Linearity, Modulation, and Virtual Agency in Prokofiev's War Symphonies
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Copyright by Joel Davis Mott 2018 The Dissertation Committee for Joel Davis Mott Certifies that this is the approved version of the following Dissertation: A New Symphonism: Linearity, Modulation, and Virtual Agency in Prokofiev's War Symphonies Committee: Robert Hatten, Supervisor Byron Almén Inessa Bazayev Eric Drott Marianne Wheeldon A New Symphonism: Linearity, Modulation, and Virtual Agency in Prokofiev's War Symphonies by Joel Davis Mott Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin May 2018 Dedication for Ashley Acknowledgements This dissertation is a product of the support of faculty, family, and friends. I am indebted to Dr. Robert S. Hatten’s insight into musical meaning and movement along with his unwavering support and careful guidance. Dr. Byron Almén fostered my early interest in musical narrative. Dr. Marianne Wheeldon oversaw my first efforts to analyze Prokofiev’s music in historical and cultural context. Dr. Edward Pearsall assisted in my application of musical forces to the piano sonatas. I worked with Dr. Eric Drott to understand what it meant for Prokofiev to write a Soviet Symphony. Dr. David Neumeyer ensured I applied my work in his Schenkerian analysis course to my work on Prokofiev’s music. I am also grateful to Dr. Daniel Harrison at Yale University, whose work on tonality post-1900 helped formulate my approach to the War Symphonies. I am thankful for the ideas, support, and encouragement of my fellow graduate students during my time at UT Austin, including Garreth Broesche, Eloise Boisjoli, Catrin Watts, Eric Hogrefe, Matthew Bell, Steven Rahn, Bree Geurra, and Scott Schumann. I also owe a debt of gratitude to the musicians and non-musicians who encouraged me to follow my passion for music theory and earn my doctorate: Dr. Timothy Cutler, Dr. Gregory Ristow, Edward & Dr. Janet Mullings, Erik & Rachel Goldsmith, Ryan & Kelly Patrick, and Joe & Jean Grimes. My parents worked tirelessly to ensure I received a good education, and their support made this possible, along with encouragement from my sister. Thank you, Mom, v Dad, and Leslie. My wife is the reason I was able to attempt and complete this dissertation. She gave generously of her time and patience. I will always be grateful for your faith in me, Ashley. My wonderful daughter and son always helped keep my work in perspective. I am thankful for every day I spend with you, Amelia and Grayson. vi Abstract A New Symphonism: Linearity, Modulation, and Virtual Agency in Prokofiev’s War Symphonies Joel Davis Mott, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin, 2018 Supervisor: Robert Hatten One of the most exciting aspects of Prokofiev’s music emerges in his distantly- related yet smoothly articulated modulations. One reason these quick key changes still sound coherent pertains to stepwise melodic gestures that operate in the foreground or middleground. In addition to spanning two harmonic realms, these lines may also bridge different degrees of tonal stability and instability. In the first two chapters, I trace the function of these lines in Prokofiev’s Fifth and Sixth Symphonies, often grouped together as the War Symphonies, since they were composed either during or in reaction to World War II. In the subsequent chapters, I draw on Robert Hatten’s framework regarding virtual agency and Steve Larson’s research on musical forces to explain the experiential aspects of these lines. In chapter 3, I discuss how musical forces use metaphors for the actual, physical forces we encounter as humans in order to explain how we may interpret a melody moving in a virtual, musical environment. We may also attribute human-like vii characteristics to this musical motion, such as a sense of striving associated with an ascending melodic line, or relenting for a descending one. In chapter 4, simultaneous lines, appearing as contrapuntal wedges, often push outward towards a generalized musical goal, such as a cadence, and allow for the inference of fictionalized overcoming or a failure to achieve. Chapter 5 points inward towards a given work’s dialogue between thematic variations and the emerging virtual subjectivity we may infer from the fictionalized narratives of linear structures. In the final chapter, I contextualize linear virtual agency within Boris Asafiev’s concept of symphonism, a processual approach to form that foregrounds this dialogue based on thematic variation. I argue that his more energeticist, discursive, and dramatic formal emphases highlight ways in which Prokofiev adapted his music to the political demands of the Stalin-era Soviet Union. I conclude with a new approach to formal analysis in the third movement from the Fifth Symphony, showing how Prokofiev invoked common-practice sonata form while formulating his own approach to the emerging genre of the Soviet Symphony. viii Table of Contents List of Tables ..................................................................................................................... xi List of Figures ................................................................................................................... xii List of Examples .............................................................................................................. xiii Chapter 1 - A New Theory of Symphonism: Agency and Linearity in Prokofiev’s War Symphonies ............................................................................................................1 Prokofiev’s Return to the USSR .................................................................................2 Prokofiev and the Doctrine of Socialist Realism ........................................................4 Prokofiev’s Emerging Soviet Style ............................................................................6 An Integrated Approach to Prokofiev’s War Symphonies: Linearity, Virtual Agency, and Symphonism ..................................................................................11 Chapter 2: Linearity as Compensation for Weakened Functional Harmony in Prokofiev’s War Symphonies ......................................................................................26 Analytical Approaches to Prokofiev’s Music ...........................................................26 Linearity in Prokofiev’s music .................................................................................31 Linear Types in the War Symphonies’ Outer Movements .......................................34 Analysis of S- and H-lines throughout the War Symphonies ...................................43 Chapter 3: From Lines to Actors: Linearity and Virtual Agency in Prokofiev’s Fifth Symphony ....................................................................................................................58 Musical Forces and Linearity ...................................................................................58 Musical forces and Virtual Agency ..........................................................................61 Prokofiev’s Forces, Actants, and Agency .................................................................64 Prokofiev’s Musical gravity .....................................................................................74 ix Chapter 4 - Complicating Actorial Narratives: H-line Wedges as Actors and Multi- Faceted Agents .............................................................................................................86 Virtual Actors versus Multi-Faceted Agents in H-line Counterpoint .......................86 Analysis of H-line Wedges in the War Symphonies ................................................89 Agents and Actors Moving Towards the Subjective Level ....................................107 Chapter 5: Tracing Prokofiev’s Symphonistic Formal Processes and Their Emerging Subjectivity ................................................................................................................111 Virtual Subjectivity and Symphonism as Discursive Form ....................................111 An integrative textural, harmonic, motivic, and energeticist analysis of Prokofiev’s Sixth Symphony, II, and its implied virtual subjectivity ..............120 Chapter 6: Prokofiev’s Symphonism ...............................................................................139 Asafiev, form as process, and Prokofiev’s symphonism ........................................139 An integrative analysis of form as process in the third movement of Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 5 ...............................................................................................151 Epilogue ...........................................................................................................................181 Bibliography ....................................................................................................................185 x List of Tables Table 1.1: The accessible and original aspects of “new simplicity” in the finale of Op. 47.....................................................................................................................8 xi List of Figures Figure 1.1: Four basic components of Asafiev’s symphonism ..........................................13 19 Figure 1.2: Hatten’s four levels of inference of virtual agency .........................................19 21 Figure 1.3: Mapping Hatten’s theory of virtual agency with Asafiev’s symphonism and Harrison’s linearity.................................................................................21