<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Re: [Smt-talk] Subdominant</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<FONT FACE="Garamond"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:12pt'>Eytan,<BR>
<BR>
Thanks for your suggestion. Your reading is certainly possible. I am of the mind that Schenkerian readings are interpretive in the same manner as performances. What I most value about the method is its interpretive flexibility (supported by clear logic).<BR>
<BR>
I support my reading thus:<BR>
Energetically: the passage drives past the tonic (which we both agree is passing) toward the high Eb, which, to my ear, places great emphasis on the secondary leading tone (Dn) that confirms it. This sort of unbridled enthusiasm is common in Schumann’s openings. (Yes, this is a Seinfeld reference.)<BR>
Logically: Hearing the mid-phrase tonic as passing means that the time span of mm. 1-5 belongs to the IV Stufe. This opens th possibility of hearing the sonority containing Dn and F as a representative of that Stufe (through leading tone inflection and 5-6 exchange).<BR>
Narratively (if that’s a word): After the flatward intensification of the middle part, the opening returns (m. 15) with a more measured stance—the melody curtails its sweep upward, and the IV yields to I6, and we finally settle on a tonic cadence (albeit imperfect). <BR>
<BR>
(At larger level, this whole section is an auxiliary cadence, a bravura introduction to the main part of the piece.)<BR>
<BR>
Thank you again for the suggestion. Again I stress how flexible are the possibilities of the Schenkerian method. (Semper you-know-what.)<BR>
<BR>
Best,<BR>
Frank<BR>
<BR>
Frank Samarotto<BR>
Associate Professor of Music Theory<BR>
Jacobs School of Music<BR>
Indiana University Bloomington<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
On 5/17/12 8:26 AM, "Eytan Agmon" <<a href="agmonz@012.net.il">agmonz@012.net.il</a>> wrote:<BR>
<BR>
</SPAN></FONT><BLOCKQUOTE><FONT FACE="Garamond"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:11pt'>This is a very interesting point, Frank, and certainly worth considering.<BR>
I have a problem, though, with the chromatic voice exchange (NOT with the idea that IV moves to V via a “passing” I). Having this voice exchange implies that the applied V4/3 of V (m. 5, beat 3) “exists prior” to the I of mm. 4-5. But then, the applied chord seems “passing” from I to V in exactly the same way that the V4/2 of m. 3, beat 3, “passes” from IV to I6 (in fact, mm. 5-6 are essentially a transposition of 3-4).<BR>
Just a thought…<BR>
<BR>
Eytan Agmon<BR>
Bar-Ilan University<BR>
<BR>
</SPAN><SPAN STYLE='font-size:12pt'><BR>
</SPAN><FONT SIZE="2"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:10pt'><B>From:</B> <a href="smt-talk-bounces@lists.societymusictheory.org">smt-talk-bounces@lists.societymusictheory.org</a> [<a href="mailto:smt-talk-bounces@lists.societymusictheory.org">mailto:smt-talk-bounces@lists.societymusictheory.org</a>] <B>On Behalf Of </B>Frank Samarotto<BR>
<B>Sent:</B> Thursday, May 17, 2012 6:16 AM<BR>
<B>To:</B> Nicolas Meeùs; Ninov, Dimitar N<BR>
<B>Cc:</B> <a href="smt-talk@lists.societymusictheory.org">smt-talk@lists.societymusictheory.org</a><BR>
<B>Subject:</B> Re: [Smt-talk] Subdominant<BR>
</SPAN></FONT></FONT><FONT FACE="Times New Roman"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:12pt'> <BR>
</SPAN></FONT><SPAN STYLE='font-size:12pt'><FONT FACE="Garamond">Nicolas,<BR>
<BR>
Thank you for an informative—and delightfully continental---posting.<BR>
<BR>
“Mall” makes me think of “Promenade”, and that makes me think of “Carnaval” (Schumann’s, that is). <BR>
<BR>
The opening Préambule steps right into a wonderfully sonorous subdominant, so emphatic that I hear resound through the next four bars, prolonging IV (through subsidiary functional progressions) up to the chromatic voice exchange in m. 5 leading to the dominant. (The first 24 bars are nice little essay in different uses of the subdominant, especially if one take the Fb chords of the middle as representing subdominant function.) A glorious way to step out (to a carnival, not to a mall) and to prolong a subdominant for most of a phrase.<BR>
<BR>
Thus I hear it—or perhaps it is a crude error in judgment!<BR>
<BR>
Best,<BR>
Frank<BR>
<BR>
Frank Samarotto<BR>
Associate Professor of Music Theory<BR>
Jacobs School of Music<BR>
Indiana University Bloomington<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
On 5/16/12 11:04 AM, "Nicolas Meeùs" <<a href="nicolas.meeus@paris-sorbonne.fr">nicolas.meeus@paris-sorbonne.fr</a>> wrote:<BR>
I can reassure you: I never called a supermarket "un Mall", and I never met a music theorist (nor anybody, for that matter) doing so around here. We use "un supermarché" (or at times, especially in Belgium, "un shopping centre", an obvious Anglicism). Some say "un shouk", but the meaning is not exactly the same – note that department stores at times are called "Bazar" or "Bazaar". Schenker may have said "ein Kaufhaus", or "ein Geschäft", or possibly "ayn geve'lb", but the meaning is not exactly the same either.<BR>
<BR>
Note that the word "Mall" is English in origin and has been used as early as 1644, in John Evelyn's diary, in the meaning of "a public walk", from the name of the game, "pall-mall", Fr. "paillemaille", from It. "pallamaglio". I think to know that Canadian French still has "un mail" to describe a large avenue with trees. The usage of "Mall" to denote a commercial gallery does not seem to predate the second half of the 20th century (perhaps beginning with the Bergen Mall, New Jersey, in 1957). As they say, "when you've seen a shop, you've seen a mall".<BR>
<BR>
In any case, I don't feel that the purity of the concept is threatened in Europe: be reassured.<BR>
<BR>
Nicolas Meeùs<BR>
Université Paris-Sorbonne<BR>
<BR>
</FONT></SPAN></BLOCKQUOTE><SPAN STYLE='font-size:12pt'><FONT FACE="Garamond"><BR>
</FONT></SPAN>
</BODY>
</HTML>