Dudley Buck’s Grand Sonata in E-fl at: The Architecture of an American Masterpiece Jonathan B. Hall

hile a junior or senior in high First movement Example 1. Unadorned E-fl at major scale Wschool, I found a newish LP in the The motif is heard at the very outset of local public library: Fugues, Fantasia and the work, in the fi rst movement, marked Variations—Nineteenth-Century Ameri- allegro con brio. Here, one must respect- can Concert Organ Music (New World fully disagree with the liner notes in the Records, NW280). Dated 1976, it was no Morris album: the movement is neither Example 2. E-fl at major scale with chromatic alterations doubt intended as part of the vast trib- especially a “virtuoso” one nor, most def- ute to the Bicentennial that many of us initely, “in free form.” It is a textbook ex- remember. Richard Morris was the or- ample of sonata-allegro form, and (in my ganist, and he played the 1876 Hook & opinion) at the high end of moderately Hastings instrument in St. Joseph’s Old diffi cult1 (Example 4). Example 3. Two idiomatic uses of the chromatic alterations Cathedral, Buffalo, New York. Note that the scalar material is in the Dubbed the Centennial Organ be- tenor. This motif is echoed throughout cause it had stood in the eastern end of the movement (Examples 5 and 6). the huge Main Building of the Centen- Meanwhile, as mentioned, the move- nial Exposition in Philadelphia, the four- ment hews closely to classical sonata- Example 4. Grand Sonata, fi rst movement, measures 1–3 manual instrument has been in Buffalo allegro form. The opening theme mod- since 1877. It underwent change when ulates to the dominant key of B-fl at, it was electrifi ed in 1925, but is sub- whereupon we hear a second theme in stantially in conformity with its original a contrasting, lyrical style. (Here, we do design. Most recently, in 2001, it was re- not hear the cyclical material.) Ener- stored by Andover and rededicated by getic closing material rounds out the ex- Thomas Murray. position. The development bandies the The Hook was the perfect organ for subsidiary ideas around in more or less the repertoire, and the performance remote keys, eventually leading us to brought out the character of the instru- the expected retransition and recapitu- ment convincingly. But I was instantly lation in the tonic key. Note, as we end, captivated by the fi rst piece. Taking up the reappearance of motivic pitches in the whole of Side A was the Grand So- the pedal (Example 7). nata in E-fl at, opus 22, by Dudley Buck. I was already a devotee of Bach, and to Second movement my ears the opening strains of the Buck The second movement, an andante were improbably sweet, heavy with a espressivo in the subdominant key of Example 5. Grand Sonata, fi rst movement, measures 16–18 Victorian lyricism, very like a forbidden A-fl at, prominently features the cyclical fruit. I was hooked. scalar material in both hands (Example Since then, I have treasured my own 8). Cast in a spacious ABA song form, this copy of this LP, and often re-read Bar- movement not only calls to mind one of bara Owen’s comprehensive accompa- Beethoven’s “hymnic adagios,” but also nying essay, which expanded the record the songs of Stephen Foster (who died in jacket from single to double format. But 1864) as well. It also reminds us of what my appreciation of the Grand Sonata has made Buck so popular in his day. matured from a slightly guilty Victorian pleasure to serious musical appreciation. The secret of his success lies in his feel- The work, in fact, bears hallmarks of ad- ing for the voice, for he is a vocal writer par excellence. This is a gift. One may study vanced compositional techniques, and, the range of the voice and try to master its indeed, points a way forward in Ameri- capacities, but without the intuitive sensi- Example 6. Grand Sonata, fi rst movement, measures 57–59 can musical composition. tiveness to that which is vocal, the results are but poor; the music may be good but it Cyclical structure does not fi t the voice. This intuition is his in In 1982, Jerome Butera (editor of this the highest degree, and his songs are rich, journal) successfully defended a thesis at varied, picturesque, and stirring . . . [H]e the American Conservatory of Music in does this so simply that we are unconscious of the mechanism, but feel the beauty and for his DMA degree. This thesis fi tness of the whole.2 was devoted, in large part, to the Grand Sonata. He gives a clear, detailed account I agree in particular with the last sen- of the piece, situating it in nineteenth- tence; to this day, we are likely to be “un- century European practice. The thesis conscious of the mechanism”! But we remains the most complete account of are not likely to miss Buck’s rich lyricism; the work written to date. and the theme of this movement is the But I am not aware of any study that very quintessence of nineteenth-century points out the cyclical nature of this so- American song, at least of a certain pop- Example 7. Grand Sonata, fi rst movement, measures 150–156 nata. That is to say, each of its four move- ular variety. ments begins with some reference to a particular shared musical idea. It is a Third movement simple idea, to be sure; but its presence The third movement of the Grand adds luster to the fi rst major organ so- Sonata, marked vivace non troppo, is a nata composed in America. It links the well-known scherzo and trio, which is Buck piece, on a technical level, to the reprinted (minus its trio) in the second symphonies of Vierne, albeit on a more volume of A Century of American Or- modest scale. At the same time, it places gan Music, edited by Barbara Owen. It it on a more elevated architectonic plane is in the relative-minor key of C minor; than the early Widor symphonies. the trio is in the parallel key of C major. The piece’s stated key is E-fl at major. Here, the cyclical theme is visible in the Buck begins with a rising E-fl at major rising scale with sharp fourth (Example (Example 13). Note that this grand Vic- sition was hardly new at that time; there scale (Example 1). Then he colors the 9), and elsewhere. torian coda uses both of the little musical had been Beethoven, for a start, with scale with the lowered chromatic neigh- gestures shown at Example 2. his Pathétique sonata and Fifth Sym- bors of scale degrees 3, 5, and 6 (Exam- Last movement As mentioned earlier, this basic cycli- phony; there had been Berlioz, Liszt, ple 2). The fi nal movement, aptly described cal motive is not especially exciting. A Reubke. (Speaking of Tristan, Wagner These color-tones are commonplace as a “rollicking fugue” in the Morris liner rising major scale, wherein 3, 5, and 6 completed that opera in 1859, having in Romantic music, simply ornamenting notes, begins with a strong evocation of are colored by their lower neighbors, is laid aside his work on the Ring cycle in the third of the tonic and subdominant the cyclical theme. I have always very not an innovation by any means; certain- 1857.) Buck returned to the States in harmonies, and hinting at the V/V. With much enjoyed these measures, but never ly it is not as historically important as the 1862, and accepted a job in Hartford. these extra notes, we can form these typ- understood why Buck chose to begin the Tristan chord! But I think the evidence He composed the Grand Sonata in ical gestures of Victorian parlor music, way he did. I suggest that the notion of in the musical text is convincing. Dudley 1865. So, although he would not have both of which are common in the Grand the cyclical theme solves this problem Buck consciously built his Grand Sonata been in Europe for the premieres of Sonata (Example 3). neatly (Example 10). with reference to that motif. the Ring operas, there is no doubt that Nor does this scale, of itself, form a And of course, the “rollicking” fugue motivic composition was au courant and motif that is exactly repeated through subject repeats the very same pitches of European infl uences made an impression. the piece. However, as we shall see, its that long-ago tenor line in the fi rst move- In retrospect, it is hardly a surprise. In his doctoral thesis, Butera points presence is subtly pervasive. The rising ment (Example 11). This theme is an Buck went to Europe in 1858; he stud- to the Grand Sonata as combining for- chromatic scale is basic to every move- elaboration of the patriotic song “Hail ied in , Dresden, and ; his mal procedures of German Romanti- ment of the Grand Sonata and contrib- Columbia” (Example 12). teachers included Beethoven’s protégé cism with “sentimental Victorian” parlor utes to the listener’s conviction that the And we do not end this wonderful Ignaz Moscheles, as well as the then- music.3 These turn out to be two sides piece hangs together, and thence to the fugue—and sonata—without a fi nal fare- current Thomaskantor, Ernst Richter, of the same coin: the “parlor” idea of a work’s enduring popularity. well to the motif in the last measures and others. This kind of motivic compo- chromatically infl ected scale pervasively

20 THE DIAPASON Example 8. Grand Sonata, second movement, measures 5–8 Example 13. Grand Sonata, fourth movement, measures 80–87

Example 9. Grand Sonata, third movement, measures 4–8

Example 10. Grand Sonata, fourth movement, measures 1–2 mony and melody; tertian key relation- 65 of Horatio Parker” (DMA thesis, American ships; dramatic exploitation of virtuosity Conservatory of Music, Chicago, 1982), 18. (à la Reubke or Liszt); freedom of fugal 2. Karleton Hackett, The Great in Music: treatment (ditto); and so on.8 A Systematic Course of Study in the Music of Classical and Modern Composers, ed. W. S. B. To this good list we can add the Mathews (Chicago: Music Magazine Publish- choice of a style that would prove the ing Company, 1900), 169. ancestor of some of America’s most 3. Butera, thesis abstract, ProQuest Dis- distinctive music; music that—like the sertations and Theses database. war that ended in the year the Grand 4. Cf. A. J. Goodrich, Complete Musical Sonata was composed—would fi ght to Analysis (New York: The John Church Com- unite the “varied carols” of America’s pany, 1889), 297 ff. singing. The result was to be a convinc- 5. Dwight’s Journal of Music, Saturday, Example 11. Grand Sonata, fourth movement, measures 10–15 November 10, 1877, 126. ing, and world-transforming, musical 6. Phone conversation with Joshua Banks idiom. This is surely quite a feather in Mailman, May 2011. the cap of a twenty-six-year-old com- 7. Scott Joplin, “The School of Ragtime” poser. I say we should let him be as (New York, 1908), in Scott Joplin: Collect- American as he likes. ■ ed Piano Works (New York Public Library, 1972), 284. Notes 8. Butera, “Form and Style,” 40–41. 1. I wrote these words before reading virtu- ally the same ones in Dr. Butera’s thesis, which Jonathan B. Hall is music director of Cen- I cite here: “The fi rst movement is a virtual text- tral Presbyterian Church in Montclair, New Example 12. Opening of “Hail Columbia” book example of classical sonata process . . . .” Jersey. His fi rst book, Calvin Hampton: A Jerome Butera, “Form and Style in Two Ameri- Musician Without Borders, is available from can Sonatas: The Grand Sonata in E-Flat, op. 22 Wayne Leupold Editions. He is past dean of of Dudley Buck, and The Sonata in E-fl at, op. the AGO Chapter. The Fifthteenth Annual infl uences the entire work in a decidedly pressing this insight so clearly. Joshua Germanic fashion. Banks Mailman, who recently complet- It is thus most worthwhile to point ed a Ph.D. in music theory at Eastman, Albert Schweitzer out the modest, but effective, use Buck listened to me play the opening bars of made of this principle. He would contin- the piece over the phone during a wide- ue to do so: in 1880, he composed Scenes ranging conversation. His reaction was Organ Festival from Longfellow’s “Golden Legend”: A swift. “My gosh,” he said. “Did Scott Symphonic Cantata, where the Leitmo- Joplin ever hear that piece?”6 A Weekend in Celebration of Excellence in Organ Music: 4 tiv system is very much in evidence. Ragtime. Of course! It is so far to the A Gala Concert, ORGAN COMPETITION, Services, and Masterclass In 1877, Dwight’s Journal of Music foreground that it has gone unmen- published a favorable review of Buck’s tioned. The spirited, syncopated, mildly Second Sonata, opus 77, premiered by chromatic opening fi ts the style admi- High School Division First Prize: $2,000 in Chicago in Novem- rably. It is important to remember that Other prizes also awarded ber 1877. It praised the work in part by ragtime and jazz both have roots, in part, drawing favorable parallels to the Grand in the idioms of 19th-century parlor mu- Sonata, which the reviewer found “ . . . sic and popular song—idioms also very College/Young Professional First Prize: $3,500 somewhat too American in tone, uneven, much in evidence in the Grand Sonata. Through age 26 Other prizes also awarded and almost crude in places.” He also And, as for the chromatically infl ected questions whether the classical sonata scale on which the piece is based, the This includes an appearance on our 2012 - 2013 Concert Series form is necessary, especially in light of blues scale is easily extracted from it. Beethoven’s opus 111 and the six Men- Granted, there are features of ragtime, delssohn organ sonatas.5 I do not ques- blues, and jazz that are not present: what 2012 JUDGES tion the youthful ebullience of the piece, Joplin calls the “weird and intoxicating AUDITION CDS: 7 its extroversion, cheeriness, and, in effect” is absent, among many other Cherry places, obvious lightness. However, such things. The piece is an ancestor, nothing Due on June 12, 2012 evaluations as “too American . . . uneven, more; it represents one of the streams of Rhodes and almost crude” should not daunt us. infl uence of these later styles. It seems THE COMPETITION: Further study of this composer—this to me that we organists have tended to cosmopolitan, lyrically gifted, all-Amer- overlook this. September 7-9, 2012 Gordon Turk ican classic—is very much in order. Butera’s thesis accurately points out many salient features of this work, in- Conclusion: looking forward cluding both “conservative” and “pro- For Information & Whatever its faults, Buck’s Grand gressive” elements. Among the former, Application: Sonata has staying power. Very popular he points out the use of sonata-allegro in its day, it has enjoyed high visibility form; the four-movement plan of fast- wherever there is interest in Victorian or slow-scherzo-fast; the employment of First Church 19th-century American organ music— ternary forms; and a learned fugue to this, despite the frequent reaction that conclude. On the progressive side, he of Christ the piece is “too American,” mere “par- notes (inter alia) chromaticism in har- Faythe lor music,” or, in a word, corny. 250 Main Street Freese But what do we have, at the end of the Wethersfield, CT 06109 day? Do we have a monument to a de- Visit parted esthetic—a period piece—a cu- firstchurch.org/asof rious and lovely heirloom? Do we have THE something like an amiable and slightly DIAPASON 860.529.1575 eccentric uncle? I think not—defi nitely website: Ext. 209 not. The Grand Sonata is altogether more important than that. I am indebted music@firstchurch.org to an old friend and colleague for ex-

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