The Volta: a Galant Gesture of Culmination Nathaniel Mitchell
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The Volta: A Galant Gesture of Culmination nathaniel mitchell This article presents an overview of a new pre-cadential schema in the galant style: the Volta. The Volta is a two-part schema featuring a prominent chromatic reversal: stage one charges up the dom- b b b b inant with a ]4–5 melodic string, while stage two releases to the tonic using a \4–3 string. The schema sheds light on many aspects of galant music-making: its variants illustrate how central fea- tures of a schematic prototype motivate or constrain plausible manipulations, its pre-cadential func- tion reveals the intimate communion between surface schemas and the harmonic patterns inscribed within the style’s formal scripts, and, finally, its use as a climactic gesture in opera seria calls attention Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/mts/article/42/2/280/5908009 by guest on 15 November 2020 to the semantic possibilities of schemas beyond their role in defining musical topics. These and other aspects of the Volta are illustrated using representative excerpts from eighteenth-century mas- ters like Leonardo Vinci, Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, Johann Adolf Hasse, Baldassare Galuppi, Joseph Haydn, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Keywords: galant, schema, Cleofide, Hasse, Vinci, Pergolesi, abnegation, Koch, chromaticism, clausula, opera seria. ancta mater, istud agas,” the ninth movement of gesture likewise appears in a ritornello from the next duet— Giovanni Battista Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater (1736), “Inflammatus et accensus”; see Example 2—where it is con- punctuates its predominantly tranquil affect with densed into a bare-octave presentation of the scale-degree “S b b b b pockets of highly charged expressivity. The ritornello of this string ]4–5–\4–3 accompanied in the upper voices by the b b duet—shown in Example 1—begins with a light Romanesca, same “high 1” and “high 2” melodic prefixes seen in the full of nimble triadic and scalar passagework, followed at m. 4 “Sancta mater” duet. From these examples, we might abstract by a Prinner riposte embedded with the gently pulsating a conceptual prototype like the one shown in Example 3, fol- pedal-point sonorities and flatwise tonal inflections of the lowing the example of Robert Gjerdingen in his 2007 mono- Quiescenza.1 The sixth measure then initiates a poignant ex- graph Music in the Galant Style. Gjerdingen posits that a core pressive turn: the violins leap a tritone down from E[ to a set of such formulaic prototypes—or schemas—underpins the sumptuous A\ enwrapped in a fully diminished-seventh chord, compositional craft of eighteenth-century musicians, some of which discharges to the dominant B[ in m. 7. A rhyming ges- which (Romanesca, Prinner, and Quiescenza) have been men- ture that accentuates A[ follows, highlighting a cross-relation tioned already. The preceding examples suggest the existence between these two measures. The rhetorical energy of these of an additional item in the galant “schematicon”;3 a striking measures—swelling sharpwise toward the dominant and then chromatic construction deployed as a powerful burst of energy exhaling flatwise to the tonic—sets in motion the cadential preceding moments of cadential punctuation. progression that follows, after which the entirety of mm. 6– I call this schema by the Italian word for turn—volta— b b 8 is repeated to round off the opening ritornello. highlighting its opposition of a rising ]4–5 melodic string b b 4 Pergolesi treats this chromatic gesture as the movement’s against a falling \4–3 string. This article presents an overview signature utterance; it is the only element from the opening ri- of the Volta as a core schema in the galant style, with tornello to recur in every vocal period, acting in each instance special emphasis on its use in opera. I begin by refining the as the phrase’s penultimate, pre-cadential musical action.2 The schematic representation offered above with an enriched pool of exemplars, probing the common range of contrapuntal and I owe a great debt to my many colleagues at Indiana University and rhythmic variations that composers deployed when using this Princeton University who have heard and commented upon numerous versions of this article. Special thanks to Scott Burnham, Kofi Agawu, 3 Rice (2015a). Paul Sherrill, Hans Aerts, Poundie Burstein, Dmitri Tymoczko, and my 4 I intend the name Volta to call up incidental semantic associations as well. two anonymous reviewers for their more extensive comments, critiques, For instance, one might connect the Volta’s pre-cadential function to the and email discussions. poetic volta of the Shakespearean sonnet, a turn toward the sonnet’s con- 1 The Romanesca, Prinner, and Quiescenza schemas are discussed in cluding idea often ushered in through clauses like “and yet” or “but” that Chapters 2, 3, and 13, respectively of Gjerdingen (2007). Unless other- signal a pointed discursive shift. For a discussion of the poetic volta as an wise indicated, all schemas discussed in this article are defined in essential feature of sonnet rhetoric, see Bermann (1988, especially pp. Gjerdingen (2007). 45ff. and 84). One might also associate the term with the SI unit for elec- 2 Subsequent presentations occur in mm. 18–23, 33–38, 51–54, 62–64, and tromagnetic force—the volt, named after the eighteenth-century physicist 76–81. Alessandro Volta—to highlight the schema’s high energy, its “electricity.” 280 the volta 281 Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/mts/article/42/2/280/5908009 by guest on 15 November 2020 example 1. Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, Stabat Mater (1736), IX. “Sancta mater istud agas,” mm. 1–11 example 2. Pergolesi, Stabat Mater, XI. “Inflammatus et accensus,” mm. 26–29 schema. A primary concern of this section will be to connect the schema’s variants to the prototypical features that motivate them, thereby tracing paths from the schema’s inner core to ambiguous boundary areas where musical phenomena share features with multiple prototypes.5 Once the structural features of the Volta have been secured, I then explore the schema’s syntactical and expressive associations. Its pre-cadential func- tion opens a window onto the cross-pollination of foreground contrapuntal constructions with scripted event sequences at broader scales of musical time. Its rhetorical role as a marker of example 3. The Volta, conceptual prototype musical climax, on the other hand, encourages sensitive engagement with the narrative potential of musical schemas, 5 As George Lakoff (1987) uses the term, motivation pertains to cognitive especially in operatic contexts. Thus, this article not only con- phenomena that are neither fully predictable nor wholly arbitrary. tributes an item to the growing schematicon of eighteenth- Motivation provides an account for why certain category applications, instances of polysemy, extensions of metaphors or idioms, etc. make sense century music, but also uses that schema to reflect on issues of while others do not, an explanation that works by describing how the ele- schematic definition, manipulation, and combination, as well ments of a conceptual system fit together to facilitate sense-making. as temporal and expressive signification in the galant style. 282 MUSIC THEORY SPECTRUM 42 (2020) double-clausula prototype and basic extensions within this largely diatonic palette, perhaps employing the schema’s chromatic rise and fall to evoke the inhalation and On 13 September 1731, the Dresden court of August the exhalation of an expressive sigh. The Volta’s special affective Strong inaugurated a new era of musical prosperity with the status is already evident in the passage from the opening ritor- premiere of Johann Adolf Hasse’s heroic opera Cleofide.6 Hasse, nello shown in Example 4(a), where, following a series of as the Elector of Saxony’s newly hired maestro di cappella,was sparse unisono cadences, the fully voiced chromatic schema the evening’s star attraction, it being the first public occasion for crackles to life in a climactic moment of amorous expression. the court to witness the artistic fruit procured by their invest- This orchestral skeleton is further enriched when the Volta ment in the young composer. With Cleofide,then,Hassehadto returns in the vocal period. In the passage shown in demonstrate his supreme mastery of the most fashionable and Example 4(b), Gandarte plugs his upbeat-oriented vocal ges- dramatically evocative musical devices of the day in service of a tures into the orchestra’s rhythmic gaps and further adds an as- magnificent performance that could testify to the state’s renewed cending grace note into the downbeat of m. 67, thereby Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/mts/article/42/2/280/5908009 by guest on 15 November 2020 artistic prowess. His unparalleled success in this regard amplifying the schema’s affective poignancy with a twinge of cemented his lucrative position and launched a golden age of accented dissonance. The result is a delicately constructed pas operatic production for Dresden that would last, with Hasse at de deux between singer and orchestra that masterfully coordi- the helm, until Frederick the Great invaded Saxony in 1756, ig- nates audience attention: the schema’s accented chromaticism niting the cataclysmic events of the Seven Years’ War. leaps out of its diatonic surroundings to draw focus to the Hasse was especially renowned for his delectably sweet mel- stage, after which the orchestra recedes to give Gandarte’s ex- odies and for his ability to spotlight vocal expression with im- pressive semitonal sighs full, unencumbered sway over