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Reconceptualizing Climax in the Four Scherzos of Frédéric Chopin

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Reconceptualizing Climax in the Four Scherzos of Frédéric Chopin RECONCEPTUALIZING CLIMAX IN THE FOUR SCHERZOS OF FRÉDÉRIC CHOPIN Christy Keele Submitted to the faculty of the University Graduate School in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Jacobs School of Music, Indiana University December 2018 Accepted by the Graduate Faculty, Indiana University, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Doctoral Committee ______________________________________ Marianne Kielian-Gilbert, Ph.D., Research Director ______________________________________ Kyle Adams, Ph.D. ______________________________________ Halina Goldberg, Ph.D. ______________________________________ Frank Samarotto, Ph.D. December 4, 2018 ii Acknowledgements I am grateful to several people who have supported me and contributed to this work. The constancy and inquisitive spirit of my advisor, Marianne Kielian-Gilbert, inspired me to develop my ideas in fruitful directions and gave me traction in making ends meet between thoughts and writing. This document is in many ways the product of her encouragement and support, for which I will always be deeply grateful. I thank the members of my research committee, Kyle Adams, Halina Goldberg, and Frank Samarotto for their time and support, in some cases working around and through sabbaticals in order to attend to this project and to appreciate Chopin and the piano. I value their thoughtful feedback. I am thankful for INFO Express (the IU Libraries’ delivery service). They tirelessly carted many books back and forth between Bloomington and Indianapolis as I researched and wrote this dissertation, resulting in the circulation staff at the Ruth Lilly Law Library graciously handling what must have been a surprising number of music-related volumes on my behalf. I have also greatly valued my friendship with Katrina Roush as we worked on various steps of the PhD program together. Musicians are formed over the course of a lifetime, and I discovered Chopin through childhood piano lessons that I was very fortunate to have. I will always be grateful to my parents and piano teachers for that musicianship and for their support. The love, patience, support, and overall contribution of my husband, Benjamin, has been immeasurable; you are my shining star. iii Christy Keele RECONCEPTUALIZING CLIMAX IN THE FOUR SCHERZOS OF FRÉDÉRIC CHOPIN I explore and define the phenomenon of climax in Frédéric Chopin’s four piano scherzos written during the years 1831-1842. Each scherzo features technically demanding climactic passages that stand out due to not only their intensity in a number of musical dimensions, but also their complexity and their roles in the scherzos as individual pieces and in the larger context of Chopin’s unique version of the scherzo genre. I develop the idea that the process of building intensity and the interplay between multiple peaks of intensity are integral to the architecture and dramatic effect of these climaxes. To illustrate the relationship between peaks of intensity, I propose a tension-arrival scheme, identifying different qualities of intensity and theorizing how they interact. Climaxes bear significance for the scherzo genre in particular, as Chopin reconceptualized the genre in these four pieces. He received a genre that was formerly light in character and most commonly functioning as a minuet replacement in a multi-movement work and developed it into a stand-alone concert genre for the piano, expanding its length and giving it a substantially darker character. I discuss ways in which climaxes shape the forms and dramatic trajectories of Chopin’s scherzos, supporting their dimensions and furthering and/or resolving their conflicts. As such, they are a key component of the genre identity of Chopin’s scherzo, which was so unlike any of its predecessors. The compositional techniques used by Chopin to articulate and develop climactic passages include the shortening of musical units, the manipulation of pacing as units are repeated at progressively shorter (or longer) intervals, and intensification in multiple dimensions. In conjunction with other features such as increased rhythmic activity and harmonic instability, iv these techniques project a type of temporality conceived by Raymond Monelle as “narrative time,” with some similarities to A.B. Marx’s Gang (Monelle 2000, Marx 1856). Narrative time is associated with a sense of action or forward motion, whereas its counterpart, lyric time, creates a sense of stasis. I introduce these temporal types and discuss ways in which climaxes in the scherzos not only project narrative time as they set up upcoming sections within contexts of large-scale repetition, but also uniquely incorporate aspects of lyric time as they close pieces in their respective codas. I address Chopin’s use of the features of narrative time throughout the scherzos (not limited to climaxes) as another signature characteristic of the genre. ______________________________________ Marianne Kielian-Gilbert, Ph.D., Research Director ______________________________________ Kyle Adams, Ph.D. ______________________________________ Halina Goldberg, Ph.D. ______________________________________ Frank Samarotto, Ph.D. v Table of Contents Abstract……………………………..................................................................................iv Chapter 1: Issues in the Analysis of Chopin’s Scherzo Climaxes 1.0 Introduction……………………………………………….……………………1 1.1 Locating Climax: Point vs. Span……………………….…….….…………….2 1.2 Tension and Arrival in Chopin’s Scherzo No. 2 in B-flat minor, Op. 31…….10 1.3 The Scherzo Genre as a Context for Chopin’s Climaxes……………….…….15 1.4 Preview of Chapters………...............................................................................17 Chapter 2: Intensification and Pacing 2.1 Basic Definitions………………………………………………………………23 2.2 Intensification…………………………………………………………..……...26 2.3 Intensification, Pacing, and Hypermeter in Scherzo No. 2 in B-flat minor, Op. 31……………………………………………………………………...35 2.4 Pacing and Its Role in Climax…………………………………….………...…40 2.5 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………..45 Chapter 3: Chopin’s Reconceived Scherzo: Genre Identity, Climax, and Jest in Dark Veils 3.0 Introduction…………………………………………………………………….47 3.1 History and Context of the Scherzo Genre…………………….……….………48 3.2 Genre Identity in Chopin’s Scherzos………………………………………...…51 3.3 Chopin’s Innovations in the Genre…………………………………………......59 Form in Scherzo No. 2, Op. 31 and Scherzo No. 3, Op. 39 vi 3.4 Arrival and Transition Connections in the Coda of Scherzo No. 2 in B-flat minor, Op. 31……………………………………………………………………….71 3.5 Non-Climactic Material in Scherzo No. 2 in B-flat minor, Op. 31…………….77 3.6 Climax and Dark Veils in Chopin’s Scherzo Genre……………………………87 Chapter 4: Narrative Temporality in the Scherzos 4.0 Introduction……………………………………………………………………..92 4.1 Scherzo No. 4 in E major, Op. 54: Climaxes and Deviations from the Generic Contract………………………………………………………….………….93 4.2 Lyric and Narrative Time………………………………………………………107 4.3 Lyric and Narrative Time in Scherzo No. 4 in E Major, Op. 54……………….117 4.4 Conflicts in Narrative Temporality: Function vs. Character………….…….….121 4.5 Change in Narrative Temporality Over Time ………………………….……...127 Chapter 5: Conflict and Climax in Scherzo No. 3 in C-sharp minor, Op. 39 5.1 Local Climax in Scherzo No. 3 in C-sharp minor, Op. 39……………….……133 5.2 Conflict in Scherzo No. 3 in C-sharp minor, Op. 39 and its Coda Climax..…..140 Chapter 6: Synthesis and Conclusion 6.1 Form and Contrast in Scherzo No. 1 in B minor, Op. 20………………………153 6.2 Peaks and Spans in the Coda of Scherzo No. 1 in B minor, Op. 20…………....162 6.3 Conclusion………………………………………………………….….…..…...175 Bibliography………………………………………………………………………….…….179 Curriculum Vitae vii Chapter 1: Issues in the Analysis of Chopin’s Scherzo Climaxes 1.0 Introduction Characterizing and defining “climax” in Western common-practice music is not regarded by scholars as notoriously difficult, but perhaps it should be. From Wallace Berry’s intensity curves to Kofi Agawu’s structural highpoints, we talk about climax in a number of ways informed by both theory and intuition.1 Typically one moment gets the glory, so to speak, as “the climax” of a particular piece in an analysis or performance, and yet that moment would have little effect without a myriad of musical processes that build intensity toward it and recede away from it. In this dissertation, I develop a flexible approach to climax inspired by Chopin’s four stand-alone piano scherzos (1831-1842), defining the processes and compositional techniques they involve to be as vital to the climax as the peak moment itself. I work with the scherzos as a group of compositions in Chopin’s musical output and in the context of genre identity. These pieces are especially appropriate for a study of climax because each individual scherzo features one or more prominent climactic sections. Chopin’s virtuosic solo version of the genre is a drastic departure from multi-movement versions, and the climactic passages in Chopin’s scherzos constitute a key feature that sets them apart. Although this dissertation focuses on Chopin’s scherzos, I begin with his Prelude in A Major, Op. 28 No. 7. This prelude is a fragment belonging to his set of twenty-four preludes. It is short and compact enough to be accessible, but it expresses a complete thought. The prelude demonstrates a challenging analytical issue regarding climax that will be central to my study of the scherzos: the manifestation of climax in time as a point and/or a span.
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