Harmony, Structure and Narrative in Ralph Vaughan Williams's Piano
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Revisiting the Past: Harmony, Structure and Narrative in Ralph Vaughan Williams’s Piano Quintet in C Minor by Carlos Andrés Gaviria A dissertation submitted to the Moores School of Music, Kathrine G. McGovern College of the Arts in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Musical Arts In Performance Chair of Committee: Andrew Davis Committee Member: Dennis Whittaker Committee Member: Wayne Brooks Committee Member: Andrzej Grabiec University of Houston August, 2020 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I find that completing this project has been a collaborative effort between myself, the many mentors who have shaped my musical understanding, friends and colleagues that provided insightful ideas when performing the Quintet, and my family, who gave me their unconditional support. My first thanks goes to all the colleagues that have performed the Quintet with me in the past few years: Mauricio Oliveros, Jackson Guillen, Vyacheslav Dobrushkin, Janice Fehlauer, Ingrid Capparelli, Amanda Wilton, Su Han Ho, Jesse Christenson, Luis Perez, Geneva Wong, Melissa Nabb, Jennifer Dalmas and Evgeni Raychev. Thank you for all your support, musicality, flexibility and input. I want to thank to Wayne Brooks and Andrzej Grabiec, who have served in my committee during my DMA. Thank you for attending my recitals, listening to recordings and providing constructing feedback at every opportunity. To Nathan Fleshner, who throughout many years of friendship has provided me with musical insight during all our countless coffee breaks and who pointed me in the direction of William James’ ideas while I was stuck writing the second chapter of this document. I owe my musical formation in big part to all my bass teachers and professors. Frederick Hood was the first person to believe in me as bassist—even before I did— thank you. I am very thankful to Jeff Bradetich, who through the years shaped my understanding of the instrument and music, and who gave me the opportunity to get started in my college teaching career. Dennis Whittaker showed me a new and different ii approach to the bass, taking me back to the basics and showing me a structured way to play and teach—thank you! I am extremely grateful to my advisor, Dr. Andrew Davis, who through all these years remained committed to this project. Thank you for all the input, edits, calls and meetings that helped materialize this project. I am also thankful for showing me a “fresher” approach to music theory and for being a role model; my own teaching is modeled in great part to yours. As I mentioned earlier, I am thankful to my family for their continuous support and encouragement through all these years, especially during the many times I thought of giving up. To my brother, Alvaro, thank you always being there unconditionally and for being the personification of “hard work.” To my mother, Aura, my biggest fan, who has always supported and encouraged me through every idea, decision and project, no matter how crazy it was, gracias mami! Even though I doubt they will ever read this—you should!—I am very thankful to my daughters Camila and Lucía for letting me borrow their time to finish my “book;” it is done! Thank you for all your love and for always giving me that kiss or hug when I needed it the most. Las amo mis niñas. Last but not least, I am wholeheartedly thankful to my wife Janice. It is not an overstatement to say that without her, this project would not have been completed. Thank you for all your talent and musicality, your time, understanding, patience, support, countless edits and proofreading. I am in awe of your talent, insight and kindness, I love you. iii ABSTRACT Vaughan Williams’s Piano Quintet in C minor is a rarity in the world of classical music: a complete multi-movement work by a major composer that was kept hidden from the light of day for eight decades after its premiere before being published and publicly presented once again. Because of the many years in which the work was unknown to performers and scholars, little has been written about the history, the structure, and the guiding influences on this piece, making it fertile ground for new research. This document aims to provide a better understanding of the piece from a historical and theoretical framework. Chapter 1 is an historical exploration of Vaughan Williams’s life around the time of the Quintet’s composition, in search of biographical clues that may explain why he removed the piece from the catalogue. Chapters 2, 3 and 4 explore the three movements of the Quintet from different perspectives. Chapter 2 investigates Vaughan Williams’s relinquishment of traditional structural tonal devices in favor of modal ones, as well as his use of formal structure—based on Hepokoski and Darcy’s Sonata Theory. Chapter 3 explores the concept of “Englishness” in the second movement, based on the framework of English pastoralism, and explores the dual meaning of Arcadia as it relates to expressive meaning in the second movement. Chapter 4 surveys the use of variations in the last movement and the movement’s relationship to Vaughan Williams’s Violin Sonata in A minor (1953), for which the composer used the same theme in the third movement. The concluding chapter, Chapter 5, investigates more closely the question of musical meaning in the Quintet, tracking the possible meaning of a single musical module throughout the three movements using the concepts of iv markedness and gesture, and tying together all the threads discussed in the previous chapters. v TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................................ ii ABSTRACT ...................................................................................................................... iv LIST OF TABLES .......................................................................................................... vii LIST OF MUSICAL EXAMPLES ............................................................................... viii I. INTRODUCTION: REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE AND METHODOLOGY ............................................................................................................1 II. CHAPTER ONE: TOWARDS AN ENGLISH IDENTITY: VAUGHAN WILLIAMS’S FORMATIVE YEARS ............................................................................6 III. CHAPTER TWO: HARMONIC RESOURCES AND STRUCTURE IN THE FIRST MOVEMENT OF VAUGHAN WILLIAMS’S PIANO QUINTET IN C MINOR .............................................................................................................................24 IV. CHAPTER THREE: ENGLISH PASTORALISM IN THE SECOND MOVEMENT OF VAUGHAN WILLIAMS’S PIANO QUINTET ............................63 V. CHAPTER FOUR: TREATMENT OF VARIATIONS IN THE THIRD MOVEMENT OF VAUGHAN WILLIAMS’S PIANO QUINTET ............................82 VI. CHAPTER FIVE: CONNECTING THE DOTS: THE NARRATIVE TRAJECTORY OF A MUSICAL GESTURE............................................................100 REFERENCES ...............................................................................................................108 vi LIST OF TABLES 2.1 Hepokoski and Darcy’s Type 3, sonata model ......................................................32 2.2 Vaughan Williams, Piano Quintet in C minor, i, plagal cadences. ........................35 2.3 Vaughan Williams, Piano Quintet in C minor, i, formal organization ..................37 2.4 Vaughan Williams, Piano Quintet in C minor, i, thematic sources in R2 .............54 3.1 Vaughan Williams, Piano Quintet in C minor, ii, formal organization.. ...............65 3.2 Vaughan Williams, Piano Quintet in C minor, ii, section A: theme 1–phrases. ....74 4.1 Vaughan Williams, Piano Quintet in C minor, iii, formal organization. ...............92 vii LIST OF MUSICAL EXAMPLES 2.1 Vaughan Williams, Piano Quintet in C minor, i, P0 ..............................................25 2.2 Vaughan Williams, Piano Quintet in C minor, i. P1.1 ............................................42 2.3 Vaughan Williams, Piano Quintet in C minor, i. mm. 14–25 ................................43 2.4 Vaughan Williams, Piano Quintet in C minor, i. mm. 38–43 ................................44 2.5 Vaughan Williams, Piano Quintet in C minor, i. mm. 100–105 ............................46 2.6 Vaughan Williams, Piano Quintet in C minor, i. mm. 123-138 ............................47 2.7 Vaughan Williams, Piano Quintet in C minor, i. mm. 139–151 ............................50 2.8 Vaughan Williams, Piano Quintet in C minor, i. mm. 157–163 ............................51 2.9 Vaughan Williams, Piano Quintet in C minor, i. mm. 181–193 ............................52 2.10 Vaughan Williams, Piano Quintet in C minor, i. mm. 277–289 ............................56 2.11 Vaughan Williams, Piano Quintet in C minor, i. mm. 290–297 ............................57 2.12 Vaughan Williams, Piano Quintet in C minor, i. mm. 298–304. ...........................58 2.13 Vaughan Williams, Piano Quintet in C minor, i. mm. 307–313 ............................59 2.14 Vaughan Williams, Piano Quintet in C minor, i. mm. 321–329 ............................61 3.1 Vaughan Williams, “Silent Noon,” mm. 1–3 ........................................................71 3.2 Vaughan Williams, Piano Quintet in C minor, ii, mm. 1–5...................................71 3.3 Vaughan Williams, Piano Quintet in C minor, ii. mm. 5–15.................................73 3.4 Vaughan Williams, Piano Quintet in C minor, ii. mm. 55–56...............................78 4.1 Vaughan Williams,