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Metric Conflict in the Brandenburg Concertos of J. S. Bach

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Metric Conflict in the Brandenburg Concertos of J. S. Bach University of Denver Digital Commons @ DU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Graduate Studies 1-1-2008 Metric Conflict in the Brandenburg Concertos of J. S. Bach Ellwood P. Colahan University of Denver Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.du.edu/etd Part of the Composition Commons, and the Other Music Commons Recommended Citation Colahan, Ellwood P., "Metric Conflict in the Brandenburg Concertos of J. S. Bach" (2008). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 1058. https://digitalcommons.du.edu/etd/1058 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate Studies at Digital Commons @ DU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ DU. For more information, please contact [email protected],[email protected]. METRIC CONFLICT IN THE BRANDENBURG CONCERTOS OF J. S. BACH ____________________ A Thesis Presented to The Faculty of Arts and Humanities University of Denver ____________________ In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts ____________________ By Ellwood P. Colahan August 2008 Advisor: Chris Malloy ©Copyright by Ellwood Colahan 2008 All Rights Reserved Author: Ellwood P.Colahan Title: METRIC CONFLICT IN THE BRANDENBURG CONCERTOS OF J. S. BACH Advisor: Prof. Chris Malloy Degree Date: June 2008 ABSTRACT This paper presents a comprehensive metric analysis of Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos, with particular emphasis on the issues of metric conflict. The analytic methodology is based on the work of Fred Lerdahl and Ray Jackendoff, while the analytic notation used is based partly on that of Lerdahl and Jackendoff and partly on that of Jonathan Kramer, with some original modifications. The paper discusses the factors generating metric conflict, along with its distribution, correlation with other structural parameters, and functional effects. The relationship between metric conflict and fluctuations in the depth of metric hierarchy is examined in detail. Some cases of metric displacement and metric irregularity are examined, when they form part of the context for particular episodes of conflict. The conclusion argues for an approach to interpreting this and similar repertoires that leaves room for the emergence in performance of the independent metric organization of different parts, as an integral part of the ebb and flow of musical tension. ii CONTENTS: Chapter 1: Introduction 1 Scope and Intention of the Study • Attribution of Accent • Metric Conflict • The Idea of Metric Hierarchy • Factors Promoting or Undermining Hierarchic Depth • Graphic Presentation Chapter 2: Patterns of Metric Conflict 43 Projection of Different Groupings • Projection of Different Accentual Locations Within Similar Metric Groupings • Imitation as a Source of Conflict • Metric Conflict in the Absence of Imitation • Complex Textures • Effect of Metric Conflict on the Depth of Metric Hierarchy • Structural Implications of Metric Conflict Chapter 3: Fluctuation in Depth of Metric Hierarchy 107 Movements Displaying a Moderate to High Degree of Fluctuation • Movements Displaying Limited Fluctuation • Movements Displaying No Fluctuation • Functional Implications of Observed Fluctuations Chapter 4: Conclusion 133 Implications for Performance • Suggestions for Further Research: Comparative Analysis • Suggestions for Further Research: Empirical Experimentation • Suggestions for Further Research: Non-Western Music Works Cited 143 Appendix I: Metric Analyses 151 Appendix II: Results of an Informal Experiment in Metric Perception 206 iii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION Scope and Intention of the Study The present study is an examination of metric conflict in the Brandenburg Concertos by J. S. Bach (1685 – 1750). It grows out of a long-standing desire to better understand the mechanisms behind the rhythmic dynamism and suppleness of High Baroque music in general, and to explore the applicability of already-existing concepts of rhythmic and metric structure to a familiar and beloved repertoire that has not yet been systematically examined in this particular way. I have chosen the Brandenburg Concertos as objects of study because they are perhaps the best-known of all Baroque concertos, admired as iconic of the genre for their perfection. Since they have not been subjected, as a set, to this type of analysis, it is my 1 hope that new insights may be discovered within them. 1 There are three book-length studies of the Brandenburg Concertos in English. Norman Carrell’s Bach’s “Brandenburg” Concertos (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1963) focuses mainly on matters of instrumentation, supplemented by detailed descriptive comments about the individual movements. No systematic rhythmic or harmonic analysis is offered, although rhythm is not ignored completely. (A characteristic comment is the description of the imitative horn calls at the beginning of the first movement of concerto No. 1: “The result is rather a jumble rhythmically…” [p. 43]). Malcolm Boyd’s Bach: The Brandenburg Concertos (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993) treats the concertos systematically but focuses on sources and origins, instrumentation, and performance traditions. Michael Marrissen’s The Social and Religious Designs of J. S. Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos (Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1995) also delves into questions of instrumentation as well as of topic, and the 1 Many authors have noted that the Brandenburg Concertos may not have been intended by Bach as a set, and indeed that they may have been composed at different points over an unknown period of time before they were collected by Bach into one manuscript for presentation to the Margrave of Brandenburg.2 This uncertainty does not make them inappropriate for collective examination. Their very diversity makes them, as a group, a more interesting object of examination for this study. They represent a variety of approaches to the problem of composing a Baroque concerto, and thus potentially offer a variety of structures for analysis. Attribution of Accent symbolic meanings they convey, finding that Bach subverts the usual hierarchy of social status in the Baroque orchestra by elevating the role of ripienists and undermining that of elite soloists, with the religiously-inspired intention of demonstrating the vanity of worldly values. Abraham Veinus’s The Concerto (rev. ed., New York: Dover Publications, 1964) treats the Brandenburgs only cursorily, as do Pipa Drummond’s The German Concerto: Five Eighteenth-Century Studies (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1980) and Ralph Hill, ed., The Concerto (London: Penguin Books, 1952). The concertos are scrutinized in Hugo Leichentritt’s Musical Form (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1959), but the analyses are very brief, focusing on formal classification of sections. Three book-length studies of the Brandenburg Concertos have been published in German. Elke Lang- Becker’s Johann Sebastian Bach: Die Brandenburgishcen Konzerte (Munich: Wilhelm Fink, 1990) examines matters of style, analyzing how Bach articulated the concertante principle in each piece. Peter Schleuning’s Johann Sebastian Bach: Die Brandenburgishcen Konzerte (Kassel: Barenreiter, 2003) is a work of historical musicology rather than analysis. Hasso Gottfried Petri’s Das Motiv als formbildende Kraft der inneren und äußeren Gestalt des musikalischen Kunstwerkes: Dargestellt an den Sechs Brandenburgischen Konzerten Johann Sebastian Bachs (Frankfurt: Hänsel-hohenhausen, 2004) is a study of motivic-thematic structure in the Brandenburgs. Numerous articles and book chapters are devoted to one or another of the Brandenburg Concertos, without examining the entire set. The only book-length studies of meter or rhythm in Baroque music are Mauro Botelho’s Rhythm, Meter, and Phrase: Temporal Structures in Johann Sebastian Bach's Concertos (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Michigan, 1993), in which he analyzes only three concerto movements, one of which is the first movement of the third Brandenburg; and Channan Willner’s Durational Pacing in Händel's Instrumental Works: The Nature of Temporality in the Music of the High Baroque (Ph.D. Dissertation, City University of New York, 2005), in which he analyzes orchestral and keyboard music by Handel and also pieces by François Couperin, but not the music of Bach. 2 E.g. Boyd, pp. 11–15. 2 A study of metric structure is essentially a study of the distribution of metric accent. Metric accent is indicated ostensibly by the metric component of music notation, including meter signatures, barlines, and beams, but writers on rhythmic and metric theory have often observed that the true metric structure of music may at times be at odds with notation.3 In fact, even such traditional, common-practice repertoire as the Brandenburg Concertos embody a level of metric variability that traditional notation is not suited to express.4 Wallace Berry is an example of an author who has argued strongly for such a flexible reading of meter: “It is fundamental that meter is often independent of the notated bar-line, so that a necessary question in all analysis of meter is: Are the determinants of metric grouping in accord with the notated bar-line, and if not what is the ‘real meter?’ ”5 To answer such a question the analyst must have a way detecting the presence of metric units when they diverge from the notation. In effect, the analyst must have a system for attributing accent to some beats and not others. According to the “generative” model of musical perception, drawing
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