Development of the Symphony Model Answers

Question 1

Essay Points: Rhythm

Answer 1

Thesis:
- Early classical, rhythm was quite simple, and was used stylistically and categorically, such as dotted rhythms in a slow introduction, or racing demisemiquavers in sturm und drang.
- Towards the end of the classical era, these rhythmic conventions became less common, and into the romantic period, composers began to use more complex rhythmic ideas such as cross-rhythms, unusual time signatures and unusual subdivisions.
- However, classical rhythmic conventions are still found in romantic music, often in the form of dance movements that help tell a story.

Essay:
Early classical:
- Styles: galante, mannheim features (Stamitz) and sturm und drang (Haydn 26).
- Categorical use: slow introduction (…).

Mature classical:
- These conventions became progressively less common, but still featured (Haydn 104)
- Composers were experimenting more with more unusual rhythmic ideas, such as hemiola and extended phrasing (Haydn 104)

Beethoven:
- Further experimentations – triplet and cross rhythms (symphony 2 mvt 1 introduction)
- Using rhythm as a motif (symphony 5)
- Changing time signature within a movement (pastoral symphony, scherzo – metric modulation from 3/4 to 2/4)

Early romantic:
- When traditional rhythmic conventions are used, it’s often to depict a dance (Harold en Italie, mvt3, saltarello)
- Overlapping of tempos in recapitulation (same Harold en Italie)
- Romantics tried to create more range and contrast in musical elements, tempo being one of them. Virtuosic tempos (Mendelssohn Italian Symphony, mvt1 and esp. mvt4)

Late romantic:
- Unusual time sigs (Tchaik 6th)
- Search for contrast continues at the slow end of the spectrum too (Dvorak 9th)
- Complex scherzos (Dvorak 9th)
- More fluidity of tempo within movements (Dvorak 9th mvt3, ‘poco sostenuto’)

Question 2

Essay Points: Dance Music

Answer 2

Thesis:
- Early classical, variety of dances from suite of dances were used, typically ‘elegant’ dances that were easy to dance to.
- Over time, as composers to begin to challenge musical conventions in their symphonic works, they also challenged the conventions of dance, creating more complex rhythmic features. The growing use of dance in programatic music and storytelling made it primarily characterful rather than easily danceable.

Essay:
Early classical:
- Symphonies were not written for large ensembles, so were often performed in venues where people would have the opportunity to rise and dance.
- Composers often finished with a dance movement for this reason (Stamitz in D, minuet and trio), moderate, danceable allegro
- Other styles such as sturm und drang and empfindsamerstil weren’t very danceable, so dance movements didn’t use these styles.
- The style galante was therefore the most popular style for a dance movement, as it made for very ‘elegant’ dances; simple rhythms and melody-dominated textures, with balanced phrasing.

Mature classical:
- Composers start to experiment with the dance conventions and push the boundaries of what’s rhythmically acceptable (Mozart 40, more aggressive, less ‘elegant’ minuet with accented third beats, creating a jaunty feel’), (Haynd 104, minuet has hemiolas, extended phrases and accented third beats – humorous in the way it is almost deliberately difficult to dance to (yet still perfectly possible to))

Beethoven:
- Pushed limits of minuet further, often replacing it with a scherzo (Pastoral symphony, a very fast allegro and irregular phrasing in the opening melody, accelerando into 2/4)
- This seems a ridiculous feature for a dance, making us think that perhaps this movement wasn’t intended for that purpose. However, this 2/4 section ironically has many folk features (drone, repetitive, simple melody), and folk music is heavily associated with dance. This suggests that Beethoven might still have intended this as a dance movement, and was instead trying to broaden the horizons of dance itself.

Early romantic:
- While composers continued to push rhythmic boundaries into the romantic period, dances became no less popular in symphonic works.
- In some sense, they became even more important with the rise of programatic music, as well-known dances would help tell a story. (Symphonie Fantastique ‘un bal’), (Harold en Italie, the saltarello, depicting the mountains where this kind of folk music may be locally heard)
- Mendelssohn also used multiple different dances in the same movement (Italian Symphony, mvt 4, saltarello, tarantella)

Mature romantic:
- Popularity of a waltz grew towards the end of the romantic era; the choice of triple metre dances has now extended from just minuets to scherzos to waltzes.
- Tchaikovsky made a notable use of waltzes, such as in his symphony 5, along with the now common rhythmic challenges of irregular phrasing and hemiolas.
- Another peculiar example is in his Symphony 6, in which he takes the stylistic features of the waltz and compresses them into a 5/4 time signature.
- Composers continued to use dances as a storytelling device, without the expectation of them being used to be danced to.
- Dvorak’s 9th Symphony’s scherzo is a Slovanic dance said to be inspired by ‘the feast where the Indians dance’, associated with a poem which depicts the wild dance of the magician Pau-Puk-Keewis.
- The manic outer A sections effectively depict the sense of urgency of this ‘wild’ dance, even though it may be an unrealistic piece to dance to by a listener.

Question 3

Essay Points: Second Movements

Answer 3

Thesis:

• Became established in early classical
• Over time, conventions were experimented with and broken
• A lot more variety over time, such as dances
• When traditional features were used later on, they were often used in their extremes to achieve greater contrast

Essay:
Early classical:

• Features established, such as subdominant key and andante tempo (Stamitz in D)
• Sometimes, a minor might modulate to the relative major for tonal contrast (CPE Bach in E minor)
• Exceptions sometimes arise when symphonies only have three movements – the third movement is typically a minuet and trio, with the trio in the dominant preparing for the final movement in the tonic. However, when the penultimate movement is the second movement, composers may choose to put this movement in the dominant (Haydn 2).
• Another unusual occurrence that can happen when the second movement is the penultimate one is the use of attacca. (CPE Bach in Eb major)

Mature classical:

• These conventions continue into the later classical period (Haydn 104).
• Composers are now experimental more, however. The second movement could be considered to have less weight in the symphony overall, as it neither opens, nor closes it. This is perhaps why Haydn used his second movement in 104 for some interesting harmonic experimentation; the movement features two major to tonic minor modulations, a sturm and drang section within a piece written mostly in style galante (bar…), and a modulation to Db major, a tritone relationship to the movement’s tonic key.

Beethoven:

• Begins to break conventions: mediant relationships (Symphony 5), andante speed, 3/8 time signature, attacca (Symphony 9, scherzo)

Early romantic:

• Ambitious modulations continued (Italian Symphony, A major to D minor, end and start on A)
• Triple metre second movements weren’t considered unusual anymore (Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique, un bal)
• This movement contains a lot of tempo variation, showing that the second movement doesn’t have to be slow or fast.

Mature romantic:

• Tchaikovsky’s version of a movement two waltz was in 5/4 (Symphony 6)
• Traditional ideas were still seen, but often exaggerated for contrast. Over time, the ‘slow second movement’ moved from what was typically an andante in the classical (Stamitz, Haydn) to what was often an adagio approaching the romantic era (Beethoven 3 and 4, a Larghetto in 2) was now a very slow largo in Dvorak’s 9th symphony, allowing for a very slow and expressive cor anglais solo.

Question 4

Essay Points: Sonata Form

Answer 4

Thesis:

• Sonata form was beginning to be established in the early classical era, and not all conventions were present at first while the structure was established.
• Towards the mature classical, the structure was well established.
• Composers like Beethoven sought to push boundaries of sonata form, as did composers entering the romantic era.

Early classical:

• Stamitz in D mvt 1: tonic/dominant conflict as usual
• Subject order reversed in recap.
• Less adventurous development section: less motivic development and barely any modulations (only one brief modulation to the supertonic minor, which is quite closely related to the tonic anyway).
• Haydn 2 similar to this, S2 in tonic first, as well as transition material

Late classical:

• Haydn monothematic
• More thematic development, especially around y motif
• Recap in correct order
• Explores much more keys, through use of cycle of fifths
• Get another example

Beethoven:

• More adventurous: second symphony modulates from the tonic in the exposition itself, going to supertonic major, dominant minor.
• Dev section uses mediant relationships (Bb major)
• All sections are longer and more developed; Beeth. sonata longer than Haydn longer than Stam.
• Beethoven: esp. codas. 4th symphony coda 149 bars long filled with false endings.
• Subject groups in Eroica. 5 different themes in expo, 1 new theme in dev.

Early Romantic:

• Mendelssohn Italian has even longer expo with development throughout
• Dev also has new theme to start with to support development of known themes introduced with a playful, imitative texture.

Late Romantic:

• Many different forms of sonata from, and even within these new forms, expectations are subverted.
• Tchaikovsky’s 6th symphony movement 1 is analysed as a type II sonata.
• Whereas the ultimate goal of sonata form in the past was to create a sense of harmonic satisfaction and completion, this symphony is almost like a ‘failed’ sonata form, which reflects its tragic, melancholy tone.
• Tchaikovsky frequently fails to reach satisfying cadence points; some ways that he does this include a prolonged tonic pedal in his second subject in both rotations, an excessive third repeat of the first subject during the second rotation (recapitulation), and no perfect cadences in the entire coda – only some weak plagal movement and slow, descending, scalic movement in pizzicato strings. The static nature of the second subject in particular with its lack of development was particularly interesting, as the second subject was often considered the most important theme in sonata form, being the theme that begins in the dominant and is then triumphed by the tonic key. This gives a particularly tragic, helpless feel to the symphony that, and what the piece lacks in harmonic satisfaction does not fail to provide in emotion.

Question 5

Essay Points: Texture [UNFINISHED]

Answer 5

Thesis:

• Mainly homophony throughout symphonic writing, especially in earlier eras.
• Different types of homophony have been used over time.
• Other textures have been experimented with, more so in later symphonies.

Early classical:

• All key styles are characterised by MDH (galante, sturm und drang, empfindsamerstil)
• Other types of homophony like octaves textures were sometimes used, often to create contrast and drama (stamitz in D mvt1 codetta descending scale)
• Mannheim techniques also favoured homophonic writing: hammer stroke, roller are both homophonic techniques, with hammer stroke being chordal or unison and roller being MDH.

Mature classical:

• Haydn 104 dramatic fanfare unison
• Monophonic writing in mvt 2
• Imitation in mvt 1
• Mozart 41: 5 themes overlapped into an imitative contrapuntal texture

Beethoven:

• Larger orchestra: bolder unison textures (symph5)
• Fugal texture in scherzo of 5 and Eroica finale
• Fugal introduction in Italian

Question 6

Essay Points: Drama and Humour

Answer 6

Early Classical:

• Mannheim techniques: drama (stamitz)
• Ensemble size small (filtz sinfonia a 8)
• Classical music conventional, humour comes from breaking convention
• Sudden textural change in stamitz D codetta
• Stylistic drama (CPE Bach E minor) low orchestral unison (link to B5 later)
• Racing semiquaver passages empfindsamerstil

Late classical:

• Experimentation, humorous potential
• Haydn mvt ‘incorrect modulations’: Db major, main them returns in Bb major
• 3rd mvt dance conventions
• Drama from ambitious textures: polyphony of moz 41, 5 themes at once

Beethoven :

• large orchestral forces and unisons (5)
• Trombone, c’bassoon
• ‘eroica’ – heroic – finale pizz melody – humour, quirky chromatic auxiliary and passing notes

Early romantic:

• drama from extremes, especially virtuosic tempos
• saltarello and tarantella in mvt 4 Italian
• Humour: the unexpected became more expected; experimentation was common. Therefore, humour came more from storytelling through programme music
• Midsummer Mendelssohn
• Symphonie fantastique

Late romantic:

• huge forces (Mahler 2 – 100 instruments + choir + soloists)
• storytelling remains: Dvorak 9 mvt 3

Question 7

Essay Points: Sonority

Answer 7

Early Classical:

• Sonority limited by the range and amount of instruments available.
• Standard orchestra size was sinfonia a 8, such as Filtz’s Sinfonia a 8.
• The Mannheim school created a series of orchestral composition techniques to overcome orchestral limitations.
• E.g. roller (Filtz, Stamitz in D) used the gradual layering of instruments to give the impression of a crescendo much greater than individual instruments’ capabilities.
• E.g. hammerstroke (Stamitz in D)
• Harpsichord still present (CPE Bach E minor)
• String dominated small orchestra sound.
• Woodwind often get small features between string-dominated sections, most commonly in second subjects for timbral contrast (Filtz second subject, Stamitz second subject recapitulation).
• Brass especially limited (crooked).
• Exception: Haydn 31 ‘Horn Signal’, fanfare like horn melody as first subject.

Late Classical:

• More exploration of wind timbres – more individuality.
• Minuet and trio used as an opportunity to do this.
• E.g. Mozart 40 Mvt 3: woodwind complete the end of the minuet and feature prominently in the trio, often without supporting strings.
• The horns also feature, and are used to link the string and wind families; a melody which begins in the violins and horns is passed to the woodwinds by a short ascending phrase.
• Haydn used the full orchestra as an instrument in itself; the opening of his symphony 104 was designed such that even the timpani could play in unison with the orchestra, creating an extremely powerful sound.
• Haydn plays with articulation at points in this symphony to create unexpected sounds, such as the sforzandos in the third movement. These articulations give a sudden, forceful sound which Haydn decides to place on the third beat of the bar, not the first. This is uncharacteristic of classical writing, as it disrupts the pulse, and it shows Haydn using sonority to surprise the listener, potentially even creating humour.

Beethoven:

• Created a more blended orchestral sound with fluidity between the sonority of different sections.
• Opening of Eroica: soft lyrical melody in cellos and basses; upper strings take over melodic line; woodwinds and brass join gradually for harmonic support, then take over the melody from the violins; woodwinds drop out throughout the phrase until it’s just clarinet and first horn.
• Extended techniques at the end of Eroica: weak and delicate pizz. sound is an anticlimax.
• Larger orchestral forces for a more powerful sound: Symphony 5: contrabassoon, trombones (first symphonic use of them), and piccolo.

Early Romantic:

• Virtuosic performers allowed for interesting new sounds.
• The opening of Mendelssohn’s Italian Symphony features rapid repeated woodwind notes, like a tremolo – an energetic foundation for the opening melody.
• This would likely require players to triple tongue, which is why sounds like this hadn’t previously been explored.

Late Romantic:

• Valved brass allowed the brass section to be explored more individually.
• The opening of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony 4 had a brass feature, with the opening trumpet fanfare, followed by a descending passage gradually joined by the lower brass.
• Crooked brass allowed not just for new, bright melodic lines, but also soft, warm harmonic accompaniment.
• The brass chorale at the start of Dvorak’s Symphony 9 features a complex progression that would not have been possible with crooked brass.
• Orchestral scale reached its peak with Mahler, such as in his Symphony 2 which requires over 100 players, including a full choir and soloists.
• This allowed for dynamics of unprecedented magnitude, a sound no one had experienced before.
• Another sound Mahler explored with (which Berlioz also experimented back in the early romantic in Sinfonie Fantastique) was the idea of off-stage instruments.
• The distance sound of off-stage brass had a very distinct sonority that made the instruments sound even more characterful, as they now have variable proxemics.

Question 8

Essay Points: Patronage and Commission

Answer 8

Early Classical:

• Patronage: profound impact; gave resources to innovate.
• Stamitz joined the Mannheim Court around 1741.
• Mannheim was one of the largest courts in Europe, was well funded, and attracted virtuosic performers.
• This wealth of available talent lead to the development of various compositional techniques from Mannheim.
• Stamitz in D: hammerstroke, roller.
• Haydn: early classical to late, spent most of his working life with Esterhazy.
• He was isolated from the works of other composers; whether this helped or hindered innovation is debatable, but Haydn himself believed that being ‘cut off from the world’, meant he ‘was forced to become original,’ and in his time he has plenty of innovations to show for it.
• 31: ‘horn signal’, to celebrate his horn section returning to full numbers.
• Horns were still crooked, making it almost impossible for them to play a melodic role in the orchestra, but Haydn determinedly wrote the first subject of this symphony in the horn part as a fanfare.
• Patronage allowed closer relationships like this between the orchestra and the composer, making certain quirky features like the horn signal possible.
• Patronage also meant that composers were writing for very upper class, musically educated audiences.
• Haydn could incorporate musical ‘jokes’ that only educated listeners would understand.
• For example, still looking at symphony 31, the recapitulation in the first movement, which should have started in the tonic, actually started in the tonic minor.
• This unexpected moment, almost like a mistake in Haydn’s writing, would likely come across as amusing.

Late Classical:

• Moving through the classical era, commissions were becoming common.
• This gave composers more artistic independence, as they weren’t bound to one employer.
• Mozart begun his career in a patronage system, working for the Archbishop of Salzburg.
• However, he felt restricted in his work, so he moved to Vienna to establish himself as a freelance composer. Commissions of specific works allowed him to keep his career alive, such as his 31st symphony, written for Sigmund Haffner.
• The Age of Enlightenment described music becoming more accessible to the middle class of society, increasing its popularity and progressing it.
• With this came the rise of subscription concerts, where people would pay to see a series of concerts.
• After Haydn left Esterhazy, he found work in commissions.
• Salomon organised many subscription concerts, and commissioned a series of symphonies from Haydn to be premiered in London.
• As the audience would now be a mixed crowd, with not everyone being musically educated.
• In his 104th Symphony, part of the London series, Haydn uses monothematicism in both his first and fourth movements.
• This could be an attempt to make the idea of sonata form (which would be foreign to a musically uneducated listener) more accessible, with catch melodies being recognised in the first and second subject.
• The fourth movement also uses simple, repeated folk melodies to engage the less musically educated listeners.
• Haydn still used witty, humorous musical moments to engage the educated listeners too.
• A few examples include the wandering violin line in the third section of his second movement [bar number] which seems to get lost in the very unrelated key of Db major, a tritone from the tonic. Also, in his minuet and trio, which is meant to be a dance, he seems to use deliberately challenging rhythms, such as the hemiola in bars […], the sforzandos on beat 3, and the extended phrase, as a humorous attempt to throw off dancers.

Beethoven:

• Beethoven wasn’t tied to a particular court, and relied on commissions.
• This allowed for much experimentation in his writing.
• At the start of Eroica, Beethoven introduces the first subject in the cellos and basses, which is an unusual choice for an opening melody. Furthermore, in bar 8, the melody falls to a chromatic C#, which is very unexpected this early on.
• The increased venue size also lead to composers such as Beethoven expanding the size of their orchestras.
• Beethoven’s 9th symphony was premiered in the Theater am Kärntnertor in Vienna, with an audience of about 650.
• To match this, a larger orchestra was appropriate; the fourth movement included piccolo, contrabassoon, three trombones, additional percussion, and even a full SATB choir.

Early Romantic:

• Civic orchestras established across the country.
• Networks of musicians within a city allowed better communication and ability to practice and learn from one another, and it therefore lead to more virtuosity.
• These orchestras would want to commission only the best composers, creating competition to improve.
• The London Philharmonic commissioned Mendelssohn to write his fourth symphony.
• This symphony was called the ‘Italian Symphony’, probably appeal to the middle-upper class audiences; it had become popular for people from these classes to go on ‘grand tours’ around Europe, and Italy was a popular destination, so this premise was appealing.
• The second movement depicts a monks’ procession around Naples, characterised by a steady crotchet bass line and a walking-pace andante tempo. The fourth movement also includes saltarello and tarantella dances, which are traditional Italian folk dances.
• In the first and last movement, virtuosic tempos are used, with the speeds requiring woodwind players to double or triple tongue. This was only possible through the increase in virtuosity, previously explained.

Late Romantic:

• Increased ability to travel lead to more international movement of composers.
• Patrons would look worldwide for new music, such as Jeannette Thurber, who offered a substantial salary for Dvorak to leave Czech Republic and work at the American National Conservatory of Music.
• This had a considerable influence, merging the styles of American spiritual music and traditional Czech music. This is particularly noticeable in his 9th Symphony, the ‘New World’, which incorporates Czech elements (e.g. the opening woodwind lines in the third movement), and Native American spiritual music (e.g. one of the themes in the first movement has a strong resemblance to ‘swing low, sweet chariot’).
• Increased travel also brought rise to nationalist music, with composers being fiercely proud of their own heritage.
• Looking back a decade or so to Dvorak’s 6th symphony, Czech dances appear frequently.
• The Furiant dance was used in its movement three, a very fast dance with characteristic hemiolas.

Question 9

Essay: Third Movements???