Dudley Buck's Grand Sonata in E-Flat
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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 Chicago 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 Leipzig, Dresden, and Paris; 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.