University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations 2017 Obligato / Obligé: A Musical Etymology Suzanne Anita Bratt University of Pennsylvania,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations Part of the History Commons, and the Music Commons Recommended Citation Bratt, Suzanne Anita, "Obligato / Obligé: A Musical Etymology" (2017). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 2197. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/2197 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/2197 For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Obligato / Obligé: A Musical Etymology Abstract ABSTRACT OBLIGATO / OBLIGÉ: A MUSICAL ETYMOLOGY Suzanne Anita Bratt Emily I. Dolan Ask for a definition of the musical term obligat“ o”; receive a different answer from everyone asked. What truth this axiom possesses lies in the multiple meanings acquired by the word during the past four hundred years. The varied definitions that presently circulate – an obligatory musical line, a virtuosic one, a filigree or descant, the use of a specific instrument, the use of organ pedal, the interaction of solo instrument and voice – all convey this complex legacy. Through analyses of music in manuscript, printed scores, and publishing materials, this dissertation concludes that certain meanings of “obligato” are active at different points in the history of Western musicking. Meanings activated by different instruments and in different genres can indicate the places of those instruments within an expected hierarchy, and can create those genres. This dissertation begins by considering certain in consistencies in the use of obligato terminology: situating scholarly discussion of the power of the obbligato violin in “Erbarme dich” alongside Sebastian Bach’s own use of the term.