An Intricate Simplicity: Contraries As an Evocation of the Sublime in Mozart's Jupiter Symphony, K
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University of Tennessee, Knoxville TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Masters Theses Graduate School 5-2011 AN INTRICATE SIMPLICITY: CONTRARIES AS AN EVOCATION OF THE SUBLIME IN MOZART’S JUPITER SYMPHONY, K. 551 Emily Michelle Wuchner [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_gradthes Part of the Musicology Commons Recommended Citation Wuchner, Emily Michelle, "AN INTRICATE SIMPLICITY: CONTRARIES AS AN EVOCATION OF THE SUBLIME IN MOZART’S JUPITER SYMPHONY, K. 551. " Master's Thesis, University of Tennessee, 2011. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_gradthes/925 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Masters Theses by an authorized administrator of TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a thesis written by Emily Michelle Wuchner entitled "AN INTRICATE SIMPLICITY: CONTRARIES AS AN EVOCATION OF THE SUBLIME IN MOZART’S JUPITER SYMPHONY, K. 551." I have examined the final electronic copy of this thesis for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree of Master of Music, with a major in Music. Rachel M. Golden, Major Professor We have read this thesis and recommend its acceptance: Leslie C. Gay, James Fellenbaum Accepted for the Council: Carolyn R. Hodges Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School (Original signatures are on file with official studentecor r ds.) To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a thesis written by Emily Michelle Wuchner entitled “An Intricate Simplicity: Contraries as an Evocation of the Sublime in Mozart‟s Jupiter Symphony, K. 551.” I have examined the final electronic copy of this thesis for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Music with a major in Musicology. __________________________________________ Rachel Golden, Major Professor We have read this thesis and recommend its acceptance: _____________________________________ Leslie C. Gay, Jr. _____________________________________ James Fellenbaum Acceptance for the Council: __________________________________________ Carolyn R. Hodges, Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School AN INTRICATE SIMPLICITY: CONTRARIES AS AN EVOCATION OF THE SUBLIME IN MOZART’S JUPITER SYMPHONY, K. 551 A Thesis Presented for the Master of Music Degree The University of Tennessee, Knoxville Emily Michelle Wuchner May 2011 ii Copyright © 2011 by Emily Michelle Wuchner All rights reserved. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am truly indebted to a number of people, without whom the completion of this thesis would have been impossible (and much more stressful). I am very grateful to Dr. Rachel Golden for all of her guidance, positive attitude, advice, and patience throughout this process. You‟ve inspired me to further pursue my ambitions and I hope to help my future students as much as you have helped me. Thank you to Dr. Leslie Gay, Mr. James Fellenbaum, Mr. Keith McClelland, and Dr. Nasser Al-Taee for your willingness to read my work and brainstorm ideas with me. I appreciate your time and advice. I am also grateful to my parents, Glenn and Jennifer, and sisters, Rachel and Rebekah. Thank you for listening to me discuss my theories, proof-reading pages, and letting me listen to classical music (like the Jupiter) on long car rides. Your guidance, support, and positive attitude was integral to my completion of this project. Additionally, I am thankful for my friends, whose support, advice, and friendship mean the world to me. Finally, thank you to my friends at Mozarthaus Wien and Haus der Musik in Vienna, Austria, for introducing me to Mozart‟s world. iv ABSTRACT This thesis explores the eighteenth-century aesthetic of the sublime in application to Mozart‟s Symphony No. 41 Jupiter, K. 551. Using Immanuel Kant‟s definition of the mathematical sublime and Johan Georg Sulzer‟s idea of the sublime, I argue that Mozart achieves this aesthetic through the synthesis of stylistic opposites: the learned and the galant. The culmination of such is best articulated in the fugue found in the Coda of the fourth movement. In this segment, Mozart combines five galant motives into a learned fugue; this intricate combination of stylistic opposites creates an elevated effect, one in keeping with eighteenth- century philosophies of the sublime. Drawing from my own experiences, I further argue for the subjectivity of the sublime and discuss its occurrence both in composition and as emotion. v TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES ...................................................................................................................... vii Chapter 1 “In my pocket”: Mozart‟s Jupiter and the sublime .........................................................1 Statement of Problem and Thesis ................................................................................................ 7 Methodology and Scope .............................................................................................................. 8 Rhetoric ..................................................................................................................................... 13 Sublime...................................................................................................................................... 19 Learned ...................................................................................................................................... 26 Review of Literature.................................................................................................................. 32 Overview of Remaining Chapters ............................................................................................. 37 Chapter 2 “What fire & spirit”: The symphony in Mozart‟s Vienna .............................................41 The Viennese Symphony .......................................................................................................... 42 Mozart‟s Symphonic Purpose and the “Trilogy” ...................................................................... 46 The Jupiter ................................................................................................................................ 50 The Symphony as an Idea ......................................................................................................... 54 Chapter 3 “Simplicity and sophistication”: Mozart‟s use of learned and galant styles .................59 Topics ........................................................................................................................................ 60 Rhetoric ..................................................................................................................................... 61 The Learned Style ..................................................................................................................... 62 The Galant Style ........................................................................................................................ 66 Juxtaposing the Learned and Galant ......................................................................................... 68 Chapter 4 “It brings us near to the infinite”: Music and the sublime ............................................75 Music as Absolute ..................................................................................................................... 76 The Theoretical Sublime ........................................................................................................... 78 Music as Sublime ...................................................................................................................... 84 The Sublime as Subjective ........................................................................................................ 94 Chapter 5 “Never as simple as they seem”: The Jupiter’s final fugue .......................................101 vi The Cantus............................................................................................................................... 101 Galant Motives ........................................................................................................................ 105 The Fugue ................................................................................................................................ 108 The Jupiter as Sublime ............................................................................................................ 115 Chapter 6 “I know not, nor can I force them”: Sublime subjectivity and experience ................122 LIST OF REFERENCES .............................................................................................................125 VITA ............................................................................................................................................137 vii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Viennese concert program ............................................................................................. 45 Figure 2: Allanbrook‟s metrical chart ........................................................................................... 61 Figure 3: Adagio and Fugue, K. 546, beginning of the fugue ...................................................... 71 Figure 4: Symphony No. 38 Prague, K. 504, strings,