The cadence of Mozart's cadenzas

Journal of Musicology

Volumn 22, Issue 2, 2005, Pages 292-325

  Mirka, Danuta ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 65849495299     PISSN: 02779269     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1525/jm.2005.22.2.292     Document Type: Article

References (83)

1. Daniel Gottlob Türk, Clavierschule oder Anweisung zum Clavierspielen für Lehrer und Lernende (Leipzig and Halle, 1789), 313
2. (School of Clavier Playing or Instructions in Playing the Clavier for Teachers and Students, trans. and ed. Raymond H. Haggh [Lincoln: Univ. of Nebraska Press, 1982], 302). Throughout this essay I refer to page numbers of an original German treatise first, followed in parentheses by the equivalent citation in the English translation, where available
3. Johann Friedrich Agricola, Anleitung zur Singkunst (Berlin: Winter, 1757), 205
4. Türk, Clavierschule, 312 (300)
5. Johann Joachim Quantz, Versuch einer Anweisung die Flöte traversiere zu spielen (Berlin, 1752), 157
6. (On Playing the Flute, trans. and ed. Edward R. Reilly [New York: Schirmer, 1966], 186)
7. For a comprehensive discussion see Gretchen Wheelock, Haydn's Ingenious Jesting with Art: Contexts of Musical Wit and Humor (New York: Schirmer, 1992)
8. Quantz, Versuch, 154 (182)
9. Türk, Clavierschule, 311 (300)
10. Quantz, Versuch, 156 (185)
11. Joseph Riepel, Anfangsgründe zur musicalischen Setzkunst, vol. 4: Erläuterung der betrüglichen Tonordnung (Augsburg, 1765), 85
12. Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, Versuch über die wahre Art das Klavier zu spielen, 2 vols. (Berlin, 1753-62), 1: 124-25
13. (Essay on the True Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments, trans. and ed. William J. Mitchell [New York: Norton, 1949], 153)
14. Türk, Clavierschule, 312 (301)
15. Understandably, this factor was absent from the description of cadenzas for melody instruments in treatises by Quantz, Bach, and Riepel. However, even Türk, writing about keyboard cadenzas, is uncharacteristically vague on this point. Under these circumstances Bach's remarks about harmonic deceits in improvised keyboard fantasias (Versuch, 2: 330-38 [434-38]) remain the most important source of information
16. Quantz, Versuch, 154-55 (181-82) and 161-62 (192)
17. Riepel, Anfangsgründe, 4: 90
18. The role of surprise in cadenzas has received little attention in recent writings. One exception to the neglect is Joseph Swain, "Form and Function of the Classical Cadenza," Journal of Musicology 6 (1988): 27-59, esp. 31-32
19. Türk, Clavierschule, 313 (301)
20. Whether Mozart's cadenzas represent models supplied for his pupils, a record of his own improvisations, or ideal personal solutions composed for himself as a performer is not of consequence for this argument. For discussion of the status of Mozart's cadenzas, see Christoph Wolff, "Zur Chronologie der Klavierkonzert-Kadenzen Mozarts," Mozart-Jahrbuch (1978-79): 235-46
21. and Frederick Neumann, Ornamentation and Improvisation in Mozart (Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1986), 257-58
22. Swain, "Form and Function of the Classical Cadenza"
23. Philip Whitmore, Unpremeditated Art: The Cadenza in the Classical Keyboard Concerto (Oxford: Clarendon, 1991)
24. Robert D. Levin, "Instrumental Ornamentation, Improvisation and Cadenzas," in Performance Practice: Music after 1600, ed. Howard Mayer Brown and Stanley Sadie (Houndsmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Macmillan, 1989), 267-91
25. William Drabkin, "An Interpretation of Musical Dreams: Towards a Theory of the Mozart Piano Concerto Cadenza," in Wolfgang Amadè Mozart: Essays on His Life and His Music, ed. Stanley Sadie (Oxford: Clarendon, 1996), 161-77
26. Türk, Clavierschule, 308: "Das Wort Kadenz wird hauptsächlich in zweyerlei Bedeutung gebraucht. Einmal versteht man darunter überhaupt jeden Tonschluß.... Im engern Sinne des Wortes Kadenz versteht man jetzt vorzugsweise darunter: die willkührlichen Verzierungen, welche vor einem völligen Tonschlusse in der Hauptstimme angebracht, und unmittelbar vor der Schlußnote mit einem Triller geendiget werden."
27. The translation above is a modification of that in School, 297
28. Heinrich Christoph Koch, Versuch einer Einleitung zur Composition, vol. 2 (Leipzig: Böhme, 1787)
29. part 2 trans, by Nancy Kovaleff Baker in Heinrich Christoph Koch, Introductory Essay on Composition (New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 1983)
30. Heinrich Christoph Koch, Versuch einer Einleitung zur Composition, vol. 1 (Rudolstadt and Leipzig: Böhme, 1782): 241: "mit dem davon abstammenden Sextquartenaccorde."
31. The first explicit formulations of this harmonic context of the cadenza occur in Quantz, Versuch, 151 (179)
32. and Bach, Versuch, 2: 259-60 (380-81)
33. A few examples given by Riepel confirm that this simple scenario held also for other melody instruments, preeminently the violin, to which the rule of one "blow" did not apply
34. Agricola, Anleitung, 194-209
35. Bach, Versuch, 2: 259-65 (379-84)
36. For a useful review of the history of the cadenza, see Whitmore, Unpremeditated Art
37. Bach, Versuch, 2: 325-41 (430-45)
38. Such passages are not true cadenzas; however, they lead to improvised cadenzas starting on their final six-four chords
39. Heinrich Christoph Koch, Versuch einer Einleitung zur Composition, vol. 3 (Leipzig: Böhme, 1793): 339
40. English trans, in Introductory Essay, 212
41. Johann Philipp Kirnberger, Die Kunst des reinen Satzes in der Musik, vol. 1 (Berlin, 1771): 51
42. (The Art of Strict Musical Composition, trans. and ed. David Beach and Jurgen Thym [New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 1982], 71)
43. Another Berlin author before Kirnberger who considered the cadential six-four as dissonant was C. P. E. Bach, yet in Bach's view this harmony was the second inversion of the tonic triad, and its dissonant character was caused only by the fourth between the bass and one of the upper voices, whereas the sixth was consonant (see Bach, Versuch, 2: 67 [226-27])
44. Emmanuel Aloys Förster, Anleitung zum Generalbaß (Vienna, 1805)
45. Joseph Drechsler, Harmonie und Generalbaß-Lehre, (Vienna, 1816)
46. Although these treatises are later than Mozart's cadenzas, they summarize the authors' teaching experience within Mozart's lifetime. In particular, Förster, who came to Vienna in 1779, became an eminent composition teacher there and stayed in close personal contact with Mozart. The interpretation of the six-four chord as consonance manifests itself in the fact that the fourth and sixth require neither preparation nor resolution. For more details see the discussion by Wolfgang Budday in his Harmonielehre Wiener Klassik: Theorie - Satztechnik - Werkanalyse (Stuttgart: Berthold & Schwerdtner, 2002), 87-90
47. Daniel Gottlob Türk, Kurze Anweisung zum Generalbaßspielen (Halle and Leipzig, 1791)
48. 6 does thus not always correspond with Vogler's interpretation of this chord. For a broader discussion of Vogler's theory, see Floyd K. Grave and Margaret G. Grave, In Praise of Harmony: The Teachings of Abbe Georg Joseph Vogler (Lincoln: Univ. of Nebraska Press, 1987)
49. Consequently, to interpret this chord as a dissonant double appoggiatura to the dominant, as do Drabkin, "An Interpretation of Musical Dreams," 165
50. and Swain, "Form and Function," 36, and to imply henceforth that it required an immediate resolution, is historically questionable
51. Levin, "Instrumental Ornamentation," 280
52. Koch, Versuch, 3: 339 (212), emphasis added
53. The popularity of the bass line 4-music sharp sign4-5 is emphasized by Budday, Harmonielehre Wiener Klassik, 139 and 196. The same author points to still another line music sharp sign4-5-6-5 (ibid., 216) which, however, is absent from orchestral arrivals at cadenzas in Mozart's concertos. To be sure, these bass lines are not reserved solely for orchestral arrivals before cadenzas but can be found in many other pre-cadential contexts of instrumental concertos and other genres
54. 6 626a I in parentheses
55. The custom of providing an accompaniment to the rhapsodic figurations in the left hand was a new invention of improvisers in the 1780s and even at that time by no means common, as one can see from examples of cadenzas in Türk, Clavierschule, 314-15 (302-3), which limit themselves to single-voice figuration. This is also the case in Mozart's first cadenza to K. 246/i. Single-voice keyboard cadenzas are to be viewed as a transitory stage from the older type of cadenzas for melody instruments
56. According to Budday, Harmonielehre Wiener Klassik, 176-78, in Viennese Classical music there are virtually no chords based on scale degree music sharp sign4 or containing it as their member outside the context of cadential preparation. The only exception indicated by this author (ibid., 142 and 178) is the descending chromatic bass line 5-music sharp sign4-4-3, which can be found in opening passages of Mozart's cadenzas to K. 271/i, K. 414/i (second cadenza), K. 459/iii, and K. 488/i
57. 6
58. Although according to the theorists of the time it should be notated as a diminished six-five chord (in C major: Fmusic sharp sign-A-C-Dmusic sharp sign) resolving to the six-four chord, with the raised sixth moving upwards (Dmusic sharp sign-E), Mozart spells this harmony consistently as a seventh chord (Fmusic sharp sign-A- C-Emusic flat sign) not only in his cadenzas and other compositions but also in exercises for Barbara Ployer and Thomas Attwood (see Budday, Harmonielehre Wiener Klassik, 111)
59. A Classic Turn of Phrase: Music and the Psychology of Convention (Philadelphia: Univ. of Pennsylvania Press, 1988)
60. To give an example from a different genre: In Haydn's Op. 9 string quartets, the cadential formula 5-2-1 with the unison initial turn music sharp sign4-5 occurs no less than twelve times: in nos. 1/iii (mm. 26-27 and 64-65), 1/iv (mm. 35-36 and 143-44), 2/iv (mm. 18-19 and 49-50), 3/i (mm. 29-30 and 76-77), 5/iii (mm. 28-29 and 65-66), 5/iv (mm. 162/3), 6/iii (mm. 21-22). In no. 2/i (mm. 29-30 and 97-98) the unison music sharp sign4-5 is used playfully as a false signal of the cadence followed in fact by an extensive detour
61. Türk, Clavierschule, 352 (341)
62. Türk, Clavierschule, 261 (253): Example a
63. The few examples of modified terminations occur exclusively in cadenzas to the rondo finales of K. 414, K. 456, and K. 595; the first two cases are additionally necessitated by the fact that the following theme starts with a scale degree other than 1
64. Bach, Versuch, 1: 79-81 (107-9) with appropriate examples (Ex. XXXIV and XLI in Table IV)
65. Türk, Clavierschule, 267-70 (258-61)
66. Bach, Versuch, 1: 80 (108)
67. Türk, Clavierschule, 270 (261)
68. Transfers down an octave can be found only in two rondo finales - K. 414/iii (second cadenza) and K. 595/iii - where they are necessitated by the registral location of the theme that immediately follows in the solo part
69. On 8/9 October 1791 in a letter to his wife Constanze in Baden, Mozart gives the following description of his short intervention in the course of the performance of The Magic Flute: "During Papageno's aria with the glockenspiel I went behind the stage, because I had an urge to play it myself today. For a joke, when Schikaneder had a rest I played an arpeggio - he was startled - looked into the wings and saw me - at the repeat I didn't do it - he stopped and absolutely refused to continue - I guessed what he was thinking and played another chord - then he hit the glockenspiel and said 'shut up' - everyone laughed then." It seems not unlikely that similar jokes were performed by Mozart in other contexts as well
70. This chord occurs in the Polish edition of Mozart's cadenzas prepared by Zbigniew Śliwinski (Krakow: Polskie Wydawnictwo Muzyczne, 1977)
71. This chain of trills does not represent a case of the penultimate trill discussed earlier: Instead of leading to the cadential trill it begins with it. Another example of this sort occurs in the cadenza to the rondo finale of K. 238
72. A regular realization of the step from the antepenultimate to the penultimate by the soloist, based on the same formula, can be found in the cadenza for K. 415/i
73. Both in K. 413/i and K. 451/iii, the antepenultimate is introduced by typical precadential bass lines - music flat sign6-5-music sharp sign4 and 6-5-4-music sharp sign4, respectively - which greatly enhances the expectation of the penultimate, as well as the effect of disappointment when the penultimate fails to occur
74. 6 626a I: 49). Mozart's authorship of this cadenza is doubtful
75. This is a result of the inconsistent use of the term "cadence" in modern theoretical writings. See William Caplin, "The Classical Cadence: Conceptions and Misconceptions, " Journal of the American Musicological Society 57 (2004): 51-117
76. Eva and Paul Badura-Skoda, Mozart-Interpretation (Vienna: Wancura, 1957), 214-34
77. Türk, Clavierschule, 313 (302)
78. A similar point was made one generation earlier by Quantz, Versuch, 153 (181): "As I have already said, rules have never been prescribed for cadenzas. And it would be difficult to circumscribe with rules ideas which are extemporaneous, which are not supposed to constitute a formal melody, for which no bass is permissible, in which the compass of keys that may be touched upon is very narrow, and which in general are only supposed to sound like impromptu inventions."
79. For the contemporary study of musical topics, see Leonard Ratner, Classic Music: Expression, Form, and Style (New York: Schirmer, 1980)
80. V. Kofi Agawu, Playing with Signs: A Semiotic Interpretation of Classic Music (Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1991)
81. Wye J. Allanbrook, Rhythmic Gesture in Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro and Don Giovanni, (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago, 1983)
82. Robert Hatten, Musical Meaning in Beethoven: Markedness, Correlation, and Interpretation (Bloomington: Indiana Univ. Press, 1994)
83. and Raymond Monelle, The Sense of Music: Semiotic Essays (Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 2000)