IMAGINED SOUNDS: THEIR ROLE IN THE STRICT AND FREE COMPOSITIONAL PRACTICE OF ANTON BRUCKNER Jonathan Brooks, B.A., M.M. Dissertation Prepare d for the Degree of DOCTOR OF P HILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS May 2008 APPROVED: Graham Phipps, Major Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in the College of Music Frank Heidlberger, Minor Professor Thomas Sovík, Committee Member John Murphy, Interim Chair of the Music Theory, History, and Ethnomusicology Division James C. Scott, Dean of the School of Music Sandra L. Terrell, Dean of the Robert B. Toulouse School of Graduate Studies Brooks, Jonathan. Imagined Sounds: Their Role in the Strict and Free Compositional Practice of Anton Bruckner. Doctor of Philosophy (Music Theory), May 2008, 377 pp., 207 examples, 19 figures, references, 193 titles. The present study develops a dynamic model of strict and free composition that views them as relative to a specific historical context. The dynamic view espoused here regards free embellishments of an earlier compositional generation as becoming the models for a strict compositional theory in a later one. From the newly established strict compositional models, succeeding generations of composers produce new free embellishments. The first part of the study develops the dynamic conception of a continuously emerging strict composition as the context necessary for understanding Anton Bruckner’s compositional methodology with respect to the harmonic instruction of his teacher, Simon Sechter. In other words, I view Sechter’s harmonic theories as a strict compositional platform for Bruckner’s free compositional applications. Many theoretical treatises of the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries such as those by Christoph Bernhard, Johann Philipp Kirnberger and Sechter acknowledged that strict composition must provide the structural framework for free composition. The above procedure becomes a manner of justifying a free embellishment since a “theorist” can demonstrate or assert the steps necessary to connect it with an accepted model from a contrapuntal or harmonic theory. The present study demonstrates that the justification relationship is a necessary component for understanding any theory as a strict/free one. By examining Sechter as a strict methodology for Bruckner, we can view the free applications that the latter develops. Bruckner’s own theoretical documents—the marginalia in his personal copy of Sechter’s Die Grundsätze der musikalischen Komposition and his lecture notes, Vorlesungen über Harmonie und Kontrapunkt an der Universität Wien, taken by Ernst Schwanzara—provide extensions and elaborations to Sechter’s theories. In addition, theorists sympathetic to Sechter’s approach and Bruckner’s personal students provide further material for understanding Bruckner’s free application of Sechter’s strict harmonic perspective. The study uses my own observations, as well as the extensions indicated above, to generate the transformations used by Bruckner to elaborate the Sechterian harmonic structure. Copyright 2008 by Jonathan Brooks ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my dissertation committee—Dr. Graham Phipps, Dr. Frank Heidlberger and Dr. Thomas Sovík—for their assistance in completing the document. In particular, I would like to thank Dr. Phipps for his insight, patience and support as a mentor over the past ten years helping me to surpass what I thought I could do. Also, I would like to thank Anderson University for the encouragement provided by my colleagues and the additional research time made available through a sabbatical. Lastly, I wish to thank my parents and family for their patience and support through this long but rewarding process. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS………………………………………………..………………iii LIST OF FIGURES……………………………………………..……….……………….vi LIST OF EXAMPLES……………………………………………………………..…….vii Chapter 1. STATING THE PROBLEM…………………………………………..…….…..……1 2. DEFINING STRICT AND FREE COMPOSITION……………….…………....….24 Origin and Transmission of the Strict/Free Classification System Multiple Strict Traditions and Updates Justification Process 3. THREE CASE STUDIES AND A CRITIQUE…………………………..………....53 Christoph Bernhard Johann Philipp Kirnberger Johann Georg Albrechtsberger Gottfried Weber’s Observational Approach 4. SECHTER’S THEORETICAL PRACTICE…………………….…..….................126 Strict Composition (Type One) Strict Composition (Type Two) 5. BRUCKNER’S COMPOSITIONAL PRACTICE WITH RESPECT TO A SECHTERIAN THEORETICAL TRADITION…................…..181 Free Transformations in Bruckner’s Compositional Practice 6. IMAGINED SOUNDS IN THE FIRST MOVEMENT OF BRUCKNER’S EIGHTH SYMPHONY….……………………………………….….………….…246 Imagined Sounds Free Extensions iv 7. CONCLUSIONS……..…...…………………………………………………………272 Sechter’s Influence on Bruckner’s Compositional and Theoretical Practice Further Study APPENDIX…….….………………………………………………....…........................291 BIBLIOGRAPHY….…………………...……………………………………….....…...362 v LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1. Static View of Strict Composition..............................................................................7 2. Dynamic View of Strict Composition.........................................................................7 3. Two-step process of assertion...................................................................................39 4. Model for justification process..................................................................................40 5. Sechter, Correct fundamental bass progressions for triads.....................................157 6. Sechter, Correct fundamental bass progressions for seventh chords......................158 7. Sechter, Possible triads and seventh chords in a minor key....................................160 8. Formal reading of the first movement of Bruckner’s Eighth Symphony................250 9. Description of sigla used in the first movement......................................................295 vi LIST OF EXAMPLES Example Page 1. Monteverdi, Compositional Licenses in Cruda Amarillo............................................4 2. Sechter, Suppression of Second Fundamental in an Ascending Step Progression.......5 3. Sechter, Suppression of Second Fundamental in a Descending Step Progression.......5 4. Sechter, Upward-going suspensions………………………………………………...10 5. Bruckner, Placement of ninths, elevenths and thirteenth……….….….….………...11 6. Benjamin, Tonal regions in the first movement Bruckner’s Eighth Symphony…....18 7. Benjamin, Reduction and Harmonic Analysis of opening passage from Eighth Symphony…………………………………………………………........………...19 8. Subjects from Frescobaldi’s Ricercar primo and Bach’s Fugue in C-sharp Minor......................................................................................................................41 9. Bruckner, Quotation from Mozart’s Requiem in D minor.........................................42 10. Wagner, Repentance Motive....................................................................................43 11. Bruckner, Quotation in Symphony No. 7, 1st mvt.....................................................43 12. Fux, Justification for passing tone............................................................................45 13. Fux, Justification for suspension..............................................................................46 14. Kirnberger, Unauthentic seventh chord....................................................................46 15. Kirnberger, Reinterpretation of fully-diminished seventh chord.............................49 16. Kirnberger, Reinterpretation of fully-diminished seventh in E minor.....................50 17. Expected resolution of fully-diminished seventh chord...........................................50 vii 18. Progression expected prior to resolution of fully-diminished seventh chord in E Minor.....................................................................................................................51 19. Bernhard, Exhaustive list of good and bad consonant progressions for the minor Third......................................................................................................................56 20. Bernhard, First type of bass cadence with a falling fifth..........................................57 21. Bernhard, Second type of bass cadence with a falling fourth..................................58 22. Bernhard, Usual manner for tenor cadence..............................................................58 23. Bernhard, Unusual manner for tenor cadence..........................................................59 24. Bernhard, Transitus..................................................................................................60 25. Bernhard, Quasi-transitus........................................................................................61 26. Bernhard, Syncopatio...............................................................................................61 27. Bernhard, Quasi-syncompatio..................................................................................62 28. Bernhard, Superejectio.............................................................................................63 29. Bernhard, Subsumtio.................................................................................................63 30. Bernhard, Multiplication..........................................................................................64 31. Bernhard, First type of syncopatio catachrestica.....................................................64 32. Possible justification for first type of syncopatio catachrestica..............................65 33. Bernhard, Quaesitio notae........................................................................................65 34. Bernhard, Transitus inversus....................................................................................66 35. Bernhard, Anticipatio notae......................................................................................66 36. Bernhard, Prolongation............................................................................................67 37. Bernhard, Extension.................................................................................................67 38. Bernhard, Mora........................................................................................................68 viii