Chopin's Cantabile in Context

Chopin’s Cantabile in Context Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School in The Ohio State University By Stephanie Lynn Frakes, B.M., M.M., M.A. Graduate Program in Music The Ohio State University 2012 Dissertation Committee: Graeme Boone, Advisor Lois Rosow, Advisor Arved Ashby Copyright by Stephanie Frakes 2012 Abstract The term and concept of cantabile developed in the context of Italian opera, where it characterized a slow-moving, lyrical aria; but in and after the eighteenth century it assumed a far broader role in European composition and performance, providing a defined and recognizable context for ornamentation and tempo rubato in both vocal and instrumental music. Although modern scholarship has recognized diverse elements of cantabile, particularly in nineteenth-century opera, its signature features of ornamentation and tempo rubato remain comparatively unexplored in relation to the essential domain of piano music. Indeed, since Gerald Abraham’s landmark Chopin’s Musical Style (1939), nineteenth-century piano cantabile has most often been relegated to the status of a generic lyricism that requires no further explanation. My dissertation restores a forgotten reality, first by tracing the absorption of cantabile into French music, where it formed a natural alliance with bon goût and came to play a key role in French piano methods by leading early nineteenth-century pedagogues, and then by studying more closely the music and Parisian environment of Frédéric Chopin, who most spectacularly reproduced cantabile’s vocal qualities in an ii original pianistic idiom. The fifteen cantabile markings found in his compositions, datable between 1828 and 1846, allow a focused and penatrating glimpse of his stylistic trajectory, from brillant pianism to stripped-down simplicity and, ultimately, integration of contrapuntal density, always underpinned by the use of harmonies and rhythmic figures derived from the Polish music of his youth. As they broaden our vision of cantabile to a fundamental yet idealized style involving spontaneous embellishment and responsive rubato, these passages also refine our understanding of how melody was created and improvised in standard early-nineteenth-century performance practice, why cantabile was particularly conducive to an intersection of French and Italian style, and how Chopin’s own cantabile writing could represent the pinnacle of its adaptation to piano music. iii DEDICATION This dissertation is dedicated to anyone whose passion for learning and continuous self- transformation has led to the overcoming of insurmountable personal difficulties in pursuit of an advanced degree. It is also dedicated, with immeasurable gratitude, to the small group of individuals without whom I would not have been able to finish this Ph.D. This is for you, and I thank you. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Many thanks to my brothers, Spencer and Lincoln, for providing the financial and emotional boosts I needed throughout the taxing years spent working on this degree. I owe a great deal to my loyal friends of many years, Sara and Lura, for their unfailing faith in me, and to others I’ve encountered along the way who never stopped believing in me. My mentor Verlin Miller and piano teacher Laura Silverman have played an irreplaceable role in my personal and professional development, for which I am deeply grateful. I must thank the Embassy of France in the United States for funding nine months of research in Paris between 2009 and 2010 through the Chateaubriand Fellowship, a time that has proven to be unforgettable both personally and professionally. Florence Gétreau served as my sponsor in the Institut de recherche sur le patrimoine musical en France, located several floors down from the Département de musique in the Bibliothèque nationale de France. Librarians there were extremely helpful, and Cécile Reynaud was especially generous with her expertise, guiding me to the correct editions or versions of sought-after materials. I would not have been able to develop this topic v without the insight of David Kasunic, Jeffrey Kallberg and others, who have made themselves available to me since our meeting at the conference celebrating the bicenntenial of Chopin’s birth in Warsaw, in February-March of 2010. I am also grateful for the support provided by the Presidential Fellowship I received from The Ohio State University, which enabled me to write uninterrupted during 2012. The faculty here at Ohio State has also been an unfailing source of knowledge and stimulation. I wish to thank Arved Ashby for serving on my committee with enthusiasm and for his encouraging words about my topic. To my Advisor Lois Rosow I owe thanks for her patience while guiding me through the treacherous but glorious terrain of the eighteenth century. Finally, my advisor Graeme Boone has repeatedly gone above and beyond the call of duty to ensure my progress and to push me towards excellence as a writer, thinker, and scholar. I will always be indebted to him. vi Vita 2001, B.M., Piano Performance……………… Rice University 2004, M.M., Collaborative Piano…………….. The University of Akron 2007, M.A., Musicology……………………… The Ohio State University 2005-2009, Graduate Teaching, Research, and Administrative Assistant, …………………………………………………. The Ohio State University 2009-2010, Chateaubriand Fellowship………. French Embassy, Paris, France 2011-2012, Presidential Fellowship…………... The Ohio State University Fields of Study Major Field: Musicology Minor Field: Comparative Studies vii Table of Contents Abstract……………………………………………………………………………………………. ii Dedication………………………………………………………………………………………… iv Acknowledgements………………………………………………………………………………... v Vita………………………………………………………………………………………………. vii List of Figures…………………………………………………………………………………….. ix Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………... 1 Chapter One: Cantabile in Eighteenth-Century France……………………………………….…. 11 Chapter Two: Operatic Cantabile as Chopin Knew It……….………………………………….. 33 Chapter Three: Cantabile in French Method Books for Piano 1797-1840……..………………... 74 Chapter Four: Cantabile in Chopin: Ornamentation and Rubato…..…………........................... 135 Chapter Five: How did Chopin Use Cantabile?………………….……………...……………... 156 Bibliography: …………………………………………………………………………………... 202 viii List of Figures Figure 1. Antonio Sacchini, Renaud, Act III, Scene VIII, “Renoncez à votre haine”….. 31 Figure 2. Jan Ladislav Dussek, Concerto pour le piano-forte, Op. 70, I, Allegro ma non troppo.……………..…………………………………………….……....... 88-89 Figure 3. Louis Adam, Grande Sonate, Op. 10, II, Cantabile, Grazioso con molto Espressione....................................................................................................... 98 Figure 4. Pierre Zimmermann, Nocturne..…………...……………………………. 128-29 ix INTRODUCTION I first considered cantabile as a topic when I encountered the short, little-known piece by Chopin, penned in 1834 and marked simply “cantabile.” Research into the term revealed a surprising complexity of meanings lying beneath its apparently straightforward surface. The primary Italian, German, and French sources that discuss cantabile in opera and instrumental music between 1723 and 1840 reveal a disconnection between its original context of specific and consistently identifiable characteristics and its interpretation today as denoting a mere “lyric” style. Particularly in relation to Chopin’s music, cantabile has been viewed as a style of writing he shared with Italian opera, invoked somewhat haphazardly by scholars in reference to that evident but unqualified relationship. The task of restoring cantabile to its original meaning begins with pinpointing how and when its understanding shifted in the scholarly consciousness to its current association with generic singing melody, thus moving away from its original early eighteenth-century environment of a slow tempo, spontaneous decoration of the melody, and elastic tempo rubato in relation to a regularly moving bass. 1 Cantabile in the Literature Since the middle of the last century, scholars have usually conceived of cantabile as a self-evident, lyric style that requires no further explanation. Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, for example, contains no separate entry for cantabile, and the New Grove devotes only a single paragraph to the term.1 The only comprehensive definition I have found is in the “Cantabile” entry of the Handwörterbuch der Musikalischen Terminologie; author Thomas Seedorf covers cantabile’s diverse qualities admirably from its origin in late medieval chant until the late eighteenth century. These include Caccini’s literal characterization as well-constructed, singable melody; the quality of simple and unaffected anti-virtuosity, contrasting with the bravura, as described by Heinichen and other early eighteenth-century German writers on the art of composition; and what Seedorf calls an “anthropological” connection to the voice as the supremely natural instrument in mid-eighteenth-century France, as propagated by Blainville and Rousseau. His article concludes, however, with only a brief discussion of early nineteenth-century cantabile and does not mention its ubiquitous presence in opera or zealous adaptation to piano music between 1820 and 1850 — a period that stands out, it could be argued, as its historical zenith. Today’s partial understanding of cantabile is reflected in recent scholarship on Chopin, the result of a similar trajectory away from the precise nineteenth-century

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