<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">Dear Vasili and List,<div><br></div><div>Thanks to Vasili for his most welcome contribution. In fact, what I might have done in the first place is to consult Sanguinetti's (as well as Gjerdingen's) book. However, I do not think Vasili's points settle the matter of Schenkerian hierarchy as conclusively as he suggests.</div><div><br></div><div>This relates with a topic that I find very interesting and have thought about recently, namely how to relate "Gjerdingenian" schemata with "Schenkerian" patterns. Their relationship is by no means simple, i.e., a certain schema does not always call for a similar Schenkerian reading. Consider Gjerdingen's Prinner, for example, which is archetypally a ^6^5^4^3 top-voice line accompanied by ^4^3^2^1 bass, the ^6 being metrically strong. Such metrical circumstances support a Schenkerian hierarchy in which the I6, usually formed by the combination of ^5 in top voice and ^3 in bass, is a passing chord (usually between IV and II7 or IV and VII6). However, there can certainly be factors that require reading the I6 as structural. Of course, one also cannot rule out certain ambiguity in this respect.</div><div><br></div><div>Similarly in the Mozart, the participation of the tonic in m. 6 in a cadential scheme does not settle the matter of its position in Schenkerian hierarchy. If we take the theme as such, I would consider the ^4^3^2 pattern in mm. 57 supported by ^2^1^7 as inherently ambiguous with respect to Schenkerian hierarchy. In the simple circumstances of the theme, one can certainly hear the I m. 6 as a genuine tonic. However, meter makes possible an alternative hearing in which this passage prolongs the II by voice exchange. What I find a really interesting compositional question is whether Mozart's variation technique involves features that support one or the other of the potential hierarchies. (Brahms's Haydn variations is a much more ambitious example exploiting alternative hierarchies of invariant scale-degree successions.)</div><div><br></div><div>The position of the ^3 in m. 6 in a 5-line also by no means settles the matter. In Schenkerian 5-lines, the ^3 is sometimes supported by a structural tonic but very often it functions as a passing note between ^4 and ^2.</div><div><br></div><div>What I find most illuminating in Vasili's post is the relationship he points out between two variant forms of cadenza lunga. Both bass line possibilities are amply used in the Mozart variations. 2716451 is, of course, in the theme and also in vars. I, V, VI, X (slightly varied), and XII, whereas 6716451 is in vars. II, III, IV, VII (varied), XI (varied). Moreover, the II9 suspension that Vasili mentions occurs in m. 5 of vars. V and VI (in var. I one might perhaps hear the high E6 in m. 4 as implicitly suspended in m. 6). Hence Mozart resorts to schemata that were generally available to composers of the time as variants of each other. The perception of them as variants would, of course, go well together with my effort to interpret them through similar voice-leading models, both involving the II scale degree.</div><div><br></div><div>Now to the question whether the variations with a root-position II in m. 5 contain a prolongation of II in mm. 57. As I already observed in my previous post, in var. I the II in m. 5 gets some emphasis through the slight tonicization, and the subsequent "I" (m. 6) is weakened by being a part of the right hand's sequential design. Of course, the right-hand figure already begins in m. 4, but I would suggest that this is sufficiently counteracted by the hypermetrical strength and tonicization of II. In vars. V, VI, and XII, the span connecting the downbeats of mm. 5 and 7 is also bound together by a unified design (in var. V somewhat anticipated in the preceding upbeat to prepare the first suspension).</div><div><br></div><div>In all these cases, I would not hesitate reading a prolongation of II in mm. 57. In vars. V and VI, the impression of the weakness of the "I" in m. 6 is particularly enhanced by the chain of suspensions that goes through it. Now whether or not one agrees with this prolongational interpretation, I hope we can agree with the observation behind it: there are several features in these variations that diminish the likelihood that the I in m. 6 is perceived as a starting or end point of a perceptual unit (relative to m. 5 and 7). In this way I hope to have given an idea of the interaction of cadential and "Gjerdingenian" schemata (if I may use that word) with other factors. A composer such as Mozart was able to give various nuances to such schemata by varying their points of emphasis and embedding their framing points into larger patterns etc. etc.</div><div><br></div><div>Olli Vδisδlδ</div><div>Sibelius Academy</div><div>University of the Arts Helsinki</div><div><a href="mailto:ovaisala@siba.fi">ovaisala@siba.fi</a></div><div><br></div><div><div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite">Dear Olli,<div><br></div><div>In response to your query about Mozart's variation...</div><div><br></div><div>The passage you cite in bars 57 is a cadential lick that Mozart and others use frequently. In this context, the tonic in bar 6 is not "apparent" but an integral part of the schema's cascading thirds in the bass (164).</div><div><br></div><div>When forming an authentic cadence, the formula's bass goes (1)6716451. For a half cadence, (1)67164#45. For an example of each, see the K466 concerto, first movement, bars 4144 and 121124, respectively (in D minor and F major).</div><div><br></div><div>The pattern is a species of what Italian musicians called a <i>cadenza lunga</i> (long cadence) in the eighteenth century (see e.g. Giorgio Sanguinetti's <i>Art of Partimento</i>, p. 109). This cadence, like other <i>cadenze lunghe </i>(of which there are many),<i> </i>is really a concatenation of two bass patterns: (<i>do</i>)<i>latido</i> and <i>dolafasoldo</i>. See the first example in the attached PDF.</div><div><br></div><div>The middle tonic here is a cadential fulcrum, of sorts. In Schenkerian terms, your "apparent tonic" also occurs at the midpoint of a 5-line. In other words, the two patterns that make up the <i>cadenza lunga </i>also correspond to two third-progressions (GE, EC) that bisect the larger line in the top voice. (This 5-line is of course a central feature of the "Maman" theme.)</div><div><br></div><div>You may be onto something, however, regarding a suppressed ii chord in bar 5: not a ii6/4, but a ii9/3. This <i>cadenza lunga</i> often begins not with 6 in the bass but with 2, resulting in a partimento formula called the "down a third up a step" (and vice versa), <b>271</b>6451 (usually preceded by 1 or #1). This formula is frequently harmonized with alternating 9/3 and 6/5 chords: see the second and third examples in the attached PDF as well as Sanguinetti, p. 150, Example 9.45d.</div><div><br></div><div>Examples of this pattern are ubiquitous in the literature.</div><div><br></div><div>Hope this helps...</div><div><br></div><div>All best wishes,</div><div>Vasili</div><div><br></div><div> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Myriad Apple'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: medium; "><div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Myriad Apple'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: medium; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Myriad Apple'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: medium; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Myriad Apple'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: medium; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Myriad Apple'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: medium; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div></div><div><br></div>Vasili Byros<br>Assistant Professor, Music Theory and Cognition<br>Northwestern University<br>Bienen School of Music<br>711 Elgin Road<br>Evanston, IL 60208<br><br></div><div></div></span></div></span></div></span></span></div></div></span></div></blockquote></div><br></div></body></html>