Obligato / Obligé: a Musical Etymology
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University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations 2017 Obligato / Obligé: A Musical Etymology Suzanne Anita Bratt University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations Part of the History Commons, and the Music Commons Recommended Citation Bratt, Suzanne Anita, "Obligato / Obligé: A Musical Etymology" (2017). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 2197. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/2197 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/2197 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Obligato / Obligé: A Musical Etymology Abstract ABSTRACT OBLIGATO / OBLIGÉ: A MUSICAL ETYMOLOGY Suzanne Anita Bratt Emily I. Dolan Ask for a definition of the musical term obligat“ o”; receive a different answer from everyone asked. What truth this axiom possesses lies in the multiple meanings acquired by the word during the past four hundred years. The varied definitions that presently circulate – an obligatory musical line, a virtuosic one, a filigree or descant, the use of a specific instrument, the use of organ pedal, the interaction of solo instrument and voice – all convey this complex legacy. Through analyses of music in manuscript, printed scores, and publishing materials, this dissertation concludes that certain meanings of “obligato” are active at different points in the history of Western musicking. Meanings activated by different instruments and in different genres can indicate the places of those instruments within an expected hierarchy, and can create those genres. This dissertation begins by considering certain in consistencies in the use of obligato terminology: situating scholarly discussion of the power of the obbligato violin in “Erbarme dich” alongside Sebastian Bach’s own use of the term. Similarly, Guido Adler’s construction of obligate Akkompagnement as a fundamental compositional principle for the Wiener klassische Schule is analyzed alongside his source for the term: a letter of Beethoven, written to a publisher, planning the appearance of the Septet op. 20. The overview undertaken in this section, of the complex publication history of the Septet, leads to a consideration of changing practices and expectations concerning music in print and manuscript. An analysis of obligato terminology at work in Breitkopf music catalogues locates one source of obligato’s multiple meanings: in the collision of the trio and accompanied sonata genres. Aspects of a voice and an instrument interacting often surface in connection with “obbligato.” This dissertation’s conclusion takes a wide-ranging approach to this phenomenon: analyzing musicologists’s conceptualizing the heard experience of certain arias, musical expectations and structures as embedded in concert practices, and discourses of the supernatural. Thus, a final point of consideration is Rousseau’s r�citatif oblig�: focusing not as much on the people playing the instruments, as on the instruments themselves replying to – and leading – those who sing. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Music First Advisor Emily I. Dolan Keywords 18th century, Bach, Beethoven, Breitkopf, music publishing, obbligato Subject Categories History | Music This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/2197 OBLIGATO / OBLIGÉ: A MUSICAL ETYMOLOGY Suzanne Anita Bratt A DISSERTATION in Music Presented to the Faculties of the University of Pennsylvania in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2017 Supervisor of Dissertation ______________________________ Emily I. Dolan Gardner Cowles Associate Professor of Music, Harvard University Graduate Group Chairperson ______________________________ Carol Muller, Professor of Music Dissertation Committee Mauro Calcagno, Associate Professor of Music Emma Dillon, Professor of Music, King’s College, London OBLIGATO / OBLIGÉ: A MUSICAL ETYMOLOGY COPYRIGHT 2017 Suzanne Anita Bratt This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/ iii “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.” Inigo Montoya iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I owe so many individuals gratitude for their help on this project, and for their believing in me to see it through. First and foremost, I give my most grateful thanks to my advisor, Emily Dolan. This dissertation would not have been completed without her brilliance, her generosity, her knowledge of the field, and her insight into the writing process. As long as I have known her, she has been the model of a scholar, an advisor, and a person. I give special thanks as well to Emma Dillon, who encouraged me to think about voice and instrument interactions via Verdi, in a first-year seminar, and who supported this project from its beginning. Both Emily Dolan and Emma Dillon were, and are, outstanding teachers; my memories of teaching with them are all positive ones. Thanks finally to Mauro Calcagno, for keen insight into issues of performance and for encouragement along the road of this writing process. Additional teachers and mentors outside of my immediate committee influenced my path through graduate school, whether by sparking an interest in part of the field, discussing research ideas, or just plain being inspirational. Thank you to Michael Marissen, Margot Fassler, Christine Blanken, Stephen Crist, and to members of the American Bach Society – and my special thanks to the Bach Colloquium for reading this dissertation’s first chapter in paper form and giving insightful and constructive critique. Thanks, at Penn, to Jeffrey Kallberg, Guthrie Ramsey, Jamuna Samuel, Jairo Moreno, and Carol Muller, for all matter of valuable experiences, ranging from interesting seminars to guidance in teaching. Going further back in time, my most grateful thanks are due to Patrick McCreless, Robert Holzer, Leon Plantinga, Richard Lalli, Robert Mealy, v and Yale Baroque Opera at its very beginning: all for demonstrating scholarship and enthusiasm for learning in action. Even further back: without the musical training given to me by Diane McElfish, Vivian Kleinhuizen, and John Varineau, I would not be where I am today. Thank you all. On the topic of learning: so many excellent discussions were had featuring my fellow students that I could not possibly fit all the names here. I remember talking about this project in its early stages with Lauren Jennings, Emily Zazulia, and Thomas Patteson; working on writing with Brooke McCorkle, Myron Gray, and Neil Crimes; and parachuting in for seminar with Vanessa Williams, Maria Murphy, Charlie Shrader, Carlo Lanfossi, and Tristan Paré-Morin. I thank in particular Lily Kass, for being an indefatigable writing partner; one who always brought cheerful encouragement, alongside enthusiasm for eighteenth century music and culture, to the table. The University of Pennsylvania has provided generous financial support during my graduate career, with its five-year Benjamin Franklin Fellowship. My 2011 travels to Leipzig, Halle (Saale), and London were financed through the Graduate Division of Penn’s School of Arts and Sciences, with a Summer Research Fellowship. I thank Dr. Mary Sue Weber and the Communication Within the Curriculum program for the Critical Speaking Fellowship that allowed me to write while teaching a course and designing a lecture series. A particular resource at UPenn has been superlative during my time here: the library. Thank you, Catherine Rutan, who has helped me with library exigencies of all sorts. Likewise, thank you, John Pollack, for always being ready to share new and vi interesting objects from Rare Books, and for taking an interest in this dissertation. Thanks to Dick Griscom and Liza Vick, finally, for their help at the beginning and end of the dissertation process. Thank you Maryellen Malek, Margaret Smith Deeney, and Alfreda Frazier of the music department, for their help to me at both normal times and crunch times. My students and I are all grateful to you. Without the help of librarians, presses, and administrative staff abroad, the resources for this dissertation would have been far more difficult to corral. Many thanks to Dr. Roland Schmidt-Hensel of the Music Department and Mendelssohn Archive of the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, and to Dr. Christiane Hausmann of Bach Digital. I thank Bärenreiter and G. Henle, as well as Dover Publications here at home, for permission to duplicate excerpts from the Matthäus-Passion, Beethoven’s opuses 20 and 38, and the Brook edition of the Breitkopf Thematic Catalogue; thanks as well to Katharina Malecki, Kristina Winter, and Susan Barell, respectively, for expediting the request process. Finally, thank you, Chris Rawlings of the British Library, Ilse Kosz of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Wien, and Kristina Funk-Kunath of the Bach Archive, for expeditious help in reproducing images, whether for my research or for inclusion in this dissertation. I value my Penn community network for many reasons; chief among which is the camaraderie found at work between colleagues and friends. I especially thank my supervisors at the Graduate Student Center: Dr. Anita Mastroieni, Shaina Adams El- vii Guabli, DeAnna Cheung, and Jessica Bolker. Madeleine Wilcox has been a firm friend through the ups and downs of event