Umbra Music in the Eighteenth Century: Context, Style and Signification Volume 1 Clive McClelland Submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of PhD The University of Leeds - School of Music March 2001 The candidate confirms that the work submitted is his own and that appropriate credit has been given where reference has been made to the work of others VOLUME 1 Contents Acknowledgements i Abstract Abbreviations iii Chapter 1 Ombra as a phenomenon in 20th-century musicology 1 Chapter 2 The place of ombra in 18th-century aesthetic theory 12 Chapter 3 Tonality 26 Chapter 4 Harmony and line 48 Chapter 5 Tempo and rhythm 83 Chapter 6 Texture, dynamics and instrumentation 121 Chapter 7 Case studies (theatre music) 139 Chapter 8 Sacred music 158 Chapter 9 Case studies (choral music) 189 Chapter 10 Instrumental music 198 Chapter 11 Ombra after Mozart 209 Endnotes 218 Bibliography 234 Appendix A 240 VOLUME 2 Contents EXAMPLES FOR CHAPTER 7 Handel Admeto (1727) 1 Hasse Cleofide (1731) 7 Jommelli Vologeso (1766) 17 Gluck Don Juan (1761) 30 Gluck Otfeo ed Euridice (1762) Act I, Scene 1 (opening) 35 Act II, Scene 1 (bars 1-292) 38 Orphee et Euridice (1774) Overture 73 Act I, Scene 1 86 Act II, Scene 1 (bars 1-478) 103 Mozart Thamos, Kiinig in Agypten (1776, rev. 1779-80) 170 Salieri La grotta di Trofonio (1785) 181 Gazzaniga Don Giovanni (1787) Duel Scene 214 Cemetery Scene 232 Supper Scene 251 Mozart Don Giovanni (1787) Overture 294 Duel Scene 318 Cemetery Scene 325 Supper Scene 329 EXAMPLES FOR CHAPTER 9 Handel 'He sent a thick darkness' Israel in Egypt (1738) 340 Linley, Ode on the Spirits of Shakespeare (1776) 344 Haydn Missa Cellensis (?1766) `Qui tollis' 350 'Et incarnatus' 361 Mozart Mass in C minor K139 (?1768) 'Kyrie' 371 'Qui Totlis' 374 `Crucifixus' 378 Reutter Requiem (1753) 'Requiem acternam' 383 'Dies irae' 386 `Juste Judex' 390 `Domine Jesu Christe' 393 Mozart Requiem (1791) `Confutatis' 397 `Lacrimosa' 403 `Domine Jesu Christe' 405 Mozart Litaniae de Venerabili Altaris Sacramento Setting 1(1762) `Tremendum' 409 'Viaticum' 414 Setting 2 (1772) `Tremendum' 417 'Viaticum' 425 Setting 3 (1776) `Tremendum' 429 'Viaticum' 444 EXAMPLES FOR CHAPTER 10 Haydn Seven Last Words (1785) 449 Mozart Masonic Funeral Music (1785) 456 Haydn Symphony No. 75 in D (c.1780) 469 Kraus Symphony in C minor (1783) 472 Mozart Symphony No. 36 in C (1783) 478 Mozart Symphony No. 38 in D (1786) 481 Acknowledgements I am very grateful to the following for their help in the completion of this study: James Webster and Marita McClymonds for providing me with pre-publication versions of articles; Melania Bucciarelli for the loan of her thesis on seventeenth-century supernatural scenes in Italian opera; Klaus L. Neumann of WDR Köln for a copy of Act II Scene 15 of Hasse's Cleofide; David Coronet for the provision of recordings and scores of several eighteenth-century operas and oratorios; Dr. Maxine Mott for translating substantial passages of Abert's NiccolO Jommelli als Opernkomponist; Mrs. Evelyn Lee for helping with translating passages of the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung; Fr. Peter Allan for advice on liturgical texts; Martin Lawrence for explaining some of the complexities of eighteenth-century horn notation. Many of my colleagues in the Leeds University Music Department have been helpful and encouraging in all sorts of ways, and to my supervisor Prof. Julian Rushton I owe an enormous debt of gratitude for his wisdom, scholarship and patience. Dr. Richard Rasta11 was also most helpful during Julian's sabbatical. Without the dedicated work of two Leeds music students, Ian Sapiro and Nicki Bracey, this study would not have been completed on time or in a fit state to read. They have put many hours into preparing music examples and helping assemble the material in the final stages, and their cheerfulness in so doing helped me to maintain my equilibrium. Finally I must thank my family, who have had to make many sacrifices during the past six years, and especially in the last few months. My wife Pat has been completely supportive and practical throughout, and she above all must take credit for my having completed this task. Clive McClelland Leeds University 29th March 2001 ii Abstract Ombra is a term which has been used for an operatic scene involving the appearance of an oracle or demons, witches or ghosts. Such scenes can be traced back to the early days of opera and were commonplace in the seventeenth century in Italy and France. Operas based on the legends of Orpheus, lphigenia and Alcestis provide numerous examples, extending well into the eighteenth century, including works by Jommelli and Gluck. Hermann Abert applied the term to certain accompanied recitatives by Hasse and Jommelli. Ombra scenes proved popular with audiences not only because of the special stage effects employed but also because of the increasing use of awe-inspiring musical effects. By the end of the eighteenth century they had come to be associated with an elaborate set of musical features including slow sustained writing (reminiscent of church music), the use of flat keys (especially in the minor), angular melodic lines, chromaticism and dissonance, dotted rhythms and syncopation, pauses, tremolando effects, sudden dynamic contrasts, unexpected harmonic progressions and unusual instrumentation, especially involving trombones. Parallels can be drawn between these features and Edmund Burke's 'sublime of terror', thus placing ombra music in an important position in the context of eighteenth-century aesthetic theory. Music incorporating ombra elements gradually began to appear outside opera, such as in oratorios, in parts of mass settings (especially requiems) and in instrumental music, most frequently in slow introductions to symphonies. Ombra therefore provides a source for topical references for many composers. Mozart especially used the ombra style in his operas (e.g. the Oracle in ldomeneo, the Statue in Don Giovanni) and his instrumental writing (the slow introduction to the 'Prague' Symphony K504). Haydn's 'Representation of Chaos' in The Creation incorporates several ombra characteristics, as do the introductions to symphonies by Krommer and J.M. Kraus, among others. iii Abbreviations CW Complete Works DTO Denkmaler Tonkunst in Osterreich ECNRS Edition Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique EECM Early English Church Music FOSEC French Opera in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries OHS German Handel Society GSW Gluck Saintfiche Werke FIHA Hallische Handel Ausgabe JHW Joseph Haydn Werke KASS Kritische Ausgabe Samtlicher Symphonien MB Musica Britannica MMS Monumenta Musicae Svecicae MW Musikalische Werke NG2 New Grove 2" edition NGDO New Grove Dictionary of Opera NMA Neue Mozart Ausgabe PSE Purcell Society Edition SKB Stiddeutscher Kirchenmusik in Barock CHAPTER ONE Ombra as a phenomenon in 20th-century musicology. The views of Abert, Ratner, Allanbrook and Moyer. A model of characteristic ombra features. The aim of this chapter is to survey the writings of several twentieth-century musicologists in order to arrive at a fuller understanding of the term ombra. It is not a term that appears to have been in use in the eighteenth century, although writers of the time were evidently aware of the phenomenon.' The more recent writings on the subject deal with ombra as a topical reference in music of the Classical style. It will be seen that ombra shares several characteristics with other styles, but that there is a strong argument in favour of regarding it as a distinct style because of the unique way in which these characteristics are combined. Although opinions differ as to what constitutes an ombra reference, there is sufficient evidence to make a working definition possible. The earliest use of the term ombra would appear to be by Hermann Abert in his book Niccole Jommelli als Opernkomponist, published in 1908. Examining the influences on Jommelli's style, Abert identifies the operas of Johann Adolf Hasse as significant, especially Cleofide (1731), which is mentioned as particularly important because of its 'higher dramatic standards' .2 He goes on to discuss the accompanied recitative at the end of Act II, in which the despairing princess Cleofide 'hears the howling of the Furies and sees a vision of the bloody ghost of her beloved Poros.' Abert points out that this scene is absent from Metastasio's original libretto, and that it was inserted at Hasse's instigation, thus affording him the opportunity of composing recitative which is 'declaimed in a masterly way, and with an orchestral part which is executed with extraordinary boldness...' .3 According to Abert, this type of accompanied recitative at the end of an act was widely imitated, especially by Jommelli. Such scenes he designates as `Ombra-Szenen', and he notes that they were earlier employed in Venetian opera as well as by the Neapolitan librettists.4 At various points later in the book, Abert examines ombra scenes in operas by Jommelli.5 He evidently considers the status of the term ombra to be important since it appears in the index with references to all the relevant scenes, but nowhere is there an explicit definition of ombra, although his examples provide more than enough evidence for it to be regarded as a distinct field. In attempting to define more precisely the characteristics that might pertain to ombra music, it is necessary to turn to Leonard G. Ratner's book Classic Music, in which he identifies a number of musical topics associated with the Classical style. 6 He makes a distinction between what he calls 'types', which are essentially dance forms, and 'styles', 2 which tend to be smaller-scale figures which are representative of different ideas. In this latter category Ratner discusses fantasia style as follows:7 The fantasia style is recognized by one or more of the following features - elaborate figuration, shifting harmonies, chromatic conjunct bass lines, sudden contrasts, full textures or disembodied melodic figures - in short, a sense of improvisation, and loose structural links between figures and phrases.