Tonal Duality and the New Russian Choral School

Ellen Bakulina, CUNY Graduate CenterEuroMAC 2014, Leuven, Belgium

Example 1. Relative mutability (=pairing of relative keys): functional relationships

Example 2a. Hymn Dostoino Est’ (anonymous) from Smolensky’s Main Chants (1893)

[several repeated phrases omitted;]

Final phrase:

1

Example 2b. Dostoino Est’: voice-leading analysis (two middleground levels). Note the concluding cadence with ^3 inthe upper voice.

Important terms related to tonal duality

Tonal pairing, first coined by Robert Bailey (1985) in his study of Wagner’s Tristan. Refers to close and constant interaction of two keys in the course of a piece or movement. The paired keys are usually

2

third-related in either diatonic or chromatic context, and very often relative. The term often appears next to tonal duality, dual tonality, and tonal dualism (see some of the essays in Kinderman and Kerbs, 1996, as well as Lewis 1987 and Wadsworth 2012), especially when this dualism concerns the deepest level of tonal structure. Directional tonality, also coined by Bailey (1985). Refers to pieces that modulate from one key to another at the global level. Equivalent to progressive tonality. Often, tonal duality also refers to the same phenomenon. Peremennost’, translated as mutability, a Russian concept that originated with Boleslav Yavorsky (1908) and was developed by Igor Sposobin, YuriKholopov, and others. In many ways is equivalent to tonal pairing, buthas a different history. Throughout its conceptual development, mutability has been related to certain symmetrical scale types, pairing of keys (usually diatonic), and the idea of tonal decentralization in general.

Example 3a. Alexander Sheremetev. Nyne Sily Nebesnyia (1902), ending.NB the final 3-IAC

Example 3b. Nyne Sily: voice-leading analysis. NB the arrival of the upper voice to ^3

3

Example 4. Tone 5 sticheron (in four-part harmonization) from Kustovsky and Potiomkina (1999), based on Snolensky 1893. Voice-leading analysis; NB the modulating background.

Example 5. Benjamin Wadsworth, 2012 (his example 3). Double-Ursatz structure for non-

4

monotonal pieces.

a) Directional tonality (two complete Ursätze)

b) Tonal pairing (one of the Ursätze is incomplete)

Example 6a. Alexander Kastal’sky. Liturgy (1905), hymn Tebe Poem.

5

Example 6b. Kastal‘sky, Tebe Poem, voice-leading analysis.

6

Example 7a. Rachmaninoff. Liturgy (1910), movement 3 (Slava Ottsu and Edinorodnyi Syne). Opening section: mm. 1–11.

7

Example 7b. Rachmaninoff. Liturgy op. 31, movement 3, mm. 1–11: voice-leading analysis. The F-major beginning of the movement is interpreted as an auxiliary cadence preceding the main structure in D minor (which follows this passage).

8

Example 8a. Sergei Rachmaninoff. All-Night Vigil [Vespers], op. 37 (1915), movement 12. Middleground and background levels: a complete double-Ursatz structure.

Rachmaninoff’s Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom (1910) and All-Night Vigil (1915), inaddition to a short hymn V Molitvakh Neusypaiuschaia Bogoroditsa, constitute his relatively small, but very important contribution to the New Russian Choral School. Like many representatives of this trend, he was

9

deeply interested in old chant traditions, which he incorporated into the Vigil (but not the Liturgy). This interest was stimulated by his interaction with Stepan Smolensky (see p. 2 of this handout), to whosememory the Vigil is dedicated. Beyond the use of the chant, both the Liturgy and the Vigil are strongly associated with Russian choral traditionin their textures and harmonic techniques.

Example 8b. Rachmaninoff. All-Night Vigil, movement 12, mm. 1–5.

10

Example 8c. Rachmaninoff. All-Night Vigil, movement 12, mm. 70–73 (opening of section 2).

Selected bibliography

Bailey, Robert. Bailey, Robert, ed. 1985. “An Analytical Study of the Sketches and Drafts.” In Wagner: Prelude and Transfiguration from “Tristan and Isolde, ed. Bailey. New York: Norton. Bakulina, Ellen (Olga). Forthcoming. “The Concept of Mutability in Russian Theory”. Music Theory Online. Berkov, Viktor. 1948. Garmoniya Glinki. [Glinka’s Harmony.] Moscow-Leningrad: Muzgiz.Burstein, Poundie. 2006. “Schenker’s Concept of the Auxiliary Cadence.” In Essays from the Third International Schenker Symposium, edited by Allen Cadwallader and Jan Miyake. Hildesheim: Olms. Cannata, David. 1999. Rachmaninoff and the Symphony. Innsbruck: Studien Verlag. Johnston, Blair. 2009. Harmony and Climax in Late Works of Sergei Rachmaninoff. PhD diss.: University of Michigan. Lewis, Christopher. 1987. “Mirrors and Metaphors: Reflections on Schoenber and Nineteenth- Century Tonality.” Nineteenth-Century Music 11/1, 26–42. Kastal’sky, Alexandr. 1905. Liturgiia Sv. Ioanna Zlatousta [Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom]. Moscow: Jurgenson.

11

Kholopov, Yuri. 1988. Garmoniia: Teoreticheskiy kurs. [Harmony: a Theoretical Course.] Moscow: Kompozitor.Kinderman, William, and Harald Krebs, eds. 1996. The Second Practice of Nineteenth-Century Tonality. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.Krebs, Harald. 1991. “Tonal and Formal Dualism in Chopin’s Scherzo, Op. 31.” Music Theory Spectrum 13/1: 48–60. _______. 1996. “Some Early Examples of Tonal Pairing: Schubert’s ‘Meeres Stille’ and ‘Der Wanderer’”. In Kinderman and Krebs 1996: 17–33. Kustovsky, E., and N. Potiomkina, eds. 1999. Posobie po izucheniyu osmoglasiya. [A Manual for the Study of Octoechos.] Moscow: Pravoslavnye Moskovskie Regentskie Kursy. Morosan, Vladimir. 1986. Choral Performance in Pre-Revolutionary Russia. Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press.Rachmaninoff, Sergei. 1992 (1915). All-Night Vigil, Op. 37, edited by VladimirMorosan and Alexander Ruggieri. Madison, CT: Musica Russica. _______ . 1910 (first edition). Liturgiia Sv. Ioanna Zlatousta [Liturgy of St.John Chrysostom], op. 31. Moscow: Gutheil. Rothstein, William. 2008. “Common-Tone tonality in Italian Romantic Opera.” Music Theory Online 14/1. Smith, Peter. 2013. “Tonal Pairing and Monotonality in Instrumental Forms of Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, and Brahms.” Music Theory Spectrum 35/1: 77–102. Smolensky, Stepan, ed. 1893. Glavneishie Pesnopeniia Bozhestvennoi Liturgii, Molebnogo Peliia, Panikhidy I Vsenoschnogo Bdeniia. [The Main Chants of the Divine Liturgy, the Moleben, the Memorial Service, and the All-Night Vigil.] Place of publication not specified in the edition. Taruskin, Richard. 1997. Defining Russia Musically: Historical and Hermeneutical Essays.

12

Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Wadsworth, Benjamin. 2012. “Directional Tonality in Schumann’s Early Works.” Music Theory Online, 18/4. Yavorsky, Boleslav. 2008. Izbrannoe: pis’ma, vospominaniya. [Selected Works: Letters, Memoires.] Moscow: Kompozitor.

Performance of anonymous hymns: Ellen Bakulina, Zlata Mishina, Tsvetana Muntyan, Gleb Ivanov.

13