George Rochberg’s Caprice Variations for Unaccompanied Violin: A Stylistic Study and Performance Guide
A document submitted to The Graduate School of the University of Cincinnati
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF MUSICAL ARTS
in the Performance Studies Division of the College-Conservatory of Music Violin
2017
by
Siryung Park
Doctoral Candidacy, February 15, 2012 M.M., University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music, 2007 B.A., Roberts Wesleyan College, 2005
Committee Chair: Kurt Sassmannshaus
ABSTRACT
George Rochberg (1916–2005) composed the Caprice Variations, his large-scale set of fifty variations on Paganini’s twenty-fourth caprice, in 1970, over a year before his String
Quartet No. 3. While the Quartet is one of the most discussed pieces in scholarly essays concerning musical postmodernism, the Caprice Variations has received scant attention despite also participating in a poly-stylistic combination of past musical styles and modernist techniques. This performance guide views the variations through the lens of
Rochberg’s notions of ars combinatoria, an aesthetic that is often applied to the Quartet
No. 3. It provides performers with knowledge of the multitude of styles and structures found in the variations, helpful instruction concerning the difficulties of the work, and advice for performers who wish to perform selections of the work.
ii
iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to thank Professor Kurt Sassmannshaus, Professor Piotr Milewski, and Professor Lee Fiser. I have relied on their patience and guidance over the course of my studies at CCM.
I appreciate all the support and prayers from my friends and family. I especially thank my husband Steve Jung for being a constant friend, encourager, and supporter.
iv TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT……………………………………………………….………………… ii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS……………………………………….………………… iv
LIST OF FIGURES……………………………………….………………………… vi
LIST OF MUSICAL EXAMPLE……………………………….…………………... vii
CHAPTER
1. Introduction……………………………………….………………………. 1
2. The Styles and Structures of the Caprice Variations………….………….. 10
3. A Guide to the Techniques in the Caprice Variations………….………… 50
4. Conclusion……………………………………...……….………………… 70
BIBLIOGRAPHY…………………………………………….………….………….. 78
v LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1: Natural Harmonic notation system……………………………………….. 66
Figure 2: The Division of the Violin G String………………………….…………… 66
Figure 3: Artificial Harmonic notation system………………………………..…….. 67
Figure 4: Rochberg, Caprice Variations, Formal Diagram…………………..………72
vi LIST OF MUSICAL EXAMPLES
Ex. 1: Paganini, Caprice, Op. 1, No. 24, Theme….………………………………..…. 11
Ex. 2-a: Paganini, Caprice Op. 1, No. 24, mm. 11…………………………….……… 12 Rochberg, Caprice Variations, No. 1, mm. 11
Ex. 2-b: Rochberg, Caprice Variations, No. 1, mm. 1–8 (Harmonic reduction)……….13
Ex. 2-c: Rochberg, Caprice Variations, No. 1, mm. 1–4…………………………….…13
Ex. 3: Paganini, Caprice Op. 1, No. 24, mm. 11………………………………….……14 Rochberg, Caprice Variations, No. 2, mm. 37
Ex. 4-a: Rochberg, Caprice Variations, No. 3, mm. 1–10………………………..…… 15
Ex. 4-b: Rochberg, Caprice Variations, No. 4, mm. 1–5……………………...………. 16
Ex. 5: Beethoven, String Quartet No. 10, Op. 74, Scherzo, mm. 1–8………...……….. 17 Rochberg, Caprice Variations, No. 7, mm. 1–8
Ex. 6: Brahms, Variations on Theme by Paganini, Op. 35, Book I, variation 2, mm. 1–9…………………………………………………... 18 Rochberg, Caprice Variations, No. 9, mm. 1–9……………..…………………. 19
Ex. 7: J.S. Bach, Sonata no. 2 in A minor for solo violin, Fuga, mm. 1–7……………. 20 Rochberg, Caprice Variations, No. 22, mm. 1–7
Ex. 8-a: Rochberg, Caprice Variations, No. 32, mm. 1–14………………………...…. 21
Ex. 8-b: Rochberg, Caprice Variations, No. 32, mm. 17–32………………………….. 22
Ex. 9: Rochberg, Caprice Variations, No. 36…………………………………………. 24
Ex. 10: Rochberg, Caprice Variations, No. 43………………………………..………. 26
Ex. 11: Mahler, Symphony No. 5, Scherzo, 18-32 measures after rehearsal 8…...….... 27 Rochberg, Caprice Variations, No. 44, mm. 9–37……………………….……. 28
Ex. 12-a: Rochberg, Caprice Variations, No. 18, mm. 1…………………...…………. 29
Ex. 12-b: Rochberg, Caprice Variations, No. 18, mm. 15–44………………...………. 30
Ex. 12-c: Rochberg, String Quartet No. 3, First Movement, mm. 1……………..….…. 31
vii Ex. 13: Rochberg, Caprice Variations, No. 19, mm. 4–11……………………………. 32
Ex. 14: Rochberg, Caprice Variations, No. 34, mm. 1–6………………………...…… 33
Ex. 15: Rochberg, Caprice Variations, No. 39, A Section……………………….…… 34
Ex. 16: Rochberg, Caprice Variations, No. 45, mm. 5–16……………………..….….. 35
Ex. 17: Rochberg, Caprice Variations, No. 47, A Section……………………….…… 36
Ex. 18: Rochberg, Caprice Variations, No. 48, A Section………………...……….…. 38
Ex. 19-a: Rochberg, Caprice Variations, No. 49, Motive 1…………………….….…. 39
Ex. 19-b: Rochberg, Caprice Variations, No. 49, Motive 2………………….…….…. 39
Ex. 19-c: Rochberg, Caprice Variations, No. 49, Motive 1 in B Section…………...... 40
Ex. 19-d: Rochberg, Caprice Variations, No. 49, B Section………………...……..…. 41
Ex. 20: Rochberg, Caprice Variations, No. 50, A Section…………………..……..…. 42
Ex. 21-a: Rochberg, Caprice Variations, No. 15, mm. 1–4……………..…………..… 44
Ex. 21-b: Rochberg, Caprice Variations, No. 15, mm. 5–20………...……………..…. 45
Ex. 22-a: Rochberg, Caprice Variations, No. 29………………………….…..………. 47
Ex. 22-b: Rochberg, Caprice Variations, No. 30, mm. 1–4…………..………..……… 47
Ex. 23: Rochberg, Caprice Variations, No. 33, mm. 1–4……………………....….….. 48
Ex. 24-a: Rochberg, Caprice Variations, No. 38, mm. 1–10………………….….…… 49
Ex. 24-b: Rochberg, Caprice Variations, No. 38, mm. 17–37………….…….……….. 49
Ex. 25-a: Rochberg, Caprice Variations, No. 34, mm. 1–2………………..….………. 54
Ex. 25-b: Rochberg, Caprice Variations, No. 34, mm. 7–8…………….…….……….. 54
Ex. 26: Rochberg, Caprice Variations, No. 19, mm. 1–7……………..……….....…… 56
Ex. 27: Paganini, Caprice, Op. 1, No. 5, Agitato, mm. 42–54………….……...……… 56
Ex. 28: Rochberg, Caprice Variations, No. 47, B Section……………….…...……….. 58
viii Ex. 29: Rochberg, Caprice Variations, No. 39, B Section………………….…....…… 59
Ex. 30: Rochberg, Caprice Variations, No. 42………………………………...……… 60
Ex. 31-a: Rochberg, Caprice Variations, No. 47…………………………………...…. 61
Ex. 31-b: Rochberg, Caprice Variations, No. 47, B Section………………....……….. 61
Ex. 32: Rochberg, Caprice Variations, No. 39, Beginning……………….……..……. 62
Ex. 33: Paganini, Caprice, Op. 1, No. 24, Variation 3, mm. 1–12………...... …..……. 64
Ex. 34: Rochberg, Caprice Variations, No. 47, Line 6–7……………………...... …… 64
Ex. 35: Rochberg, Caprice Variations, No. 39, B Section………………….…...……..65
Ex. 36: Paganini, Violin Concerto No. 1 in D major, Op. 6,
Third movement, mm. 95–108……………………………………….………... 67
Ex. 37: Rochberg, Caprice Variations, No. 50, Ending…………………..…...……… 68
ix Chapter 1 Introduction
In the middle of the twentieth-century, many composers who had been trained in the modernist tradition of the first half of the century began to break from the dominant academic style of the time: serialism. Especially in the 1960s and after, contemporary composers explored a variety of non-serial techniques such as sound mass, chance- derived compositions, collage, minimalism, a return to tonality in some form or other, and many other styles and techniques. One such composer was the American, George
Rochberg (1918–2005), who according to his own writings, began to rebel against the current of academic music that focused on serialism, and to concern himself with issues of comprehensibility and the nature of the relationship between music and the listener.
Rochberg was born in Peterson, New Jersey. He earned his BA from Montclair
State Teachers College in New Jersey. In 1939–42, he attended Mannes College of Music where he studied counterpoint and composition with Hans Weisse, George Szell, Leopold
Mannes. After his return from serving in the U. S. Army during World War II, he continued his composition and theory studies at the Curtis Institute with Rosario Scalero and Gian Carlo Menotti. He taught at the Institute until 1954. It was during this time, he met and came under the influence of Luigi Dallapiccola and began to compose serial music. From 1961–83 he was the chair of the music department at the University of
Pennsylvania. His compositions in the 1950s, such as String Quartet No. 1 (1952) and
1 Symphony No. 2 (1955–6), demonstrate his studies into the styles of Schoenberg and
Webern’s serialism.1
In the 1960s, Rochberg began to question the current accepted style of music prevalent in academic circles. He would eventually as one of leading composers of a musical postmodernism in due part through a return to the use of tonality and romantic expression. In the decades after this “conversion,” his attitude grew even more severe towards what he described as the “empty, meaningless” aesthetic of modern music.2 He would later explain his dissatisfaction with serialism as “swimming against a tide …
[which] threatened to sweep away everything I loved and believed in,”3 and twentieth- century music in general, he would characterize as “confused and bewildered… noncomprehension.”4 However, despite these harsh sentiments and while he mostly discarded serialism, Rochberg did not entirely abandon atonal composition and its harmonic syntax. Instead, he forged a new personal aesthetic that would draw heavily from the pre-modernist, Western Art Music tradition, incorporating the styles of earlier composers through collage, quotation, and the use of traditional tonality. He also constructed music with both tonal and atonal language in an individualistic manner and so expanded the emotional range of contemporary musical expression.5
1 Austin Clarkson and Steven Johnson, “Rochberg, George,” Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/23617 (accessed January 21, 2015).
2 The New York Times, “George Rochberg, composer, Dies at 86,” New York Times, June 1, 2005. Accessed February 1, 2014. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/01/arts/music/01rochberg.html.
3 George Rochberg, The Aesthetics of Survival, (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, 2004), xiii.
4 Ibid., 89.
5 Michael Linton, “George Rochberg’s Revolution,” First Things, (1998): 5.
2 Rochberg wrote extensively about his aesthetics and these philosophical ideas helped to construct and develop his compositional style and they can help now to illuminate his compositions for audiences. The essays he wrote in the 1960s and 1970s that would later be collected into his book The Aesthetics of Survival include critiques of rationalism and abstraction in modern art, and reveal his motivation for pursuing a new musical conception in contemporary compositions. He empathized with the aesthetic plights of the abstract painter, Phillip Guston who moved away from modernist painting, and the American poet, Robinson Jeffers, who bemoaned modern poetry with criticism similar to what Rochberg said of twentieth-century music:
Their successors [modern poets] only make further renunciations; ideas had gone, now meter had gone, imagery would have to go; then recognizable emotions would have to go; perhaps at last even words might have to go or give up their meaning, nothing be left, but musical syllables.6
As a composer, essayist, thinker and teacher, Rochberg developed a philosophical position that human life is experienced between memory and anticipation, in a world full of chains of events.7 Rochberg transformed this philosophical idea into musical concepts by identifying traditional music as memory and contemporary musical language as anticipation. Therefore, Rochberg’s saw the listener as surrounded simultaneously by all musical periods, and he concluded that expression could be drawn from them all.8 This concept guided Rochberg as he left serialism and as he shifted his compositional style from collage and citation into pastiche and finally pluralism throughout the 1960s and
1970s.
6 Rochberg, The Aesthetics of Survival, 166.
7 Ibid., 61.
8 Ibid.
3 This compositional development and the process of seeking his own contemporary interpretation of the present and the past led him to the use of a particular term for his style: ars combinatoria. He explains this term as “opposite worlds in the same work.”9 Rochberg’s use of this term appears in several of his essays. It helps to explain not only his cultivation of stylistic pluralism but also his goals for listener understanding and meaning in his works, which incorporate within the contemporary world both past and present.
Compositions such as Music for the Magic Theater (1965) display this aesthetic and stylistic concept of ars combinatoria through collage technique, which places disparate musical elements, mainly quotations, together.10 In the
1970s, the composer developed his ars combinatoria further, drawing from collage but also musical pastiche. His compositions from this time, including the
String Quartet No. 3 (1971), Ricordanza Soliloquy for cello and piano (1972),
Violin Concerto (1974), and Symphony No. 4 (1976)] demonstrate this musical pluralism.
Rochberg lamented that his contemporaries in the Academic art world rejected his aesthetical concept. He explains the criticism of the Quartet No. 3:
The aesthetic debate quickly degenerated into personal attacks on the defector who had dared to challenge the formerly unassailable musical bastions of the modern as the only true way to make art. I read or heard
9 George Rochberg, Five lines Four spaces: The World of My Music, (Urbana Illinois: University of Illinois Press, 2009), 33; Rochberg did not invent this word, it was widely used as a teaching device for seventeenth- and eighteenth-century composition. For detailed discussion of the history and use of this word, see Stefan Eckert, “Ars Combinatoria, Dialogue Structure, and Musical Practice in Joseph Riepel’s Anfangsgründe zur musicalischen Setzkunst” (Doctor of Philosophy dissertation, State University of New York, 2000).
10 For detailed discussions of this technique, see Catherine C. Losada, “The Process of Modulation in the Musical Collage” (Music Analysis 27/ii-iii, 2008): 97–138.
4 that I was “a traitor,” “a reactionary”; worse still, “a counterfeiter,” “a forger.” My quartet represented an act of “shameless retrogression,” “a cop-out,” sheer indulgence in “nostalgia,” a reversion to “orthodox old- school romanticism in the Schubert – Schumann – Mahler tradition.” I was accused of making “pastiche,” slavishly “copying” earlier and better composers while simultaneously practicing “tongue – in – cheek” and “sly irony,” even producing “travesty.” One of the more inventive epithets that came my way declared me “a ventriloquist.” Another critic, reviewing the recording, referred to the Third as a “work for soapbox and string quartet” – the “soapbox” being the program notes on the LP jacket.11
A scholarly article from 1980 by Jay Reise seems to echo Rochberg’s sentiments and argues that many scholars and musicians misunderstand Rochberg’s style and compositions and those current theoretical analyses do not satisfactorily explain
Rochberg’s music.
However, as later musicologists and theorists have developed notions of postmodernism in music that they see beginning mainly in the 1960s and 1970s,
Rochberg is most often greeted in a positive light. While not every trend away from serial techniques, and modernist practices and thought can be included in the designation of
Postmodernism, Rochberg is one of the most discussed composers in this regard. Earlier assessments of his Third String Quartet (1971), including those by Jonathan Kramer and
Jann Pasler in the 1990s, tend to place his return to past musical styles in the category of neoconservativism and see it as a reaction to modernism.12 Later studies, namely those by
Mark Berry, Judy Lochhead, and Kenneth Gloag, stress Rochberg’s combination of past styles with current ones in light of his aesthetic philosophies and reposition Rochberg if
11 Rochberg, Five lines Four spaces: The World of My Music, 101.
12 I am drawing from Mark Berry’s assessment of Kramer and Pasler whose views he says are linked to the critic, Hal Foster: See Mark Berry, “Music, Postmodernism, and George Rochberg’s Third String Quartet,” in Postmodern Music/Postmodern Thought, ed. Judy Lochhead and Joseph Auner (New York: Routledge, 2002), 236–37; See also See Jann Pasler, “Postmodernism, Narrativity, and the Art of Memory,” Contemporary Music Review 7 (1993): 3–32; and Jonathan D. Kramer, “Beyond Unity: Toward an Understanding of Musical Postmodernism,” In Concerto Music, Rock, and Jazz since 1945, ed. Elizabeth West Marvin and Richard Hermann (Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press, 1995), 11–33.
5 not as a radical, at least not as a neo-conservative either.13 Berry, especially, questions the binary approach of Kramer and Pasler, which follows the criticism of Hal Foster, and argues that they miss the concept of ars combinatoria in Rochberg’s writings and music which returns to past music “only from the perspective of a pluralistic present.”14 Thus pluralism and a distrust of the teleological approach to music history are key components of Rochberg’s style. Lochhead argues that Rochberg’s style, his ars combinatoria essentially responds to the natural phenomenon of the listener, one that relies on the listener’s need for comprehending the structure as well as a memory that is non-linear.15
Gloag demonstrates the development of Rochberg’s style that moves from one of collage of previous music to one of pastiche, where various allusions to previous and contemporary music can be akin to wearing a mask, thus confusing the “voice” of the composition.16 These studies help to define Rochberg’s ars combinatoria not merely as a mix of musical styles, but as a pluralistic participation of the past and the present in his work.
Most of the discussion of Rochberg traces the beginnings of Rochberg’s postmodernism to the String Quartet No. 3. However, a little over a year before the
Quartet, Rochberg composed fifty variations for solo violin on the theme of the famous twenty-fourth Caprice by Niccolò Paganini (1782–1840). The Caprice Variations contain
13 See Berry, “Music, Postmodernism, and George Rochberg’s Third String Quartet,” 235–48; Judy Lochhead, “Introduction” in Postmodern Music/Postmodern Thought, 1–11; “Refiguring the Modernist Program for Hearing: Steve Reich and George Rochberg,” in The Pleasure of Modernist Music: Listening, Meaning, Intention, Ideology, ed. Arved Ashby (New York: Boydell & Brewer, 2004), 325–44; Kenneth Gloag, Postmodernism in Music (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2012).
14 Berry, “Music, Postmodernism, and George Rochberg’s Third String Quartet,” 238–239.
15 Lochhead. “Refiguring the Modernist Program for Hearing: Steve Reich and George Rochberg,” 335–8.
16 Gloag, Postmodernism in Music, 96.
6 many of the kinds of stylistic allusions that Rochberg would pursue in his Third Quartet and later works as well as many instances of quotation. This work explores tonal writing alongside non-tonal and atonal methods as his later works would do and participates in a multitude of stylistic allusions all while maintaining the essential characteristics of the theme and variations genre. In his own writings, Rochberg elevated the importance of this piece saying that it is the “sourcebook not only for the quartet but for later works.”17
Rochberg details how certain of the variations including nos. 18, 19, 23, 29, 30, 36 and
37, were expanded upon and developed in the Third Quartet. Although the work has been recorded a few times, it has not achieved the success of the Quartet No. 3, which might be in part to its considerable length.
The Caprice presents pluralism in a unique manner among Rochberg’s output; it is a “mosaic of musical fragments”18 in which the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. While in most of the variations, Rochberg maintains the style introduced, the
Caprice in its entirety serves as an anthology of compositional styles from the last several hundred years. The mosaic is sketched out effectively in its diversity through the use mainly of citation and pastiche. Citation in the Caprice is actively encountered through direct/indirect quotations of previous composers. For instance, No. 7 quotes Beethoven’s
String Quartet Op. 74, Scherzo; No. 8 quotes Schubert’s Waltz Op. 9, No. 22; Nos. 9, 10,
11 and 12 are derived from Brahms’s Variations on a Theme of Paganini Op. 35, Bk. I, nos. 2, 3, 11 and 12 respectively; No. 21 draws its tune from Beethoven’s Symphony No.
7, Finale; and No. 41 is a quotation of Webern’s Passacaglia, Op. 1. Rochberg’s intent in
17 Rochberg, Five Lines Four Spaces: The World of My Music, 39.
18 Berry, “Music, Postmodernism, and George Rochberg’s Third String Quartet,” 242.
7 this piece by way of the use of citations is not to distort or displace as a modernist might, but to display past styles within the context a new contemporary artwork.
Pastiche is something distinct from citation. It is not a quote, but rather the ability to write convincingly in a particular style. The pastiche, in postmodern literature, has been described as “the wearing of a linguistic mask” by Fredric Jameson in his book
Postmodernism, or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism.19 The musical styles in the
Caprice demonstrate this technique clearly. As if engaged in vocal mimicry of someone/something, allusions to other compositional styles or specific composer’s styles exist in abundance in this work. Many of the variations that are not written in an atonal language or do not specifically quote a piece can be viewed as pastiche, but important allusions include the reference to Baroque concerto writing in No. 1, late nineteenth- century chromatic writing in Nos. 15, 29, 30 and 38, the Stile Galant in No. 43, J. S. Bach in No. 22 and Bartok in No. 45. These pastiches allow Rochberg to engage in a dialogue among many historical periods, styles, composers and works.
Rochberg’s compositional diary, developed into his book Five Lines Four Spaces:
The World of My Music, provides much description of the compositional process undertaken in this work. Rochberg cites Brahms’s two books of variations for solo piano, which are also based on Paganini’s theme as the major influence on the Caprice
Variations.20 If we use the published score (1973) as the definitive version in terms of the combined harmony, we find a general trajectory from the most tonal variations through those that are more ambiguous to variations that focus on atonality and modernist writing.
19 Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism (London and New York: Verso, 1991), 17.
20 Rochberg, Five lines Four spaces: The World of My Music, 26-27.
8 Interspersed between clusters of variations in these categories are variations that rely on quotation: Variations 1–6 are tonal; Variations 7–13 draw from Beethoven, Schubert and
Brahms; Variations 15–20 demonstrate a variety of styles; Variation 21 is a quotation by
Beethoven; Variations 22–40, once again show some in each category; Variations 41–44 draw on quotations (notably by Webern and Mahler); and Variations 45–50 are the most modernist sounding of the entire set and build in intensity towards the end at which point the theme is simply stated as the conclusion. Also the modern variation showcases modern performance techniques exploring the instrument’s sonic capabilities to meet the specific effects and emotional qualities of the work.
9 Chapter 2 The Styles and Structures of the Caprice Variations
In Rochberg’s Caprice Variations, the diffusion of differing styles inherent in the many allusions and pastiches of various historical and modernist styles can be organized into three categories: traditional, modernist, and variations of a more ambiguous nature.
This categorization, based on a style study of formal, harmonic, melodic, phrasing, rhythmic, and expressive features will aid in understanding the concept of ars combinatoria. Each category will contextualize these characteristics within the various periods and styles from which they come. As was stated in the last chapter, Rochberg drew inspiration from the tradition of variation sets of the Paganini theme, especially the two books by Johannes Brahms. He created allusions to and pastiches of a large group of styles including Baroque arias, concertos, and fugues, the Stil Galant, and numerous genres of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. He also quoted or alluded to specific composers such as J. S. Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Mahler,
Stravinsky, Bartok, Webern, and many others.
Traditional Variations
The defining characteristics of the traditional variations found in this set of variations reflect those of pre-twentieth-century styles. The variations in this category satisfactorily uphold Baroque, Classical, and Romantic features in terms of traditional harmonic language, phrasing structure, cadences, key and tempo. The most prominent feature of this category is that Rochberg maintains the harmonic progression of
Paganini’s original and uses it as structural framework of these variations. In contrast, the
10 non-traditional variations move well beyond this harmonic scheme. Paganini’s theme is in Binary form with a four measure repeated phrase followed by an eight-measure phrase that resolves the statement. The opening four measures simply alternate between tonic
(mm. 1 and 3) and the dominant (mm. 2 and 4) harmonies (Ex. 1).
Example 1. Paganini, Caprice Op. 1, No. 24, Theme
[||:A:||]
i V i V V7/iv
[B]
6 7 6 I /iv V /III I /III ""#$!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"$%&!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!'()$!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"!
The B section is more elaborate; it includes a fonte schema, which is a sequential pattern that dissolves into a perfect cadence at the conclusion of the theme. Paganini heightens the tension in this sequence by employing borrowed chords: V7 of iv to a iv chord, V7 of
III to III. He then concludes the phrase with four measures that use a diminished ii chord, i, Aug.6, V and i. For the majority of the traditional variations, Rochberg uses this basic scheme for his structure, though he replaces the Aug.6 chord with a Neapolitan chord. In this set of variations, 29 are in this traditional style (1–4, 6–14, 20–27, 32, 36–37, 40, 42–
44, and 46), and these are overwhelmingly clustered in the first half of the Caprice in his published version. As they share a similar structure, Rochberg varies mainly surface level materials and lends to these variations a wide spectrum of differing musical styles and
%%" allusions from the eighteenth and nineteenth-centuries. I will discuss several traditional variations that exhibit important characteristics.
No.1
The first variation, Allegro energico can stand for a majority of the variations in this traditional category. It follows the harmonic and phrasing structure of the original.
The first four measures alternate between i and V, ending with a half-cadence, and the following eight measures use the same progression as Paganini excepting the Neapolitan chord that has replaced the augmented sixth chord before the V-I cadence. In Rochberg’s variation, the original augmented sixth chord in m. 11 of the theme (seen in example 1) is replaced with a Neapolitan chord by lowering the B to B-flat (Ex. 2-a).
Example 2-a. -Paganini, Theme, mm. 11, -Rochberg, No. 1, mm. 11, Neapolitan Chord Augmented Sixth Chord
Aug 6 V """""""" "
Thus, the opportunity for harmonic substitutions in the B section allows freedom in compositional alteration and development.21 However, in his variation, the simple harmonic contour inherited from Paganini’s design (||: i-V :||: V/iv-i :||) in A minor and his use of the fonte schema is maintained (Ex. 2-b).
21 Julian Littlewood, Christopher Wintle, and Alexander Goehr, The Variations of Johannes """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""Brahms (London: Plumbago Books, 2004), 98.
%&" Example 2-b. Rochberg, Caprice Variations, No. 1, mm. 1–8 (harmonic reduction)
"""""%""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" "&" " """""""""""""""'"" """"""""""("
i V i V
""""")""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" """""*"" """""""""""""""""""""""+" " " """","
7 7 V /iv I/iv V /III I/III etc.
Rochberg’s one change to the structure of this variation is in repeating the B section rather than the A section creating A-B-B (||4||:8:||) as opposed to Paganini’s A-A-B
(||:4:||8||). This change extends the length.
In terms of variation techniques, Rochberg doubles the time signature and introduces a repetitive rhythmic figure that accentuates the harmony (Ex. 2-c). The rhythm is repeated mainly on the root note of each main chord change. Between these chords, Rochberg inserts a broken chordal melody that moves in a step-wise manner. The end result of melodic and harmonic material is a Baroque sound reminiscent of musical materials in a Vivaldi concerto.
Example 2-c. Rochberg, Caprice Variations, No. 1, mm. 1–4
%'" No. 2
Variation 2 maintains the tonal harmonic language of the first variation. It also follows Paganini’s original. This variation introduces the raised IV (D#) to set up the V harmony that he will use in other variations, notably Variation 36. Because of its fast speed, the alternating I to V motion in the first section is very clear, and unlike variation
1, this variation includes a repeat sign. Rochberg stretches the B section, without incorporating a repeat sign, by repeating the harmonic plan but changing the variation techniques, creating a form that is A-A-B-B. In the B section despite maintaining the chord progression which corresponds to Paganini’s theme, Rochberg’s interpretation on the augmented sixth chord, (F-[A]-D#) seen in the penultimate measure of original theme
(Aug.6-V-i), is reconfigured and interpreted in mm. 37–40 as a fully diminished chord,
B!-F-D — in this case, ii0. This creates a ii0-V6-i progression and differs from his frequent Neapolitan substitution seen in variation 1 and many others (Ex. 3).
Example 3. -Paganini, Augmented Sixth Chord -Rochberg, No. 2, mm. 37, Fully Diminished Chord "
Aug 6 V
"""" """""""""" " This interpretation is not Rochberg’s invention, but drawn from traditional practice, and references Paganini’s technique of substituting the augmented sixth chord from the B section of the theme in his own set of variations on this theme. It is evident that Rochberg is establishing a resemblance to his predecessors’ traditional compositional styles.
%(" No. 3–4
Variations 3 and 4 form a pairing among the tonal variations in that they share the same melodic and harmonic material, and their phrasing structures are identical. The third variation introduces this material with a harmonic pattern in the first section that incorporates more chords than the alternating Is and Vs of the original theme. Consisting of a series of chords spread out over 10ths that descend D-C-B-A until the phrase builds to a half-cadential figure on the dominant, a rhythmic figure of three eighth notes in double stops prepares each chord (Ex. 4-a).
Example 4-a. Rochberg, Caprice Variations, No. 3, mm. 1–10
The B section continues the motivic writing while maintaining the sequential pattern of the original theme. The fourth variation, while using the same harmonies and melody, provides for further variation with a new lower voice and passing tones; the texture is now contrapuntal (Ex. 4-b). Also, No. 4 is much slower in tempo than No. 3 and in 4/4
%)" time rather than cut time. It is marked Poco allegro ma quasi recitando, and with its more step-wise writing, counterpoint, and frequent mordents, it suggests a vocal manner in the classical style.
Example 4-b. Rochberg, Caprice Variations, No. 4, mm. 1–5
No. 7
The first quotation in the Caprice occurs in variation 7, which is marked, Presto, and is subtitled “After Beethoven Op. 74 Scherzo.” Rochberg borrows the first seven measures of the Scherzo movement (as you can compare in example 5). He transposes the first violin part for the first six measures, and draws from the cello part for measure 7 before closing the first section with the usual half cadence.
%*" Example 5. Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 10, Op. 74, Scherzo mm. 1–8 and Rochberg’s Caprice Variations, No. 7, mm. 1–8
• Beethoven
• Rochberg
The rhythmic motive, short-short-short-long, used by Beethoven in several pieces, along with a descending fourths (sometimes diminished fourths) gesture provides the material for the B section of the variation. The sequential writing in the B section is greatly expanded. Each motivic cell is four measures long and there are four of them that descend, sometimes diatonically and sometimes chromatically, before introducing more motivic expansion of the opening rhythmic motive. Rochberg seems to be alluding not only to a specific Beethoven piece, but also to the earlier composer’s manner of
%+" composing out and expanding upon motivic ideas throughout a movement. Rochberg even borrows the leggiermente marking and the dynamic markings (for the A section), though the variation is specified as slower than the original.
No. 9
Variations 9–13 are all based on quotations drawn from Brahms’s two books of
Variations on a Theme by Paganini, Op. 35 for piano. Most of Rochberg’s use of quotations in the caprice incorporates a direct transcription of the original source material, generally crafting a single violin line from the multiple lines of the original. In his ninth variation, which is a quote from Brahms’s Book I, variation 2, Rochberg seeks to reserve the two-hand texture of the original (Ex. 6).
Example 6. Brahms’s Variations on Theme by Paganini, Op. 35, Book I, Variation 2, mm. 1–9 and Rochberg’s Caprice Variations, No. 9, mm. 1–9
• Brahms
%,"
• Rochberg
By employing two staves, both with treble clefs, Rochberg sets the original left and right hand lines in an alternating format so that the melodic lines do not collide with each other.
The variation follows Brahms’s tonal harmony and phrasing structure. Either the A or B section repeats. Compared to Brahms’s blocks of octaves and thick chords in both hands driving forward in a dramatic fashion, Rochberg’s interpretation in a slower tempo creates more moments to emphasize the melodic contour.
No. 22
Variation 22 is a pastiche of Baroque contrapuntal music. The opening melody is written in the style of a fugue theme and resembles J. S. Bach’s Sonata No. 2 in A minor,
BWV 1003, Fuga. The melody, which employs a short sequence, is punctuated by ascending 6ths within a mainly step-wise motion. In the second statement of the melody in the A section, a lower voice is added providing two-voiced counterpoint (Ex. 7).
%-" Example 7. J. S. Bach’s Sonata no. 2 in A minor for solo violin, Fuga, mm. 1–7 and Rochberg’s Caprice Variations, No. 22, mm. 1–7
• J. S. Bach
• Rochberg
Rochberg uses the fonte schema inherent to the original theme in the B section to act like the sequential moments in a typical Bach fugue. The turn figure that was heard at the cadence points in the A section now propels the momentum of the sequence in the B section. Between the sequential motives, a highly chromatic three-voice, contrapuntal motive provides the link. The harmonic language is tonal in A minor and maintains the traditional i-V-i harmonic progression overall. In this variation, Rochberg uses neither
Paganini’s augmented sixth chord nor his frequent Neapolitan replacement, but rather continues the sequential writing through a series of borrowed dominant chords before the final cadence.
No. 32
Variation 32 incorporates a symmetrical structure design in that both the A and B sections contain sixteen measures each. This variation draws from various traditional
&." aspects in addition to its conventional formal structure. The A section is divided into two phrases; the first eight measures contain two-measure harmonic phrasing, alternating between tonic to dominant harmonies; the subsequent eight measures essentially repeat the phrase but with a fuller texture as seen in the double-stop octaves (Ex. 8-a).
Example 8. Rochberg, Caprice Variations, No. 32, mm. 1–14
The B section also contains sixteen measures, but phrases are arranged in four-measure harmonic phrases instead of two. The music follows the harmonic progression of the original theme— iv (d) – III (C) – ii (b) – a (i)—as well as the use of a sequential pattern, but expands the original to larger phrases (Ex. 8-b).
Example 8-b. Rochberg Caprice Variations, No. 32, mm. 17–32
&%"
Rochberg assigns to this variation the designation, “Allegro assai; burlesco.” The term burlesco is used widely from the seventeenth through twentieth-centuries as a principle indication of the humorous in music.22 This variation portrays the humorous character in several ways. For instance, in the first two-measure phrase, a chordal motive which is somewhat broken and somewhat blocked gives way to a single-voice, step-wise melody in the second measure. Rochberg adds the indication espressivo to the second measure giving it a contrast in style to that of the first. There are numerous semi-tone grace notes present. The dynamic markings are specific. The parts of the chord that are outlined in a broken nature are marked with loud dynamics, while the blocked intervals are to be played quietly with up-bows in quick succession. Further, the sforzandos along with slurs
22 Erich Schwandt, et al. “Burlesque,” Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com.proxy.libraries.uc.edu/subscriber/article/grove/music/04381""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" (accessed January 6, 2017).
&&" which occur on the off-beats create a syncopated affect. This complex style manipulation found in the first two measures is worked out in the remainder of the variation.
No. 36
The longest variation in the Caprice is No. 36 in A major (Ex. 9). Rochberg specifies
Largo for this variation, expands the durations of the notes by writing in 4/2 time, and expands the form by essentially doubling the harmonic junctures. For instance, the I to V,
I to V of the original theme takes place over two four-measure phrases in this variation.
Before each sounding of the V, a raised IV (D-sharp) serves as a V/V that is then resolved to the V7 chord and briefly to the I chord (mm. 1–2), This affect is produced in the next two measures as well, but starting from and resolving to the V7 chord. While providing a different melody, the next four measures reiterate this harmonic motion. The sequence in the second section also expands upon the original through a series of chromatic shifting. The form of this variation is A-A-B-B with ||:4|4:||:4|4|4|4:|| melodic phrasing. Despite the chromaticism, the tonality of this variation is never in question and, with its melodic and contrapuntal writing, it fits firmly in the category of traditional.
Even though it changes the mode, expands the durations, and, through chromaticism, clouds the clarity of the original chord progression, it nonetheless captures the harmonic essence of the Paganini. With its subheading of sereno and pervasive soft dynamic writing, it captures the romantic serenade tradition of vocal music with simple but elegant contrapuntal lines. It seems to have been an important piece to Rochberg. It appears in the beginning and the end of the third movement in his String Quartet No. 3. In the
Caprice, it is placed between more aggressive movements that are blends of traditional
23 and modernist styles and so serves as a tonal respite among music that is increasingly atonal and dissonant.
Example 9. Rochberg, Caprice Variations, No. 36
&(" No. 43
Variation 43 alludes to the Stil Galant style of music prominent in the eighteenth- century (Ex. 10). In the A section, Rochberg, through the use of first and second endings, employs an antecedent/consequent phrasing structure, in which the first four measures comes to a half cadence, and the repetition and second ending come to a full cadence. It is one of few times in the traditional variations in which the A section ends on the tonic.
The B section contains four 4-measure phrases as well, but Rochberg deviates from the simple fonte scheme of Paganini’s theme to deliver a more complex variation of the original idea. The first two four-bar phrases present transpositions of modified versions of main theme, each ending in a half-cadence: the first phrase fully tonicizes D major and the second phrase B minor. The next phrase explores the fonte scheme in an unusual way for this set of variations. Rochberg uses the cadential figure from the opening section as a motive. It is heard moving from D7 to G, G7 to C, C7 to F, and then twice on F7, but it doesn’t resolve. Instead it suddenly modulates back to A major to end the variation with a closing phrase. The third phrase is also unusual in that Rochberg marks it recitando: rubato. By focusing on a much smaller motive with quick modulations, it serves as a small cadenza section.
This variation also reflects the Stil Galant through its texture, which is a very clear melody plus homophonic accompaniment. In the opening phrase, the melody is heard in the upper voice. It is simple, elegant, uses a narrow range, and is cantabile. The lower voice outlines the harmonic progression and is unobtrusive. Embellishments, such as appoggiaturas, turns and grace notes further lend this variation its classical sound, conjuring up the music of Mozart and Haydn.
25 Example 10.!Rochberg, Caprice Variations, No. 43
Phrase 1
H/C
Phrase 2 H/C
D7 G G7 C C7 F
F7 A
&*" No. 44
Variation 44 employs borrowed material from the Scherzo of Mahler’s Symphony
No. 5 in C-sharp Minor. Rochberg rearranged the circling eighth-note figures into perfect fourths and fifths and major intervallic relations (Ex. 11).
Example 11. Mahler Symphony No. 5, Scherzo, 18–32 measures after rehearsal no. 8 and Rochberg’s Caprice Variations, No. 44, mm. 1–13
• Mahler (showing string section only from the score)
&+" • Rochberg
He also included Mahler’s instruction, “wild!” as the expression marking for this variation. On the surface, this variation does not move much further beyond the Paganini theme. The melodic writing does create a series of suspensions over the harmony including during the fonte schema of the B section. This affect is especially noticeable when the Neapolitan chord appears. Overall, this variation which draws from Mahler actually sounds more like a Baroque instrumental piece. Its position among the more modernist variations can be very jarring for the listener.
Modernist Variations
The modern variations in the Caprice—nos. 18, 19, 31, 34, 35, 39, 41, 45, and 47–
50—contrast widely from the tonal variations; they are liberated from the conventional formality of the tonal variations and convey a completely different message. They reflect musical gestures and styles, such as harmonic language, forms, structures, rhythmic gestures, tempos, and phrasings of twentieth-century composers and music, and they reflect a more tenuous relationship to Paganini’s theme. My exploration of the
&," modernistic variations will move from typical to non-typical contrasting musical materials, especially considering harmonic language, including atonality, chromaticism, use of scales other than major or minor, and any other ambiguous harmonies and the elements in relationship to the theme.
No. 18
In the printed edition, the first variation that is written in the modernist style is variation 18. Even with a casual look at the score, one will notice a very different approach than the music that came before. Very high notes, numerous glissandi, and very small motivic units (sometimes just one note) isolated by rests give visual evidence of a modernist style. The motive that appears in measure 1 introduces the musical material for the remainder of the variation. (Ex. 12-a)
Example 12-a.!Rochberg, Caprice Variations, No. 18, Motive, mm. 1
M2
P5 T M7
It is a descending fifth, followed by a tri-tone, and ending with an ascending major seventh using the notes, A, D, G#, G#, G. This figure sounds three times in the opening section, along with several single note Gs and two of the major seventh motives. The rapid glissandos and accented loud dynamics add to the harsh sounds of this opening.
&-" The B section also relies on the intervals of tri-tone and major seventh, but in this section these are heard in various permutations, including inversions. One of these, the figure, B- flat, E, F, usually repeated several times in quick succession, serves as a kind of refrain
(Ex. 12-b). Towards the end pairs of G-sharps interrupt the tri-tone-major-seventh motives.
Example 12-b.!Rochberg, Caprice Variations, No. 18, Refrain in B section, mm. 15–44
A very clear rounded binary form is reinforced as the opening material resumes and concludes the movement. This variation is atonal, but with no evidence of 12-tone techniques or serialism. Further, the movement’s use of asymmetrical phrasing, quick tempo changes, numerous rests and the full dynamic spectrum lend a disjunct quality that is common in modernist pieces, while the coherence of the intervallic material produces a
'." unifying presence. It is worth noting that Rochberg quotes and expands upon this motive and the character of this variation in the first movement of his Third String Quartet (Ex.
12-c).
Example 12-c.!Rochberg, the motive from Caprice Variations, No. 18 in String Quartet
No. 3, first movement, motive A
M2
M7 P5 T
+&! ,-!
./! *!
No. 19
In many of the modernist variations, Rochberg created metrical ambiguity through the absence of bar lines or clearly marked meter, rapid changes in tempi, and freely interpreted note values all of which fused the rhythmic structure with atonal harmonic language. In variation 19, Rochberg captures another style of metrical
'%" ambiguity through the use of constantly changing meters that nonetheless maintain an
“exact rhythm throughout” as specified in the opening marking (Ex. 13).
Example 13. Rochberg, Caprice Variations, No. 19, mm. 4–11
" The melodic material is based on dissonances such as semi-tones and tri-tones as is the case in many of the other modernist variations. The basic affect of the Paganini theme is alluded to through alternation of motivic cells, such as an arpeggiated figures and scalar figures with repeated notes separated by rests. The B section begins with another textural change in which large descending leaps are introduced. Consequently, this variation has a clear ABA’ form. The harmonic language is atonal but the notes F, G-sharp and A are noticeably important as beginnings and ends of various motives. This variation seems to evoke the music of Stravinsky.
No. 34
Variation No. 34 is also dominated by the intervallic content of major and minor seconds.
Without necessarily drawing from the octatonic scale, there is often an alternation in succession between whole tone and semi-tone. The most defining feature of this variation
'&" is the pedal-tone A that is heard throughout. The melodic material circles around this pedal tone creating dissonant harmonies (Ex. 14).
Example 14. Rochberg, Caprice Variations, No. 34, mm. 1–6
The given instruction from the composer, “change bow ad lib,” helps to showcase connective phrasings as a significant musical texture in this variation. Neither the formal nor the harmonic structure reveals Paganini’s conventional design; furthermore, the rhythmic structure of the inner notes, sometimes slurred in quadruple formulations, sometimes triple, provide an asymmetrical phrasing that betrays the use of barlines and meter. The effect of this variation is almost as free as in many of the unmetered variations.
No. 39
Variation No. 39, which is marked “Elegiac; fantastico” is another unmetered modernist variation with an improvisatory feel that runs through the full range of dynamics, contrasts, pauses, sustained notes, etc. In this case, the melodic and harmonic material is again derived from an intervallic content consisting of seconds. Many of the
''" musical elements resemble the style of Béla Bartók in that extremely narrow ranges of melodies (Ex. 15) circle around each other in whole tones and semitones.
Example 15. Rochberg, Caprice Variations, No. 39, A section
The opening section features alternations between the circling material which then prolongs E-flat and quickly repeated B-flats. This section captures once again the tonic to dominant quality of Paganini’s theme without expressly stating it. The form of this variation is rounded binary as the opening material returns at the end of B section. The B section includes material derived from tri-tone motion, but is also mainly derived from tones and semi-tones.
No. 45
Variation 45 is written in a style similar to Bartok’s later style. Its scalar melodic material is derived entirely from octatonic scales, it employs a narrow range, and its melodic contour and rhythmic motives could easily be drawn from folk-like music. Though it
'(" does not include repeat signs, this variation is in a clear rounded binary form, and, despite a very different harmonic structure, it follows the Paganini theme quite closely in terms of phrasing structure and feel. The first two phrases (duplicates) come to a rest on the note A. The next two phrases are transpositions of the first phrase and reflect the fonte sequential material of the Paganini theme (Ex. 16).
Example 16. Rochberg, Caprice Variations, No. 45, mm. 5–16
Phrase 1, second time
Phrase 2
Phrase 3
The fourth phrase states abbreviated motives similar to the breakdown of the fonte schema in the Paganini variation, and the last phrase is a transposition (up a fourth) of the first phrase that finally completes the octatonic scale and ends on A, the tonal center. Not counting register displacement, at no point are there any intervals greater than a major
')" second (sometimes enharmonically spelled as a minor third). Even the pivots between octatonic collections occur when Rochberg changes direction with the opposite step than the last one heard.
No. 47
Variation 47, marked “Arabesque fantastico” has no meter and lacks bar lines.
These features, coupled with constant feather beaming which allows for accelerations and decelerations, creates a free environment rhythmically and metrically. The musical material is organized into small units (phrases) separated by commas. There are three different units introduced in the beginning: an arpeggiated figure relying on seconds followed by thirds—giving the figure a pentatonic quality—played in pizzicato; long notes with grace notes over large intervals; and a trill between C-sharp and D-sharp (Ex
17).
Example 17. Rochberg, Caprice Variations, No. 47, A section beginning
Unit 2
Unit 1
Unit 3 Unit 1
Unit 3 Unit 2
'*" These units are introduced in succession and then the first two are heard again, before the whole section repeats. The second section employs each of these groupings as well as introducing another arpeggiated figure, highly chromatic with many tri-tones. The second unit is also varied in this section, heard with double stops in transposition and inversions.
In terms of form, this variation follows the original theme closely; it is divided into two repeating sections, A-A-B-B. Further, despite the highly chromatic, atonal musical material, Rochberg still highlights the tonic-dominant relationships of the original by emphasizing A, E and G-sharp at the beginnings and endings of the sections. Like many of the modernist variations, this variation utilizes the full range of dynamics along with various violin techniques, including pizzicato, arco, glissando, col legno battute, sul ponticello, and tremolo.
No. 48
Variation 48 is a modernist variation that moves ever closer to 12-tone music. The material is even more minimal than in the preceding variation, and explores the relationship of semi-tone, tone, semi-tone. While several of the modernist variations allude to the tonic dominant harmonic structure, this variation explicitly states it while maintaining its atonality. In the first section the motive, A, G-sharp, B-flat, A is heard with the final A prolonged through multiple repetitions. Then, the motive, E-flat, F, E is played, and E is prolonged (Ex. 18).
37 Example 18. Rochberg, Caprice Variations, No. 48, beginning motives
Motive 1
Motive 2
These motives then repeat which follows the same pattern as the original Paganini theme.
In the subsequent section, the intervallic quality of the motives are kept in differing inversions and transpositions, and, because of the rhythmic motives, the music seems to allude to a sequence. After a phrase in which all twelve-tones of the chromatic scale are stated, the music returns to the motivic writing of the opening. Again the music comes to a prolongation on A, but this time the motive returns through B-flat and G-sharp to end the variation. The writing of this variation closely resembles the music of Schoenberg and especially Webern. It is quite disjunct, approaching the pointilistic quality of Webern’s twelve-tone compositions.
No. 49
The minor second dominates the intervallic relationships in this modernist variation, both vertically and horizontally, creating an intense degree of chromaticism that seems to project atonality. However, tonal centering exists in this variation as it did in several other modernist variations. The motive introduced in the beginning consists of
'," a triplet figure with the notes B-flat, A, and G-sharp, heard over a longer and lower A (Ex.
19-a).
Example 19-a. Rochberg, Caprice Variations, No. 49
• Motive 1
This triplet figure is played three times and gives way to a sustained A. Then, a second unit of material is introduced consisting of a sustained, blocked second on D-sharp and E which moves to a sustained F over an octave above (Ex. 19-b).
Example 19-b.
• Motive 2
A and E are both given prominence as they sit in the middle of their groups of seconds.
With slight alterations this entire group of material is repeated, which resembles the tonic to dominant, tonic to dominant movement of Paganini’s theme. In the B section, only the first of these units return at the end. Using double-slash lines to divide repetitions of the motive, it is heard in the following ratios 3:1, 2:1, 2:1, 1:1, 4:1 (Ex. 19-c).
'-" Example 19-c. Rochberg, Caprice Variations, No. 49, the return of Motive 1 in B section
The return of this motive reaffirms A as the tonal center for the conclusion of this variation and lends a ternary presence to the otherwise binary form (The B section includes repeats like many of the other variations, both traditional and modern).
The minor second interval is important for generating the material in the B sections as well. There are three units of material in this section before the return of A that ends the variation (Ex. 19-d).
(." Example 19-d. Rochberg, Caprice Variations, No. 49, the beginning of B section Unit 1
Unit 2
Unit 3
The first is a series of double stops. G-sharp over A (a fourteenth), B-flat over A (a ninth), and C over B (a second). This formula is repeated twice more: C-sharp over D (a fourteenth), E-flat over D (a ninth), and F over E (a second); F-sharp over G (a fourteenth), A-flat over G (a ninth), and B-flat over A (a second). The movement in the lower voice is striking and creates the sequential effect of Paganini’s theme. The second unit consists of sustained notes that move in minor seconds, and the third unit is a chromatic scale, where every other triplet is displaced an octave. As in other modernist variations, this variation utilizes the full range of dynamic markings, quick speed changes, numerous pauses, extended techniques, and a lack of bar-lines.
No. 50
The last variation in the Caprice sounds among the most modern and atonal. It is unmeasured and very free with constant changes in tempos. Sustained notes are often given approximate seconds to be held, rather than exact rhythmic notation. Through the
(%" use of many techniques such as feathered beaming, sustained notes, glissandi, extended techniques such as flautando, the use of harmonics, extreme range of dynamics, etc.,
Rochberg imbues the character of this variation with a very twentieth-century sound and feel. As in several of the other modernist variations, the tri-tone and the minor second are two intervals from which much of the musical material is derived. Chromatic saturation and use of the octatonic scale flesh out the harmonic language. While the chromatic clusters present a tenuous relation to the Paganini theme’s harmonic frame, Rochberg retains a tonal center as many of the phrases end with an iteration of the note A or a note such as D or F that is found in the A minor scale. In example 20, the circled notes indicate the notes involved with a dominant to tonic process, and the brackets indicate motivic gestures in descending fourth sequential motion.
Example 20. Rochberg, Caprice Variations, No. 50, A section
(&" In other words, Rochberg juxtaposes highly chromatic elements in an atonal idiom with the inner harmonic function that alludes to traditional harmonic progression. The B section comes to a conclusion by way of an arpeggiated A7 chord figure. Using harmonics and glissandos, this section presents a tonal idea in a complex way.
Nonetheless, this conclusion serves as a pivot to the statement of Paganini’s theme, heard as the close of the piece.
Variations in an Ambiguous Style
In the Caprice Variations, there are a number of variations that do not fit well in any cut and dry notions of traditional or modern. These variations are nos. 5, 15–17, 28–
30, 33, and 38. At first glance, one might be tempted to think that they combine elements of traditional and non-traditional, displaying Rochberg’s ars combinatoria. However, with the exception of variations 5, 33, and 38 which do seem to have elements in combination, these variations are in single particular style—often a late nineteenth- century chromatic style—and maintain this style throughout the variation. As has been stated before, in the Caprice Variation, Rochberg’s poly-stylism is evident in the larger work between variations. The styles in this group range greatly, but all include some attribute which makes them more difficult to categorize than other variations. I use label
“ambiguous” to identify these variations. These variations are scattered throughout the
Caprice.
No. 5
Variation 5 is very traditional in its form and harmonic writing and it follows the
Paganini theme. Its A section consists of two statements of the same material that move
43 from I to V. Its repeating B section includes the sequential pattern and is twice as long as the A section. However, the variation is written in constant sixteenth notes with tremolos on each. This rapid sound, coupled with diminished and augmented broken chords, a mute (con sordino) and the pianissimo dynamic, creates a dissonant affect throughout the variation. The artificial harmonics played at the cadence points further imbue this sound with a sense of ambiguity.
No. 15
Variation 15 is composed in a late nineteenth-century style. It is extremely chromatic, but still reflects consonant harmonies. Essentially, the variation begins and ends in A major but this is not reflected in the key signature. The A section begins with a motive that is essentially a major broken chord that begins with a raised second. The half- cadence expected at the end of the A section is achieved only after a D minor chord is prolonged (Ex. 21-a).
Example 21-a. Rochberg, Caprice Variations, No. 15, mm. 1–4
Harmonic ambiguity
( I ) ------( V7 )
"
( iv )
((" The B section continues the motive writing (Ex. 21-b). The chromatic scale produced through the first or first two tones of each motive continues from C-sharp to A twice.
Example 21-b. Rochberg, Caprice Variations, No. 15, B section, mm. 5–20
Chromatic sequential movement
While the very first motive returns at the end, the tonal ambiguity throughout the variation is a defining feature of the sound and mood of this variation. The constantly
()" changing expressive suggestions, such as “comincia agitato” (m. 5), “ancora piu agitato”
(m. 9), “molto meno agitato” (m. 15), “piu tranquillo” (m. 19), add to this overall affect.
No. 16–17
Variations 16 and 17 form one of the three pairings of variations. The melody
Rochberg creates for variation 16 is further developed and varied in variation 17. The A sections consist of two 4-measure phrases. While they begin the same, Rochberg expands upon the initial idea in the second phrase. What lends these variations an ambiguous quality is again chromaticism that is reflective of late-nineteenth writing and the sequential patterns that are present even in the A section’s phrases. These variations are also full of varied expressions and dynamic contrasts.
No. 29–30
Chromaticism is the defining feature of the next pairing in the Caprice, variations
29 and 30 (compare the settings in Ex. 22). As in the earlier pairing of variations 16 and
17, while the overall tonality is A major, it is not reflected in the key signature. The melodic writing in these variations is more interested in color with frequent modal shifts.
In variation 29, the main tones of the melody are set up by very quick broken chords in grace notes that often introduce dissonant harmonies. However, these dissonances are not heard in values long enough to destroy the “tonal” quality of the overall sound. This feature is true of variation 30 even as the note values are more even. The broken chord writing along with the articulation of variation 30 might have lent a Baroque sense if it
46 were not for the extreme chromatic wandering that places these variations more in the style of late nineteenth-century compositions.
Example 22-a. Rochberg, Caprice Variations, No. 29
I (i)
I V7
I Example 22-b. Rochberg, Caprice Variations, No. 30, mm. 1-4
iv +4/2
4/3 ii +7 iv
ii 7
(+" No. 33
Variation 33 incorporates a style that is not heard frequently in the Caprice. It is quirky, disjunct, and reminiscent of the music of Aaron Copland. In the A section, quintal harmonies (A to E to B to F-sharp to C-sharp) alternate with a motive that trills a V-I harmonic figure (Ex. 23). In a similar pattern to the Paganini theme, this idea is heard twice and then repeated. The B section introduces a greater amount of dissonance and disjunct writing. A figure that is based on minor seconds (sometimes displaced by the octave) is the central part of this section, but then the quintal harmonies return. Rochberg uses quick changes in the meter to further create an ambiguous quality. There is a tremendous chaos in sound contrasts and in the tension between consonances and dissonances. In his third string quartet, Rochberg expands upon this variation.
Example 23. Rochberg, Caprice Variations, No. 33, mm. 1–4
No. 38
Rochberg labels variation 38 a Can-can. It is a lively romp that is quite comical in its execution. While, maintaining the basic Paganini form, both the A section and the B section is expanded upon. The ambiguity in this variation is created by a motive that pits
(," a simple chromatic-scale against a very traditional diatonic figure. These two ideas alternate in the A section (Ex. 24-a).
Example 24-a. Rochberg, Caprice Variations, No. 38, mm. 1–10
In the B section an even greater amount of chromaticism is at display (Ex24-b).
Example 24-b. Rochberg, Caprice Variations, No. 38, mm. 17–37
Quick shifts between a pizzicato note that begins the motive and the bowed writing that follows supplies much of the frivolity of this variation and relates to the exuberant dance style suggested by the designation Can-can.
(-" Chapter 3 A Guide to the Techniques in the Caprice Variations
In chapter two, I discussed Rochberg’s ars combinatoria employed throughout the Caprice Variations. In terms of compositional construction and overall feel,
Rochberg stated that he drew much influence from the variations on the Paganini theme by Johannes Brahms. But he also explains a different type of influence on this piece:
I had spent hours in another kind of preparation: studying carefully the solo violin music of J. S. Bach and Egène Ysaye for their treatment of soloistic technique... my intention was to explore not history per se, but every possible violinistic technical device that appealed to me in order to write variations in every direction.23
Rochberg struggled with the divergence of musical language in the twentieth-century, and sometimes expressed that he felt in direct conflict with its lack of expression in number of his writings and essays. His stylistic resolution to this problem blends the past and the modern into ars combinatoria. However, his choice of genres, especially the
Caprice Variations for solo violin, indicate another resolution: the use of various violin techniques and sound productions to engage in expressive language. As the quote above reveals, the violin techniques of all periods serve as supplementary material in supporting the context of ars combinatoria within the Caprice.
Indeed, Rochberg’s use of source material is relevant as Paganini is himself credited with codifying much of what is understood as violin virtuosity in the early nineteenth-century. Later nineteenth-century and twentieth-century composers and performers have built upon those techniques expanding the possibilities of violin
23 Rochberg, Five lines Four spaces: The World of My Music, 28.
50 expression. Each variation in the Caprice follows an idiosyncratic path that examines the expressive qualities of the instrument, and it is important for performers to understand these and to prepare accordingly. This chapter will deal with those techniques.
Conventional Violin Techniques
The earliest music referenced in the Caprice is a Baroque style found in variations
1, 22, and 27. The Baroque violin featured arch-shaped bows which did not allow for as much note sustain as is capable with the modern instrument and the performer should convey this difference within the Baroque pastiches in Caprice. Other bowing options are important as well. In variation 22, which alludes to Bach’s fugal writing, the violinist should imitate the sound of the Baroque style with a bow stroke that is detaché. This articulation requires bow strokes with enough speed in the upper half of the bow to create separations and emphasis on each note or group of notes, while simultaneously incorporating a lighter bow grip, weight, and pressure on the string. Variation 27 features a pattern of four sixteenth notes in which the first is tenuto and the next three are notated with slurred staccatos. These slurred staccatos should be handled differently than one would if they appeared in the Romantic period. The performer should break the motion between each note but not come completely off. The repeated agitated pattern in variation
1 can also have a distinction. Here, the performer could play with a brush stroke, which is between on and off the string to further reference a Baroque style.
Other techniques with which the performer can help signify the Baroque period include the careful use of vibrato, rubato and tenuto. Within variations 1, 22, and 27, the violinist might choose to play with a subdued vibrato. Whereas in certain contexts of
51 Romantic music the vibrato should be deep, wide, and fast, in these variations a narrower and lighter vibrato would be quite effective. The use of rubato should be subdued as well and the performer should take a conservative approach to phrasing and expression changes. In many cases while playing Bach’s fugal style, performers are instructed to insert tenutos on certain notes in the beginning of phrases, a style that would benefit the expression of variation 22 to a great extent. Lastly, chords, such as those that appear in variations 1 and 22, can be played with a lighter bow pressure and the emphasis should be applied to the top note rather than all the notes.
The music in the Classical period was full of delicacy, brightness, and elegance, and violin playing saw many changes to the general style and technique. In the Caprice, variations 23 and 43 especially resemble the Stile Galant. Both variations are designed with typical classical elements including short four-measure phrases, simple rhythms, grace notes, turns, and embellished notes. Variations 22 and 43 highlight the graceful sound of the Classical period with a staccato technique that suggests a light and elegant sound. In terms of bow technique, the performer should employ a lighter stroke that comes from lightly brushing the bow on the string in the back and forth motion, while being careful not to lose contact with the string and risk an unclear sound projection. Also, the contrast between off-string brush strokes and slurred-note legatos should not be extreme, but rather should remain at a similar level of lightness and simplicity. The bow articulation is the essential source of this expression and is attained through refined bow speed, pressure, and contact to the string in each stroke. These slurred note groups are meant to be more melodic through the incorporation of grace notes and embellishing figures. The grace notes should be played before the beat for steady beats and tempo.
52 However, where the section is marked with ritardando or recitando; rubato as in m. 15 of variation 43, the grace notes can take more time, but should still not be played too heavily so that the down beat notes will be emphasized.
The majority of the traditional variations are written in styles prevalent during the nineteenth-century. Many of these techniques were codified by Paganini and his contemporaries. Articulations, expressions, bowing techniques, left hand techniques and many other elements underwent a change from the Classical period into the Romantic period and this style is what is understood today as conventional violin technique. Most violin students develop their technique within this style of playing relying on technique courses such as Jan Hrimaly’s Scale-Studies For Violin, Otakar Josef Sevcik’s School of
Violin, Heinrich Ernst Kayser’s 36 Violin Studies, Op. 20, and numerous exercises in
Pierre Rode’s 24 Caprices for Violin, Jakob Dont’s 24 Etudes and Caprices, Op. 35,
Rodolphe Kreutzer’s 42 Studies for Violin, Carl Flesch’s Scale System, and Paganini’s 24
Caprices, Op 1. As these techniques constitute the normative approach to violin methodology, not all need to be discussed in this document. However, I will point out and comment on several of the most difficult passages in the Caprice.
Multiple stops are frequent throughout the Caprice and constitute the main difficulty in variations 3, 4, 11, 34, 36, and 40. As is always the case with multiple stops, good intonation can prove to be quite demanding. The double-stop technique employed in variation 34 creates many dissonant relationships between the two voices, and amplifies the affect of the mood caused by irregular harmonies and an ambiguous key area. As seen in example 25-a, the moving notes surround, both lower and higher, the
53 sustained note A. The intervallic relationship between the two lines also shifts between major and minor.
Example 25-a. Rochberg, Caprice Variations, No. 34, mm. 1–2
• Double stops and Dissonant harmonies "
! While the sustained note must be played with a steady bow pressure throughout, the finger articulation for the inner notes can be more cautious and softer in order to maintain the mood. Furthermore, in order to bring out the appropriate contrast of major and minor double-stops, precise intonation is crucial. Double stop technique with an open string is generally considered as less demanding because it only requires a single finger to articulate. However, a performer must understand that this technique brings a multitude of tuning concerns. The Pythagorean intonation system we use today sets an octave in a
2:1 ratio and a perfect fifth in a 3:2 ratio, both of which are sufficient for melodies and scales, but not when the major third occurs in a double stop with an open string. In example 25-b, the inner melodic voice moves from E natural to F natural between measure 7 and 8.
Example 25-b. Rochberg, Caprice Variations, No. 34, mm. 7–8
"
"
)(" When considering the intonation of the melody, the half step E to F would be relatively narrow according to the Pythagorean intonation system, but as it involves the open A string and produces the harmony of a major third, the note F must be played slightly higher by drawing from the Just intonation system. This adjustment will produce a major- third sound that matches the intensity of this variation. Throughout the Caprice, in these passages of multiple stops, the performer will have to approach intonation carefully.
Intonation is a concern in other places as well. In variation 19, constant sixteenth notes and rests coupled with frequent meter changes create technical difficulties in terms of consistency and clarity. While, categorized under the modernist style due to its harmonic language and structure, this variation largely draws from the technique of nineteenth- century violin music. The combination of the modernist rhythmic arrangement and traditional technical issues can cause difficulties and several options are available for the violinist. In contemplation of its overall dynamic range and metric and rhythmic ambiguities, I perform this variation with an aggressive off-string stroke for the staccato
(Ex. 26). The violinists who have recorded this piece provide different solutions. Peter
Sheppard Skaerved’s sound is one created by playing on string with a fast stroke. Gidon
Kremer deftly plays in between on and off the string, while Andrew Jennings, a professor of violin and chamber music at University of Michigan who has championed this piece in his recitals and on YouTube, uses a martelé stroke in which each stroke includes a further application of bow pressure creating a biting affect. Thus, there are several options in performance that one can choose while meeting the composer’s instruction of “Exact rhythm throughout.”
Example 26. Rochberg, Caprice Variations, No. 19
55 • Rapid shifting and metrical displacement, mm. 1–7
! " " Variation 19, one of the most difficult variations, also involves a demanding left- hand articulation. Throughout the variation, the finger position oscillates up and down, mostly between the G and D string. This variation, emphasizing shifting to various positions, displays a very similar articulation as Paganini’s Caprice No. 5 (Ex. 27).
Example 27. Paganini Caprice no. 5, Agitato, mm. 42–54
"
" As Paganini standardized nineteenth-century violin techniques, he began employing abrupt shifting, which requires complete accuracy to produce exact intonation of the notes. It requires a fully relaxed left thumb to both freely make changes of finger
)*" positions and to execute good intonation successfully. In a fast tempo, this difficulty is magnified. In Rochberg’s own account, he noted that an extremely clean shifting technique, with no undesired slides or noise in between shifting notes, is achieved through constant practice not only for the left hand, but also through training the brain to send the correct signals to the left hand.24 The numerous meter changes in Rochberg’s variation 19 (vivace, ♪=208) make this shifting technique especially challenging.
Extended Techniques
In the nineteenth-century violinists in general employed a more relaxed posture and bow grip which allowed for much freedom in terms of both left and right hand techniques.25 The success of this manner was established through Paganini’s compositions and performances. Twentieth-century composers and performers drew from this technique and developed new approaches, sounds, textures and techniques. Most of these are deviations from nineteenth-century technique rather than completely new. They are usually referred to as “Extended Techniques.” While Rochberg, does not employ as many extended techniques in the Caprice as some composers, he does draw from them.
These extended techniques can be best seen looking at the hands separately.
The bow technique on any stringed instrument is crucial: bow grip, bow speed, amplitude, and strokes work together in various ways to create distinctive resonance of
24 Rochberg, Five Lines Four Spaces: The World of My Music, 28.
25 Robin Stowell, “Violin: The instrument, its technique and its repertory,” Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com:80/subscriber/article/grove/music/41161 (accessed Jan.17, 2014), 38.
57 sound.26 Numerous nineteenth-century bow techniques took on distinctive meanings for twentieth-century composers; they added extended variants to the timbral collection that could be described as “rough,” “clangorous,” “silky,” and “transparent.”27 The violin bow technique became a primary expressive language that presented more possibilities beyond the warm, beautiful or lyrical sounds of the nineteenth century.28
One of the extensively developed bow techniques from the nineteenth-century through the twentieth-century is sul ponticello. This technique originally had one definition: play near the bridge.29 By placing the bow near the bridge, the bow contact on the string is distanced from the sounding point. Sound projection loses some of the vibrating frequencies resulting in a timbre between the pitch and non-pitch (noise). In the twentieth-century, this technique was used not only for harsh sounds, but to yield a wide range of timbres. Altering bow speed, bow placement and tempo will vary its effect. For example, in variation 47, Rochberg uses sul ponticello for groups of notes in slurs, creating a fleeting manner (Ex. 28).
Example 28. Rochberg, Caprice Variations, No. 47, B section (unmeasured caprice)
" " 26 Violin Master Class, “The Sassmannshaus Tradition for Violin Playing.” """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" 27 Strange, Patricia and Allen Strange, The Contemporary Violin, (USA: University of California Press, 2001), 1.
28 Ibid., 1.
29 Ibid., 3.
)," The notation of the groups are hemidemisemiquaver and demisemiquaver, and while they require fast left-hand articulation, keeping the bow on the bridge for sul ponticello is controllable but very difficult.
Rochberg sometimes combines sul ponticello with other techniques to create different timbres. In variation 39, he includes slurred staccato markings with sul ponticello (Ex. 29).
Example 29. Rochberg, Caprice Variations, No. 39, B section (unmeasured caprice)
" In order to play slurred staccatos with a downward bow stroke on the violin, a performer must apply the ricochet technique, which involves playing the group of notes equally on the bow and letting the bow rebound quickly on the surface of string. Employing ricochet will not produce a clear sul ponticello as the amount and time of bow contact on the string is very brief. However, because the ricochet and sul ponticello produces a harsher sonic effect, it is a useful tool for expression in a contemporary language distinct from its nineteenth-century heritage of brilliance and flare.
Another common extended technique for the bow that Rochberg applies in the
Caprice Variations is col legno, (with the wood). Col legno is a device used for percussive or melodic context that is favored by many contemporary composers and
)-" performers.30 This performance indication tells the performer to strike the strings with the bow stick, or the wood part of their bow, rather than with the bow hairs. Composers and performers in the twentieth-century have experimented with col legno’s various technical possibilities in two ways: striking and legato.31 Col legno tratto is the legato type of col legno and Rochberg employs this style in Caprice No. 42 (Ex. 30).
Example 30. Rochberg, Caprice Variations, No. 42 (unmeasured caprice)
• col legno tratto with glisando "
" This example combines col legno tratto with glissando: the performer applies one bow stroke with the bow stick on the string while the left hand creates the glissando. Clear projection of sound is not the point here as the bow stick does not sufficiently create enough force of resistance against the string. Rather, this technique adds a colorful effect that has been described as wind blowing or whispering.32 Considering the dynamic level—nothing louder than p—and the techniques used, glissando, sul ponticello, and col legno with glissando, it is clear that Rochberg was more concerned with sound effects rather than melodic gestures and that these techniques amplify the mood and atonality in this variation.
30 Strange, The Contemporary Violin, 35. """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" 31 Ibid., 36.
32 Ibid.
*." Composers use the striking type of col legno, col legno battute, when they desire a very percussive quality.33 The percussive and energetic effect of col legno can be enhanced using a high partial of the bow to strike the string. Rochberg employs just this technique in Caprice No. 47 (Ex. 31-a).
Example 31-a. Rochberg, Caprice Variations, No. 47
• col legno battute "
" A significant characteristic of this variation in addition to the lack of bar lines is the numerous uses of various bow and finger techniques to produce multi-coloring effects in each passage (Ex. 31-b).
Example 31-b. Rochberg, Caprice Variations, No. 47, B section (unmeasured caprice)
" 33 Ibid., 104. """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
*%" Rochberg marks pizzicato, arco, glissando, col legno battute, sul ponticello, and tremolo throughout the variation and thus creates a broader contemporary sonic coloration through twentieth-century timbral languages.
Left-hand extended techniques are also important in the Caprice. Vibrato has long been an expressive tool. Since the Renaissance era it has been used to add color to a note through slight variances in pitch. The technique is primarily varied by speed (rate) and width (amount of pitch variation): slow-wide, fast-wide, slow-narrow, and fast-narrow are some of the possible combinations.34 For contemporary composers, vibrato is not only an assumed expressive tool, but also a significant timbral element. These timbral qualities can be indicated to performers.35 In variation 39, rather than a traditional vibrato,
Rochberg calls for a quarter-tone vibrato: “oscillate slowly, with quarter tone, and non vibrato” (Ex. 32).
Example 32. Rochberg, Caprice Variations, No. 39, very beginning
While the traditional vibrato is practiced roughly with semitone pitch variation, the quarter-tone oscillation in this excerpt must entail extremely narrow pitch variation by a quarter-tone in both directions. The given instruction at a slow rate allows the listener to
34 Ibid., 72.
35 Ibid.
62 hear delicately calculated pitch changes.36 For performers, this notion is not foreign as this oscillation of vibrato is actually used to teach vibrato. One can turn on the metronome, set it at around 60, and flex a finger by pulling and pushing the knuckle one at a time, which will obscure the tone quality in regards to the sustained notes. Rochberg employs it here for its color and expressive qualities. Furthermore, Rochberg creates an effect in this phrase through the diminution of pitch variation, from the group of thirty- second notes, moving by semitone relation, to quartertone vibrato, to a straight-tone ending. The ‘non vibrato’ effect at the end of the phrase in the same example produces an enormous color contrast after the oscillation. In this context, the specified vibrato technique is a significant timbral resource within the twentieth-century language.
Through the procedure of incorporating variants on a pitch in this variation, Rochberg portrays a dreamlike emotional effect, which well matches its subtitle: fantastico.
Glissando is another pitch variation technique that produces an idiosyncratic sound on a stringed instrument; it is defined as “execution of rapid scales by sliding movement” to produce all possible frequencies.37 In traditional performance practice, glissandos were limited either to exercising a shift in slow motion or to playing difficult passages that employ simultaneous movement of both thumb and finger.38 This traditional technique is exemplified in Paganini’s Op. 1, No. 24, Var. 3 in which the
36 Ibid., 73.
37 Ibid., 79.
38 Ruggiero Ricci, and Gregory H. Zayia. Ricci on Glissando: The Shortcut to Violin Technique. (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2007), 1.
63 double stops that facilitate various finger positions change naturally requiring two-finger glissandos or a similar technique (Ex. 33).39
Example 33. Paganini, Caprice Op. 1, No. 24, variation 3, mm. 1–12 !
" " In the twentieth-century, the glissando was used not only as an embellishment between notes, but also to create various sounding effects on the violin. Rochberg, in variation 47, evokes a significant contemporary sonic palette through a glissando within a double- stopped figure (Ex. 34).
Example 34. Rochberg, Caprice Variations, No. 47, line 6–7, (unmeasured caprice)
"
" " The composer introduces a completely contrasting effect by adding a tremolo on the top voice with a glissando in the bottom voice. A similar effect is found in no. 39 (Ex. 35).
Example 35. Rochberg, Caprice Variations, No. 39, B section (unmeasured caprice)
"
39 Strange, The Contemporary Violin, 79. """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
*("
" This passage features a slow glissando over a sustained pitch on E-flat, in the manner of a double-stopped texture. Rochberg again employs the effect in the second section of the variation. Additionally, because the pitch variants on the top voice are narrow with the use of multi-finger slides (whole and half steps), the performer must make the glissando very carefully and smoothly in order to avoid missing notes. Above all, the contrast between the two voices is most important.
Harmonics remain heavily used for the purpose of expanding sonic capabilities.
Harmonics can be either natural or artificial. They are produced “by lightly touching an open, vibrating string (the fundamental) at one of the nodes located at 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, etc. the length of the string.”40 To obtain natural harmonics (see Figure 1), the single written note is to be lightly touched.
40 Paul Zukofsky, “On Violin Harmonics,” Perspectives of New Music, Vol. 6, No. 2, 1968, http://www.jstor.org/stable/832360""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""", 174 (Accessed October 1, 2014).
*)" Figure 1. Natural Harmonic: produces one octave higher than the written note.
" In accordance with string divisions (nodes) in the ratios of 2:1, 3:1, and 4:1, the notes produce an octave above the open string, an octave and perfect fifth above, and a double octave above, respectively. The divisions can continue through the series of intervals up to 8:1, which creates a triple octave above the open string (see Figure 2).41
Figure 2. The Division of the Violin G String
"
" The artificial harmonic (see Figure 3) works similarly to natural harmonics except for the use of a shortened string length by stopping the note in the bottom with the lower finger and lightly touching the note on the top with fourth finger.42
41 Strange, The Contemporary Violin, 115. """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" 42 Ibid., 120.
**" Figure 3. Artificial Harmonic: produces 2 octaves higher than the stopped (main) note.
Paganini used the creation of artificial harmonics in double stoppings. This approach involves all four fingers simultaneously.43 He employed this technique in the third movement of his Violin Concerto No. 1 in D, mm. 95–108 (Ex. 36).
Example 36. Paganini, Violin Concerto No. 1 in D major, Op. 6, Third movement, mm. 95–108
"
" 43 Philippe Borer, “The Twenty-Four Caprices of Nicolo Paganini” (Doctor of Philosophy, thesis """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""dissertation, University of Tasmania, 1995), 112.
*+" In this excerpt, Paganini does not state any detail concerning the execution of the technique; instead, he writes “armonici,” or “harmonics,” over the passage, leaving the choice of fingerings and execution to the performer’s discretion.44
In the twentieth-century, composers expanded the types and timbral capabilities of harmonics in a number of variants: microtone natural harmonics, harmonic arpeggios, pizzicato harmonics, harmonic glissando, compound harmonics and harmonic trills. One of these effective techniques, harmonic glissando, can be played with open (natural) and stopped (artificial) harmonics, or single and double-stopped notes, which produce the overtone series on the string by rapidly gliding the finger in both directions. 45 Rochberg makes use of the harmonic glissando in Caprice 50 (Ex. 37).
Example 37. Harmonic Glissando: Rochberg, Caprice Variations, No. 50, ending.
- glissando over natural harmonics
It is performed with an open harmonic. In this variation, the performer must not focus on each staffed note individually, but rather on the beginning and ending notes in order to have a better view of the gesture of the passage.46 The composer instructs the performer
44 Ibid., 112.
45 Ibid., 127–129.
46 Brenda Van Der Merwe, “New Frontiers in the Art of Violin Performance: The Contemporary Study and Pedagogy of Extended Performance Techniques for the Violin” (DMA thesis, Boston University College of Fine Arts, 2005), 22.
68 to employ a rapid glissando. The violinist needs to slow the speed as he approaches the top note in order to maintain accuracy.47 This technical device, essentially blurring a group of notes, creates an enigmatic, mysterious emotional quality, especially because it is incorporated with a pppp dynamic marking.
47 Ibid., 22.
69 Chapter 4 Conclusion
In the preceding chapters I have shown the manner and degree to which Rochberg maintains a dialogue between traditional and non-traditional styles both through the nature of compositional methods and violin technique in the Caprice Variations. His ars combinatoria places many disparate, competing, and contradictory styles together into a coherent whole. Many of his aesthetic notions including the circular understanding of the present with its memory of the past can be understood in this work as the listener is drawn from one style into another.
However, this ars combinatoria works quite differently in the Caprice than in many of his other pieces. Often in the collage works of the 1960s and the later pieces like the String Quartet No. 3 (other than in the Beethoven-like third movement), there are quick shifts between styles creating a poly-stylistic hodgepodge. In the Caprice
Variations, each style that is introduced is allowed to complete the form of that individual variation. Rochberg, himself, deals with this issue as he says:
Regardless of the obvious differences between the emotional sources of the “contemporary” variations and the more “traditional” ones, the former, though, couched in more atonal terms, are nevertheless cast in structural forms that are clear analogues to Paganini’s Ur-frame. That, after all, was the point of trying to show that aesthetic reconciliation between opposites was possible.48
While the Caprice Variations draws from traditional styles, it also draws from the tradition and conventions of the genre of Theme and Variations. Even in the most contemporary variations, this influence is not lost. The shifts in style as well as mood and intensity take place from one variation to the next. Therefore the overall form of the set is
48 Rochberg, Five lines Four spaces: The World of My Music, 33.
70 very important for the conveyance of this poly-stylism, a feature made more difficult by the allowance Rochberg provides for the performance of smaller versions of the work.
This conclusion will address the ramifications of these choices.
A complete performance of the entire Caprice Variations will require around 90 minutes to perform. In the “Afterword to the Performer” found in the published score,
Rochberg states that a “performer may omit some of the repeats in order to reduce the duration of performance time to manageable length, especially when the entire work is being performed.”49 Even with limited repeats, the Caprice Variations as a whole constitutes a time commitment that precludes the majority of performers and audiences.
The effectiveness of a solo violin piece of this length will be very difficult to achieve to say the least. However in terms of study and recording, this issue is not as restrictive, and, before I examine possible options for selections among the variations, it is necessary to discuss the form as it exists in the score.
Like many extended sets of variations including Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a
Theme of Paganini, Rochberg’s Caprice Variations can be divided into three sections
(see Figure 4). The first section is comprised of the first twenty-seven variations and is largely built out of the most traditional variations as well as eight of the ten quotations.
The tonal language gradually becomes more complicated as Rochberg introduces the styles of late nineteenth-century chromaticism and twentieth-century atonality, but traditional tonality returns. This section begins and ends with Baroque-style variations.
Also, there are few extended techniques employed in this section. The middle section has an interesting organization and acts as a development. It includes 13 variations (nos. 28–
40) and expands the formal arrangement of the A section to a certain degree through the
49 George Rochberg, Caprice Variations for Unaccompanied Violin (Boston: Galaxy, 1973), 52.
71 alternation of the Caprice’s three main categories, ambiguous styles, modernist styles and traditional styles: [Amb (28–30) – A (31) – T (32)] – [Amb (33) – A (34–35) – T (36–37)]
– [Amb (38) – A (39) – T (40)]. The last section includes the most atonal language as well as the two remaining quotations. It begins with the only atonal quotation in the
Caprice, Webern’s Passacaglia, Op. 1. The atonal language, extended techniques and difficulty intensify toward the end resulting in a climax in variation 50. This section does not include many ambiguous variations but rather moves between very tonal to very atonal movements and so best exemplifies the most extreme divisions in Rochberg’s ars combinatoria: [A (41) – T (42–44) – A (45) – T (46) – A (47–50) – Theme].
Figure 4. Formal Diagram
T: Traditional
T Amb T Amb A T
1- [3, 4] (5) 6, 7-----13, 14 15, [16, 17] 18, 19 20, 21, 22, 23---27
Pair Q Pair Q
(3rd Quartet, 4th mvt)
(3rd Quartet, 3rd mvt)
+&"
Amb A T Amb A T Amb A T
28, [29, 30] 31 32 33 34, 35 36 – 37 38 39 40
Pair (3rd Quartet, 3rd mvt) (3rd Quartet, 3rd mvt)
A T A T A T
41 42, 43, 44 45 46 47 ----- 50 51
Q Q
When played or listened to its entirety, the Caprice Variations also provides an interesting “take” on the genre of Theme and Variations. Rochberg presents the theme last in a departure from normal conventions. In that it is a simple tonal statement preceded by the most aggressive of Rochberg’s atonal variations it forms a strong contrast. In his afterword he wrote: “It is understood that both the form and performance style of Paganini’s theme, the concluding music of the Caprice Variations, have been
+'" altered somewhat in order to provide a fitting envoi for this work.”50 The composer’s alterations are superficial. He adds several grace notes, repeats the second section of the form and changes the dynamics so that it is mostly loud as opposed to Paganini’s soft.
Rochberg’s choice of the word “envoi” is most interesting. In poetry, an envoi is a concluding stanza that comments on the preceding poem often by addressing someone either specifically or generally. It is most associated with ballades. If the Caprice
Variations can be viewed as a dramatic narrative that reaches a climax in variation 50, the theme reminds the listener of the context and provides reflection for what came before.
While a performance of the Caprice Variations in its entirety will not be possible for most performers, it is important that the performer understand the work as a whole in order to make good decisions in programming selections of this work. A performer who plans to choose selections would—according to Rochberg—need to demonstrate through the chosen selections the ars combinatoria found in the complete work. In his afterword to the end of the published score, Rochberg writes the following:
A player choosing not to perform the entire set is at liberty to select those sections which will add up to a satisfying whole in musical terms and still represent the intentions of the work. In a shortened performance version, it is strongly urged, though, that the performer include as many of variations 5, 18, 19, 33, 34, 35, 39, 41, 42, 45, 47, 48, 49, 50 as possible, so as to preserve a balance in the stylistic spread which is a fundamental premise of this work.51
Rochberg stresses that a shortened performance must meet two requirements: be musically and formally satisfying and convey the sense of poly-stylism inherent in the work. Judging by the fourteen suggestions he provides, almost all of which are in the
50 Ibid.
51 Ibid.
74 modernist category, it seems he assumes that performers would gravitate towards the more traditional variations.
Indeed, if one were to only perform those variations Rochberg suggests in the afterword (clearly not his intention), along with the remaining modernist variations, the performance would last around 25 minutes. This group which focuses on numerous twentieth-century techniques and styles would make a nice programming addition to a recital. It would allow the performer to showcase many extended techniques as well and would be useful to a student who needs a modern piece in a program with pieces from different stylistic periods. Performing the modernist variations in the order they appear in the published score would be a good solution in that with the disparate tempos, techniques and expressive qualities add up to a varied and satisfactory contemporary piece.
On the other hand, another programming possibility would be to ignore the modernist variations altogether and to incorporate into the performance only the tonal variations. Tonal and or tonal-centered variations comprise a significant majority of the
Caprice Variations and most of these are designed in a traditional manner. A performance of these variations would be more suitable for a recital than the whole work, though at 50 minutes (with all repeats observed), it would constitute the bulk of the program. Though it would seem to contradict Rochberg’s stated desire to maintain a stylistic spread, this performance would not be without its merits. With music that is at times reminiscent of Bach, Vivaldi, Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, Paganini, Brahms,
Mahler, and many other styles from the Baroque period to the late Romantic, a stylistic spread is still present even if it is drawn from traditional sounds.
75 Drawing specifically from the quotations would also be an interesting programming possibility. This performance would require approximately ten minutes allowing it to be programmed easily in a recital. It would be especially useful for a lecture recital covering musical borrowing and quotations. As most of these variations are direct quotations drawn from the repertoire, the audience might recognize many of the originals providing a sense of nostalgia or reflection within a larger program.
While the previous suggestions may run contrary to the stated goals of
Rochberg’s aesthetics, they would all create satisfactory recital pieces. If the performer desires to maintain and showcase Rochberg’s ars combinatoria in a smaller format, there are several considerations that will help ensure a suitable set. Choosing several, most or all of the variations from Rochberg’s “approved” list in the afterword and picking an equivalent number from the more traditional variations is a good start for the performer wishing to program this music. The violinist should first decide the length of the set he wishes to play. Then, deciding from the list of traditional variations might prove more difficult. There are many possibilities. A performer might want to show the variety and program disparate variations that pastiche the different music styles or he could choose one of these styles: i.e., those variations in the late nineteenth-century chromatic style.
Coupled with the non-traditional variations, this approach would create stark differences.
A performance that programmed variations that hid the Paganini theme might be as interesting as one in which the theme was always front and center. There are three pairs of variations (nos. 3–4, 16–17, and 29–30) that share thematic content beyond the basic outline of the Paganini theme. A performance of these variations would act like a suite and would provide a short and satisfying piece. If another piece is needed on the same
76 program as Rochberg’s Quartet No. 3, one of the violinists could play the variations used in the Quartet: nos. 18, 19, 23, 29, 30, 36, and 37. If the performer alternates between the variations most resembling the Paganini theme and those that do not, he could create a rondo-like form that would both demonstrate the variety as well as producing a familiar structure. There are countless more options, and if a performer is careful to mix speeds, moods, dynamics, and difficulty among the choices, most of these will contribute to what
Rochberg calls a “satisfying whole in musical terms.”
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