the staging included intricately decorated sets. The official ballet com posers w ere W olfgang Ebner, Schm elzer and his son A ndreas A nton, and J.J . H offer. Their goal w as to design the m usic to bring out the visual spectacles and to support the stylized ballet m ovem ents.50 Schm elzer?s dance suites w ere typically com prised of tw o to nine individual dances. M any began w ith an intr a da and ended w ith a r etir a da . The m iddle m ovem ents consisted of a large num ber o f various types in varied order. H is independent dances included the galliard , bourr?e, sarabande, gigue, gavotte, allem ande, and courante, am ong others.51 Each type featured abundant m elodic and rhythm ic varieties, w hich largely stem m ed from the com poser?s use o f certain elem ents of A ustrian folk m usic. These included brief yet d istinctive m otifs based on a 49 Rudolf Schnitzler, ?Schmelzer [Schmeltzer, Schmelzer von Ehrenruef], Johann Heinrich,? Grove Music Online (2001), accessed on March 1, 2019, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com.proxy- um.researchport.umd.edu/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e- 0000024921. 50 Ibid. 51 Ibid. 30 succession of octaves, 6 ths, 5 ths, and m ajor 3rds, w hich had been claim ed b y a m usicologist Paul N ettl to be an im itation of the sounds of w ind instrum ents in the alpine region folk m usic.52 The follow ing exam ples, from the first m ovem ent of Schm elzer?s Sonata N o. 4 , dem onstrate the distinct A ustrian folk m otifs. E x. 1 .2 .1a : T h e su ccession of 5ths (m . 11?12)53 E x. 1 .2 .1b : T h e su ccession of 5ths, 3rds, a n d 6ths (m . 22?25)54 E x. 1 .2 .1c: T h e su ccession of oct a ves, 5ths, a n d 6ths (m . 40?43)55 52 Nettl, The Story of Dance Music, 158, 210. 53 Johann Heinrich Schmelzer, ?Sonata Quarta,? Sonatae unarum fidium (1664). 54 Ibid. 55 Ibid. 31 Schm elzer seem ed to have appreciated fuller tex tures in general, as is evident in his sonatas. For exam ple, D uodena selecta r um sona ta r um features tw o m elod y instrum ents (tw o violins or violin and viola da gam ba), and continuo and Sa cr o-pr ofa nus concentus musicus features up to eight parts w ith polychoral treatm ents. A lthough Schm elzer seem ed to like sonatas w ith fuller instrum entation, he ultim ately becam e w ell-know n for sonatas w ith th inner instrum entation. A prim e exam ple is Sona ta e una r um fidium (1664), the six sonatas for violin and continuo. Sona ta e una r um fidium w as the earliest published w ork in the G erm an-speaking countries that w as w holly dedicated to violin sonatas. M ost of them w ere based on variation form and w ere built up of short sections of contrasting m eters and tem pos. In the solo sonatas, these sections w ere prolonged to show case the dazzling technique of the violin , including fast scales and arpeggios in the full range of the violin .56 The first m ovem ent of S onata N o. 4 in D M ajor from Schm elzer?s Sona ta e una r um fidium is titled C ia ccona . It is a prim e exam ple of the com poser?s variation w riting, built upon a repeating bass line. The m ovem ent is set in a violin-friendly key, D m ajor, and in 3/2 tim e, giving a dance-like m otion. It opens peacefully w ith the ground bass sounded alone. The ground bass consists of chaconne?s typical descending four notes, D -C #-B -A . E ach note is sustained for a full m easure o f six beats, creating a sense of tim elessness. It rem ains unchanged and is p layed 24 tim es over the course of the m ovem ent. E x. 1 .2 .1d : Sch m elzer S on a ta N o. 4 b a ss lin e57 56 Brewer, ?Schmeltzer and Music at the Viennese Court,? The Instrumental Music, 79. 57 Schmelzer, ?Sonata Quarta,? Sonatae unarum fidium (Nuremberg: Michael Endter, 1664). 32 The violin part in th is w ork does not seem to concentrate on splash y passages but rather gives an im pression of elegance and serenity. The established elegant rh ythm of sarabande is also observed in C ia ccona . The second beats are em phasized by having a long note (a w hole note) follow ing a big in terval leap or b y having a dotted note. E x. 1 .2 .1e: M . 22?26: L on g n otes on b ea t tw o follow in g a b ig in t er va l lea p 58 E x. 1 .2 .1 .f: M . 39?47: A d ot t ed h a lf n ote on b ea t tw o59 The fastest notes in the p iece are eighth notes, w hich can get relatively fast but perhaps not rapid enough to m esm erize the audience w ith technical brilliance. H ow ever, the range is quite im pressive. It covers from low A 3 (below m iddle C ) on the G string to E6 on the E string in the fourth position. The intervals w ithin the violin part, as w ell as the in tervals betw een the violin and the continuo, seem to be based on either the perfect intervals (the 4th, 5 th, and the octaves) or the 3rd (or 6th, w hich is 3rd inverted). The usages of perfect in tervals appear to add m ore purity and tranquility, w hile the 3rds im ply gracefulness. Tow ards the end of the m ovem ent, there is a segm ent that resem bles certain nature sounds, such as bird calls, using perfect in tervals. 58 Ibid. 59 Ibid. 33 E x. 1 .2 .1g: B ir d ca lls60 B esides the C ia conna in Sona ta e una r um fidium, there is another chaconne piece b y Schm elzer, titled C ia ccona in A M ajor. N ot m uch is know n about the piece except that it is a stand-alone w ork and that it has gained considerab le popularity. S im ilar to the atm osphere o f C ia ccona from Sona ta e una r um fidium, th is p iece is peaceful and charm ing. It features sim ilar in tervallic uses w ithin the violin part, such as the perfect in tervals and the 3rds, giving the im pression of openness and poise. The m usic alw ays begins w ith a pick-up note and leads in to the dow nbeat, w hich is o ften dotted, therefore giving a strong em phasis on beat one as w ell as a proper and courtly feeling. The tim e signature of 3/4 and the dotted rh ythm , in general, create gentle and lilting gestures throughout the w ork. T he ground bass in th is p iece is a b it unusual because it is halved in tw o. Each halved bass line is repeated once every four bars, effectively playing 26 tim es. The piece is 104 m easures, but it results in 208 m easures in perform ance because o f the repeats. E x. 1 .2 .1h : Sch m elzer C ia ccon a in A M a jor b a ss lin e61 60 Schmelzer, ?Sonata Quarta,? Sonatae unarum fidium (1664). 61 Johann Heinrich Schmelzer, Ciaccona in A major. 34 A ll th ings considered, Schm elzer?s chaconnes seem to be very different in character from the Italian chaconnes. H is w orks appear to be m ore subtle in their expression and their approach to violinistic brilliance. They seem to take pride in refined elegance and sim ple beauty. 35 J ea n B a p t ist e L u lly: C h a con n e fr om th e O per a , P h a ?ton Jean-B aptiste Lully (1632?1687) w as an exceptionally gifted and versatile artist w ho played a critical role in developing French B aroque ballets and operas. B orn in Italy as G iovanni B attista Lulli, he left h is native land for Paris in 1646. Lully?s ballet m usic w as first in troduced in C avalli?s opera Xer xes. This w as a period in history w hen the Italian com posers w ere trying to w in over the French public. B allets w ere incorporated in Italian operas to appeal to the French taste. Lully, w ho show ed exceptional talent in w riting ballet m usic, w as asked to w rite for the opera Xer xes, w hich w as perform ed on the occasion of the w edding of the young Louis X IV . The French audience very m uch loved Lully?s w ork. S oon he w as com m issioned to w rite the ballet m usic for the opera E r cole a ma nte (H ercules in Love). F rom then on, Lully w as able to establish him self as an im portant com poser for both operas and ballets in the French theatres and eventually becam e the K ing?s favorite com poser.62 Louis X IV (1638?1715), like his father Louis X III (1601?1643), w as a dance enthusiast. D ance w as at the core o f all court entertainm ents, including the court ballets and operas. E ven m uch of the concert m usic bore dance titles.63 Louis X IV w as an excellent dancer, and in his younger years, he repeatedly appeared on stage perform ing the p rincipal role. It w as not unusual for the K ing him self to dance in the ballets in the role of one of the G ods o r K ings, as th is allow ed the audience to be m esm erized and believe in his ?divinity.?64 In his dances, he w as able to express the pride and m agnificence of the court and of the K ing, ?le G rand R oi? (?the G reat 62 Paul Nettl, ?The Baroque Period II: French Ballet, French Dances, Suites and Keyboard-Music? in The Story of Dance Music, 162. 63 Betty Bang Mather, ?Introduction? in Dance Rhythms of the French Baroque, xii. 64 Nettl, The Story of Dance Music, 163. 36 K ing?) w ho w as the center of it all.65 The fact that he w as also know n as ?the Sun K ing? w ill becom e relevant below . O w ing to the p ractice of Louis X IV , dance becam e associated w ith grandiosity and stature. In 1661, th irteen dancing m asters of the ?C om m unaut? de Saint Julien des M enestriers? even decided to break free of the form er group and form ed a new group called ?A cad?m ie de la D ance? to com e up w ith the ideas to raise the dance to the dignity of special science and profession. They infused the dance w ith refined gestures and precisely dictated m ovem ents.66 B y this point, the French chaconne had been established and started show ing m any of the characteristics that w ould define the genre in the 17th and 18th centuries. C om pared to the A ustrian dances, w hich had m ore of a rustic feel w ith sim pler structures, the French dances w ere sophisticated, som etim es em otionally charged, and graceful.67 Som e elem ents of the Italian tradition w ere still presen t in the French w orks, yet there w ere m arked differences in both effect and design. The French chaconnes w ere stately, m ajestic, suggestive of pom p and circum stance, unlike the lighthearted and capricious Italian chaconnes.68 S tructurally, the F rench ones had less of an im provisatory quality and exhibited w ell-planned, orderly form ats. T he repetition of units, w hich often alternated betw een half and full cadences, and the recurrence o f earlier units, becam e im portant structural techniques.69 65 Nettl, 163. 66 Ibid. 67 Ibid, 165 68 Ibid., 204. 69 Alexander Silbiger, ?Passacaglia and Ciaccona: Genre Pairing and Ambiguity from Frescobaldi to Couperin,? Journal of Seventeenth-Century Music, Vol.2/1 (1996), accessed on February 2, 2019, https://sscm- jscm.org/v2/no1/silbiger.html#Section1. 37 Tr a g?dies lyr iques w ere not tragic operas. They w ere based on classical m ythologies such as the Italian rom antic epics of Tasso and A riosto . They w ere to celebrate the king?s noble qualities and his prow ess in w ar. In Lully?s tr a g?d ies lyr iques, chaconne w as placed centrally, and it w as presented in a lavishly ex tended form . Several included chains of w ell over 100 units, w hich som etim es incorporated vocal and instrum ental segm ents. These chaconnes w ere characterized b y m arked contrast: som e variations w ent in to the relative m inor m ode, som e om itted the bass instrum ents, and som e featured only a solo w ind instrum ent. The chaconne w as used to celebrate a hero?s trium ph or/and to heighten the effects of the clim ax of the show . Particularly, in som e of h is late operas (such as Rola nd, 1685, and Ar mide, 1686), a single chaconne w ould span an entire scene, bringing it continuity.70 Lully?s five-act opera P ha ?ton (1683) features the elegant kind of chaconne at the end of A ct 2 . P ha ?ton w as the tenth of his tr a gedies lyr iques w ritten w ith librettist Philippe Q uinault and his first to receive its w orld prem iere at the Palace of V ersailles in 1683 .71 A s w ith the other court arts at the tim e of Louis X IV , th is opera had a political m otive. The plot is som ew hat com plicated, but in short, it w as the tale of Pha?ton, the son of Sun-god A pollo . Pha?ton w as not a god him self and not exactly likable, but he w as ex trem ely driven. To p rove him self as the son of A pollo , Pha?ton drives his father?s chariot of the sun but, in the course of his ride, he loses control of the horses. This puts the earth in danger of fiery destruction, so Jupiter strikes Pha?ton w ith a thunderbolt, causing his death but saving the earth . Essentially it is a tale, w hich can be 70 Silbiger, ?Chaconne? Grove Music Online (2001) 71 Nicholas Ivor Martin, The Opera Manual (Lanham: Scarecrow Press, 2014), 289?290. 38 seen as a w arning to an yone w ho tries to com e close to the Sun?s pow er; as Louis X IV w as know n as the ?Sun K ing,? th is w as a recognizable w arning to his political opponents.72 The chaconne from P ha ?ton is w ritten for an opera orchestra com prised o f a 5-part string section (tw o violin parts, v iola, v ioloncello , and contrabass), harpsichord, tw o oboes, and a bassoon. E x. 1 .2 .2a : A n excer p t fr om th e ch a con n e fr om P h a ?ton 73 The w ork?s rich harm onies, set in a joyous G m ajor, are enhanced b y the varied colors o f the individual instrum ents and the great num ber of different w ays they can be com bined w ith different voicings. A lternating betw een different instrum ent groups helps to create a larger 72 Ibid. 73 Jean Baptiste Lully, PHA?TON (1683), ed. Nicolas Sceaux (Urtext/N?nuvar, 2012), 178. 39 structure in the sequence of variations. In l ine with the established chaconne style, the piece is written in ? with rhythmic energy, in a slow to moderate tempo. It begins on beat two with stately quarter-notes and continues to emphasize beat two of each bar with a dotted quarter-note: (??|??.?|??.?|?.?? |?). T he repeated harmonic progression, I -V -IV -V -I (G major-D major-C major- D major-G major), spans four bars. W hile the harmonic progression does not substantively change, the bass l ine sometimes alters to accommodate passing tones or neighbor tones. In the opening, for ex ample, the bass l ine is G -D -E /C -D -G but, in measure 17, the bass l ine is modified to G -F #-F -E -C -D -G . L ully seems to have found special significance in the sound of strings alone. S ometimes, he omits the rest of the orchestra, including the bass l ine, so that the strings will be heard unaccompanied, or he will have only the first v iolin play against a very light accompanimental tex ture. U nlike Italian and A ustrian chaconnes, the P ha?ton chaconne seems to ex emplify the F rench style: cultured, well-planned, and majestic. 40 C h a p ter 3: R ep r esen ta t ion s of F a te In th is chapter, w e w ill be exam ining chaconnes, w hose m ood and other characteristics tie them to the subjects of fate and m ortality. These include H einrich Ignaz Franz von B iber?s Passacaglia from the Myster y Sona ta s, H enry Purcell?s aria When I a m la id in ea r th from the opera D ido a nd Aenea s, and lastly, Johann Sebastian B ach?s C haconne from the violin partita in D m inor. H ein r ich I gn a z F r a n z von B ib er : P a ssa ca glia for Violin Solo in G m in or , C . 105 F r om th e M yster y Son a ta s H einrich Ignaz Franz von B iber (1644?1704) w as a B ohem ian-born A ustrian com poser and a virtuoso violinist w ho w as m ost recognized for his v iolin m usic. H ow ever, he w as equally prolific in other genres, w hether they w ere instrum ental or vocal, sacred o r secular. In particular, h is polychoral church m usic, including m asses, requiem s, and m otets, has received m uch adm iration.74 H is violin w orks are virtuosic, h ighly elaborate, and contrapuntal. M any contain brilliant passagew ork over ground basses as w ell as technically dem anding double-stops. W hile other G erm an violin com posers of his tim e, including Johann H einrich Schm elzer and Johann Jakob W alther, w rote w orks sim ilar to B iber?s style, only B iber utilized 6th and 7th positions of the violin fingerboard, w hich set h im apart even from his peers. H ow ever, the m ost revolutionary aspect of B iber?s w orks is probably the use of scordatura.75 74 Brewer, ?The Chapel of Prince-Bishop Carl Liechtenstein-Castelcorn,? The Instrumental Music of Schmeltzer, Biber, Muffat and Their Contemporaries (Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2011), 197?203. 75 Robin Stowell, ?The repertory and principal sources,? The Early Violin and Viola: A Practical Guide (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001), 13. 41 Scordatura is a technique that is applied to lu tes, guitars, v iols, and the violin fam ily, requiring the instrum ents to be tuned differently from the standard tuning. U sing this technique, the perform er w ould play the sam e notes as w ritten in the m usic, but due to the altered tuning, the concert p itch w ould be different from the score. It w as m ost popular during the B aroque period, but it w as used by som e other later period com posers such as Saint-Sa?ns (D a nse ma ca br e, O p. 40) and M ahler (S ym phon y N o. 4 , second m ovem ent), to nam e a few . This technique som etim es even expanded the register o f the instrum ent (especially going below the low G , w hich is the low est note on the violin otherw ise) or allow ed the unconventional double- stopping as w ell as string crossing. Scordatura often resulted in unique sonority and tim bre, w hich appealed to m an y com posers, and B iber w as one of the first to utilize it. The Myster y Sona ta s (also know n as Rosa r y or C opper P la te Engr a ving Sona ta s) and H a r monia a r tificiosa - a r iosa are B iber?s tw o m ajor w orks em plo ying the scordatura technique. 14 sonatas from the Myster y Sona ta s em plo y different scordaturas, and so do the 6 suites from H a r monia a r tificiosa - a r iosa .76 The Myster y Sona ta s are a rare exam ple of purely sacred instrum ental m usic that is reflective of the lives of Jesus and the V irgin M ary. The collection is com prised of 16 pieces: 15 short sonatas for violin and continuo and the final passacaglia, w hich is for solo violin . The set w as likely com posed during the 1670s and w as dedicated to B iber?s em ployer, the A rchbishop of Salzburg. These w orks w ere not published, and B iber never specified the title of the collection, thus creating confusion as to w hat its form al title should be. H ow ever, in the one surviving m anuscript, each sonata is identified by an engraving depicting one of the 15 M ysteries of the 76 Stowell, ?The repertory and principal sources,? The Early Violin and Viola, 13. 42 R osary (apparently cut from the devotional book and carefully pasted into the score). Thus, the collection is usually referred to as the Myster y Sona ta s, the Rosa r y Sona ta s, and the C opper - Engr a ving Sona ta s.77 The rosary is a devotion to the V irgin M ary, and it often refers to the prayers and/or the string of beads to count the prayers. The Latin w ord ?rosary? m eans a garland of roses, and fittingly, a rose is one o f the flow ers used to sym bolize the V irgin M ary.78 The rosary is thought to have begun m an y centuries ago as the lay b rothers, know n as conver si, s tarted the practice o f reciting 150 psalm s on a regular basis, w hich even tually becam e m ore easily rem em bered prayers. The first chosen prayer w as the ?O ur Father,? w hich w as said fifty or a hundred tim es, and chaplets of beads w ere used to keep count.79 The M ysteries of the R osary depicts the episodes in the life and death of Jesus from the A nnunciation to the A ssum ption of the V irgin and the C oronation of the V irgin .80 These prayers are traditionally grouped in three them es: the Joyful (or Joyous) M ysteries, the Sorrow ful M ysteries, and the G lorious M ysteries, w hich is also the form at B iber follow s in his Myster y Sona ta s. To partake in the R osary M ysteries, the faithful w ould go around a cycle o f paintings o r sculptures placed at various points in church or other buildings. A t each station, one w ould recite the prayers, listen to certain related biblical passages o r m essages, and presum ably B iber?s m usical com m entary. 77 Heinrich Biber, and Peter Holman, ?Mystery Man. Peter Holman Celebrates the 350th Anniversary of the Birth of Heinrich Biber,? The Musical Times 135, no. 1817 (1994): 437?41, accessed Dec 1, 2020. doi:10.2307/1003253. 78 Biber, and Holman, ?Mystery Man,? The Musical Times, 437?41. 79 Ibid. 80 Ibid. 43 A s discussed previously, the Myster y Sona ta s are grouped in three cycles o f five. The first cycle (sonatas nos. 1?5) is based on the early life of Jesus, the second cycle (sonatas nos. 6? 10) is based on the Passion of C hrist, and lastly, the th ird cycle (sonatas nos. 11?15) is based on the final episodes from the R esurrection of Jesus to the A ssum ption and C oronation of the V irgin . Though B iber?s m usic is based on these events, they are not literally program m usic. There are a few instances depicting certain m om ents, such as the flu ttering of the angel?s w ings, the ham m ering of the nails, or the earthquake. H ow ever, the m usical content does not alw ays draw a clear p icture as there are rather odd m om ents of dance m usic or virtuosic passages in the m iddle of a sorrow ful part of the story.81 Therefore, it seem s m ore likely the m usic w as intended to help one?s m editations and reflections rather than to narrate the events explicitly. H ow ever, h is usage of scordatura appears to com plim ent the m ood of each cycle, w ith the exception of the first sonata Annuncia tion and the final sonata P a ssa ca glia , all the other sonatas in the m iddle feature 14 different scordaturas. B ecause the collection opens and closes w ith the ones that are tuned the standard w ay (G -D ?-A ?-E ??), it feels as if w e are on a violin tuning journey that eventually ends at its starting point. The follow ing exam ple show s the various scordaturas uses in sonatas nos. 2?15. E x. 1 .3 .1a : T h e violin tu n in gs of M yster y Son a ta s N os. 2?15 81 Biber, and Holman, ?Mystery Man,? The Musical Times, 437?41. 44 In sonatas tw o through five, the tuning is, for the m ost part, raised from standard tuning, creating a b right and open sound appropriate to the Joyful M ysteries. In sonatas six through ten, the tunings serve to m ute the sound or create tense dissonances appropriate to the Sorrow ful M ysteries. Especially in N o. 6 (C hrist on the M ount of O lives), an exceptionally dissonant chord is form ed in the tuning based on the dark C m inor key w ith the G string playing A b. In N o. 7 (The Scourging at the P illar) and in N o. 8 (The C row n of Thorns), a rem arkably sm all range of tuning is m ade so that the tuning is com pressed in to one single octave (N o. 7: C ?-F?-A ?-C ?? and N o. 8: D ?-F?-B b?-D ??). In the final cycle, The G lorious M ysteries, m ostly sonorous tunings, are used. In N o. 11 (The R esurrection), the m iddle strings (D string and A string) are even ph ysically crossed over to enable the ex traordinary G -G ?-D ?-D ??. This results in an ex trem ely strange yet fantastic sonority that is appropriate to its them e and, from a practical point of v iew , it allow s the subject of the central m ovem ent, the Easter p lainsong h ym n Sur r exit C hr istus hodie, to be played on the violin in octaves. E x. 1 .3 .1b : N o. 11 scor d a tu r a in d ica t ion a n d a n excer p t of Su r r exit C h r istu s h odie p la yed on th e violin in oct a ves.82 82 Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber, 1644?1704 ?Sonata 11 in G major, The Resurrection,? Mystery (Rosary) Sonatas (1674), ed. Guido Adler (?sterreichischer Bundesverlag, 1959). 45 A nother notew orth y detail from the last cycle is that one of the them es from N o. 15 features sounds alm ost exactly like the them e from Paganini C aprice N o. 24. W e can speculate that Paganini adm ired B iber?s sonatas and w as inspired to w rite his C aprices. E x. 1 .3 .1c: N o. 15 scor d a tu r a in d ica t ion , a n d a n excer p t t h a t sou n d s lik e P a ga n in i C a p r ice N o. 24. 83 The P a ssa ca glia for una ccompa nied violin in G minor , w hich closes the sonatas, is w idely considered as the greatest p iece fo r solo violin before B ach?s C ha conne.84 Like the first sonata of the collection, the Annuncia tion, the P a ssa ca glia requires the standard violin tuning. The piece is prefaced b y a picture of a guardian angel and child , and the piece m ay have been w ritten for a perfo rm ance at a special ?Feast of the G uardian A ngel? on O ctober 2 , as O ctober w as the m onth that w as specially devoted to the R osary M ysteries at Salzburg C athedral.85 83 Ibid., ?Aria from Sonata 15 in C major, Crowning of the Virgin Mary? 84 Stowell, ?The repertory and principal sources,? The Early Violin and Viola, 13. 85 Dann and Sehnal, ?Biber, Heinrich Ignaz Franz von,? Grove Music Online (2001). 46 E x. 1 .3 .1d : T h e p ictu r e p r efa cin g N o. 16 a n d th e r ep ea t in g b a ss lin e86 The P a ssa ca glia is built upon a repeating bass line, w hich consists of four descending notes from the tonic to its dom inant in m inor m ode (G -F-E?-D ). U nlike other passacaglias or chaconnes, the one b y B iber gave no freedom to the bass line in term s of tim e, rhythm , or in tervals. From the beginning to the end, the tetrachord is heard constantly w ithout m issing a beat. From the start, the four m inor-scale notes set rather a serious m ood. T he m usic is set in a 6/8 tim e signature instead of the typical trip le m eter. W hile the tim e signature of 6/8 usually im plies that the piece is to be felt in tw o beats per bar, the tem po of B iber?s P a ssa ca glia is slow enough that each half bar sounds like the three beats of a norm al chaconne. The variations tend to com e in pairs, w here the second of the pair is like a ?variation of a variation.? The transition to the nex t pair is often anticipated b y a change o f tex ture or m otive at the end of the previous pair. For exam ple, at the end of m easure 12, after a variation of arpeggios, a solid chord is in troduced, anticipating the solid chords of the upcom ing variation. W ith all chaconnes and passacaglias, the com poser faces the challenge of taking a form w hose bass line renders it fundam entally static and finding w ays to create larger structures w ith a developm ental arc. B iber finds several w ays to accom plish this. F irst, the P a ssa ca glia is 86 Biber, ?Passacaglia in G minor,? Mystery Sonatas. 47 punctuated b y Ada gios, m arking points of structu ral significance. The Ada gios are m arked in m easures 49?52 and in 93?102 (this one does not clearly indicate w hen the Ada gio section ends, but it appears to end in 102 because starting m easure 102, the variation seem s to consist of the fast recitative-like m aterials). In the first Ada gio section, it seem s that B iber added em phasis on every eighth-note w ith chords and trills to m ake the m usic sound even slow er. The second Ada gio appears in m easure 92, in the m iddle of the bass line. Later in the sam e m easure, the harm ony progresses from V /V (A ) to V (D ) w ith a ferm ata. Introducing the V chord w ith the V /V has the effect o f m aking the V chord feel like a goal in itself, rather than as a m ere lead-in to the nex t tonic chord (G m inor). It is as though the m usic is trying to avoid the inevitable return to the tonic. W hen the cycle does begin again on the tonic in m easure 93, it creates a feeling of resignation or acceptance. E x. 1 .3 .1e: A h a lf ca d en ce (V /V -V ) in m . 91?92, t h en b a ck to G m in or in m . 9387 M ajor sections of the piece are delineated b y placing the bass line in different registers. In the beginning, the notes are G ?-F?-E??-D 4?, w hich are just above the ?m iddle C .? In m easure 61, they are one octave higher (G ??-F ??-E???-D ??), and consequently, th is raises the playing positions, and it brings out the brilliance of the violin playing. A nd finally, it goes back dow n to the original register in m easure 91. 87 Biber, ?Passacaglia in G minor,? Mystery Sonatas. 48 B iber chooses several p laces to present the bass line all alone as a w ay of delineating the boundaries betw een big sections. The five places w here only the bass line is p layed (not including the very beginning) are: m easures 19?20 after the 9th variation, m easures 39?40 after the 18th variation, m easures 73?76 after the 36th variation, m easures 101?102 after the 50th variation and m easures 129?130 after the 64th variation. They approx im ately divide the piece into five sections of sim ilar length: the first tw o sections are about 20 bars each, and the last three are about 30 bars each. Each occurrence o f the solo bass line thus serves as both a point of return to sim plicity and a transitioning bridge to m usical innovation. For exam ple, the m usic follow ing the first solo bass line (m easures 19?20) has a freer flow than the m usic before it ow ing to the stead y six teenth-notes and the w ide m elodic contour. The m usic follow ing the second solo bass line (m easures 39?40) then takes on a m ore im provisatory character and becom es notably virtuosic: the player m ust negotiate six ty-fourth notes and sixteenth-note double-stops. The m usic follow ing the th ird solo bass line (m easures 73?75) in troduces str etto , w here one statem ent of the bass line begins before a previous one has been com pleted. E x. 1 .3 .1f: M . 73?75 (a n octa ve h igh er b a ss lin e p la yed a lon e), m . 76 (str etto), m . 77 a n d on w a r d in B ?.88 This overlapping o f the bass line actually provides the opportunity for the p iece to m odulate in to B b m ajor, w hich is a sign ificant m ood change. The m usic follow ing the fourth solo bass line constitu tes a kind of recapitulation (m easures 101?102), flashing back to the fantasy from earlier 88 Biber, ?Passacaglia in G minor,? Mystery Sonatas. 49 in the piece. F or ex ample, measures 103?122 are very similar to measures 41?44 and 64?72. In measures 113 through 122, B iber uses the dominant pedal of D (similar to the end of B ach?s C haconne measures 229?240 with the dominant pedal of A ) to create a dramatic build-up towards the end, which leads to the closing in 124. In the closing, the beautiful, heart-wrenching soprano voice makes its final statement before the last solo ground bass in measures 129?130, and the piece ends peacefully in a Picardy third. 50 H en r y P u r cell: D ido a n d Aen ea s D ido a nd Aenea s, one o f the finest English baroque operas, is a m usical traged y. It w as w ritten around 1688 b y H enry Purcell (1658?1695) w ith the collaboration of librettist N ahum Tate. Purcell, w ho is w idely regarded as the greatest English opera com poser, ironically w rote only one true opera, D ido a nd Aenea s.89 H ow ever, he produced a substantial num ber of stage w orks starting in the 1680s, including four sem i-operas and incidental m usic for som e 50 plays, including D ryden?s Amphitr yon and C ongreve?s The D ouble-D ea ler .90 H e w as trained as a chorister at the C hapel R o yal and w as appointed com poser-in- ordinary to the king in 1677, organist of W estm inster A bbey in 1679, and of the C hapel R oyal in 1682, w hich is the position he held for his lifetim e. H e served four m onarchs, including C harles II (1677?85), Jam es II (1685?8), and W illiam and M ary (1689?95). H is du ties w ere to provide anthem s, w elcom e songs, b irthday odes, and coronation m usic for the ro yals. Though m ost of his m usic w as associated w ith the court, th is d id not lim it h im to choral and court m usic. H e boasted a w ide range of instrum ental and vocal m usic genres, from the outm oded v iol fantasia to the m odern Italianate sonata, from devotional cantatas to lew d catches.91 D ido a nd Aenea s is based on V irgil?s A eneid?s ep isode, telling a tragic love story o f D ido, the w idow ed queen of C arthage, and T rojan hero, A eneas. W hen A eneas? ship gets 89 Peter Holman, ?Theatre Music,? Henry Purcell (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994), 188?227. 90 Ibid. 91 Curtis Price, ?Henry Purcell,? Grove Music Online (2002), accessed on October 18, 2018, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com.proxy- um.researchport.umd.edu/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e- 5000002310. 51 destroyed on his w ay to R om e, Italy, D ido ex tends hospitality to him . The tw o fall in love, but D ido fears that he w ill eventually leave her to go to R om e. D espite her w orries, the tw o get m arried. U nfortunately, the w itches plan on destroying C arthage and the queen. F irst, they separate the couple, then disguise one o f them as the queen?s m ost trusted elf, M ercury. T he fake M ercury then persuades A eneas to leave fo r Italy, and the T rojan w arrior listens. A fter D ido finds out her lover has sailed aw ay, she is read y to m eet her fate. B efore D ido kills herself, she sings her tearful last aria, When I a m La iden, accom panied by the repeated tetrachord o f the chaconne, w hich, here, sym bolizes her grief.92 From around the 1640s, the descending tetrachord began to be associated alm ost exclusively w ith the lam ent.93 A prim e exam ple utiliz ing the descending tetrachord is La mento della ninfa (1638) from C laudio M onteverdi?s eighth m adrigal book. The song is about a n ym ph (one fem ale voice) lam enting her betrayal b y her lover, w atched b y three shepherds (three m ale voices) w ho com m ent on her situation. E x. 1 .3 .2a : T h e b a ss lin e fr om M on tever d i?s La m en to della n in fa 94 A lam ent is a vocal p iece based on m ournful tex t, originating in ancient G reek antiquity. It w as a soliloquy, set apart as an em otional clim ax after a resolution of the action.95 Som e other features 92 Nicholas Ivor Martin, The Opera Manual (Lanham: Scarecrow Press, 2014), 88?89. 93 Ellen Rosand, ?The Descending Tetrachord: An Emblem of Lament,? The Musical Quarterly 65, no. 3 (1979): 346?59, accessed Aug 5, 2020, http://www.jstor.org/stable/741489. 94 Claudio Monteverdi (1638), ?Amor, Lamento della ninfa? (Universal Edition, 1967), 2. 95 Rosand, ?The Descending Tetrachord,? The Musical Quarterly 65, 346?59. 52 of lam ent included structural d issonances such as am biguity of phrase length, uses of suspension, syncopation, and phrase overlapping. It is not certain w hen D ido a nd Aenea s w as w ritten, but it is believed to have been w ritten no later than 1688.96 The only know n perform ance of D ido during Purcell?s lifetim e w as in 1689, at a girls? boarding school in C helsea run by the dancer and choreographer Josias P riest.97 A lthough having school plays and m asques w ere not unusual during this period, it is suspected the piece w as to be perfo rm ed in court as evidence suggests.98 D ido w as m odeled after John B low ?s Venus a nd Adonis, w hich w as initially perform ed for C harles II in 1682 or 1683, and again at P riest?s school in A pril 1684. B oth D ido and Venus are three-act tragedies w ith elaborated recitatives in place of spoken dialogue and are fully in English . H ow ever, D ido is d istinguished by its exhibiting a unique English style that incorporates elem ents of both French and Italian operas.99 This w as not Purcell?s first attem pt at an opera, as it cam e after m an y years of failures during his form ative years in the 1670s.100 W hile retaining the English declam atory traditions, its French influence is found in the in troduction of the w ork? the French overture consisting o f tw o parts. The first part is slow and in heavily dotted rhythm s, w hile the second part is fast and fugal. O ther exam ples of F rench style in D ido include repeating the units of arietta-chorus-dance, as 96 Ellen T Harris, ?Premiere: Place, Date, and Meaning,? in Henry Purcell's Dido and Aeneas, 2nd ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2017), 30?52. 97 Ibid. 98 Ibid. 99 Curtis Price, ?Purcell, Henry,? Grove Music Online (2002). 100 Ibid. 53 w ell as dance-like accentuated rh ythm s. The Italian attributes are found in the florid recitatives, form al arias, and arias over a ground bass. In D ido, there are three arias w ith a ground bass. O ne of them is F ea r No D a nger to Ensue, a duet of B elinda and a second w om an w ith the chorus, and the m ood of th is song is joyous and lighthearted. E x. 1 .3 .2b : F ea r N o D a n ger to E n su e101 The other tw o are the first and the last arias in the opera, both sung b y D ido : Ah! Belinda , I a m P r est with Tor ment and When I a m La id in Ea r th . B oth arias are in trip le m eter (I a m P r est in 3/4 and When I a m La id in 3/2), fo llow ing the tradition of the chaconne fo rm . 101 Henry Purcell, ?No. 6: Fear No Danger to Ensue,? Dido and Aeneas (1689; Musical Antiquarian Society Publications, 1848), 10. 54 E x. 1 .3 .2c: I a m P r est102 Interestingly, D ido speaks of her fate in both arias. In I a m P r est, she confides in her close friend B elinda, as she is filled w ith sorrow . She sings P ea ce a nd I a r e str a nger s gr own, revealing that she fears w hat her future m ay hold, and she som ehow foresees the inevitable traged y. H er lam ent, When I a m La id, com es at the opera?s clim ax after her recitative Thy ha nd, Belinda . In the recitative, she realizes that she can no longer avoid death as she sings D a r kness sha des me and D ea th inva des me: D ea th is now a welcome guest. It is notable that Purcell uses w ord-painting on the w ords ?darkness? and ?death? in the form of chrom aticism , w hich is sym bolic of death . A t its m ost heightened em otional d istress, D ido tearfully sings When I a m La id. She know s she cannot overcom e this sadness and w ill need to face her fate: death . This fam ous lam ent, w idely know n as D ido?s La ment, begins w ith a som ber ground bass all alone. The repeating ground bass is five bars long and is based on a chrom atic descending tetrachord, sym bolizing death . The tem po is m arked Larghetto , m aking the aria slow and serious. The rh ythm of the ground bass m ostly consists of a p ick-up half note leading to a w hole note dow nbeat, w hich com pels the m usic to repeatedly lead and lean. The first and second w hole notes, F# and E?, are both appoggiaturas, non-chordal tones appearing on strong beats. This subsequently accents the dissonances and enhances the distraught, yearning effects. 102 Ibid., ?No. 2: I am Prest,? 6. 55 E x. 1 .3 .2d : W h en I a m La id gr ou n d b a ss103 The ground bass is sim ple, yet it som ehow stirs up com plex , com posite em otions. The beautiful yet heart-w renching m elod y of the aria is ten bars long and is prim arily com prised of chrom aticism , w hich adds m ore gravity to the song. The last m easure of the ground bass is p layed alone after it has been played tw ice and before it leads to another repetition again . C onsequently, the audience hears the ground bass tw ice w hile the m elod y is heard once. This seem s to provide a longer sense of line and add to the em otional dram a as listeners hear the ground bass return to its start once in the m iddle o f a phrase and again at the end of the phrase. N ot only does th is seem to speak of the pending fate, w hich the ground bass represents, but it provides structural d issonances, as the phrase overlaps and the tonics w orks for both the beginning and the end of the ground bass. This structural d issonance also appears to require ex traordinary breath control from the singer, perhaps pushing the singer?s physiological lim its as w ell as psychological state. 103 Purcell, ?No. 34: When I am Laid,? Dido and Aeneas, 54. 56 A fter the m elod y is sung tw ice, the ?rem em ber m e? m otif appears. This is D ido?s final, devastating cry before she m eets her doom . The m otif, w ith its characteristic p ick-up and dotted rhythm , is heard three tim es. E x. 1 .3 .2e: ? R em em b er m e? m ot if104 Purcell inserts a quick cr escendo, sfor za ndo, and decr escendo in the orchestra part in betw een occurrences of the vocal m otif, heightening the em otional in tensity. The very last tim e the m otif is sung, it includes a register leap from the pick-up to a higher note. This seem s to portray the last em otional state of the grief-stricken queen, w ho is about to be overcom e by death . W hile the chrom atic version of the descending chaconne bass line partly accounts for the m ood of m elancholy and yearning in th is m usic, that m ood is in tensified by the use of appoggiaturas, w hich literally im itate sighing. From the second m easure of the m elody, on the w ord ?laid ,? the leaning dissonance gives an additional ache, as it does again later on the w ord ?trouble.? These dissonances contribute to the em otional urgency of the aria. A postlude to the aria, p layed b y strings alone, has one of these appoggiaturas at the beginning of each m easure. It is notew orthy that out of the three arias w ith the ground bass, the duet F ea r No D a nger To Ensue is cheerful, and the arias b y D ido, I a m P r est, and When I a m La id are solem n in nature. That dem onstrates the chaconne?s versatile ability to com plem ent such seem ingly distant m oods. W hat they do have in com m on as far as the contex t of the m usic goes is that all three arias tell of the future. F ea r No D a nger affirm s the w ell-w ishes about the fu ture as show n in its 104 Purcell, ?No. 34: When I am Laid,? Dido and Aeneas, 54. 57 tex t: ?F ear no danger to ensue, T he H ero loves as well as you, E ver gentle, ever smiling, A nd the cares of l ife beguiling, C upid strew your path with flowers, G ather?d from E lysian bowers.? C ontrastingly, I am P rest, D ido?s first aria, is fi l led with worries about the future, and When I am L aid, D ido?s final aria is about accepting her fate: death. D espite having divergent temperaments, all three arias share the form of the chaconne, and all speak about D ido?s destiny. 58 J oh a n n Seb a st ia n B a ch : C ia con n a fr om P a r tita N o. 2 in D m in or (S . 1004) for Solo Violin There is hardly an y need to re-em phasize the significance of Johann Sebastian B ach?s chaconne in the violin literature. H is chaconne (o r C ia conna as the com poser spelled it w ith the Italian title) is w idely accepted not only as the single m ost im portant solo violin w ork but as the grandest, m ost m onum ental, and m ost discussed chaconne ever w ritten. In fact, over tim e, his chaconne has been re-arranged for nearly every instrum ent: from the organ to the m arim ba or a saxophone quartet or even a full orchestra. Johann Sebastian B ach (1685?1750) is probably the m ost prolific com poser of the B aroque era w ho left an im pressively large volum e of w orks encom passing the genres of the previous generations as w ell as his ow n. A s a virtuoso organist, he understood counterpoint and contrapuntal w riting better than an yone. H is m usic w as ex traordinary in original inventiveness, technical m astery, and in tellectual d iscipline. H is output em braced p ractically every m usical form of his tim e except opera. The m agnificent po lychoral w orks com bined w ith orchestra such as the St. Ma tthew P a ssion and the Ma ss in B minor rem ain unrivaled in the history o f the genre. For m ost of h is life, he w as devoted to com posing and perfo rm ing organ m usic for the Lutheran church. H ow ever, in 1717, w hen he accepted his new position of conductor and director of cham ber m usic for P rince Leopold of A nhalt-C ?then, h is com positions took a different d irection.105 The prince w as a C alvinist, and at h is R eform ed C hurch, only the C alvinist psalm s w ere sung, so there w as no need fo r new sacred m usic. A lso, there w as no organ at the prince?s private chapel; thus, no m ore organ m usic w as needed or perfo rm ed. H ow ever, the 105 Paul Affelder, ?Introduction: Six Sonatas and Partitas? in Bach/Galamian Sonatas and Partitas (New York: International Music Company). 59 prince, an accom plished player on the violin , v iola da gam ba, and harpsichord, em ployed a sm all orchestra o f about six teen players.106 Therefore, fo r the nex t five and a half years of B ach?s tenure in C ?then, the com poser exclusively w rote secular instrum ental m usic. Som e of the m asterpieces he produced during this period include the ?S ix C oncertos w ith Several Instrum ents? or w hat w e know as the Br a ndenbur g concerti (dedicated in 1721 to the E lector of B randenburg, a region of P russia), the first volum e of the Well-Temper ed C la vier (w hose title page is dated 1722), the tw o-part and th ree-part Inventions (w hose title page is dated 1723, but w ere com posed som ew hat earlier), six sonatas for violin and harpsichord (1717?23), three sonatas for viola da gam ba and harpsichord (ca. 1720), the six suites for unaccom panied cello (ca. 1720), and the three sonatas and three partitas for unaccom panied violin (ca. 1720).107 B ach, w ho believed a com poser should have ?good inventions [m usical ideas]...[and] develop them w ell? as explained on the title page to the Inventions, thoroughly explored the possibilities of each genre in the collections m entioned above.108 N ot only did he w rite good m usic, but he provided good m aterials for perform ers to further their art. A nd for aspiring com posers, he provided m any w ays a m usical idea can be m anifested.109 For exam ple, in the Br a ndenbur g concerti, each concerto features different orchestral and solo instrum ents and different m anners of com bining the solo(s) and the tu tti. In the six solo-violin pieces, w hich are 106 Affelder, ?Introduction? in Bach/Galamian Sonatas and Partitas. 107 Joel Lester, ?The History of Bach?s Solo-Violin Works,? chapter 1 in Bach?s Works for Solo Violin, (New York/Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), 7. 108 Ibid. 109 Ibid. 60 divided into tw o sets of three pieces (three sonatas and three partitas, or pa r tia s as B ach spelled it in his autograph score), d istinct styles and tonalities are explored.110 The three sonatas (the first, th ird , and fifth of the collection) are in the form of sonata da chiesa (church sonata), w hich has a four-m ovem ent pattern of slow -fast-slow -fast w ith the highly contrapuntal and com plex fugue as the second m ovem ent. The three partitas (the second, fourth , and six th of the collection) are in the form of sonata da cam era (cham ber sonata), w hich loosely follow s the pattern of the B aroque dance suite.111 Y et, no tw o partitas or sonatas are quite alike. R egarding the partitas, P a r tita No. 1 in B minor features a fairly standard sequence of dances: a llema nda , cor r ente, sa r a ba nde, and bor ea (the Italian spelling of bourr?e). In a typical sonata da cam era, the ending m ovem ent w ould be G igue, not a B ourr?e. Furtherm ore, B ach adds a ?double? m ovem ent to each m ovem ent as a form of a variation m ovem ent.112 In particular, the ?double? m ovem ent follow ing the C or r ente is a highly virtuosic m ovem ent filled w ith rapid passages. In P a r tita No. 2 in D minor , the dance sequence is sim ilar to that of the first partita, and it seem s to have the standard order, yet it ends w ith the m onum ental C ia conna . P a r tita No. 3 in E ma jor consists of a rather different sequence of m ovem ents: P r eludio (instead of the m ore com m only used opening m ovem ent of A llem ande), Lour e, G a votte en Rondea ux (a gavotte w ith rondo-like returns o f the refrain), tw o Menuets, Bour r ?e, and G igue (the last tw o w ith the French spellings instead of the Italian spellings B ach used in the other partitas). A t first glance, the sonatas m ay seem sim ilar because they share the sam e ordering of the m ovem ents, yet each is d istinct from the others. C onsidering the first m ovem ents, both the first 110 Lester, ?The History of Bach?s Solo-Violin Works,? chapter 1 in Bach?s Works for Solo Violin, 7. 111 Affelder, ?Introduction? in Bach/Galamian Sonatas and Partitas. 112 Lester, ?The History of Bach?s Solo-Violin Works,? chapter 1 in Bach?s Works for Solo Violin, 8. 61 sonata and the second sonata start b y introducing pillar-like chords, and from there, the m elism atic line flourishes betw een the chords in an im provisatory w ay.113 C ontrastingly, the th ird sonata opens w ith the constant, h ypnotic m otion of notes, w hich build up to be the chords that slow ly reveal the harm onic schem es. In all three sonatas, the second m ovem ents are three- voiced fugues. In the fugues of the first tw o sonatas, the subjects are short and rh ythm ic, and in the th ird sonata, the subject is m uch longer and in a legato style, sim ilar to a choral tune.114 The slow third m ovem ents vary as w ell. The first sonata presents a th rough-com posed lilting sicilia na , the second sonata presents a regularly pulsating a nda nte w ith tw o repeated sections, and the th ird sonata presents a serene th rough-com posed la r go.115 A s glorious as they w ere, unfortunately, a substantial am ount of B ach?s w orks w ere lost after h is death . In fact, the m anuscript of h is solo-violin w orks w as found in 1814 in S t. Petersburg at a butter shop in a stack of papers that w ere to be used for w rappings.116 O nly three com plete m anuscripts survived: B ach?s autograph score, a cop y b y his second w ife (A nna M agdalena), and a cop y by tw o unknow n cop yists.117 S ince 1917, B ach?s only surviving autograph score (the score in B ach?s handw riting) has been in the D eutsche S taatsbibliothek (G erm an S tate L ibrary) in B erlin .118 The title of h is solo-violin w orks reads, ?Sei Solo. ? V iolino senza B asso accom pagnato. Libro P rim o. D a Joh. Seb. B ach. ao 1720,? m eaning, ?S ix Solos. for 113 Lester, ?The History of Bach?s Solo-Violin Works,? chapter 1 in Bach?s Works for Solo Violin, 8. 114 Ibid. 115 Ibid. 116 Affelder, ?Introduction? in Bach/Galamian Sonatas and Partitas. 117 Lester, ?The History of Bach?s Solo-Violin Works,? chapter 1 in Bach?s Works for Solo Violin, 19. 118 Ibid, 11. 62 V iolin w ithout B ass accom panim ent. F irst B ook. by Joh. Seb. B ach. in the year 1720.?119 In the early 18th century, the continuo part w as considered necessary, so B ach felt it w as crucial to call attention to its absence, not just on the title page but even in the title to each of the three sonatas and three partitas during the course of the m anuscript.120 It is surely rem arkab le he w as able to rem ove the need for an added ?accom pan ying? bass by creating the com plete tex tures for a lone four-stringed soprano-register instrum ent. N evertheless, several arrangem ents w ith the bass accom panim ents of entire sonatas or individual m ovem ents exist on m anuscripts from the early o r m id-eighteenth century. It is not clear if B ach him self w ro te the arrangem ents except for the P r eludio from the third partita, w hich appears as the o rgan obbligato solo as the sinfonia to C antatas no. 120a and 29.121 The arrangem ents of the com plete w orks are of the second sonata and the th ird partita, and the arrangem ents of select m ovem ents are o f the fugue from the first sonata and the first m ovem ent of the th ird sonata.122 Even in the nineteenth century, it appears m an y w ere not com fortable w ith the idea of perform ing such contrapuntal m usic w ithout the accom panim ent. R om antic-era com posers, including M endelssohn and Schum ann, continued the tradition of w riting accom panim ents (for p iano) for B ach?s solo-violin pieces. A ccording to G erm an m usicologist A ndreas M oser even the great v iolinist Ferdinand D avid, w ho published his edition of B ach?s solo-violin w orks in 1843, ?w ould not be m oved b y any fee w hatsoever to step onto a stage w ith only a naked violin . O nly 119 Ibid. 120 Lester, ?The History of Bach?s Solo-Violin Works,? chapter 1 in Bach?s Works for Solo Violin, 11. 121 Ibid, 23. 122 Ibid. 63 w hen M endelssohn surprised him one day w ith the accom panim ent he had prepared for the C ha conne did D avid declare him self read y fo r a perform ance in that com pany.?123 M endelssohn published his accom panim ent to the C ha conne in London and H am burg in 1847, and Schum ann published his accom panim ent for the com plete co llection in 1853.124 H ow ever, in 1844, the 13- year-old Joachim , w ho becam e a legendary violinist, found the courage to perform B ach?s solo- violin w orks in their original form in public for the first tim e.125 Joachim w as the first v iolinist to m ake B ach?s solo w orks an im portant part of h is concert repertoire and even recorded tw o m ovem ents from the cycle.126 H e alw ays played them as solo violin w orks throughout his career and subsequently established the practice of perfo rm ing these w orks w ithout accom panim ent. B efore getting into an analysis of B ach?s chaconne, it is v ital to m ake a note about the length of the piece. A perform ance of the piece is usually just under 15 m inutes, w hich is probably the longest or one of the longest in the B aroque period for a single m ovem ent.127 In the late B aroque, there are other im m ense w orks such as H andel?s Messia h and B ach?s St. Ma tthew P a ssion that are hours long, but for a single m ovem ent, nothing com es close to the C ha conne. That being said , B ach?s G oldber g Va r ia tions m ay be an exception, but that is a com posite w ork of various individual units.128 So w hy is the length of any im portance? B ecause the length is one w ay an artist can express a certain m agnitude or depth; it speaks to a com poser?s ability to hold the listeners? attention over an ex tended arc. To convey som ething that is eternally profound or 123 Ibid. 124 Ibid. 125 Lester, ?The History of Bach?s Solo-Violin Works,? chapter 1 in Bach?s Works for Solo Violin, 23. 126 Ibid, 21. 127 Ibid, 151. 128 Ibid, 152. 64 m agnificent that even w ords cannot express, one w ould choose a platfo rm that speaks of that. Part of the grandeur com es from the im pressive size, height, or length of the w ork. In the nineteenth century, length y pieces w ere not rare b y an y m eans. For exam ple, com posers like M ahler o r W agner produced m an y w orks that w ere easily over an hour. B ut they used m usical form s such as sonata form , w hich allow ed the pieces to easily expand through the recurrences of them es, the long developm ent, and tonal contrasts.129 H ow ever, these form s w ere not developed yet in B ach?s tim e. To w rite a p iece of th is ex tent like the C ha conne, B ach m ainly used continuous elaborations or variations on a thoroughbass w ithout an y large-scale tonal contrasts. It is rem arkable B ach w as able to com pose a piece of th is scale w ith tw o lim iting elem ents? the fact it w as w ritten for a solo violin , w hich w as w idely considered as a soprano register m elodic instrum ent, and the fact that no tonal contrasts w ere used, w hich usually is required fo r a w ork of th is scale. N ot only did he w ork through these lim itations, but he used them to great effect. B ach, being a great m usical architect, knew w ell w hat to do about the large-scale design as w ell as the sm all-scale design. The piece is in three parts: the first in the m inor m ode (33 statem ents), the second in the m ajor m ode (19 statem ents), and the th ird returning to the m inor m ode (12 statem ents).130 Each section is shorter than the previous one and therefore builds to clim axes faster than the p revious one. O n a sm all scale, one can see how B ach intensifies the m usic even w ithin the statem ent. The bass line or statem ent loosely follow s the standard descending tetrachord o f chaconnes, D -C -B ?-A , but alm ost alw ays alters it or elaborates it in 129 Ibid. 130 Lester, ?The History of Bach?s Solo-Violin Works,? chapter 1 in Bach?s Works for Solo Violin, 155. 65 som e w ay. Each note is p layed for a m easure, m aking a four-m easure statem ent. The bass line presented at the very opening of the w ork is show n in the exam ple below : D -C #-(D )-B ?-(G )-A - C #-D (this w ould be based on the harm onic m inor scale w ith the augm ented second betw een the B ? and C # instead o f the natural m inor scale). E x. 1 .3 .3a : T h e ch a con n e st a t em en t in th e b egin n in g131 In th is exam ple, the harm onies change in half or quarter notes to start w ith , but tow ards the end of the statem ent (starting the bass note of G in the fourth m easure), the harm onic changes accelerate to stead y quarter notes. The rh ythm of the m elody speeds up as w ell, as it changes from dotted-quarter follow ed b y eighth follow ed by quarter (m easures 1?3) to steady quarters (beginning o f m easure 4) to steady six teenths. M any of the variations occur in pairs, in w hich the second is quite sim ilar to the first but in tensified. The follow ing exam ple w ill show the first eight m easures (tw o statem ents) from the beginning of the piece. E x. 1 .3 .3b : V a r ia t ion s in p a ir s, t h e secon d on e in ten sified 132 131 J.S. Bach, ?Partita No. 2,? 6 Sonatas and Partitas, S. 1001?1006 (1720), ed. G?nter Hau?wald (Kassel: B?renreiter Verlag, 1958), 33. 132 Bach, ?Partita No. 2,? 6 Sonatas and Partitas, 33. 66 The ground bass of D -C -B ?-A is applied o r im plied throughout the piece, but m any tim es, it is often hidden in the m usic because B ach often used them atic transform ations such as transposition, inversion, retrograde and retrograde inversion or chord substitu tion. Exam ple 1 .3 .3c w ill dem onstrate the altered ground basses w ith a chrom atic descend ing line (D -C #-C ? - B ? -B ?-A ) and their various them atic transform ations. The ground bass of chrom atic descendent creates the sam e sense of m ourning as it does in D ido a nd Aenea s. In m easures 37?40, the bass line jum ps back and forth from the bass to the soprano, and in m easures 41?44, it tem porarily shifts to the soprano. In m easures 33?35, the ground basses are altered b y using a larger in terval betw een the first tw o notes, w hich is typically a perfect fourth . S im ilarly, in m easures 37?38, the ground basses are altered but w ith tim e dim inution (com pressed in tim e). E x. 1 .3 .3c: T h e ch r om a t ic gr ou n d b a sses The ground bass appears in a natural m inor scale o f D -C -B ?-A later in the p iece. Exam ple 1 .3 .3d (in m easures 93?104) is an excerpt from the arpeggiated section that dem onstrates the ground bass in its original form in a natural m inor scale. 67 E x. 1 .3 .3d : G r ou n d b a sses in a n a tu r a l m in or sca le It is certainly in triguing to analyze B ach?s m asterw ork and learn how the statem ent w as incorporated in the m usic, yet one m ay find it even m ore fascinating to find varying interpretations about B ach?s chaconne. The year 1720? the year B ach w rote his solo-violin pieces including the C ha conne? w as also the year his first w ife, M aria B arbara B ach, had passed. H istorians speculate that B ach com posed it after returning from a trip and found out about his w ife?s sudden death . M aria w as B ach?s w ife of 12 years w ho had borne seven children. M ost of their children did not survive infancy, bu t the tw o w ho did w ere the future m usicians W ilhelm Friedem ann B ach and C arl Philipp Em anuel B ach.133 O ne can only im agine w hat kind of em otional turm oil B ach had experienced learning of his w ife?s unexpected death . H e m ust have felt devastation and grief. C ould that be the reason w h y B ach?s C haconne sounds eternally beautiful and yet sorrow ful? In m odern tim es, som e strik ing argum ents w ere m ade about B ach?s solo-violin pieces? especially about the C ha conne. A retired G erm an violin teacher and m usicologist, P rofessor H elga Thoene, suggests in her analytical study Ta nz oder Tombea u? that the C ha conne w as intended as a m em orial to M aria B arbara.134 H er study is in the G erm an language; how ever, one 133 Lester, ?The History of Bach?s Solo-Violin Works,? chapter 1 in Bach?s Works for Solo Violin, 7. 134 Helga Thoene, Johann Sebastian Bach, Ciaccona: Tanz oder Tombeau? (Oschersleben: Ziethen, 2003). 68 can find a condensed, English version in the C D liner notes of Mor imur b y the H illiard Ensem ble and C hristopher Poppen. Thoene argues B ach has engraved his late w ife?s nam e in cryptograph y at the opening of the piece and that the w ork is a ?tom beau? for her. Furtherm ore, Thoene points out there are eleven chorales hidden in the C ha conne that m editate on death? six chorales in the first part, five chorales in the second part, and three chorales in the th ird part, w hich are the repeating chorales from the first part. A ccording to Thoene, the m ain chorale is B ach?s ow n C antata N o. 4 , ?C hr ist La g in Todesba nden? (?C hrist Lay in the B onds of D eath?).135 The chorale is derived from M artin Luther?s h ym n of the sam e nam e, w ritten in 1524 for the first day o f Easter celebration. C antata N o. 4 has eight m ovem ents: a brief instrum ental sinfonia follow ed b y settings of the seven verses of the hym n. The second verse is sung b y the sopranos and the altos. V erse 3 is a tenor aria. V erse 4 is the w hole chorus w ith continuo. V erse 5 is a bass aria. V erse 6 is a duet: soprano and tenor. V erse 7 is an actual chorale setting w ith orchestra rein forcem ent. The parts of the chorale used in the chaconne con tain the follow ing tex ts w hich clearly reflect on C hrist?s death and his victory: verse 1? C hr ist la g in Todesba nden (C hrist lay in death?s bonds), H a lleluja ! (H allelujah!), verse 2? D en Tod niema nd zwingen kunnt (N o one could defeat death), H a lleluja ! (H allelujah!). In the B aroque era, it w as not an uncom m on practice to use num bers and equations for riddles or hidden m essages. For exam ple, B ach and m any other published w orks or sets, often divided by three for the significance o f trin ity. In particular, the num ber 14 appears to have had a personal significance to B ach because that is the sum of the letters of the nam e B ach in 135 Ibid. 69 gem atria.136 G em atria is an ancient m ethod of putting letters in to num bers, derived from a G reek system of alphanum eric code that w as later adopted into Jew ish culture. The sm aller num eric pattern of the gem atria w hich B ach used had a counting of 24 instead of 26. This w as due to the letters I and J sharing the sam e num ber of 9 , and the letters U and V sharing the sam e num ber of 20. This particular pattern w as the sam e alphabetical order that has been found in the tract called ?D E C A B B A LA PA R A G R A M M A T IC A ,? w hich is listed in Johannes H enningius?s ?C abbalalogia,? Leipzig, 1683.137 Interestingly, B ach?s autograph of the solo-violin w orks is 41 pages long, w hich is the sam e num ber as the sum of his nam e using gem atria: J . S . B ach (9+18+14) = 41.138 This increases historians? suspicion of B ach encrypting his nam e in his solo- violin w orks. Exam ple 1 .3 .3e is the table of alphanum eric code B ach used. E x. 1 .3 .3e: A lp h a n u m er ic cod e139 In 2001, in trigued b y M s. Thoene?s findings, v iolinist C hristoph Poppen w ith the collaboration of the H illiard ensem ble, p roduced an album that reveals the ?hidden chorales? and presents the C ha conne jux taposed w ith the audible chorales. In a booklet essay, M s. Thoene discusses the encryption and suggests the chorale quotations can be m ade audible by sustaining 136 Thoene, Johann Sebastian Bach, Ciaccona: Tanz oder Tombeau? 137 Ibid. 138 Ibid. 139 Thoene, Johann Sebastian Bach, Ciaccona: Tanz oder Tombeau?, 30. 70 the pitches, unlike the way it is written in the violin score, where the encryptions are inaudible due to losing their original rhythms. Bach?s Chaconne is an enigma, likely to spark much ongoing discussion. One can only guess what his true intentions were. Did he write it as a eulogy for Maria Barbara? To glorify God? Was it simply in fulfillment of professional duty? Or was it all of the above? We may never know. But what we do know is that Bach?s Chaconne sends a profound and powerful message, and it is our job to figure out what that is for us individually. Chapter 4?Decline of Chaconne; C lassical and Romantic Per iod In Part I, we explored the chaconne from its birth in the late 16th century to Bach?s profound and serious chaconne in the early 18th century. What started out as a raucous and provocative Spanish baile on the street evolved to become one of the most respected, studied, 71 and performed pieces in the history of music. T he chaconne?s striking transformation can be seen throughout the 17th century. In I taly, the chaconne developed to be playful, volatile, capricious, spontaneous, and improvisatory. T he three I talian pieces that are discussed in chapter 1, chaconnes by M onteverdi, B ertali, and C orelli, all share this set of characteristics of Italian chaconnes. T hey are lighthearted and celebratory. M onteverdi? s chaconne (1632) was not specifically written for v iolin, as it was to replace a voice line in a madrigal. H owever, B ertali? s C hiacona (1662) was specifically written for the v iolin, indicating the establishment of instrumental music as its own genre. L astly, C orell i? s L a F olia (1700), the last sonata from his O p. 5 of 12 violin sonatas, embodies the chaconne, using folia? s distinct tune and harmonies as its vehicle for the variations. F olia showcases a wide range of moods and techniques, from serene to fiery, and from long sustained notes to rapid double-stop six teenth-notes. M ost importantly, it seems to testify to the origins of both folia and chaconne by ex hibiting a boisterous and ex citing nature. O utside of I taly, chaconnes were frequently elegant and courtly. C hapter 2 discussed S chmelzer? s C iaccona (1664) and the chaconne from L ully? s opera, P ha?ton (1683). S chmelzer, an important composer in the development of the violin repertoire in the B aroque era, was a court musician. H is music was to be played in the court and thus had the characteristics of refinement and elegance. S chmelzer was known for incorporating A ustrian folk music elements such as leaps of octaves, fifths, and six ths, which are demonstrated in his C iaccona. L ully, who was born I talian but developed his style and spent his career in F rance, was a versatile dancer and a musician. H e worked closely with L ouis X IV , who was an ex cellent dancer himself. T he king?s appearances in the ballets, representing himself as one of the G ods or K ings, allowed the audience to be mesmerized by his royal div inity. L ully? s opera, P ha?ton, is an ex ample of 72 T rag?dies lyriques, an opera based on classical mythologies. T rag?dies were to celebrate kings? noble qualities and prowess in war. U nlike I talian and A ustrian chaconnes, the P ha?ton chaconne ex emplifies the F rench cultured, well-planned, and majestic style. L astly, we have discussed the chaconnes that seem to depict fate or a subject related to mortality. B iber? s passacaglia (1676), Purcell? s D ido?s L ament from D ido and Aeneas (1688), and B ach?s chaconne ex emplify that theme. A ll three are slow, solemn, and serious. T hey are constructed on descending ground basses. B iber, who is perhaps best known for the use of scordatura in T he Mystery Sonatas, chooses the passacaglia form for the collection?s final sonata. T he Mystery Sonatas, a collection of sacred instrumental music, represents the life and death of J esus and the V irgin M ary and is identified by an engraving depicting the 15 M ysteries of the R osary. B iber? s passacaglia, probably the most significant solo violin work before B ach?s chaconne, is prefaced by a picture of a guardian angel and child. T he unchanging and persistent ground bass may represent fate, which shares its constant and unchanging nature. Purcell? s D ido?s L ament shares comparable aspects, including a descending ground bass. In this case, the chromatic descending line is associated with grief and death. I t heightens the emotional climax of the opera when D ido meets her fate and dies. B ach?s chaconne (1720) is the most significant chaconne of all time. T he towering stature of this piece cemented the perception of chaconne as a serious and somber form, which endures to this day. B ach?s chaconne was significant in its ability to hold the listener? s attention over its great length, as it was the single longest movement in all B aroque repertoire. F urther, few string pieces come close to the masterful counterpoint of B ach?s chaconne. A t the time, it was unthinkable that a lone violin could sound or be played in this way. T here have been multiple speculations on the background of the piece and B ach?s purpose for writing it. O ne theory is that 73 B ach wrote the piece in memory of his late wife, M aria B arbara B ach. O thers speculate that B ach used gematria, an ancient method of putting letters into numbers, to literally sign his name on the piece. B ach?s autograph of the solo-violin works is 41 pages, which is the same number as the sum of his name using gematria: J . S . B ach (9+18+14) = 41. T here are stil l many unknowns about B ach?s chaconne. B ut this masterwork seems suggestive of something bigger than life. I t speaks to all of us in the most profound way. In the C lassical and R omantic periods, the chaconne and passacaglia largely fell out of fashion. O nly a few new chaconnes were written this period. T he notable ex amples include B eethoven?s 32 V ariations in C minor, L iszt? s praeludium on ?W einen, K lagen, Z orgen, Z agen? (based on a chromatically descending ground bass from B ach?s C antata no.12), and the last movement from B rahms S ymphony N o. 4. T hese pieces were not labeled as chaconne or passacaglia by their composers, which further demonstrates the decline in the importance of these styles in that period. C ompared to the B aroque period, harmonies of the C lassical and R omantic period moved more slowly while larger structural formats emerged, including the sonata-allegro form, that present tonal contrasts between sections. T his change in the preference of the musical forms likely contributed to the sharp decline in chaconne and passacaglia. P ar t 2: 20th C entur y to P r esent N umerous bloody wars shook the 20th century, including W orld W ar I (1914?1918), the R ussian C ivil W ar (1917?1922), the S panish C ivil W ar (1936?1939), and W orld W ar I I (1939? 1945). M any countries? forms of government changed rapidly around the beginning of the 20th 74 century. M onarchies passed, and there w ere rises o f new , various ideologies of governance. In the 20th century, there w ere tw o new ascendant ideological pow ers? N azi G erm an y and Soviet R ussia.140 N azi?s ideology w as an ex trem e G erm an nationalism , and Soviet?s w as supposedly federative. H ow ever, m any view ed Soviet?s ideology as M arx ist-Leninism , a com m unist ideology. The R ussian C ivil W ar, a m ulti-party civil w ar, w as a confrontation prim arily betw een the R ed A rm y, the Soviet supporters, and the W hite A rm y, m onarchists, and non-com m unists.141 The R ed A rm y w on the conflict convincingly, w hich effectively gave pow er to S talin and the Soviets. In Spain, the Spanish C ivil W ar erupted w hen the traditionalists rose against the governm ent soon after the 1936 election, w hich the left w on. It w as a battle betw een the left- leaning R epublicans and N ationalists, w hich the N ationalists w on.142 The R epublicans included unions, peasant organizations, and B asque and C atalan autonom ists. The N ationalists included the R om an C atholic C hurch, the m ilitary establishm ent, and the fascist Falange o rganization. Innum erable people w ere deeply affected, even those w ho did not fight in the w ars. C ivilians lost their loved ones, lost their hom es, or becam e refugees in foreign countries. B etw een the num erous w ars in the 20th century, the death to ll is estim ated to be over 100 m illion. Even am id the chaos and despair, artists found w ays to com m unicate hope, beauty, or genuine sadness through their m usic. 140 Richard C. Hall, ?Conclusion,? Consumed by War: European Conflict in the 20th Century (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2010), 244. 141 Ibid., ?Peace Settlement,? 80?83. 142 Ibid., ?Germany Resurgent,? 107?109. 75 C h a p ter 5: I d ea lized B ea u ty D u r in g D ifficu lt T im es A fter a long hiatus of 150 years, the chaconne and passacaglia started to reem erge in the 20th century. C haconnes cam e back w ith their righ tful titles as independent w orks or m ovem ents of larger pieces. A fter B ach set the standard w ith his great chaconne from the Solo Violin P a r tita No. 2 , the com posers in the 20th century follow ed in his footsteps. They used it to express subjects of m agnitude or severity. Tw entieth-century com posers em plo yed chaconnes in various settings, including w orks for keyboard, w orks fo r strings, cham ber m usic, orchestral m usic, and operas. O f course, the m usical language w as drastically different from B ach?s tim e, but the form ?s essence rem ained the sam e. The chaconne retained its defining aspects, such as the repeating bass line o r harm onic unit and having a trip le m eter; how ever, there w ere also m an y changes, particularly in their tonality.143 There seem to be at least tw o argum ents as to w h y the chaconne w as revitalized. O ne theory is that the em phasis on variety and irregularity in the 20th century drove chaconne?s revival. C haconne, b y nature, provides continuity, coherence, o rder, and sym m etry. Therefore, one m ay argue that chaconne returned as an aesthetic tool to counteract the lack of organization in contem porary m usic, w hich w as previously provided by clearer tonality and using accepted and established form s.144 A nother theory is that the new aspiration tow ards the architectural concept drove chaconne?s rebirth . M an y of the 20th-century?s m usical styles w ere based on aesthetic principles derived from fundam ental concepts such as m athem atics, architecture, philosophy, psychology, poetry, and dram a. In the passacaglia form , the m athem atical and architectu ral are of trem endous im portance. Therefore, one m ay argue, chaconne retu rned 143 Leon Stein, ?The Passacaglia in the Twentieth Century,? Music & Letters 40, no. 2 (1959): 150?53, accessed Sep 18, 2020, http://www.jstor.org/stable/728985. 144 Stein, ?The Passacaglia in the Twentieth Century,? Music & Letters 40, 150?153. 76 because o f the contem porary trend in fundam ental concepts.145 In th is chapter, w e w ill explore chaconnes that spoke of idealized beauty during difficult tim es. Exam ples w ill include the w orks by R avel, B ritten, and Shostakovich. R a vel: P ia n o T r io in A m in or M aurice R avel (1875?1937) is one of the m ost original and p rom inent French com posers. H e is best know n for his im pressionistic style. The idea of im pressionism first cam e from M onet?s Impr ession, Sunr ise, painted in 1873. In contrast to the R om anticism of the 19th century, w hich focused on high em otion and dram a, im pressionism sought to offer a new experience of reality b y expressing the im m ediate effect of hearing, seeing, or feeling on the m ind.146 In m usic, th is m eant heightened attention to tonal colors or timbr es. R avel?s w riting o ften show ed a clear m elodic line, but he also used colorful d issonances such as 9th chords and 11th chords, d im inished octaves, and even tritones. D espite R avel?s use o f in tricate harm onies and rhythm s, w hich contribute to a sense o f am biguity, he seem ed to appreciate classical fo rm and balanced structure. R avel likely used these classical form s to balance the com plex ities and dissonances in his w orks. H is P iano T rio is a good exam ple, dem onstrating traditional structure and form at. It is in the standard four-m ovem ent classical fram ew ork. The tw o outer m ovem ents are in sonata-allegro form s. The m iddle m ovem ents consist of a fast and notoriously difficult scherzo and a slow , serious Passacaglia. In addition to w riting the trio w ith the new timbr e, R avel drew inspiration from A sian culture, French poets, Spanish folk m usic, and M alaysian poetry. H e transform ed the 145 Ibid. 146 Ronald L. Byrnside, ?Musical Impressionism: The Early History of the Term,? The Musical Quarterly 66, no. 4 (1980): 522?37, accessed Sep 4, 2020, http://www.jstor.org/stable/741965. 77 passacaglia from an im provised ritornello on the streets of Spain to a pensive and solem n expression of beauty during a troubled tim e. R avel began sketching ideas for his trio in 1913 at h is sum m er retreat in S t. Jean-de-Luz. This com m unity in the B asque region o f southern France w as across the bay from his b irthplace, C iboure. It seem s the com poser felt a deep identification w ith his B asque heritage, not only because he w as born in that area, but because his m other w as also B asque. H e started leisurely w orking on the P iano T rio in A pril 1914 at S t. Jean, but the outbreak of W orld W ar I in A ugust 1914 prom pted him to fin ish the w ork as quickly as possible because he w anted to enlist in the arm y. P reviously, R avel could not serve in the m ilitary due to a hernia and not m eeting the m inim um standard of height and w eight. H ow ever, the com poser w as eager to help France defeat G erm an y and A ustria, so he decided to fin ish the w ork as quickly as possible.147 H e finished this m asterw ork w ithin a short span of four m onths, as evidenced b y his notes at the bottom of the autograph score: ?M arch to A pril, July to A ugust 1914.?148 D espite his strong desire to serve the country, h is choice to jo in the arm y w as not w ithout hesitation. R avel w orried not only fo r his ow n safety but also fo r his m other and the consequences she m ight face if he died. H e w rote to his pupil M aurice D elage: ?If you only knew how I su ffer...if I left m y poor old m other, it w ould surely kill her.?149 R avel w anted to create orchestral qualities in the p iano trio . To achieve o rchestral effects, he ex tensively explored the highest and low est registers of all three instrum ents to create the illusion of a broader sonority than three instrum ents alone w ould ordinarily produce. O ther 147 Robert Cassidy, A Comparison of Passacaglias in Piano Trios by Ravel and Shostakovich From A Historical and Theoretical Perspective (Muncie, IN: Ball State University, 2006), 27. 148 Juliette Appold, ?Introduction? in Ravel Trio Pour Piano, Violon et Violoncelle, ed. Herausgegeben von Juliette Appold (Basel, Germany: B?renreiter-Verlag Karl V?tterle, 2009): IX. 149 Cassidy, A Comparison of Passacaglias in Piano Trios, 28. 78 orchestral techniques he used include trills, trem olos, harm onics, and glissandos. For clarity, R avel often put the treble part of the piano line betw een the string parts, w hich are tw o octaves apart. This w ay, all three voices are distant from one another, and they are heard clearly and individually. Mod?r ?, the first m ovem ent of the trio , affirm s R avel?s fondness of his B asque origin . N oted ?B asque in colouring? b y the com poser, th is m ovem ent in troduces a dream y them e in the piano, w ritten in an irregular rh ythm derived from B asque folk m usic.150 The first m ovem ent?s tim e signature is 8 /8 , w hich is subdivided ? plus ? , referring to the B asque dance zor tzico, w hich is notated in five beats.151 Exam ple 2 .5 .1a is an excerpt from the opening, w here all three instrum ents play the them e. The distance betw een all three voices allow s the listener to hear them clearly and distinctly. The cello is the low est (E3), p iano right hand second to the low est is the m iddle (E4), and violin is the highest (E5). E x. 2 .5 .1a : M . 5?8 of m vt . 1 . N ot ice th e zor tzico r efer en ce of 5/8+3/8152 150 Ibid. 151 Appold, ?Introduction? in Ravel Trio: X. 152 Maurice Ravel, Trio for Piano, Violin and Cello (Paris, France: Durand & Cie, 1915), 1. 79 The second m ovem ent, P a ntoum, is a glittering scherzo charged w ith astonishing, com plicated rh ythm s, brilliant colors, and special effects. R avel set the m ovem ent in a fast three, but one finds that m any of the rh ythm ic patterns do not line up w ith its m eter. Special effects in the strings such as pizzica ti, harm onics, trills, and trem olo create a delightful tone, w hile the arpeggios provide harm onic drive. Pantoum (or Pantun) is a M alaysian poetic form in w hich the second and fourth lines of one stanza becom e the first and third lines of the nex t stanza. R avel w as fam iliar w ith C harles B audelaire and other French 19th-century w riters w ho adapted the pantoum form , and he applied it to com position ?to say w ith m usic w hat you say w ith w ords.?153 R avel p laced a passacaglia at the heart of the trio . Its tem po is very slow (?Tr?s large ? =40?), setting a serious m ood. Further, it is in F? m inor, w hich sounds darker and m ore conflicted than the p receding m ovem ents, w hich are in A m inor. In th is m ovem ent, the piano first in troduces the beautiful and reflective eight-m easure m elody derived from the Pantoum ?s first them e. The dark sounding, low -registered them e has no accom panim ent. It is a single soft- w hispering voice com m encing the m ovem ent. The cello enters for the second eight-bar cycle, echoing the piano line. The piano continues during the cello m elody, providing a sim ple harm onic structure. The them e has a sm all dynam ic sw ell tow ards the end, and its register is h igher than the opening, but it still m aintains a soft-spoken quality. W hen the violin enters for the th ird cycle, the register c lim bs even higher, and one can feel a sense of persistence as the sam e m otif repeats three tim es in succession. U nlike the other tw o entrances of the them e, m arked pp, the violin entry is m arked p expr essif, giving a m ore vocal and ardent personality. The harm onic outlines in the piano becom e m ore 153 Appold, ?Introduction? in Ravel Trio: X. 80 elaborate, naturally increasing the d ynam ic as w ell. H ow ever, the them e slightly differs, and it reaches a high point in the fifth bar o f its entrance and concludes in E m ajor as it gets softer in dynam ic. The fourth statem ent is again solo piano, th is tim e in E -D orian (m inor th ird and seventh).154 It carries a delicate style sim ilar to the opening because it is still m arked pp, but the harm onies are now richer. The them e retains sim ilar in tervals and rh ythm s to the original, but its color seem s m ore exotic, and the use of m odality lends an antique sound. T he fifth statem ent m odulates to A m inor, and shortened versions of the them e are played b y the cello , doubled b y the piano?s right hand. T he m ovem ent gets its first f in the m iddle of th is statem ent, as the strings passionately play their duet w hile the piano provides heav y harm onies on each beat w ith accents. The six th statem ent (rehearsal num ber five) begins w ith a dram atic subito pia no. The strings start p laying an ascending tritone-inspired m elod y in unison w ith a cr escendo as the piano plays descending, chrom atic harm onies. This results in the strings and piano playing in a strik ingly contrary m otion and building up for the clim ax at rehearsal num ber six (ex . 2 .5 .1b), w hich appears p recisely at the center of the m ovem ent. 154 Cassidy, A Comparison of Passacaglias, 53. 81 E x. 2 .5 .1b : P a ssa ca ille clim a x155 A m usicologist, M ichael Puri, asserts that th is segm ent is an exam ple of R avel paying a secret hom age to his antithesis, W agner. Im pressionism began as a m ovem ent against the type o f em otional excess, w hich characterized W agnerism . This new French style w as to give a perception of an object rather than explicitly express one?s feelings. Puri argues that the clim actic m om ent from W agner?s opera, P a r sifa l, A ct 1 , ?M arch to the C astle of the G rail,? w hich contains the Wehela ute m otif, shares elem ents from the P a ssa ca ille clim ax .156 155 Ravel, Trio for Piano, Violin and Cello, 22?23. 156 Michael J. Puri, ?The Passion of the Passacaille: Ravel, Wagner, Parsifal,? Cambridge Opera Journal 25, no. 3 (2013): 285?318, accessed Sep 20, 2020, http://www.jstor.org/stable/24252349. 82 E x. 2 .5 .1c: T h e W eh ela u te m ot if fr om W a gn er , P a r sifa l, A ct 1 , st a r t in g fr om th e k ey ch a n ge157 The Wehela ute m otif, w hich translates as ?the sounds of w oe,? is a series o f descending chrom atic notes. It is a recurring m otif in P a r sifa l, w hich is incorporated in the M arch. A ccording to Puri, the elem ents shared b y W agner and R avel include the use of descending, root-position, circle-of-fifths sequence, the use of highly chrom atic passages, voice configurations depicting lam ent by chrom atic descents, and harm onic substitu tions for tonics.158 It is p lausible that R avel w anted to pay hom age to W agner, given the sim ilarities found in the tw o excerpts. R avel, w ho supposedly cried listening to W agner?s Tr ista n, w rote the T rio shortly after w riting a rev iew of P a r sifa l?s prem iere in Paris. C ontrary to his subtle and em otionally restrained French style, perhaps R avel used the passacaglia to look back to the W agnerian style in freedom of em otional expression. M uch like the Wehela ute m otif, R avel?s descending chrom atic harm onies seem to speak of lam ent. The significance here is that the 157 Puri, ?The Passion of the Passacaille: Ravel, Wagner, Parsifal,? Cambridge Opera: 308. 158 Ibid., 307?309. 83 passacaglia is such a pow erful m edium that it can contain the grandest expression from one of the grandest operas b y one of the m ost am bitious opera com posers. Soon after reaching its brilliant peak in the m ovem ent, the them e settles dow n and takes on a m ore contem plative m ood. The original m otif appears again , but in a m uch higher register and w ith in tricate harm onies. It retains its pensive character, but it seem s to reflect on the past after the p revious storm y section. For the ninth statem ent, the piano drops out, leaving the m uted strings to carry the them e. The m ute seem s to add even m ore sotto voce quality (?under the voice,? to be perform ed w ith hushed quality), creating a sense of yearning, although the m usic does not speak w ith w ords. W hy did R avel choose th is o ld baroque form for the trio? N o one can answ er, although one can speculate. R avel rarely spoke about his aesthetic ideas: ?I never felt the need to set dow n the principles of m y aesthetic, w hether for others or for m yself. If I had to do so, I w ould ask perm ission to respond w ith the sim ple statem ents that M ozart m ade on this subject. H e w as content to say that m usic can attem pt an ything, dare an ything, and depict anything, as long as it delights and rem ains ever and alw ays m usic.? H is response seem s to give us a bit of flex ibility in in terpreting his m usic as long as w e acknow ledge its artistic beauty. A dditionally, a good friend of R avel, v iolinist H ?l?ne Jourdan-M orhange noted in her m em oirs that R avel w ished to invoke various effects w ith his com positions? especially the aesthetic im pact on him self rather than an im pact on the audience.159 It seem s that R avel did not w ant to reveal h is in tents directly but m ay have liked the aesthetics of his m usic to convey different concepts and em otions. W hile he w orked on the trio , 159 Appold, ?Introduction? in Ravel Trio: X. 84 both R avel and his country were going through a troubling time. I believe R avel looked back to the R omantic or even W agnerian style to ex press this inner turmoil. D espite the lament portrayed by the fall ing chromatic l ine, his passacaglia demonstrated a distinct beauty, infused with his new musical language. M ost importantly, as R avel said himself, he wanted his music to invoke various perceptions. R avel favored the passacaglia for its timeless beauty and reflective quality during this troubled period. A fter the thought-provoking, serious third movement comes the jubilant finale. T he movement is in sonata-rondo form and is fi l led with R avel? s witty shifting meters of 5/4 and 7/4, a nod to his B asque heritage. T he strings start the movement with coloristic harmonics, setting a festive tone for the movement. T he piano then comes in the following measure with themes containing similar rhythms of the first and third movements? themes. T he quick-paced movement ex hibits R avel? s staple usage of instruments as impressionistic tools with strings harmonics, pizzicati, and endless tril ls, giv ing the piece a passionate conclusion. 85 B en ja m in B r it t en : Violin C on cer to , O p. 15 B enjam in B ritten?s V iolin C oncerto , O p. 15 is a m asterpiece w ritten in 1939, a turbulent tim e for the com poser him self and Europeans in general due to the Spanish C ivil W ar (1936? 1939) and W orld W ar II (1939?1945). It is the sole violin concerto w ritten by B ritten and his first w ork that em plo ys the passacaglia.160 H is P iano C oncerto , O p. 13 (1938), also uses the passacaglia but not until after its revision in 1945. H is other notable w orks w ith the passacaglia include the operas P eter G r imes, The Ra pe of Lucr etia , and The Tur n of the Scr ew, as w ell as his non-vocal w orks, C ello S ym phon y, and S tring Q uartet N o. 2 .161 A m erican com poser D arrell H andel suggests that B ritten used the passacaglia to give a tonal center to the w hole w ork and provide stability tow ard w hich other m ovem ents could gravitate.162 H e further indicates that B ritten used passacaglias as em otional clim axes, often dealing w ith subjects related to death .163 The keys and tonal center are not alw ays clear in the V iolin C oncerto; how ever, the passacaglia confirm s the key of D for the finale, anchoring the other m ovem ents. A s he looks back at the old m asters from the B aroque period, B ritten expresses his personal struggle and m ourning of the current political conflicts. B ritten w as born in Low estoft, the U nited K ingdom , in 1913 to a m iddle-class fam ily.164 H is father w as a dentist, and his m other w as a singer and a pianist. H is m other, Edith , saw the unusual m usical talent in the young com poser and encouraged him in further training. N ot only w as Edith closely involved in B ritten?s m usical developm ent, but she tightly controlled the 160 Bernadette de Villiers, Benjamin Britten?s Use of the Passacaglia (Johannesburg: University of the Witwatersrand, 1985), 44. 161 Darrell Handel, ?Britten?s Use of the Passacaglia,? Tempo, no. 94 (1970): 2?6, accessed October 02, 2020. http://www.jstor.org/stable/943210. 162 Ibid. 163 Ibid. 164 Graham Elliott, Benjamin Britten: The Spiritual Dimension (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2006), 7. 86 com poser?s life. W hen she suddenly passed aw ay in 1937, B ritten w as both devastated and relieved. W hile attem pting to find his identity and source of self-expression , he started to explore new sexuality. H is new friends w ere w riters and artists, W . H . A uden and C hristopher Isherw ood, am ong others, w ho played a role in bringing out the com poser?s repressed desire for a sam e-sex partner. They celebrated the love of art together and shared sim ilar values and political v iew s. Politically, B ritain , along w ith the rest of Europe, w as bracing for w ar. W hen B ritten w as fin ishing the violin concerto , the Spanish C ivil W ar reached its peak, and W orld W ar II had begun. A lthough the danger did not d irectly threaten B ritten, he w as deeply saddened b y the w ars. B y this point in his life, he had alread y estab lished him self as an im portant com poser. H e had w ritten several im portant w orks, including songs, cham ber m usic, choral w orks, and film scores. H ow ever, he felt that the conservative voices in the B ritish m usic scene lim ited his career.165 Eventually, in 1939, the young com poser decided to follow in the footsteps of his friend, poet W . H . A uden and m oved to the U nited S tates w ith his life-long partner, tenor Peter Pears, w ith the hope of finding freedom from those voices. B ecause of the U .S . im m igration process, before entering the U .S ., the tw o had to go to C anada, w here B ritten fin ished his violin concerto score in 1939.166 A ntonio B rosa, a Spanish violin virtuoso, and John B arbirolli, an English conductor, gave the highly successful prem iere perform ance w ith the N ew Y ork Philharm onic on M arch 28, 1940. The prem iere perfo rm ance received m ostly positive review s, although there w ere som e 165 Suzanne Robinson, ??An English Composer Sees America?: Benjamin Britten and the North American Press, 1939?42,? American Music 15, no. 3 (1997): 322, accessed Oct 06, 2020. doi:10.2307/3052328. 166 David Ewen, The World of Twentieth-Century Music (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall,1968), 111. 87 m ixed review s and disagreem ent on how to label the piece in the p rogram . For exam ple, one review er said , ?pretty violent: either pro or con,? indicating the p rem iere perform ance left a strong im pression but not necessarily positive or negative.167 R egarding the title of the piece, on the prem ier?s p rogram , it appeared as ?C oncerto for V iolin and O rchestra in D m inor, O p. 16;? how ever, B ritten had nam ed it ?C oncerto for V iolin and O rchestra, O p. 15 .?168 This m islabeling occurred because there B ritten did not specify the key, leading to confusion . H e probably did not w ant to designate it to any particular key because the piece does not alw ays have a clear tonal center, and it sw itches back and forth betw een m ajor and m inor.169 The B ritish prem iere show ed the title correctly, ?C oncerto for V iolin and O rchestra, O p. 15,? as B ritten intended. B rosa w as another im m igrant w ho escaped Europe am id the w ars. H e believed there w as a connection betw een the Spanish flavor in som e parts of B ritten?s V iolin C oncerto and the Spanish C ivil W ar.170 There are m an y exam ples of Spanish influence, including the percussion?s rhythm in the opening, castanet rh ythm s, flam enco-like guitar sonorities, and the slow sarabande rhythm . M ost telling of all, B ritten chose a Spanish form , the passacaglia, for the piece?s finale. A long w ith these Spanish elem ents, the gravity of th is p iece suggests that B ritten m ay have intended the w ork to serve as a requiem for the fallen of the Spanish C ivil W ar. The concerto is structured like a standard concerto of three m ovem ents but w ith an unusual order of tem pos. U nlike the typical fast-slow -fast pattern , the concerto features a 167 Robinson, American Music 15, no. 3 (1997): 327, 331, accessed Oct 06, 2020. doi:10.2307/3052328. 168 Donald Mitchell and Philip Reed, Letters from a Life: The Selected Letter and Diaries of Benjamin Britten, 1913?1939, vol. 1, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991), 790. 169 Ibid. 170 Eric Roseberry, ?The concertos and early orchestral scores: aspects of style and aesthetic? in The Cambridge Companion to Benjamin Britten, ed. Mervyn Cooke (Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 1999), 238-239. 88 m oderate first m ovem ent, a fast and frenzied scherzo as the second m ovem ent, and a slow Passacaglia as the th ird and last m ovem ent. B ritten fashioned the w ork as one w hole rather than three separate m ovem ents. H e specifically asked for a tta ca betw een the m ovem ents so there w ould be no pause, requiring a great deal of stam ina from the soloist and o rchestra. B oth the use and the placem ent of the violin cadenza are also unusual. The cadenza typically appears in the first m ovem ent, either before the recapitulation or at the very end. In B ritten?s concerto , it appears at the end of the second m ovem ent, serving as a bridge to the P a ssa ca glia , w hich com m ences w hile the vio lin is still p laying. The third m ovem ent, P a ssa ca glia , consists of a stern six -m easure m elody. B ritten follow s the passacaglia form w ith som e liberty. H e allow s for tonal shifts, d iffering intervallic structure, flex ible phrasing, fugato elem ents, and staggered statem ents of the basic them e w ithin the sequence of the variations.171 D espite these continuous alterations, the passacaglia statem ent appears to keep its general arch contour throughout the m ovem ent. The first statem ent is an upw ard curve w ith a threefold repetition of rising w hole notes; each repetition is a m inor th ird higher than the previous. The statem ent?s highest note appears around its m idpoint, im m ediately after the th ird repetition. A syncopation occurs at th is h igh point, w hich creates m ore tension and urgency. The dow nw ard curve consists of repeated intervals of tw o w hole-steps and a half-step, m aking each pattern a perfect fourth low er than the previous one. E x. 2 .5 .2a : T h e fir st p a ssa ca glia st a t em en t 171 Villiers, Britten?s Use of the Passacaglia, 44?47. 89 The solo violin , w hich bridges the cadenza and the P a ssa ca glia , p lays the first them e from the first m ovem ent. Thus, from the beginning, the passacaglia is presented w ith a counter m elody from the first m ovem ent. This helps to tie all three m ovem ents together in to a single larger w hole. The follow ing exam ples are the first them e from the opening of the w ork and the end of the cadenza that overlaps w ith the P a ssa ca glia .172 E x. 2 .5 .2b : T h e fir st t h em e fr om th e op en in g of t h e C on cer to E x. 2 .5 .2c: Solo violin a t t h e b egin n in g of t h e P a ssa ca glia B oth exam ples show a rem arkably sim ilar rh ythm ic pattern of a half-note tied to an eighth-note, follow ed b y a slid ing figure of eighth-notes. The direction of the solo violin line is alm ost the opposite of the passacaglia them e. The first three bars of the passacaglia them e rise b y a m inor th ird in each repetition, w hile the violin line falls by a m inor th ird and tw o m ajor th irds. B oth are m arked espr essivo and are lyrical in nature. W hile the opening them e is in F m ajor and has a 172 Benjamin Britten, ?Passacaglia: Andante Lento (Un Poco Meno Mosso),? in Violin Concerto (London, United Kingdom: Boosey and Hawkes, 1965). 90 luscious, hopeful, and curious character, the end of cadenza sounds m ournful in com parison. B oth the passacaglia them e and the counterm elody m ove b y stepw ise m otion, form ing highly chrom atic figures. These them es are rem iniscent o f Purcell?s D ido?s La ment, w hich has a chrom atic descending tetrachord signifying lam ent and death . In their first appearance in the concerto , three m ellow -sounding trom bones cast a suppressed and gloom y m ood as they introduce the them e. W ithin the them e, the m ood shifts betw een the rising and the falling lines. The rising line w ith tenuto, sostenuto m arkings, seem s to indicate an earnest yet faintly hopeful m ood. The falling line, w ith staccato and accents, indicates a grudging acceptance of fate. It is a them e that seem s to reflect sorrow over the horrors o f the Spanish C ivil W ar. B ritten him self h inted at th is in a letter to W ulff Scherchen, son of the fam ous conductor H erm ann Scherchen and likely the com poser?s first lover: ?It is at tim es like these, that w ork is so im portant? so that people can think of other th ings than blow ing each other up!?173 The harm on y is quite am biguous. Even the o riginal them e does not present a clear tonal center as it is h ighly chrom atic. Their notes span an augm ented octave, and the tonal center evolves w ith each statem ent. The them e is heard m ost clearly in the section from the beginning of the m ovem ent to rehearsal num ber th irty-four. In th is section, the first note of each them e m oves in a descending chrom atic fashion. The first notes of each them e are C , B , B b, A , and G # at rehearsal th irty-four. A t the G #, the passacaglia them e becom es a trem olo in the cello line. R ehearsal th irty-four is a lso w here the solo violin enters for the first tim e after hearing the series of passacaglia them es played b y the o rchestra. This section seem s like a m odern-day 173 Mitchell and Reed, Letters from a Life, vol. 2, 702. 91 recitative from opera, w here the singer delivers m any m essages accom panied by a sm all group of instrum ents. H ere, accom panied b y nervous-sounding trem olos from the cello , the solo violin plays in a free, im provisatory m anner. Even the violin part seem s to m im ic the passacaglia them e?s contour; it features the threefold repetition of rising notes, follow ed by the falling eighth-notes b y intervals of m ostly w hole steps. S ee Exam ple 2 .5 .2d. E x. 2 .5 .2d : T h e violin en t r a n ce m im ics th e p a ssa ca glia t h em e, a ccom p a n ied b y t r em olo fr om th e cello B ritten rarely gives the passacaglia them e to the solo violin . In fact, it is p layed b y alm ost every instrum ent in the o rchestra, w hile the solo v iolin plays it only tw ice. The follow ing exam ples are from rehearsal num bers th irty-seven and forty-tw o. 92 E x. 2 .5 .2e: Solo violin p a ssa ca glia t h em e fr om n u m b er th ir ty -seven E x. 2 .5 .2f: Solo violin p a ssa ca glia t h em e fr om n u m b er for ty-tw o The them e at rehearsal num ber th irty-seven (ex . 2 .5 .2e) features several elem ents sim ilar to the B aroque chaconne. It is in a trip le m eter, presents dotted rhythm s, and has an em phasis on beat tw o. The solo violin?s rhythm feels unrestricted but is jux taposed w ith a som ew hat square rhythm in the orchestra. The solo violin has trip lets, quintuplets, and a septuplet, m ixed in w ith long, sustained notes. It soars alone, expressively and passionately. B y con trast, the strings play sixty-fourth -notes, follow ed b y an eighth-note, using ricochet. The rigid rhythm and the percussive qualities seem to im itate the snare drum s in a m arch. The second solo violin statem ent is at rehearsal num ber forty-tw o (ex . 2 .5 .2f). U nlike the first, th is them e is executed in a stately 93 quadruple m eter. The rh ythm here is less unrestrained than in the first solo , but it features dotted rhythm s, the tradem ark o f chaconne and sarabande. Every note is a chord w ith an accent and a dow nbow , and it sounds quite vertical and contrapuntal in contrast to the first statem ent. A nd the m ood is h ighly fo rceful and declam atory. R ehearsal th irty-eight stands out as the m ost p layful and charm ing section in the m ovem ent. The flirtatious dialogue betw een the flu tes and the solo violin sounds alm ost like a rom antic M ahler p iece. B ritten m ay have been com m enting on his conception of an ideal w orld w here people can love each other and live in peace. R ehearsal th irty-nine, m arked a lla ma r cia , k icks off w ith rh ythm ically charged trum pets and tim pani. Even the solo violin , w hich soon follow s the trum pets, seem s to m im ic the trium phant trum pet calls. R ehearsal num ber forty-three, unlike m uch of the piece, show s a clear tonality o f D m ajor. The string section outlines the D m ajor scale in unison w ith a few accidentals. The double bass, trom bone, and tuba play the passacaglia them e, but th is tim e the second sequence is a m ajor th ird , not a m inor th ird like the original statem ent (ex . 2 .5 .2g). Thus, the statem ent at forty-th ree carries a m ore optim istic tone. E x. 2 .5 .2g: T h e p a ssa ca glia t h em e a t n u m b er for ty-th r ee 94 I t appears to support H andel? s contention that B ritten used the Passacaglia to confirm the tonality and provide stability to which the other movements can gravitate. T he first movement starts in F major, which then moves to D . T he second movement is in A minor. F inally, the third movement, Passacaglia, confirms the key of D . H owever, the ending of the piece leaves some ambiguity here, as it features both F # and F ?, leav ing us to wonder whether the key is D major or D minor. In B ritten?s V iolin C oncerto, the passacaglia theme seems to represent an immense force, l ike fate. I ts underlying message, of honoring and mourning for those who have fallen during the S panish war, remains the same. I ts appearance, however, undergoes many changes throughout the variations. B ut as with fate, despite the continuous evolution, the outcome is stil l the same. B ritten reminds us that tragedy and loss of l ife are constants of war no matter the point of v iew. 95 D m it r i Sh osta k ovich : P ia n o T r io N o. 2 , O p. 67 D m itri Shostakovich (1906?1975) w as a great R ussian com poser of the 20th century w ho lived under one of the m ost terrib le and infam ous regim es in history. N evertheless, he sublim ated his horrific experiences in to his ow n w renchingly beautiful m usic. S talin?s politically m otivated censorship severely hindered Shostakovich?s creativity, and he had to repress his em otions and opinions. N evertheless, S hostakovich could com m unicate these th ings b y encoding a dual m eaning in his w orks. H is m usic w ould frequently express undertones of sarcasm , anger, or great sorrow , m asked b y disingenuous ecstasy. In his P iano T rio N o. 2 , Shostakovich expresses pain and distress under the guise of tenderness in his use of passacaglia in the Largo m ovem ent. Shostakovich has been the 20th century?s m ost m ythologized com poser since his death in 1975.174 U ntil the publication of his m em oir, Testimony: The Memoir s of D imitr i Shosta kovich a s Rela ted to a nd Edited by Solomon Volkov, the general perception w as that he w as a true- believing com m unist and a patriotic Soviet citizen. B ut as m ore docum ents started com ing out, including his diaries and letters, w e learned that S hostakovich w as a very com plex person w ho lived in fear and terro r. H e w as, in fact, a lifelong closet d issident of S talin .175 A s w e have learned after h is death , Shostakovich?s tw o distinct styles, know n as ?the tw o Shostakoviches,? em erged after 1936. O ne w as ?official,? and the other w as ?real.? The ?official? Shostakovich w as m indful of public expectations w ithout com pletely com prom ising his ideals, w hile the ?real? Shostakovich paid little heed to stylistic uniform ity or ideology.176 Exam ples of ?official? 174 Pauline Fairclough, ?Facts, Fantasies, and Fictions: Recent Shostakovich Studies,? Music & Letters 86, no. 3 (2005): 452, accessed Oct 10, 2020, http://www.jstor.org/stable/3526611. 175 Laurel Fay, ?Introduction,? Shostakovich: A Life (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), 2. 176 Laurel Fay and David Fanning, ?Dmitry Shostakovich,? Grove Music Online (2001), accessed Oct. 13, 2020. https://www-oxfordmusiconline-com.proxy- um.researchport.umd.edu/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e- 0000052560. 96 Shostakovich include patriotic w artim e arrangem ents for perfo rm ances at the battlefront, a Solem n M arch for M ilitary B and, and arrangem ents of R ussian, English , A m erican, and G reek folksongs. O n the other hand, the ?real? Shostakovich revealed the com poser?s private thoughts. Shostakovich, an im m ensely private person, m ade an effo rt to speak through his m usic rather than speak about it.177 W orks show ing the ?real? Shostakovich include the F our P ushkin Roma nces, O p. 46, the Six Roma nces to Wor ds by English P oets, O p. 62, and F r om J ewish F olk P oetr y, O p. 79.178 W hen Shostakovich com posed the P iano T rio N o. 2 , O p. 67 in 1944, he w as turning aw ay from large-scale o rchestral w orks, such as the tw o w artim e sym phonies, N o. 7 (?Leningrad?) and N o. 8 . B oth sym phonies had patriotic and uplifting m essages am id the fear and uncertainty that cam e w ith the w ar. In particu lar, N o. 7 w as a huge success, w hich m ade his fam e and aw arded the com poser a S talin P rize (category one).179 From this tim e, Shostakovich began designating m an y of his w orks as m em orials. The Seventh S ym phony honored the suffering of Leningrad, w hile the E ighth com m em orated the w hole nation.180 The Second P iano Sonata, w hich he com posed in early 1943, honored his p iano teacher, N iko layev. A nd the Second P iano T rio w as an elegy for his closest friend, Ivan Ivanovich Sollertinsky, h is pupil F leischm ann, and the Jew s victim ized during W orld W ar II.181 177 Laurel Fay, ?Introduction,? Shostakovich: A Life (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), 2. 178 Fay and Fanning, ?Shostakovich,? Grove Music Online (2001). 179 Fay, ?The War Years,? Shostakovich: A Life, 132. 180 Ian MacDonald, The New Shostakovich (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1990), 169?170. 181 Ibid., 173. 97 In the 1910s, R ussia w as both a site of violent anti-Sem itism and, ironically, a site for the new Jew ish nationalism m ovem ent.182 N ikolai R im sky-K orsakov (1844?1908), one of the ?M ighty Five,? a group of R ussian com posers know n for nationalistic m usic, is often credited for prom pting R ussian-Jew ish com posers to in tegrate folk m usic in to concert art m usic. Jew ish folk m usic is categorized into tw o broad groups. The first group consists of topical Y iddish songs, including love songs and lullabies, w hile the second group contains m usic derived from diasporic liturgical foundations and is not considered ethnic m usic. S ince Jew s carried their spiritual nationality w ith them w herever they m oved, Jew ish folk m usic is not linked to a single nation or ethnicity but rather linked to a spiritual nationality. Shostakovich?s close friendship w ith a Polish-Jew ish com poser, M ieczys?aw W einberg, increased Shostakovich?s aw areness of Jew ish m usic. W einberg w as a concentration cam p survivor, and he w as fam iliar w ith Y iddish songs because his father w as a w ell-know n conductor and com poser at the Y iddish theater. Shostakovich w as fascinated b y ?sad Jew ish m elodies w ith the lively rh ythm ,? as he said about F r om J ewish F olk P oetr y.183 Those elem ents likely stem m ed from K lezm er m usic, w hich is rooted in cantorial songs. N ot only did he honor the Jew s and speak out against anti-Sem itism , but he shared their com m on ideals and adm ired their grit and perspective on life. M usicologist Esti Sheinberg argues that Shostakovich identified w ith the Jew ish recognition of ex istential irony and their understanding of jo y and sorrow as conjoined experiences, as the Soviet w orld of ?enforced optim ism ? reflected this duality.184 In the Second P iano T rio , Shostakovich em ployed the ?Jew ish them e,? a m usical tribute that used the scales 182 Alexander Tentser, Jewish Experience in Classical Music: Shostakovich and Asia (Cambridge Scholars: Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, pub. 2014), xiv. 183 Tentser, Jewish Experience in Classical Music (Cambridge Scholars: Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, pub. 2014), xxi- xxii. 184 Ibid. 98 and rh ythm s of Jew ish folk m usic as Shostakovich understood it. It w as the first appearance of th is them e in Shostakovich?s w orks. H e w ould use it again in his V iolin C oncerto N o. 1 (1947? 1948), F r om J ewish F olk P oetr y (1948), the S tring Q uartet N o. 4 (1949), 24 P reludes & Fugues for P iano, O p. 87 (1950?1951), and the S tring Q uartet N o. 8 (1960). There are several stylistic attributes of Shostakovich?s ?Jew ish? m usic. H e utilized specific m odalities such as the ?altered Phrygian? scale w ith a raised third , creating an augm ented second betw een the second and the th ird steps. H e also used the ?U krainian D orian,? w hich is sim ilar to a natural m inor scale, only w ith a raised fourth , producing an augm ented second betw een the th ird and the fourth steps. H e em ployed iam bic prim e fo r the m elody, w hich alters the pitch on a w eak beat, then repeats it on a strong beat, w ith the first note of each phrase on an upbeat. A particular dance-style accom panim ent also characterized Shostakovich?s ?Jew ish m usic.? The accom panim ent had an ?um -pa? effect, typically over a pedal bass. B ut perhaps the m ost strik ing essence o f it w as the use of contradicting qualities in inflection and form . The seem ingly sad m inor-inflected m odes w ith the festive dance form s of klezm er created an effect, frequently referred to as ?laughter through tears.? The result w as a jux taposition of terror and m errim ent, m aking sense o f the grotesque.185 Sollertinsky, the dedicatee of P iano T rio N o. 2 , w as a brilliant m usicologist, m usic critic, and professor at Leningrad U niversity. H e and Shostakovich had been friends since 1927, and he is know n to have opened Shostakovich?s eyes to M ahler?s glory. Sollertinsky w as a brave, passionate, and lo yal friend, even through Shostakovich?s darkest days. H e died at the age o f forty-one of a sudden heart attack on February 11, 1944. A t the tim e, he w as serving as A rtistic 185 Tentser, Jewish Experience, 13?14. 99 D irector of the Leningrad Philharm onic but had been evacuated to S iberia to escape the N azi siege o f Leningrad.186 The new s of his death shocked and devastated Shostakovich. H e expressed his grief as he o ffered his condolences to Sollertinsky?s w idow , ?It is im possible to express in w ords all the grief that engulfed m e on hearing the new s about Ivan Ivanovich?s death . Ivan Ivanovich w as m y very closest and dearest friend. I am indebted to him for all m y grow th. To live w ithout him w ill be unbearably difficult.?187 B efore Sollertinsky?s death , Shostakovich had finished the sketches o f the P iano T rio N o. 2 and w as able to show him . Shostakovich even finished m ost of the first m ovem ent a few days before his friend?s death .188 H ow ever, after Sollertinsky?s death , Shostakovich?s w ork slow ed due to his depression and sorrow . In A pril, he w ro te to his close friend, G likm an, ?? it seem s to m e that I w ill never be ab le to com pose another no te again .?189 H ow ever, he eventually regained his m otivation to w rite after fin ishing his teaching responsibilities at the conservatory b y the end of the academ ic year. W hile spending the sum m er w ith his fam ily at the C om posers? R est H om e at Ivanovo (240 km north -east of M oscow ), he m ade speed y progress w ith the Second T rio and the Second S tring Q uartet.190 B oth w orks prem iered in N ovem ber, and w hile both w ere w ell received, the T rio enjoyed an especially w arm recep tion. The T rio prem iered on N ovem ber 14, 1944, in Leningrad, w ith the com poser him self on piano, v iolinist D m itri Tsyganov and cellist Sergei S hirinsky of the 186 MacDonald, The New Shostakovich, 173. 187 Fay, ?The War Years (1941?1944),? Shostakovich: A Life, 141. 188 Ibid. 189 Fay, ?The War Years (1941?1944),? Shostakovich: A Life, 141. 190 Ibid., 142. 100 Beethoven String Quartet.191 The work was a lamentation for Sollertinsky, and it captured much of his character. Even Sollertinsky?s sister saw aspects of his personality in the second movement, which was the first movement Shostakovich completed after his death. That movement depicted Sollertinsky?s manner of speech, impatience, and even his habit of returning to an idea and developing it. In 1946, the Trio received a Stalin Prize (category two).192 The opening of the work has an unusual arrangement of the instrumentation. The cello solitarily introduces the theme on hauntingly high-pitched harmonics. Then the violin comes in at a lower pitch than the cello, providing harmonies for the cello in a canonic fashion. Both strings are muted, sounding frail and bleak. Then the piano establishes the bass line. The string parts? roles remain reversed until after the Moderato. In the Moderato section, the piano introduces the second theme, while the strings add suspense with repeated staccato eighth notes. Throughout the movement, Shostakovich seems to make a great effort to balance the instruments. By coupling the strings on numerous occasions and having a simple line for the piano, each instrument vividly sings through without being overpowered by the piano. The movement is roughly in sonata-form, and its mood changes between oppressed reflection, the depiction of Russian folklife, and angry outcry. The Scherzo-like second movement is in a bold F? major, and its character is sarcastic and manic. The string parts are marked marcatissimo and pesante, requiring the musicians to play with heavy and accented bow strokes on every note. Sometimes an accent is found once per measure, and other times, on every quarter note. There are many incidences of fff, indicating the 191 Ibid. 192 Ibid., 143. 101 m ood to be frantic and frenzied. B y contrast, the trio section is a w oozy w altz in G m ajor, its cheerful charm all part of the sarcasm . Shostakovich em ploys the repeating harm onic cyc le of the passacaglia to invoke a sense of lam entation and eternity. H is fascination w ith the passacaglia is show n from his early w orks. H is Second S ym phon y (1927) reveals the first h int of the passacaglia m odel in a sm all portion of the first section. The opera, La dy Ma cbeth of the Mtsensk D istr ict (1932), the first p iece w hich brought m ajor criticism s, em ploys the centuries-old form during the clim ax w here the heroine kills her father-in -law .193 It is notew orthy that he uses it for an em otional crux that deals w ith a subject related to death in La dy Ma cbeth, the piece w ith Shostakovich?s first authentic use of passacaglia. It seem s that despite the different circum stances and m usical languages, the sym bolic m eaning of passacaglia from Purcell and B ach rem ains the sam e, even to an oppressed Soviet com poser. In both the V iolin C oncerto N o. 1 and the trio , h is harm onic cycles are m uch m ore com plex than those of the B aroque passacaglias to w hich they refer. S till, the pow er of those earlier m odels rem ains, colored b y a uniquely tw entieth-century sense of traged y. The La r go of the P iano T rio N o. 2 is set in a dark B ? m inor. The piano introduces the chord progression in deep-voiced block chords. T he eight-m easure chord p rogression is repeated six tim es over the course of the m ovem ent, w hile the strings w eave counterpoint above it in canonic fashion, the singing lines expressing both beauty and heartache. O verall, the tex ture is relatively th in , w hich surprisingly results in em otional m usic. It seem s to illustrate Shostakovich?s devastation at h is dear friend?s death . S ince the tex ture is considerably thin , and m ost of the notes are long, p layers are granted som e liberty in tim ing. H alf-step gestures in the 193 Lyn Henderson, ?Shostakovich and the Passacaglia: Old Grounds or New?? The Musical Times 141, no. 1870 (2000): 53, accessed October 14, 2020. doi:10.2307/1004371. 102 strings convey em otional pain m uch as they did in B ach?s C hr ist la g in Todesba nden and Purcell?s D ido. Therefore, it seem s logical for p layers to consider appropriate rubato to m ake each phrase as expressively sorrow ful as possible. The string m elodies evolve throughout the m ovem ent w hile the chord progression in the piano part rem ains persistent and constant, representing the unavoidable nature o f fate. The use of p iano alone at the opening is particularly significant in setting the tone for th is m ovem ent. M arked for te, the chords are declam atory yet w ounded b y a shocking half-step clash. Each chord is held for six beats. This is quite long fo r a p iano, w hich cannot sustain sound like a string instrum ent. Shostakovich is essentially using the piano like a bell, to lling a death knell. The repeating harm onic progression is B ? m inor-F m ajor-C m ajor-A dim inished seventh-G m ajor and m ajor seventh-G m inor and m ajor seventh-A m inor-B m inor/dim inished.194 E x. 2 .5 .3a : T h e r ep ea t in g h a r m on ic p r ogr ession in Sh osta k ovich P ia n o T r io N o. 2 The tension reaches its peak in the fifth and six th m easures w ithin the harm onic progression, w here the shocking clash occurs, and it relaxes after the six th bar. It longs to resolve to E , the T rio?s tonic, but frustratingly, it does not. Instead, it continues to conclude on a half-cadence, a bare B -D d yad. 194 Cassidy, A Comparison of Passacaglias, 50. 103 The ranges of the chords are relatively sm all. They lie in the m iddle and the slightly low er registers, resulting in a som ew hat clustered sound. The voice-leading from one chord to the nex t follow s the centuries-old values of m aintaining com m on tones and m inim izing m otion. B y em plo ying centuries-old principles of organic cohesion, Shostakovich supports sounds that are shocking, d isturbing, and expressive of desolation. W hen the violin m akes its espr essivo entrance, the dynam ic d rops to pia no, invoking a m ore som ber m ood. O nce all three instrum ents have played their tunes, the m usic grow s in its in tensity and loudness. It reaches its clim ax right at the dissonant fifth bar of the chord cycle; only now , the violin adds the additional d issonance of an F? to the usual clash of the G and F# in the bass. B oth strings are in the very high register at th is point, their parallel m otion at the in terval of a tenth m aking fo r desolate w eeping. A fter th is explosive m om ent, the m usic gradually settles dow n. The strings exchange fragm ented lines in a conversational m anner. The violin repeats its sorrow ful tune from the opening o f the m ovem ent but an octave low er. Th is tim e, the lack of an espr essivo m arking suggests the prio r em otion has been exhausted. W hile there are no fu rther cycles of the passacaglia beyond this point, the cello echoes the violin?s final notes. The piano sustains a m inor th ird , B and D underneath eerie harm onics in the strings. The piano?s B becom es the fifth scale degree o f the key o f E m ajor as the last m ovem ent com m ences a tta cca . The final m ovem ent, Allegr etto , opens w ith the drum -like eighth-notes in the piano, creating a sense of suspense. The m ovem ent is know n for the com poser?s bold choice to include the ?Jew ish tunes? at a tim e w hen the regim e w as clearly anti-Sem itic.195 The so-called ?Jew ish 195 Tentser, Jewish Experience, xxii. 104 tune? is first in troduced by a w him sical v iolin pizzica to . Like the scherzo, the m ovem ent exhibits contradictory personalities of joy and sorrow to intensify em otions in both directions. The Jew ish tune also occurs later in w ork at rehearsal 86. The m acabre dance is in the D orian m ode above a five-beat passacaglia them e. Ian M acD onald, w riting in The New Shosta kovich, says the com poser w as ?horrified by stories that SS guards had m ade their v ictim s dance beside their ow n graves, Shostakovich created a directly p rogram m atic im age of it.?196 The m ovem ent is loosely in sonata-rondo fo rm , and it recasts the them es from both the first and third m ovem ents. A ccom panied b y elaborate runs in the piano, the strings play the bleak opening tunes again , but th is tim e in for tissimo and w ith the instruction of espr essivo. W hile the dynam ics and expression create a m ore outspoken character here, the use o f m utes rem inds the listener of still-present fo rces of oppression. The p iece ends w ith a kind o f fulfillm ent of the passacaglia chord cycle: its final chord resolves to the com fortable and optim istic key of E m ajor. W hile Shostakovich w rote the T rio to honor his friend, he also expresses his sorrow for the w hole w orld . H e reaches back in tim e to the passacaglia to tell the eternal cycle of life, death , v iolence, and oppression. In doing so, he adds m odern dissonances to the form ?s natural cohesion and brings passacaglia squarely in to the 20th century. 196 MacDonald, The New Shostakovich, 173. 105 D m it r i Sh osta k ovich : Violin C on cer to N o. 1 in A m in or , O p. 77 D m itri Shostakovich?s V iolin C oncerto N o. 1 in A m inor, O p. 77 (1947?1948) is one of the m ost celebrated w orks in the violin repertoire of the 20th century. It boasts a sym phon y-like structure and w eight, as the concerto consists of four m ovem ents rather than the m ore com m on three. It show cases the technical v irtuosity in the solo violin , sends profound m essages, and com m unicates com plex em otions that w ords cannot express. The em otional clim ax com es in the th ird m ovem ent, the Passacaglia, the heart of the concerto . The unrelenting ground bass sym bolizes fate, w hile the solo violin carries a hauntingly beautiful and po ignant m elod y. Shostakovich?s V iolin C oncerto N o. 1 w as com posed during the post-w ar years in the Soviet U nion, a tim e of severe censorship . In 1946, under S talin?s to talitarian regim e, A ndrei Zhdanov developed the Soviet cultural doctrine called Zhdanov doctrine, also know n as Zhdanovshchina or Zhdanovism . Zhdanov w as a pow erful m an w ho w as thought to be S talin?s successor before his sudden death in 1948.197 H e w as virtually a policem an of the arts, tightly controlling w hat artists express through their w orks. Initially, Zhdanovism started censoring tw o journals but eventually spread to virtually all aspects of art. A n ything that w as considered vulgar, lacking m oral principle, not actively p rom oting pro-Soviet ideas, and having bourgeois- aristocratic aesthetics w as to be censored. U nder Zhdanovism , artists w ere to prom ote an ex trem e anti-W estern m essage, and they w ere required to conform to ?anti-form alism .? A nd anyone w ho dared not to com ply faced severe consequences, including death . ?Form alism ? referred to art that used com plex techniques and form s accessible only to the elite, rather than sim plified for ordinary people. In m usic, if 197 Fay, ?Victory (1945?1948),? Shostakovich: A Life, 150. 106 there w ere excessive uses of dissonances or an absence of im m ediately recognizable m elod y, it w as considered ?form alism .?198 D uring the cultural purge of 1948, m an y prom inent Soviet com posers w ere attacked . The w atch list included Prokofiev, K hachaturian, and Shostakovich, in w hich Shostakovich w as ?num ber one.?199 A ssem bled in a public hall, they w ere hum iliated and w ere required to repent. The follow ing is Zhdanov?s quote from the conference on January 10, 1948. Indeed, even though it is outw ardly concealed, a fierce struggle is taking place betw een tw o directions in Soviet m usic. O ne represents the health y, progressive aspects in Soviet m usic, based on the recognition of the im m ense role of the classical heritage and, in particular, on the traditions of the R ussian m usical school, on the com bination of high idealism and substance in m usic, its tru thfulness and realism , and on the deep, organic connection w ith the peop le and their legacy of m usic and folk song, com bined w ith high professional m astery. The other direction produces form alism alien to Soviet art. U nder the banner o f illusory innovation, it conveys a rejection of the classical heritage, of national character in m usic, and of service to the people in order to cater to the purely individualistic experiences of a sm all clique of aesthetes.200 Soviet com posers and others had no other option but to conform to the Party?s ideology, at least for the tim e being. D uring the late forties and early fifties, Shostakovich w rote patriotic m ovie scores and other pleasant p ieces for the general audiences to gain the Party?s favor. W hat the Party did not know w as that in private, he continued w orking on m ore com plex pieces as if he w as m aking a secret protest through his m usic. In fact, Shostakovich w orked on his V iolin C oncerto?s passacaglia m ovem ent after the repulsive sessions w ith Zhdanov.201 198 Ibid. 199 Solomon Volkov, ?Testimony,? Testimony: The Memoirs of Dmitri Shostakovich (New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1817), 146. 200 Fay, ?Victory (1945?1948),? Shostakovich: A Life, 156. 201 Ibid., 158. 107 Shostakovich finished his V iolin C oncerto N o. 1 in 1948, but he locked it aw ay in a desk draw er, fearing this w ork w ould bring him to his doom . This w as because Zhdanovism w as still effective until S talin died in 1953, even after Zhdanov?s unexpected early death in A ugust 1948. D uring that tim e, the com poser lived in persisten t fear of im prisonm ent fo r w riting m usic that w as not favored b y the U nion. For that reason, he w ithheld m any w orks, including the song- cycle F r om J ewish F olk P oetr y, the Fourth S tring Q uartet, and the P relude in F?. C oincidentally, the V iolin C oncerto w as also w ritten during w hat Shostakovich called his ?Jew ish period.? The com poser w as em pathetic of the oppressed Jew s w ho faced endless persecutions for unjust reasons. H e identified him self w ith them for having to live in fear and yet having to find the strength and courage to survive.202 B esides identifying w ith the Jew s, the im pression of Jew ish m usic drew the com poser?s in terest. H e said , ?The quality of Jew ish folk m usic is close to m y ideas of w hat m usic shou ld be. There should be tw o layers in m usic. Jew s w ere torm ented so long that they learned to hide their despair. It?s m ultifaceted, it can appear to be happ y w hile it is tragic.?203 The concerto w as dedicated to the legendary violinist D avid O istrakh and w as prem iered on O ctober 29 , 1955, w ith O istrakh and the Leningrad Philharm onic, w hich w as received w ith an overw helm ing standing ovation. Shostakovich?s V iolin C oncerto N o. 1 seem s to perfectly em bod y the com poser?s outcry to authorities that w ere suppressing the w eak? the Jew s and the com poser him self. A s the nam e of the m ovem ent m ay suggest, the first m ovem ent, Noctur ne, has a dark and tentative character. There are no clear directions of the phrases o r harm onies as there are no cadences until m easure fifty-one. N o contrasting them es are found, but a single soaring m elody con tinues, filled w ith 202 Volkov, Testimony, 156. 203 Ibid. 108 dissonances and tension, conveying deep sorrow and repression. Such yearning can be felt, but the m usic does not lead to anything, giving a sense of despair and hopelessness. B oth the solo violin part and the aux iliary parts are pensive and lyrical, and they beautifu lly com plem ent each other. The m ovem ent can be interpreted as a p rologue: a m editation on com ing events. The second m ovem ent, Scher zo, is in D -flat, and is quite the opposite of the preceding m ovem ent. This very quick, dance-like m ovem ent dem onstrates Shostakovich?s cynicism at its best. A t tim es, it can feel like traditional dance, yet Shostakovich?s very untraditional and com plicated harm onies turn it in to sarcastic hum or. It is as if everything seem s fine and jolly on its surface, yet underneath , there is som ething very destructive and tw isted. The light use of the tu tti v iolins enables the solo violin to be heard vividly in its d iscourse w ith the w oodw inds. The solo violin features uneven m etric stresses set against a steady rh ythm ic pu lse, creating uncertainty for the listener, thus m ore excitem ent. This m ovem ent is also know n for encryption of the com poser?s autobiographical m otif? the initials of h is nam e, D SC H . These initials are taken from the com poser?s G erm an transliterated nam e, D m itri Schostakow itsch (D . Sch.). Then, in accordance w ith G erm an practice, the letters D -S-C -H are translated into the pitches D -E?-C -B . This m otif not only represents Shostakovich him self; it sets an anguished and afflicted tone to the m usic w ith the in tervals of m inor seconds. This m otif is a sem itone higher, except for B (D ?-E-C ?-B ), and is m ostly heard in the o rchestra parts, although the solo violin takes it up at tim es. It is as if Shostakovich is m ocking the heinous authorities w ith a flash y yet dem onic dance, and, to take it further, he is m aking a statem ent w ith his very ow n nam e against their w ill. O ther 109 Shostakovich?s works with this motif include his String Quartet No. 5, No. 8, and Symphony No. 10.204 The third movement, Passacaglia , is in F minor and constitutes a personal musical testament of the composer. One hears the real Shostakovich, his devastation and mourning, through the conflicting qualities of an unyielding bass line and a freely evolving solo part. The 17-measure, repeating harmonic-melodic pattern is initially played by the low strings and brass, with a superimposed countersubject in the form of a horn fanfare. It consists of a quarter followed by a triplet followed by a quarter note. The remaining orchestral forces are gradually added on in succeeding variations, culminating in an intense statement by the soloist in octaves. Throughout the movement, the mood keeps evolving; however, there is always a sense of despair. The 17-measure theme appears nine times. The first statement is a noble entrance with a proud personality, twisted with aggressiveness due to the lower strings? for tissimo. The theme is also interrupted by rests, making the statement broken into shorter phrases, giving a sense of breathlessness. The first six bars are in two-bar phrases. Each phrase comprises a big descending leap from the first note to the second note, then an ascending leap from the second note to the third note. The ascending leap of perfect intervals is what suggests a royal character. The next eight bars are in four-bar phrases. Each four-bar phrase ends in the same manner as the opening with the descending and ascending gestures, but with smaller intervals. The last segment of the theme is a three-bar phrase; it starts with a significant descending interval like the opening, but this time, the third beat note (E?) creates a heart-wrenching tritone with the trombones (B?). 204 Lee, ?The ?Haunted? Shostakovich and the Co-Presence of Bach,? Tempo 63, no. 249 (2009): 45, accessed Oct 10, 2020. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40496096. 110 H owever, in the last measure of the theme, all the dissonances resolve in wistful F minor. It is as if the music portrays the composer? s struggle to keep his dignity through the hardships and oppressions. H e had to fight with the authorities and even himself to keep his self-respect even though he had to make himself seem as if he conformed. C ontrastingly, in the second statement at rehearsal number 70, the theme is played in piano by the trombone and bassoon with the woodwinds? chorale-like series of chords, giv ing more of a somber and less outspoken quality. T his sets the tone for the solo violin entrance, a beautiful lamentation, which complements the theme played by the strings. F inally, in the third statement of the theme at rehearsal number 71, the solo violin enters, playing the counter melody while the strings are playing the theme. M arked as piano and espressivo, it seems to represent an introverted yet poignant voice. T his rotation is fluid and has a song-like effect over the continuous, velvety backdrop of the string section. B y starting the tune on the third beat where the theme has a rest, S hostakovich makes it sound smooth with flex ible phrasing. D uring the first three bars, it meanders around C with the neighbor note of D ? , as if it is hesitant to go further. T his repeating ?? 6-5? (D ? -C ) motive seems to function as the ?anguish? or ?sigh? motive, acting as an appoggiatura on the dominant. C ertainly, the melody is an ex pression of affliction and yearning, but because of the uses of triads and octave leaps, one can also sense a glimpse of hope. In the solo part, the composer also gives many practical instructions, such as hairpins. It is helpful to know how he wanted the phrasing, and it is intriguing that the placements of the hairpins in the solo part do not always line up with the hairpins in the ground bass. T his creates a sense of the true polyphony rather than a mere solo with accompaniment. 111 In the fourth statement at rehearsal number 72, the solo violin seems to carry on more drama, and it starts to soar. A lthough this statement begins with similar materials to the previous one, it quickly diverts to something new. T he countermelody with which the solo violin originally entered is now played by the melancholic sounding bassoon and E nglish horn. M arked mezzo forte and espressivo, it is more vocal and spirited than before. In the fifth bar of the statement, the solo violin cries out with accented, downward gestures. S hostakovich?s tenuto indication here suggests that these are not to be v iolent or sharp accents, but rather emotional and weighty ones. T hey seem to ex press anger, but also a heav y heart with deep sadness. T he intensity continues to grow in the fifth statement, whose beginning is clearly heard in the F rench horn part while the solo part continues to spin its evolving melody. M eanwhile, the cellos and basses imitate what the soloist had been playing in the previous statement. N ine measures in, the solo part is reminiscent of its first entrance, only now it is in forte with accented octaves in the high register, suggesting that what was originally presented tentatively is now being declaimed loudly. E mpty first beats create a sense of even greater breathlessness or urgency, with the ex treme high register bordering on shril lness. A t this point, the energy is almost overwhelming, yet S hostakovich continues to build by means of melodic leaps spanning over three octaves in the solo part, as well as an increase in motion by changing from duple eighth-notes to triplets. In the seventh statement, the music finally reaches the goal that all of this build-up had been leading to. T he solo violin, at last, takes up the passacaglia theme in the piercing high register with fortissimo double-stop octaves while the celli and basses imitate the counter melody that the solo had introduced in the fourth rotation. A lthough the orchestra is marked fortissimo, there is no danger of them covering the soloist. T he register difference ensures that the solo 112 violin is able to effectively rise above the orchestra. D ouble down-bows create a sense of physical struggle that adds to the character of this section. T here is a sense of deep fulfi l lment or gratification that the soloist finally takes the main theme. I f one thinks of the solo part as representing the protagonist in a drama, it is as though that protagonist has finally accepted and taken personal ownership of an inex orable fate that had been resisted up until this moment. T his sense of fulfi l lment is accompanied by a sense of the great cost of having achieved it. I t is also notable that in this statement, the passacaglia theme ends B ? major, giv ing the listeners a sense of hope. In the eighth statement at number 76, the music quickly and completely changes its mood with a drastic diminuendo. O ne feels stil l shaken by what happened in the previous statement, but now it is reflecting with the aftermath of the emotional outbreak. T he solo violin plays the same tune from its first entrance at number 71, but an octave lower and with mezzo piano, molto espressivo markings. I t is reflective but with more confidence. In the tenth, eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth measures of number 76, S hostakovich silences the first beats in the solo violin. T he missing down-beats create a sense of something essential being missing, and, thus, a sense of yearning. In the ninth statement at number 77, the solo part fix ates on the note C in the lowest register, temporarily suppressing a sense of melodic direction and throwing the listener into a sense of suspense. T he ground bass is played by the strings in pizzicato, making the orchestral tex ture transparent. T his enables the solo violin? s whisper-like sound to be heard. F rom number 77, the violin l ine recalls the horn fanfare from earlier: a quarter note followed by a triplet followed by a quarter note (?-???-?). 113 F or the remainder of the movement before the cadenza, the orchestra rumbles on a low F while the solo violin re-introduces the ground bass idea in a strikingly different manner. Instead of the proud, royal character of the earlier statements, it takes on an eerie tone and question-like gesture. S oon, the music diminishes to silence as though suggesting that the depth of despair is something that cannot even be represented in sound. R emarkably, this blankness introduces one of the greatest cadenzas ever written for v iolin: a cadenza significant not only for its pure greatness as a piece in itself but also for its structural purpose. I t serves as a smooth bridge between the tightly structured and mournful third movement and the impulsive and festive fourth movement. T he cadenza begins with an imitation of the now-familiar horn fanfare, but the silence following each statement imbues it with a questioning air. T he answer comes in the form of an ex tended build-up that begins as pianissimo eighth-notes whose d?tach? indication gives them a sense of contained agitation. O ver a long period, the dynamic level progressively increases; the rhythmic speed increases to triplets and then to six teenths; double-stops, then triple-stops are introduced, as are violent string crossings. A long the way, accented notes, including sometimes the harsh open E -string, suggest the sound of malevolent government agents pounding at the door, a common element in S hostakovich?s music. L ike ghosts of past and future, motives from the Scherzo and the upcoming B urleske make their appearance, the latter providing a thril l ing transition into the actual B urleske with ascending, double-stop glissandos. T he spirit of mockery returns in this jovial fourth movement, which like the Scherzo, suggests a festive peasant dance, but twisted, with elements of the grotesque. A variety of dance tunes are heard over a driv ing rhythmic motif. M idway through, the passacaglia theme makes a brief, mocking statement through the clarinet, the horn, and the clatter of the x ylophone. A 114 couple of techniques not found in the earlier movements, left-hand pizzicato and fortissimo pizzicato, contribute to the grotesque quality. A n increase from allegro con brio to presto brings a triumphant and virtuosic climax to the end of the movement, and the violin states the passacaglia theme one final time. 115 C h a p ter 6: L ook in g B a ck to th e P a st a n d U n it in g w ith th e P r esen t In the m id to late 20th century, Serialism w as a m ainstream , avant-garde classical com position style. Serialism is a com positional m ethod in w hich a fixed series of elem ents such as pitches, rh ythm s, and dynam ics is referential.205 The m ost com m only used serialism technique w as the tw elve-tone technique, w hich Schoenberg introduced in the early 1920s. In the tw elve- tone technique, all 12 notes of the chrom atic scale had m ore or less equal im portance. Thus each note w ould appear as often as an y other, preventing the m usic from being in a key and effectively causing atonality. This contrasted w ith traditional W estern m usic, w hich typically w as in a key. In tonal m usic, the tonic and dom inant had m ore im portance; they appeared m ore often than other notes, and the m usic gravitated tow ards them . Tw elve-tone Serialism quickly gained popularity am ong m an y com posers, notably P ierre B oulez, A nton W ebern, and A lban B erg.206 H ow ever, th is h ighly m athem atical, architectural com positional style w as not as popular am ong the general public, as audiences found it too theoretical and not p leasing to their ears. The m ethod w as also restrictive to com posers, w ho had to follow specific rules rather than w rite in tuitively to reach the highest im aginative possibility. S ince then, there has been a new m ovem ent tow ard com posing m usic that is m ore com m unicative and m ore appealing to the general public. In th is chapter, w e w ill be discussing tw o great A m erican com posers, John A dam s and John C origliano, w ho chose to break from an y specific style to create som ething m ore individualistic and candid. A nd w e w ill be exploring their futuristic chaconnes, com posed in their m odern m usical languages. 205 Arnold Whittall, ?Introducing the Introduction,? Serialism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008), 3?4. 206 Ibid, 1. 116 J oh n s A d a m s: Violin C on cer to M inim alist m usic began as a counter-reactive and a derivative shift from the avant-garde style of Serialism and ?C hance? m usic, also know n as ?C oncept m usic.?207 ?C oncept m usic? refers to m usic in w hich som e com positional elem ent is left to chance and to the perform er?s decision in realizing the com poser?s w ork. It arose as a reaction against atonal neo-classical m usic. A ccording to a G erm an researcher, H artm ut O bendorff, atonality in neo-classical m usic w as initially thought to free the com poser from the rigid restrictions of tonal m usic, but because each perform ance could go in unpredictable and arbitrary directions (due to the elem ent of chance), the com poser?s m eaning could be lost.208 John C age, one of the m ost prom inent 20th-century A m erican com posers and a pupil of Schoenberg, becam e the leading advocate of ?C oncept m usic.? C age?s m ost fam ous w ork 4?33?? (1952) is an excellent exam ple w here the perform er does nothing for four m inutes and thirty- three seconds. W hatever noise occurs during the perform ance becom es the m usic. A quote from John C age?s book Silence: Lectur es a nd Wr itings gives us a glim pse of his philosophy. ?I have spent m any pleasant hours in the w oods conducting perform ances of m y silent p iece...fo r an audience o f m yself...the second m ovem ent w as ex trem ely dram atic, beginning w ith the sounds of a buck and a doe leaping up to w ithin ten feet of m y rock y podium .?209 W hile th is ?C hance m usic? w as very freeing to the com poser, it often left the audience w ondering about the artist?s underlying them e due to its arbitrary and unpredictable nature. In reaction, the early M inim alist com posers utilized Serialism , w hich allow ed them to present all of 207 Hartmut Obendorf, ?The Origins of Minimal Music,? Minimalism: Designing Simplicity (London, U.K.: Springer, 2009), 41?42. 208 Ibid. 209 Ibid. 117 the possibilities in a m ore form al and organized w ay than unstructured chance m usic w hile still providing an alternative to neo-classical com position.210 In essence, the big picture is that ?C hance m usic,? Serialism , and then M inim alism all arose in succession as possible answ ers to the ?stranglehold? o f atonal neo-classical m usic in A m erica.211 John C oolidge A dam s (b . 1947), a contem porary A m erican com poser, w hose style has been influenced b y M inim alism , represents a crossover betw een avant-garde and m ainstream concert hall m usic.212 A dam s studied com position at H arvard, a school that advocated Schoenberg?s 12-tone system . H e found him self torn betw een the pressure to adhere to Serialism like other serious com posers and the desire to break from it because it w as not aesthetically attractive to m ost listeners. Instead, A dam s adapted in M inim alism , w hich em phasized consistent rhythm ic pulse, sim ple harm onies, and m ost im portantly, perpetuated repetition and gradual expansion of sm all m usical units.213 H ow ever, in A dam s? take on M inim alism , he in troduced m ore harm onic and contrapuntal com plex ity in to his com positions.214 Intrigu ingly, he believed there w ere m an y elem ents shared b y B aroque and M inim alistic styles. A dam s once argued, ?the obvious connection betw een B aroque and M inim alist styles lies in the m otoric, periodic nature of the m usical d iscourse? both styles offer a m ore regular, m ore predictable, m ore reasoned universe.?215 210 Obendorf, ?The Origins of Minimal Music,? Minimalism, 41?42. 211 Ibid. 212 Douglas Lee, ?Masterworks of 20th-Century Music: The Modern Repertory of the Symphony Orchestra? (New York: Routledge, 2010), 1. 213 Lee, ?Masterworks of 20th-Century Music? , 2. 214 Judith Tick, ?John Adams, an American Master,? Music in the USA: A Documentary Companion, 771. 215 Kheng Keow Koay, ?Baroque Minimalism in John Adam?s Violin Concerto,? Tempo 66, no. 260 (2012): 25, accessed Oct 16, 2020. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23263085 118 A dam s describes his V iolin C oncerto as ?a throw back to traditional m eans of discourse and syntax .? H e dem onstrates both traditional and ground-breaking com position in th is w ork.216 A dam s honors the established form of a violin concerto b y follow ing the three-m ovem ent form at of fast-slow -(very) fast and inserting the cadenza at the end of the first m ovem ent. Taking it even further, he uses the B aroque device o f the chaconne in the slow m ovem ent to portray a unique philosophical idea, and he uses the ancient concep t of a tocca ta to fashion a brilliant finale. H e gives that m ovem ent the title Tocca r a , the Italian w ord from w hich the m usical form derives its nam e. The V iolin C oncerto cam e out of a beautiful collaboration betw een John A dam s and his close friend Jorja Fleezanis, the M innesota O rchestra concertm aster.217 She served as an advisor throughout the com position process and helped shape the piece to be violinistically id iom atic. F leezanis gave the concerto?s prem iere perform ance w ith the M innesota O rchestra on January 19, 1994, w hich received m any accolades.218 In the 1980s, A dam s favored utiliz ing harm ony and rhythm as the m ain driving fo rces, but h is v iolin concerto , w ritten in 1993, dem onstrates his com positional style?s shift in focus tow ard the m elody. A dam s thought a violin concerto w ithout m elody w as unthinkable. H ence, he decided to create a ?h yper m elod y? for the violin , com pensating for his past w orks? lack of m elody.219 Indeed, the solo violin has very few rests? 216 Ibid., 26. 217 John Adams, Rebecca Jemian, and Anne Marie De Zeeuw, ?An Interview with John Adams,? Perspectives of New Music 34, no. 2 (1996): 88, accessed Oct 15, 2020. doi:10.2307/833472. 218 Ibid. 219 Sarah Cahill, ?John Adams,? Grove Music Online (2001), accessed Oct. 24, 2020. https://www- oxfordmusiconline-com.proxy- um.researchport.umd.edu/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e- 0000042479. 119 from the beginning to the end, the violin sings and sings throughout the 35-m inutes piece, w hile the orchestra provides a m uted backdrop. The first m ovem ent?s title is sim ply the m etronom e m arking num ber ? = 78. It gives a clear idea about the tem po w hile it deliberately w ithholds any suggestion o f the piece?s character, w hich the traditional Italian designations w ould have provided. It opens w ith an ex tended line in the solo part, both w him sical and rhapsodic, accom panied by rising parallel harm onies in the strings. That parallel m otion gets faster as the m ovem ent goes on, increasing in in tensity and later being rendered b y w inds and brass. A dam s? use of synthesizers, a tradem ark of his orchestral m usic, adds a uniquely m odern tone, expanding the color pallet. A s the m ovem ent gains m om entum , the rising lines of the strings change from legato to pizzicato . A s the m ovem ent draw s to a close, the accom panim ent becom es gradually th inner until it d isappears at the solo cadenza?s onset. The placem ent of a cadenza at the end of the first m ovem ent represents a nod to standard concerto fo rm . H ow ever, th is cadenza m elts in to the C haconne?s long, sustained tones, m aking a seam less transition into that m ovem ent. The second m ovem ent?s title, C ha conne: Body thr ough which the dr ea m flows, is a phrase from a poem b y C alifornian poet R obert H aas, w hich provides an im age not only fo r the m ovem ent but for the entire concerto .220 A dam s describes the orchestra as the ?body? and the solo violin as the floating, d isem bodied ?dream .?221 The m usic is dream y, calm , and highly expressive, w hich is a stark contrast from either ou ter m ovem ent. The repeated bass line is sim ple, static, and it provides a m usical background to the syncopated solo violin . 220 Koay, ?Baroque Minimalism in Adam?s Violin Concerto,? Tempo, 28. 221 Ibid. 120 The bass line (D -A -B -F#-G -A -D ) is rem arkably sim ilar to that found in Pachelbel?s C a non (D -A -B -F#-G -D -G -A ). A dam s com m ented that he heard the B ritish pop com poser and producer B rian Eno?s piece created on the Pachelbel C anon tw enty years ago. H ence, it is possible he subconsciously thought of it w hen constructing the C haconne.222 The m ovem ent is in a trip le m eter, and it is a six -bar bass line w ith the harm onic progression of I-V -vi-iii-IV -V -I at its first appearance.223 A s the m usic progresses, the harm onic progression alters through augm entation and dim inution, but it can easily expand to nine m easures or com press to six m easures since they are long-note values. Follow ing the steps o f bo th the old m asters and the m odern, A dam s m asterfully creates a w ork that looks backw ard and forw ard. H is use of the chaconne form and the traditional concerto form at certainly p rovide a conventional structure. Y et, h is use of ethereal sounding chim es and synthesizers also speaks a contem porary language. The repeated bass line seem s to represent the body that is a concrete m atter, w hich one can test and sense, w hile the o rchestra?s m ystical tim bre appears to represent a dream or an alternative reality. The solo violin , at all tim es singing, seem s to represent a voice w eaving through the different b its of the dream w hile coex isting w ith the lim iting reality (the repeated bass line). A ll three elem ents are quite distinct, yet som ehow , despite their d ifferences, they com plem ent each other in a strangely beautiful w ay and result in a fascinating fusion. The last m ovem ent, Tocca r e, is full of rh ythm ic energy and show cases the solo violin?s dazzling technique through the perpetual m otion. The title?s m eaning, ?to touch? seem s to ring true in its physical execution of perform ing and the em otional effect the w ork has. The m ajority 222 Adams, Jemian, and Zeeuw, ?An Interview with John Adams,? Perspectives of New Music 34, no. 2, 91. 223 Koay, ?Baroque Minimalism in Adam?s Violin Concerto,? Tempo, 28. 121 of the movement consists of constant six teenth-notes, which are quite brisk at the tempo of ? =138?144. T he movement feels l ike a fast roller coaster that ex plores the violin? s entire range, showing off various patterns and unique techniques. E verything happens so quickly that when one realizes one has been dazzled, the concerto comes to a finish. 122 J oh n C or iglia n o: Th e R ed Violin : C h a con n e for Violin a n d O r ch estr a John Paul C origliano (b . 1938) com posed The Red Violin: C ha conne for Violin a nd O r chestr a in 1997. The w ork w as inspired b y C origliano?s score for the film , The Red Violin (1998), b y F ran?ois G irard. A dditionally, the m ovie score inspired him to w rite The Red Violin: Suite for Violin a nd O r chestr a (1999) and the four-m ovem ent V iolin C oncerto ?The R ed V iolin? (2003), w hich contains th is C ha conne as the first m ovem ent.224 The film centers around a fam ous red-colored violin built by N icolo B ussotti in the 17th century. It fo llow s the red violin?s long journey from its shocking and tragic beginning to its m ysterious ending. The violin?s handlers change over the centuries, and it travels across three different continents as it w itnesses the painful and harrow ing lives of those w ho hold it. A s the violin?s story unfolds, C origliano introduces various etudes to represent each subsequent violinist?s defining characteristics. A t the sam e tim e, he uses the R ed V iolin them e as a unifying elem ent to tie the ep isodic stories together. It serves a sim ilar purpose as the C haconne?s repeated harm onic p rogression. A gainst it, he jux taposes A nna?s them e, the nostalgic tune first hum m ed by B ussotti?s ill-fated w ife.225 They beautifully com plem ent each other as they share sim ilar tragic and fatalistic elem ents. Throughout the C haconne, C origliano incorporates elem ents of the various etudes from the m ovie to revisit each violinist?s fate. B y using the B aroque device of the chaconne, he ties all episodic elem ents in to a single m usical idea.226 224 Mark Adamo, ?John Corigliano,? Grove Music Online (2001), accessed Oct 28, 2020, https://www- oxfordmusiconline-com.proxy- um.researchport.umd.edu/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e- 0000042480. 225 John Corigliano, ?Notes by John Corigliano? in The Red Violin: Chaconne for Violin and Orchestra (Milwaukee, WI: Shirmir Inc., 2002). 226 Ibid. 123 C origliano com es from a m usical fam ily. H is father, John C origliano Sr., served as the N ew Y ork Philarm onic concertm aster for over tw o decades, and his m other w as an accom plished pianist. D espite being exposed to m usic early on, C origliano w as m ostly self-taught because his parents objected to his w ish to pursue a m usical career. Instead of follow ing a specific style o r school of com position, C origliano, like John A dam s, w ished not to be bound by a particular com positional approach. H e w anted to create som ething pleasing to listen to and, m ost im portantly, com m unicative.227 H e com m ents, ? If I have a style, it?s unknow n to m e? I find that lim iting? The goal is to w rite m usic, and good m aterial, not style, is w hat holds a piece of m usic together.?228 C origliano fluidly incorporates new techniques and m aterials. H e com poses each w ork specifically fo r the m edium and the m usicians w ho w ill p lay it or have com m issioned it. Early in his career, he w as influenced b y A m erican com posers, including A aron C opland and Leonard B ernstein; he even jokingly said he should sign his scores ?A aron B ernstein .?229 S tarting w ith his C larinet C oncerto (1977), C origliano began show ing shifts in his com positional style b y em bracing an ?architectu ral? m ethod. B y ?architectural,? he w as not m erely im plying established structures like sonata-allegro form or such. H e w ould design an em otional, tim e arch of aural logic, w hich em pow ers h im to in tegrate a w ide range o f m usical elem ents. S ym phon y N o. 1 is likely the m ost notable exam ple of his architectural com position. These w orks often had abstract dram atic designs, sketched through w ords and im ages.230 227 Lee, ?John Corigliano,? Masterworks of 20th-Century Music: The Modern Repertory of the Symphony Orchestra, 130. 228 Ibid., 129. 229 Ibid., 130. 230 Adamo, ?Corigliano,? Grove Music Online (2001), accessed Nov. 18, 2020. 124 Corigliano wrote Symphony No. 1 as a memorial for his friends who had died from AIDS. The first three movements, Apologue: Of Rage and Remembrance, Tarantelli, and Chaconne: Guilio?s Song?, refer to three of those friends specifically.231 In the third movement, he recalls all three friends by incorporating short melodic fragments that relate to them. These short musical figures are derived from an improvisation recording by the composer and his cellist friend, Giulio Sorrentino, making it remarkably personal and memorable.232 He chose the chaconne form to bind these short melodies together at this highly emotional moment. It seems the ?fate? and ?death? qualities of the chaconne were well suited to this material. The movie The Red Violin tells a haunting and fascinating story of the red-colored violin. The movie?s red violin is the final masterwork by a storied (fictional) 17th-century violin maker, Nicolo Bussotti. While Bussotti is finishing his ?perfect? violin, his pregnant wife, Anna Rudolfi Bussotti, tragically dies with the baby during childbirth. Devastated, Bussotti decides to use his late wife?s blood to varnish the violin, thus creating the red violin. Bussotti is essentially making the red violin a memorial, hoping her legacy will continue through his last masterwork. The film The Red Violin has two main scenes that become the returning points throughout the movie: the opening scene at an auction of fine instruments in present-day Montreal, Canada, and the scenes of Cesca, Anna?s servant, foretelling the future of Anna?s unborn son. As the movie unfolds, Cesca reads five tarot cards to Anna. While both women believe that these fates belong to Anna?s son, they are, in fact, born by the red-violin which carries Anna?s own blood. The first card, The Moon, tells that he will live a long life. The film then features the violin starting its long journey in an Austrian orphanage. The second card, The Hanged Man, 231 Lee, ?Corigliano,? Masterworks of 20th-Century Music, 130?132. 232 Lee, ?Corigliano,? Masterworks of 20th-Century Music, 130?132. 125 represents the disease and suffering of those around A nna. In the late 18th-century, child prodigy K aspar W eiss inherits the violin at the orphanage. U nfortunately, the boy dies from a heart defect at a very young age while auditioning for a prince. T hen the violin is buried along with W eiss until gypsies steal it and travel to E ngland. C esca?s third card, T he D evil, suggests that A nna will meet a handsome and intelligent man who will seduce her. In the late 19th-century, an E nglish L ord F rederick Pope, a v iolin v irtuoso, overhears the violin played by gypsies. H e immediately falls in love with it and purchases the violin. Pope is an eccentric character who is a gifted musician and finds the violin artistically and sensually attractive. H is girlfriend, V ictoria, becomes jealous of this and leaves him. E ventually, she returns only to find out Pope is getting his musical inspiration from the violin while he is with another woman. F urious, V ictoria shoots the violin, knowing that it is the real culprit, and leaves again. D evastated, Pope commits suicide and bestows his considerable fortune to V ictoria. Pope?s C hinese servant then takes the violin to S hanghai, selling it to a pawn shop. T he fourth card, J ustice, reveals that A nna will face trial and persecution and be found guilty. T he corresponding scene is set in C hina when a family of music lovers buys the violin. H owever, because the C ultural R evolution prohibits anyone from obtaining a W estern instrument, the violin? s owners must risk their l ives to preserve the instrument. T he violin barely survives through turbulent times, and when the last owner dies, the C hinese government confiscates the instrument. T he final card, D eath, symbolizes rebirth, for the positioning of the card is upside down. T he analogous scene shows the storied violin being prepared for auction in M ontreal, C anada. C harles M orritz (played by S amuel J ackson), a N ew Y ork-based violin restorer, is hired to restore the violin before the auction. W hen he sees it, he suspects that this 126 m ay be the ?red violin .? M orritz confirm s his suspicion through secretive research. H e desires the violin for him self and plans to steal it at the tim e of auction. H e accom plishes th is by discreetly exchanging the red violin w ith a different one backstage and m akes a speed y ex it. The view ers are left to w onder if the violin w ill serve as a blessing or a curse to M orritz as it resum es its tortuous journey. The m ovie?s central focus is the violin and the violin m usic, not the people w ho handle it. W hen the scene changes from one handler to another, the cam era stays focused on the violin to show the violin?s journey continues. D ivergent and distinctive violin etudes represent each handler?s characteristics; Italian o rphan child prodigy, K asper to the gypsies, Lord Pope o f England, and the C hinese m usic lovers. U nlike m ost m ovies, w here the m usic supports the film ?s content, the film reinforces the m usic in The R ed V iolin . For that purpose, C origliano w rote violin etudes before film ing com m enced to enable the actors to im itate the fingerings and bow ings to dem onstrate th is central focus on m usic and the violin .233 Furtherm ore, to em phasize th is ?stringness? o f the picture, he scored just for the soloist and string orchestra for the soundtrack. H ow ever, The Red Violin C ha conne is w ritten for solo violin and full orchestra.?234 The Red Violin them e, w hich is also The Red Violin chaconne them e, m akes the first appearance in the m ovie in the opening scene w hile show ing N icolo B ussotti w orking in his w orkshop. S ince the chaconne them e appears repeatedly, it w ill be referred to as a pattern , as w ell. 233 Corigliano, ?Notes by John Corigliano? in The Red Violin: Chaconne for Violin and Orchestra. 234 Ibid. 127 E xa m p le 2 .6 .2a : Th e R ed Violin th em e a n d th e ch a con n e th em e235 This chaconne dem onstrates several departures from the B aroque chaconne. T raditionally, the chaconne is in a trip le m eter, but in The Red Violin , C origliano chooses a duple m eter. H ow ever, the C ha conne?s m eter changes throughout the piece. It m ostly stays in 2/2 , as show n, but it does alternate w ith 3/2 or 9/8 at tim es. The voice leading and chord progression are also a bit unusual. M ost notes m ove by sem itones, w hich creates chrom aticism and a sense of angst, as it does in B ritten?s chaconne. In a traditional chaconne, each pattern ends on the dom inant chord (half cadence), w hich naturally leads to the tonic. C origliano?s chaconne?s pattern ends on the seventh chord, featuring both the regular seventh (C in violin I) and the raised seven th (C ? in violin II and viola), creating even m ore tension. The sevenths resolve up to the tonic , providing a w eaker cadence, and one can sense the conflict from the clashing sevenths resolving to tonic. B ut perhaps the m ost unconventional aspect of th is chaconne is the lack of ground bass or repeated harm onic p rogression. H ow ever, the chaconne?s m otifs appear throughout, and one w ill doubtlessly recognize the them e. The tw o principal m otifs are the rising sem itonal scale and the double dotted rhythm . Sem itonal m aterial creates am biguity for the chord p rogressions, thereb y giving am ple room for variation. The other m otif is the double-dotted rh ythm , recalling the style of a F rench O verture. In the R ed V iolin , th is rhythm ic m otif seem s to add urgency and possibly 235 John Corigliano, The Red Violin: Suite for Violin and Orchestra (New York: G. Schirmer, 1999), 2. 128 conveys the violin?s heartbeats. The chaconne con tinuously evolves through different lengths, a varying num ber of chords, or o ther keys. H ow ever, one can alw ays sense the chaconne?s presence through its principal featu res. A nna?s them e, a them atic m elody w oven in the piece, also has a strong presence. It is the sim ple and beautiful m elody A nna sang to her unborn son w hen she w as carrying the bab y. This lyrical yet heartbreaking tune seem s to suit her persona and her tragic death . It appears that A nna?s voice becom es her unborn son?s voice, w hich is carried b y the red violin itself as it continues her legacy in m ost unpredictable w ays. S im ilar to the use of the chaconne them e, A nna?s them e is varied. H ow ever, its d istinct gesture w ith the in tervals m akes it easy for the listeners to recognize them even as C origliano slightly alters them . In particular, he uses the first three m easures of her tune as a m otif. It is a rising gesture, first w ith a w hole step, then a half step, follow ed b y a leap by a fifth . See Exam ple 2 .6 .2b for A nna?s them e and the chaconne them e from the piano reduction score. E xa m p le 2 .6 .2b : A n n a ?s th em e (m . 46?56, 57?) a n d th e ch a con n e th em e (m . 49?56, 57?)236 236 Corigliano, The Red Violin: Chaconne for Violin and Orchestra, 3. 129 The Red Violin: C ha conne for Violin a nd O r chestr a has established itself as one of the m ost sensational m odern w orks for violin and orchestra. The p rem iere concert of the C ha conne w ith Joshua B ell, the soloist, R obert Spano, the conductor, and the San Francisco S ym phon y on N ovem ber 26, 1997, w as w ell received and C origliano?s m usic for The Red Violin , in w hich the C ha conne is a part, w on the 1999 A cadem y A w ard for B est O riginal Score.237 The Red Violin C ha conne seem s to express m any things? B ussotti?s obsession w ith the violin , A nna?s tragic death , the A ustrian child prodigy, K aspar W eiss, and so forth . Im pressively, C origliano uses a single and tim eless device, the chaconne, to encom passes the diverse elem ents of The Red Violin and com m unicates the m essage of fate and tim eless beauty. 237 Corigliano, ?Notes by John Corigliano? in The Red Violin: Chaconne for Violin and Orchestra. 130 C hapter 7? C losing: C haconne, the T imeless M usical F or m D oing my dissertation on the chaconne?s history helped me understand the form?s ability to ex press a wide range of emotions and subjects. I believe that many composers chose to use the chaconne because of its enigmatic and paradox ical characteristics. I t is raucous yet profound, it is celebratory yet mournful, it seems restricted, yet it is infinitely ex pressive. T his multi-layer nature helps to deliver the composer? s complex messages. S hostakovich?s works were his secret protests, l ike a musical diary in a language only he could understand. H e knew what it meant for the J ews to live in a world full of fear, yet needing to laugh to survive. I bel ieve these qualities attracted S hostakovich to ?J ewish themes? and to the chaconne/passacaglia. A fter studying the history of chaconne and various works by composers from different eras, I will approach learning or performing chaconnes differently going forward. F irst, I will be more mindful of each repeating unit. A detail-oriented person working on pieces in variation form can easily get distracted by focusing too much on the shape of individual notes or of specific musical gestures. T his focus may cause one to lose sight of the idea that these details are part of a variation, built upon a repeating harmonic progression or a bass l ine. K nowing the significance of the fateful, repeating underlying materials, can help one be more conscious of how elaborate variations in an upper voice form a dialogue with recurring themes. S econd, I will study the piece?s structure, so I understand how each variation fits into the whole. T he chaconne?s tonalities are more limited compared to the typical R omantic period works. In the R omantic period, forms such as the sonata-allegro had larger structures and contrasting tonalities. F or that reason, it is even more important to know how the composer structured the chaconne to understand its overall plan. F or ex ample, B ach divided his chaconne into three parts by minor, major, and minor keys. T he ground bass, D -C -B ?-A , is applied or 131 implied through the entire piece, but it is almost always transformed. F or ex ample, in the beginning, B ach alters the ground bass by writing it in a harmonic minor scale. I t is not always easy to spot the ground bass in B ach?s chaconne because it sometimes jumps from the bass to different voices. H e uses various methods like transposition and diminution to vary it further. L ater, in the arpeggio section, it becomes a natural minor key. G oing forward, I will prioritize knowing the piece?s underlying structure before simply learning the notes. A nd lastly, I will boldly ex plore the composer? s intent, using my imagination and creativ ity when performing chaconnes. I learned that not only does chaconne have multiple conflicting qualities, which make the form cryptic, but its ambiguous quality gives the performer ample opportunities to be creative and ex pressive. In pieces like B ritten?s V iolin C oncerto and C origliano?s R ed Violin C haconne, even the tonalities are vague, and the ground bass is only implied with motifs. T he composers chose these abstract elements so the performer and the listeners can create their own original interpretations. B y this, I do not mean that one should just write a musical fiction. O ne should carefully research the composers and their writing styles, and seek out any other information they provide about the piece. H aving done so, one may then boldly come up with an original interpretation based on the available materials, since the form itself has complicated meanings and can ex press complex emotions. I hope this dissertation will help others who study and perform the chaconne to understand the form?s multifaceted characteristics and possibilities. I believe it will help me as a performer and as a teacher to approach learning chaconne pieces a l ittle bit differently. I t will also impact my approach to other forms because I will be more mindful of how a piece is organized. 132 T he chaconne?s original nature provides continual momentum and cohesion. It persists despite stylistic preferences in modern times. T he chaconne was revitalized in the 20th century after a long hiatus of 150 years. I ts qualities are eternal, as it memorializes and celebrates the cycle of l ife, death, and the afterlife. I t will always remain a versatile vehicle through which to speak of a wide range of philosophical ideas and complex emotions when words fail. 133 A n n ota t ed b ib liogr a p h y A dam s, John, R ebecca Jem ian, and A nne M arie D e Zeeuw . ?A n Interview w ith John A dam s.? P er spectives of New Music 34, no. 2 (1996): 88?104, accessed O ct 15, 2020. doi:10.2307/833472. This is a transcribed interview conducted b y R ebecca Jem ian and A nne M arie D e Zeeuw w ith John A dam s from O ct 24, 1995. The interview took place in Louisville w hen A dam s received the U niversity o f Louisville G raw em eyer A w ard fo r M usic C om position for his V iolin C oncerto . In the in terview , he gives us insights about his V iolin C oncerto . A ffelder, Paul. ?Introduction: S ix Sonatas and Partitas.? Ba ch/G a la mia n Sona ta s a nd P a r tita s N ew Y ork: International M usic C om pany. A ffelder provides a concise B ach?s biograph y and the historical background of B ach?s 6 Sonatas and Partitas for Solo V iolin . In 1717, B ach becam e the conductor and director o f cham ber m usic fo r P rince Leopold of A nhalt-C othen. B ecause the P rince w as a C alvinist and only C alvinist psalm s w ere allow ed, B ach did not need to w rite an y sacred m usic. Instead, he w rote alm ost exclusively secular instrum ental m usic, including the 6 Sonatas and Partitas for Solo V iolin . Each sonata is in the form of sonata da chiesa (?church sonatas?), and each partita is in the form of sonata da cam era (?cham ber sonata?). A ppold, Juliette. ?Introduction? in Ra vel Tr io P our P ia no, Violon et Violoncelle. Ed. H erausgegeben von Juliette A ppold. B asel, G erm any: B ?renreiter-V erlag K arl V ?tterle, 2009: IX ?X . This is the R avel T rio score, w hich has an introduction by Juliette A ppold. A ppold gives us insight in to the background of the R avel T rio . T here is inform ation on how R avel had to rush to fin ish the com position to jo in the arm y, as evidenced b y his notes at the bottom of the autograph score: ?M arch to A pril, July to A ugust 1914.? A rnold, D enis and T im C arter. ?M adrigals w ith basso continuo.? Montever di. London: J .M . D ent, 1990, 69?94. A rnold and C arter presen t a thorough biograph y of M onteverdi. They offer a vivid portrait of M onteverdi?s inspirations, influences, and life experiences. In the ?M adrigals w ith basso continuo? chapter, M onteverdi?s Zefir o tor na is d iscussed in depth. Zefir o shares its nam e w ith M onteverdi?s o ther song, a five-voice acapella set on Petrarch?s sonnet. For that reason, it is in a w ay a parod y of by O ttavio R inuccini in the 16th-century sense, and m ost im portan tly, it keeps the sam e con trast betw een jo yful nature and the lover abandoned to his doleful thoughts. B iber, H einrich and Peter H olm an. ?M ystery M an. Peter H olm an C elebrates the 350th A nniversary o f the B irth of H einrich B iber.? The Musica l Times 135, no. 1817 (1994): 437?41. A ccessed D ec 1 , 2020. doi:10.2307/1003253. B iber?s m ost w ell-know n w ork, the Myster y sona ta s, is a collection of 15 sonatas for violin and continuo and a finale passacaglia fo r solo violin . Each sonata is identified by an engraving depicting one of the 15 M ysteries o f the R osary (apparently cut from the devotional book and carefully pasted into the score). Thus, the collection is usually 134 referred to as The Mystery Sonatas, the Rosary Sonatas, and the Copper-Engraving Sonatas. Brewer, Charles E. ?Context for and Functions of Instrumental Music in Central Europe.? A Companion to Music a t the Habsburg Courts in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, ed Andrew H. Weaver. Boston: Brill, 2020, 327. Brewer offers insights into Schmelzer?s career as a court musician under the emperor, Leopold I. Schmelzer probably began his career as a court musician as a violinist in 1635?6 and eventually became the Kapellmeister after G.F. Sances dies. He wrote many ballet music, as dance music was a regular part of royal entertainment. The goal of these ballet music was to bring out the visual spectacles and the symbolic significances, as well as to support the stylized ballet movements Brewer, Charles E. ?Johann Heinrich Schmeltzer and Music at the Viennese Court.? The Instrumental Music of Schmeltzer, Biber, Muffat and Their Contemporaries. 45?53,79. Schmelzer made substantial contributions to the development of violin technique and the development of sonata and suite forms in Austria and South Germany. He enjoyed a close relationship with the emperor, Leopold I. Schmelzer was the director of instrumental music at the emperor?s coronation in Frankfurt, became a vie-Kapellmeister in 1671. Finally, in 1679, Schmelzer officially became the Kapellmeister. Bukofzer, Manfred. Music in the Baroque Era. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company, 1947, 15. Some of the different stylistic elements of Renaissance and Baroque music include the treatment of dissonances. In Renaissance, all dissonances came either passing on the weak beats or as the suspension on the strong beat. As far as harmony is concerned, it was the intervallic harmony, not the chordal harmony. In Baroque, the bass supplied the chord, which then enabled the upper voices to form dissonances and move freely. This drove the practice of ground bass. In Baroque, composers also started writing idiomatic music, unlike Renaissance music, which could be performed vocally or instrumentally. Byrnside, Ronald L. ?Musical Impressionism: The Early History of the Term.? The Musical Quarterly 66, no. 4 (1980): 522?538. Accessed Sept 4, 2020. http://www.jstor.org/stable/741965. Byrnside offers knowledge on the term ?musical impressionism? and its early history. Byrnside states the idea of impressionism first came from Monet?s Impression, Sunrise, painted in 1873. In music, impressionism sought to offer a new experience of reality by expressing the immediate effect of hearing, seeing, feeling on the mind?a perception of an object rather than exhibiting strong emotions. In music, this meant an exaggerated sense of musical colors, timbre. Cassidy, Robert. A Comparison of Passacaglias in P iano Trios by Ravel and Shostakovich From A Historical and Theoretical Perspective. Muncie, IN: Ball State University, 2006, 27? 28, 50, 53. The third and fourth chapters focus on the historical and theoretical comparison of the passacaglias in Ravel and Shostakovich?s piano trios. In the history section, Cassidy 135 details the composer?s life during the time he wrote the piece. In the theory section, Cassidy provides a concentrated examination and comparison of melody, harmony, rhythm, texture, and form, as used by Ravel and Shostakovich in these two passacaglias. Corigliano, John. ?Notes by John Corigliano? in The Red Violin: Chaconne for Violin and Orchestra . Milwaukee, WI: Shirmir Inc., 2002. This is Corigliano?s The Red Violin Chaconne score with the piano reduction. In the ?note,? the composer explains the piece?background, inspiration, process, and purpose. It helps readers understand and interpret Corigliano?s music. Elliott, Graham. Benjamin Britten: The Spiritual Dimension. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2006, 7. Elliot states there are strong influences of his pacifism and his homosexuality in his music. It is often suggested that Britten felt himself to be an outsider from ?normal? society and that this accounts for his concern to portray the ?outsider? in his operas. Elliot suggests his music embraces even broader and more universal concerns, and in addressing those concerns, there is a clearly defined pattern of spiritual influence. In part one of the book, Elliot examines Britten?s early life and the strong presence which the Church had in his childhood and adolescence. Ewen, David. The World of Twentieth-Century Music. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1968, 110?112. This is a comprehensive study of modern music that explores its development from 1900 to the present day. It offers a brief biography, a list of compositions, and the compositional style and influences. Ewen discusses Britten?s original style, which does not adhere to any specific style but is always full of self-expression. Fairclough, Pauline. ?Facts, Fantasies, and Fictions: Recent Shostakovich Studies.? Music & Letters 86, no. 3 (2005): 452?460. Accessed Oct 10, 2020. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3526611. Fairclough reviews recent Shostakovich studies and discusses the controversies among them. Since the composer died in 1975, many documents such as letters, diaries, and memoirs started coming out. There are varying interpretations of Shostakovich and his works. He was a very complex person, and there are many layers in his personality and works. Fay, Laurel. ?Introduction,? ?The War Years,? ?Victory (1945?1948).? Shostakovich: A Life. New York: Oxford University Press (2000): 1?5, 123?143, 145?165. After studying Shostakovich?s primary documents, including the composer?s letters, concert programs, and review, newspaper articles, diaries of his contemporaries, Fay presents a thorough biography of Shostakovich. Each chapter devotes itself to a period of his life. The chapters I found most helpful for my project were ?Introduction,? ?The War Years,? and ?Victory (1945?1948).? In the ?Introduction,? Fay discusses a general philosophy of Shostakovich as well as his personality. In ?The War Years,? Symphony No. 7 and the Piano Trio No. 2 are closely examined as well as their background. In ?Victory (1945?1948),? Fay weighs on Zhdanovism of 1947 and the Violin Concerto (1947?48), which had to be locked away until Stalin died in 1953. 136 Hall, Richard C. Consumed by War: European Conflict in the 20th Century. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2010, 80?83, 107?109, 244. Hall outlines the European wars that tainted much of the 20th century, including the Balkan Wars, World War I and II. Hall provides insights on concise historical backgrounds to help readers follow the development of each war. The information I found helpful was about World War I and II, the Russian Civil War, and the Spanish Civil War. Handel, Darrell. ?Britten?s Use of the Passacaglia.? Tempo, no. 94 (1970): 2?6. Accessed Oct 02, 2020. http://www.jstor.org/stable/943210. Handel claims Britten and Hindemith utilize Passacaglia as a confirming finale. He asserts that the passacaglia in their use confirms a tonal centre, recalls earlier thematic material, and in general gives a sense of finality. Furthermore, Handel claims that in Britten?s works, passacaglia creates a point of stability in which other movements can gravitate. Harris, Ellen T. ?Premiere: Place, Date, and Meaning.? Henry Purcell?s Dido and Aeneas. 2nd ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2017, 30?52. Purcell?s Dido and Aeneas, one of the great English operas, is shrouded in controversy. There are debates about the premiere?s date and place as well as the accuracy of the surviving scores. In 2009, the ?letter from Aleppo? discovered by Bryan White, suggests that the opera was written (?made?) for Josias Priest?s school and first performed ?no later than July 1688,? perhaps on December 1, 1687, when Priest had a Grand Ball (a type of performance often including theater as well as dance). Henderson, Lyn. ?Shostakovich and the Passacaglia: Old Grounds or New?? The Musical Times 141, no. 1870 (2000): 53. Accessed Oct 14, 2020. doi:10.2307/1004371. Henderson reflects on the evolution of Shostakovich?s passacaglias. His first intimation of the passacaglia model is in the first part of Symphony No. 2 (1927). His first work with an authentic use of passacaglia is in the opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District (1932). Lady Macbeth, which received heavy criticisms, features the Baroque form during a dramatic crux, where the heroine murders her father-in-law. Passacaglias from the Piano Trio No. 2 and the Violin Concerto No. 1 are examined and compared. Holman, Peter. ?Theatre Music.? Henry Purcell. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994, 188? 227. Holman outlines the theatre world in England of the 17th century. Purcell?s works demonstrate the unique English style opera, which has the influence of both Italy and France. Dido is Purcell?s one true opera. However, he produced a substantial number of other stage works starting in the 1680s, including four semi-operas and incidental music for some 50 plays, including Dryden?s Amphitryon and Congreve?s The Double-Dealer. Horst, Louis. ?Chaconne and Passacaglia.? Pre-Classic Dance Forms. Princeton, New Jersey: Dance Horizons, 1987, 101?198. 137 Horst offers complete historical descriptions of 16th and 17th-century dances. A chapter is devoted to each of the dances, and their customs and styles are detailed. In the ?Chaconne and Passacaglia? chapter, Horst outlines Chaconne and Passacaglia?s early origins and etymologies. Chaconne and Passacaglia are so similar, the composer?s preference usually distinguishes the two, but their roots slightly differ. Chaconne was a Spanish dance, which was adopted by the French then transformed into a social dance. Both are a theme and variation technique, and both feature a ground bass. Hudson, Richard. ?The Folia Dance and the Folia Formula in 17th Century Guitar Music.? Musica Disciplina 25 (1971): 199?200. Accessed November 20, 2020. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20532136. Most of the early folia music appears in the guitar tablatures from the early 17th century. It featured a special harmonic progression as well as a distinct structure. Hudson details the guitar music that is associated with early folia and their harmonies and structures. He suggests that folia, chaconne, passacaglia, and sarabande are closely related. Hudson, Richard. ?The Folia Melodies.? Acta Musicologica 45, no. 1 (1973): 98?119. Accessed Feb 27, 2019. doi:10.2307/932224. Folia is a type of folk dance that later came to be associated with a popular musical framework. There are two types of folia of the earlier and the later. Both seem to be influenced by a specific chordal scheme, and both utilized the repeating chordal progressions, which is a deciding factor in chaconne. The earlier folia was not a fixed sequence of chords of a specific theme but a compositional-improvisational process that could generate these chords' sequences. The later folia is credited to Jean-Baptiste Lully, who modeled a distinct chordal scheme. This is the tune and the chordal progression one hears in Corelli?s Folia , i-V-i-VII-III-VII-i-V. Hudson, Richard. ?The ?Zarabanda? and ?Zarabanda Francese? in Italian Guitar Music of the Early 17th Century.? Musica Disciplina 24 (1970): 125?49. Accessed Nov 20, 2020. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20532057. Zarabanda was part of the Spanish five-course guitar in the early 17th century, and its earliest example appears in the Italian guitar tablatures. The Spanish five-course guitar featured five-courses where each course has two strings of unison or octave. The two strings were placed close to each other and meant to be played simultaneously. The music for the Spanish five-course guitar was completely chordal, consequently creating harmony-driven music. Hudson further discusses the harmonic scheme associated with sarabande and how it is also related to chaconne and passacaglia. Koay, Kheng Keow. ?Baroque Minimalism in John Adam?s Violin Concerto.? Tempo 66, no. 260 (2012): 23?33. Accessed Oct 16, 2020. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23263085. Koay explores Adams? interpretation of Baroque genres and his creative methods that draw on a relationship between past and present in the Violin Concerto. Adams argues that repetition plays a large part in the Violin Concerto, but more in the sense of variation and sequences than literal repetition. The study further provides other examples that demonstrate the similarities between Baroque works and Minimalism. 138 Lee, Douglas. ?John Adams,? ?John Corigliano.? Masterworks of 20th-Century Music: The Modern Repertory of the Symphony Orchestra . New York: Routledge, 2010. 1?2, 129? 132. In this book, Lee surveys over two dozen most prominent orchestral composers of the 20th-century and discusses select works. In ?John Adams,? Lee analyzes Adams? style and further outlines how his style differs from purely Minimal music. He also offers Adams? musical background to help the readers understand the composer better. In ?John Corigliano,? Lee provides useful information on John Corigliano?s background, as well as his style and philosophy. The select work, Symphony No. 1, is written as a memorial for the composer?s personal friends. Intriguingly, he chooses the chaconne form in the third movement to bind different elements together, as he does in The Red Violin Chaconne. Lee, Johnson. ?The ?Haunted? Shostakovich and the Co-Presence of Bach,? Tempo 63, no. 249 (2009): 45, accessed Oct 10, 2020. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40496096. Lee argues Shostakovich not only paid homage to Bach by utilizing Bach?s or Baroque devices but composed in a way one can sense Bach?s co-presence in some of his works. The prime example Lee uses to argue is Shostakovich?s 24 Preludes and Fugues, which has a striking resemblance to Bach?s two sets of preludes and fugues in all 24 major and minor keys, The Well-Tempered Clavier. Shostakovich?s String Quartet No. 8 is also closely examined for featuring the DSCH motif, his musical cryptogram in the manner of the BACH motif. Lester, Joel. ?The History of Bach?s Solo-Violin Works.? Bach?s Works for Solo Violin. New York/Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999, 7, 8, 11, 19, 21, 23, 151?152, 155. Lester offers in-depth studies of each movement of Bach?s Solo Violin Partita and Sonata and provides their historical background and significance. Bach, who believed a composer should have ?good inventions [musical ideas]...[and] develop them well,? thoroughly explored the possibilities of each genre in instrumental collections. Although the Six Solo Violin Sonatas and Partitas may appear to be a conventional collection of dance movements, each work is unique as they feature uncommon elements. MacDonald, Ian. ?Togetherness: 1938?1946.? The New Shostakovich. Boston: Northeastern University Press, (1990): 139?183. MacDonald presents the case for Shostakovich?s dissident view. He delves into his life events in-depth to understand the meaning of the composer?s music under Soviet Communism. The chapter I found useful for my project was ?Togetherness 1938?1946,? which discusses Shostakovich designating works as memorials. Martin, Nicholas Ivor. The Opera Manual. Lanham: Scarecrow Press, 2014, 88?89, 289?290. Martin offers concise information on over 500 operas. He lists critical information like composer, librettist, language, a summary of the plot, structure of the opera, as well as information about premier performance. I found helpful information about Purcell?s Dido and Aeneas and Lully?s Pha?ton. Mather, Betty Bang. ?Introduction? in Dance Rhythms of the French Baroque, xii. 139 Mather emphasizes the importance of understanding the intimate relationship between the dance movements and the music when it comes to French Baroque music. It centered around Lully?s theatrical works and the rhythms of the dance music composed at the court of Louis XIV. I found Chaconne and Folia to be helpful, where the author examines the history of the two dances and what the bowings and dance movements would have been like for these types of dance music. Mitchell, Donald, and Philip Reed. Letters from a Life: The Selected Letter and Diaries of Benjamin Britten, 1913?1939, vol. 1. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991, 790. This is a collection of Britten?s letters during 1946?51. The editors have detailed commentary, offering an insight into Britten?s life and compositional style. In this book, I found information about his Violin Concerto?s background and information about the controversies over work?s key and the title when it was premiered in New York. Nettl, Paul. ?The Baroque Period II?French Ballet, French Dances, Suites and Keyboard- Music.? The Story of Dance Music. New York, NY: Philosophical Library, 1947, 160? 202. Nettl examines dance music from its primitive form to modern dance. In ?The Baroque Period II,? Nettl discusses how ballet is the groundwork for all the figures of the French court dances, and consequently, the dance music. Compared to the somewhat rustic Austrian dances, the French dances, even peasant dances like Bouree, always demonstrate elegance and grace. Obendorf, Hartmut. ?The Origins of Minimal Music? Minimalism: Designing Simplicity. London, U.K: Springer, 2009. 41?42. In ?The Origins of Minimal Music,? Obendorf discusses Minimal music?s origin, an avant-garde style, ?Concept music.? He discusses the philosophy behind ?Concept music? and explains how Minimalism is both counter-reactive and derivative of ?Concept music? and Serialism. He describes the common elements between the early Minimal music and the ?Concept music.? Pincherle, Marc. ?The Life of Corelli.? Corelli: His Life, His Work, transl. Hubert E. M. Russell. Paris: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1956, 46, 140. This is Corelli?s biography book detailing his life, his works, and his influence. Regarding his personality, there are anecdotes that do not agree. Some said of Corelli, ?remarkable for the mildness of his temper and the modesty of his deportment.? On the contrary, at least one witness said, ?it was usual for his countenance to be distorted, his eyes to become as red as fire, and his eyeballs to roll as if in agony. Puri, Michael J. ?The Passion of the Passacaille: Ravel, Wagner, Parsifal.? Cambridge Opera Journal 25, no. 3 (2013): 285?318. Accessed Sept 20, 2020, http://www.jstor.org/stable/24252349. Puri argues seemingly far apart, Ravel and Wagner have multiple shared musical elements. For example, he compares Ravel?s Piano Trio passacaglia to Wagner?s Wehelaute from Parsifa l, Act 1, ?March to the Castle of the Grail.? Puri asserts that the shared elements suggest that Ravel secretly paid homage to Wagner and the 140 W agnerianism, when the impressionism, the movement R avel was a part of, was a sharp departure from it. R obinson, S uzanne. ??A n E nglish C omposer S ees A merica?: B enjamin B ritten and the N orth A merican Press, 1939?42,? American Music 15, no. 3 (1997): 322. A ccessed O ct 06, 2020. doi:10.2307/3052328. R obinson offers an insight into B ritten?s journey to N orth A merica in 1939. S he also argues that the music written between 1939?42 is seen as a work of personal and professional maturity. S elects works are ex amined including, the V iolin C oncerto (1939), S ymphony N o. 1 (Sinfonia da R equiem, 1940), opera P aul B unyan (1941), and the S tring Quartet N o. 1 (1941). R osand, E llen. ?T he D escending T etrachord: A n E mblem of L ament.? T he Musical Quarterly 65, no. 3 (1979): 346?59. A ccessed A ug 5, 2020. http://www.jstor.org/stable/741489. S tarting from the 1640s, the descending tetrachord began to be associated almost ex clusively with lament. I t was typically used as an emotional climax in the early operas, and it distinguished itself from the rest of the work. T here was more formality in the lament as it was strongly metered and featured rhythmed tex ts. T he pattern had a strong harmonic direction, reinforced by stepwise melody, accompanied by steady, unarticulated rhythm and brevity. R oseberry, E ric. ?T he concertos and early orchestral scores: aspects of style and aesthetic? in T he C ambridge C ompanion to B enjamin B ritten, ed. M erv yn C ooke. C ambridge, U nited K ingdom: C ambridge U niversity Press, 1999, 238?239. T his is a comprehensive guide to B ritten?s work. I t provides knowledge on the composer? s stylistic and personal development. In particular, it discusses B ritten?s interest in the music of the F ar E ast. In ?T he concertos and early orchestral scores,? R oseberry ex amines select works in-depth, including the V iolin C oncerto that suggests the S panish influence. S ilbiger, A lex ander. ?Passacaglia and C iaccona: G enre Pairing and A mbiguity from F rescobaldi to C ouperin.? J ournal of Seventeenth-C entury Music, V ol.2/1 (1996). A ccessed on F ebruary 2, 2019, https://sscm-jscm.org/v2/no1/silbiger.html#S ection1. C haconne and passacaglia are variation forms involv ing a repeating ground bass and/or harmonic progression. B oth forms are so similar; many use the term interchangeably, although some composers draw a distinction between them. E ach country has developed characteristics of the form. G ermany?s chaconne features majestic ground-bass with bril l iant figurations, and F rance?s tends to be formal, aristocratic, and full of pathos. S tein, L eon. ?T he Passacaglia in the T wentieth C entury.? Music & L etters 40, no. 2 (1959): 150? 53. A ccessed S ept 18, 2020. http://www.jstor.org/stable/728985. S tein ex amines the passacaglias in 20th-century music by comparing works by various composers, including R avel, H indemith, B loch, and B ritten. H e states passacaglia, by nature, provides continuity, coherence, order, and symmetry. S tein then argues that passacaglia reemerged as a means to offer order and architecture in the 20th-century 141 music with great varieties and irregularities. He also contends the new aspiration towards the architectural concept drove passacaglia?s birth. Stowell, Robin. ?The repertory and principal sources.? The Early Violin and Viola: A Practical Guide. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001, 13. Heinrich von Biber, who is most famous for the use of scordatura, was one of the most outstanding violin virtuosi of the century. Scordatura, which requires altered tunings, provided a special tone, and sonority for each work?s extramusical inspiration. This technique sometimes even expanded the instrument's register (especially going below the low G, which is the lowest note on the violin otherwise) or allowed the unconventional double-stopping and string crossing. Sturman, Janet. ?Introduction? to Jewish Experience in Classical Music: Shostakovich and Asia . Cambridge Scholars: Newcastle upon Tyne, UK (2014): xiii?xxii In ?Introduction,? Janet Sturman discusses the anti-Semitism and the rise of Russian nationalism, which prompts the Russian-Jew composers to integrate Jewish folk music into concert art music. Sturman investigates the definition of Jewish folk music and explains how Jews carried their spiritual nationality. She explains Shostakovich?s fascination with Jewish music and why he identified with them. Tentser, Alexander. ?Dmitri Shostakovich and Jewish Music.? Jewish Experience in Classical Music: Shostakovich and Asia . Cambridge Scholars: Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, 2014, 1? 24. Tenster explores the breadth of traditional Jewish culture on Western classical music in the 20th century and beyond by comparing Dmitri Shostakovich and Daniel Asia. In ?Dmitri Shostakovich and Jewish Music,? Tenster examines the Jewish elements in Shostakovich?s music and their characteristics. The features include modalities such as ?altered Phrygian,? ?Ukrainian Dorian,? iambic primes, the ?um-pa? dance style, and most importantly, the contradiction between form and inflection, such as setting sad- seeming minor mode with a dance form. Thoene, Helga. Johann Sebastian Bach, Ciaccona : Tanz oder Tombeau? Oschersleben: Ziethen, 2003. German musicologist Helga Thoene argues Bach wrote his famous chaconne as a memorial for his late wife, Maria Barbara Bach. Furthermore, she asserts her name is encrypted at the opening of the piece, and other chorale tunes are hidden in the piece, too. According to Thoene, Bach?s own Cantata No. 4 is the main chorale used, which title translates as ?Christ Lay in the Bonds of Death. She also claims Bach used gematria in many ways, and that is why the page number of Bach?s autograph of the solo-violin works is 41 pages: J. S. Bach (9+18+14) = 41. Tick, Judith. ?John Adams, An American Master.? Music in the USA: A Documentary Companion. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008. 771?778. In this book, Tick surveys influential American composers and selects works ranging from the mid-16th century to the 20th-century. In ?John Adams,? Tick discusses several influences on Adams? music, particularly in his opera. This chapter includes a transcribed 142 interview with A dams, so the readers can directly hear from the composer himself about his works. V Palisca, C laude. ?T he B aroque Ideal.? B aroque music. E nglewood C liffs, N .J .: Prentice H all, 1991, 1?2, 8?12. T he ?S econd Practice? was first introduced by C laudio M onteverdi. T he ?S econd Practice? included basso continuo, indicating the composers are thinking more harmonically than intervallically. M ore dissonances became allowed, and bringing out the effects of tex ts became more important. V il l iers, B ernadette de. B enjamin B ritten?s U se of the P assacaglia. J ohannesburg: U niversity of the W itwatersrand, 1985, 44?59. V ill iers analyzes several of B ritten?s passacaglias, including Piano C oncerto, V iolin C oncerto, ?D irge? from Serenade, and P eter G rimes, to name a few. V ill iers claims that B ritten used passacaglia as a central movement or a finale. W hen used in a central position, the passacaglia frequently has a stabiliz ing influence. W hen used as a final movement, it tends to function as a confirming focal point. B ritten?s passacaglia theme is thoroughly ex amined by criteria such as structure, function, and influence, among others. V olkov, S olomon. ?T estimony.? T estimony: T he Memoirs of D mitri Shostakovich. N ew Y ork: H arper & R ow Publishers, 1817. S olomon V olkov, a musicologist, writes the memoirs of D mitri S hostakovich after a series of meetings with him between 1971 and 1974. It includes many of the composer? s comments, which help us understand him as a person and interpret his music. U nlike the persona he held during his l ifetime as a true-believ ing communist, V olkov suggests S hostakovich was a closet dissent of S talin. W alker, T homas. ?C iaccona and Passacaglia: R emarks on T heir Origin and E arly H istory.? J ournal of the American Musicological Society 21, no. 3 (1968): 300?20. A ccessed A ug 8, 2020. doi:10.2307/830537. C haconne, passacaglia, sarabande, and folia appear to have originated as peasant folk dance. C haconne was to be performed fleetly and passionately. Its high spirits were ex pressed in the lengthy tex ts, usually beginning with some variant of ?V ida, v ida, v ida bona!/V ida, v?monos ? C hacona!? meaning ? L et? s l ive the good life; let? s go to C hacona!? . I t is reported many could not resist the call to join the dance, regardless of their station in l ife. It also appears chaconne gained its name from an unidentified place near T ampico, M ex ico, referred to in some tex ts. W hittall, A rnold. ?Introducing the Introduction.? Serialism. C ambridge: C ambridge U niversity Press, 2008, 3?4. In the 1920s, A rnold S choenberg introduced S erialism, which breaks away from the traditional tonal composition of major and minor keys. S choenberg?s pupils l ike M ilton B abbit and Pierre B oulez wanted to radicalize it, whereas others l ike D mitri S hostakovich and B enjamin B ritten util ized aspects of S erialism. S erialism's most well-known method is the twelve-tone technique, where all 12 notes of the chromatic scale have more or less equal importance. 143