Gaf 4623413 Chapter One (Autosaved)

7/28/2019 Gaf 4623413 Chapter One (Autosaved)

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CHAPTER ONE

Introduction

In the seventeen century, western music mostly originated from the churches,

this is the era that melodies were adapted and they were named as “theme”. Several

years later motive became a common factor that was used in music and literature

composition. Motive was part of the theme. Motive is used to refer to a music idea

that is used in the composition of the song. It is the smallest unit in the structural of a

theme.

This chapter will explore and focus on Honegger’s consistent organization of

motivic usage in his composition, and how the use of motive has been effective to his

compositions. One of the most important sources to constitute symmetry in post-tonal

music is motivic transformation, the gradual reshaping of basic pitch-interval

configuration through operations such as interval alteration, retrogression, inversion,

and rotation. In the first movement of his sonata for cello and piano in d minor, and

H32, Honegger has utilized two primary motivic formulations, used both horizontally

and vertically. One of these is the utilization of the interval of minor second and the

other is the utilization of the interval of a tritone. Both of these intervals motive work

side by side, as an importance unifying feature, which governs the movement

throughout the sections.

Motivic

A motive is an idea that is used during the composition of the music. These

are the special characteristic and traits that are adapted while composing a song. It is

the shortest subdivision that contributes to the music ideas. It is the smallest unit that



is found in the structure of a theme. A motive may contain a rhythm, harmonic or a

melodic. This depends with the composition of the note. For instance the harmonic

motive contains a series of chords that are connected to each other producing a

relevant note without the reference of the melody or the rhythm. A melody is the

formula that is used in song composition without the reference of intervals, while a

rhythm motive is a motive that is adapted from the rhythmic of the melody that is

composed.

Composition of music is based on different ideas. This means that there are

different types of motives that are used during the composition of music. This is based

on time, place, person or idea. This type of motive is commonly known as leitmotif.

Those different types of motive can be used to compose any type of song and

maintain the intended meaning. With well composed motives it is possible to come up

with the intended melody.

Honegger’s will use motives to come up with the best composition.

Honegger’s will concentrate on the use of harmonic and how to use the harmonic

chords correctly. The chords will help to identify the correct notes that will be

required in the composition of Honegger’s. There are different types of motives, but

for Honegger’s composition two types of compositions will be used, that is the second

motive and the tritones.

Motive of the second

Motive of the second is minor in the position of the intervals of two notes that

are adjacent to one another. The alteration of this notes causes semitone or the half-

step apart. The first movement begins with an opening statement in which an initial

dyad conflict of a minor second is introduced. One of the most striking features is that

an unexpected G sharp is inserted within the D minor harmony forming an initial



tritone vertically from the root D in bar one, later the G sharp is substituted by a G

natural in bar two (figure 1.1). This initial appearance of the Neapolitan relationship

begins as a departure point from which the rest of the movement will build.

Like the usual practice in the classical era, composers bring out a musical

issue at the very beginning of a piece, sometime it is a motif or a chromatic issue, and

work it out in all structural levels by development; transformation or extension until it

was consistently projected throughout the entire work. In this movement here, the

linear dimension of the initial dyad conflict first turns into a vertical one in the second

phrase by having a D flat and a D natural simultaneously on the down beat at bar four

(figure 1.2).



With the start of the transition passage, the Music turns into a contrapuntal texture by

having two descending chromatic patterns alternating between each other, on the

upper and lower part of the piano. The dyad conflict continues to influence in here,

noted that A flat chromatic pattern in the lower part, is mirror at the outer voice of the

upper part at beat two is forming a minor second apart (figure 1.3). This

configuration is

Strengthen by having exact repetition in succession and then expands in

chromatic wedge manner. The return of the opening theme at bar 10 functions nothing

more than a balancing act. Instead of moving contrapuntally, the melody now

supported by a series of dissonance harmony vertically in which we can find the

interval of second governed throughout. The presence of C and B natural at bar 14

also indicated the return of the dyad conflict and this harmonic figuration proceeded

as a chromatic sequential pattern ascending from C to D (bar 14 to 16). For

Honegger, the technique of motivic usage provided a means of achieving

compositional coherence, what he tried to do is unifying the entire structure by having

the dyad conflict in both vertical and horizontal dimension. This would help to



improve on the common compositions. The coherence of the composition would help

to make a better theme which would lead to a better melody.

The Neapolitan relationship continues to govern in second thematic area

and now Honegger try’s to structure this relationship between voices and turn it into

large-scale organization. It is noted that the second theme and the bass forms two

individual linear patterns. Both of these lines are highly chromatic constructed. The

bass outlines a chromatic ascending scale from A to G flat in bar 24 to 25 in which it

forms a diminished seventh chord in between. This diminished 7 th also contribute, a

significant musical meaning for the music in which we will discuss later in the

chapter. The most important note is that the first note of the bass line which forms a

minor second with the first note of the second theme on top. The bass line is very

important since it forms the structure of the song. It helps one to understand the

chords of the song and how to arrange them to bring out an effective sound. Honegger

emphasizes this second thematic material by having it constantly returns in different

register throughout the rest of the sections. Every time it returns, the relationship of

the Neapolitan between the first note of the bass and the first note of the melody

remain unchanged (figure 1.4).



The dyad conflict also plays a crucial role for tonal design. This is because

when dyad is played in a different manner rather than what was expected of it, this

brings about the conflict of the notes, hence it transforms the audios. Most

compositions in classical era contain at least one passage that centers temporarily on a

tone other than the tonic. While the four individual entries of the second thematic

statement play a different structural means for the music on the level of tonal design,

the presence of the bass note D sharp in the Largamente section indicates as another

significant feature against the original key D minor. In this section, a combination of

the primary and secondary theme constitutes a new thematic statement in which we

found an augmentation of the first half of the primary theme present as begin and

followed by the second thematic materials right after (figure 1.5). The D sharp in the

bass, which support this new thematic statement

from bar 83 to 94, moves down half step to the tonic D at bar 95 with the repetition

of the same thematic material on top. The dyad conflict now transform into the bass

motion within these two pitches D sharp and D

Motive of the tritone

Tritone is the music interval that its composition is containing three whole

adjacent tones. It is a unique motivic formulae, this is because it is the only motivic

that is formed using the C major scale.



Much like the motive of Neapolitan relationship described in the prior section,

augmented fourth – and tritone in general – are treated in a very similar

transformational fashion. Precisely speaking, both of these two motives are working

side by side with each other throughout. Like the interval of second and the fourth, is

also one of the most constant musical elements that Honegger uses in his music.

The first appearance of fourth is embedded within the melody of the opening

theme, one form by the interval from D to G sharp in bar one and one form by the

interval from F to B natural in bar two. These primary motivic ideas feature

prominently throughout the movement, especially the pitch of F and B natural.

This F and B natural first returns at bar 4 in the consequent phrase then the B natural

turns into a very important arrival point for the F in bar 8. In this way, an ascending

tritone recurs within the three notes pattern from F-A and A-B natural (figure 1.6).

Two augmented fourths were found in both bar one and two and they are D to

G sharp in bar one and F to B natural in bar two. These two motives continue to

govern the music in both horizontal and vertical dimension. And Honegger states

them at the very beginning to mark a departure point of its. One of the main

influences is on the tonal plan for the second theme, noted that the return of the

second theme at bar 31 remains an interval of tritone apart from its first appearance at



bar 24. The same approach employed for the return of this configuration at bar 67 and

bar 74 (figure 1.4). Something is more significant going on in here, if we put both of

these intervals together; we will find that they are forming a harmony of diminished

seventh. For instance, a C sharp diminished seventh is form by putting the B flat, E

natural, G and C sharp together. If we look back to the beginning of the opening

thematic statement and exam further, then we might understand the meaning behind

the two individual tritones which Honegger introduced in here. Another diminished

seventh are formed when combine D/G sharp and F/B natural together (figure 1.6).

This diminished seventh harmony turns out to be another significant musical

feature within the sections in the music. It dominates almost the entire area of the

second thematic material by structure the melody, the bass and the harmony.

Note that a harmony of C sharp diminished seventh forms in a melody having the

chromatic embellishment in between (bar 24-25). And the bass is outlining another

diminished seventh on a (figure 1.7).



Besides forming the diminished seventh, the motive of tritone continues to

influence on linear dimension. The ascending chromatic sequential passage occurs at

section E at bar 56 emphasizes the tritone. An A flat ascending to D outlining a tritone

before the second theme replace. Similar situation applied at bar 60 and bar 63.

Tritone effect has different importance to the success of a melody. The interval of the

triton motive is unique hence leads to more importance to the theme of a melody.

For instance the success of the dominant seventh chord while acting as the

root it contains tritonses which are represented by (d5) to construct the pitch of the

theme. Dominant seventh is not the only chord that uses the presence of the tritone.

Other several chords contain this type of motive of the success of the composition.

Other types of chords that contain tritones are the ninth chord and also the augmented

sixth chord.

The occurrence of tritones in the diatonic scales naturally helps to improve

and provides a base for the motive and the theme of the music. For instance tritones

occurs naturally in the key C major, that is it occurs naturally between the fourth and

the seventh scale degrees.



Resolution is another role that is played by tritones intervals during the

composition of the music. With the help of the tritone it is possible for different types

of chords to resolve ether inward or outward. This helps in the regulation of the pitch

and arranging them in an order that is suitable for the theme that is being composed.

Tritones are important parts of the motives, to ensure that the success of the intended

theme during the composition.

Augmented chord

Augmented chord is a chord that consist of two major thirds. It is considered

or referred as a major chord with a top note rose. For instance during harmonic

consideration a major triad such as C- E- G it contains a major third which is C- E and

a minor third G- E. with this kind of the intervals being perfect the augmented chord

is said to be sharpen hence rising to the top note.

The augmented chord differs from other kind of the chord. This is because it

does not occur naturally in the diatomic scale such has how tritones occur. This makes

it a special chord that which touches on the atonal. It mostly occurs in the tone music

where it gives the tone a perfect meaning since it does not arise naturally in the

diatomic scale.

The commonly used augmented code is the sixth augmented code which is

divided into three types. The three types of this type of code are labeled in German,

French and in Italian.



The three notes of the sixth augmented chord.

In most cases the German chord causes a lot of confusion to it users. This is

because the German looks misspelled physically, but that is the chord that resolves

the A6 dissonant interval outwards. For the Italian chord it is the only chord that has

three distinct notes. It helps to double the tone of the pitch during the composition of a

song. The French chord is similar to the Italian chord, with an addition of two more

notes that is the C major and the C minor. These tones are all contained in one tone

scale.

Diminished seventh

It is an interval or pitch that is produced by using a chromatic semitone to

narrow the minor seventh. Diminished seventh is equivalent to the major sixth. It is

commonly and mostly used in the minor keys, in a situation where it is available in

harmonic minor scale. Diminished seventh sound created from a stack of four minor

third sounds.

Diminished seventh plays important roles in the composition of different

genre of music. For instance in jazz diminished seven acts as a passing chord when it

is based on the lower third degree scale. This means that it connects the supertonic

and the median triad. It can also resolve to a major seventh chord which is a note of



the diminished seventh chord. This can lead to the lowering of the three bottom voices

hence producing a supertonic seventh.

Diminished seventh is commonly rooted as a secondary function in the natural

scales of the harmonic minor scale. This helps in the leading tone of different key

such as C where other constituents such as B and D come in the second and fourth

scale degrees.

Another common use of the diminished seventh chord is the sharpened

subdominant, is denoted by ♯ivo7. It is a chord that is commonly used in jazz and

ragtime music since it is a root of the tritone which is from the fearful effect of the

key C. it is also used in the composition of the gospel songs.

A sharp sub dominant wi th diminished seventh

There are two approaches that are used to explain the functions of the diminished

seventh. Analyzing the chord as an incomplete dominant ninth, is one approach that is

used to determine the functions of the diminished seventh root. It is represented by A

vii°7 in keys such as C minor, since they are commonly found in the minor keys. This

is applied by jazz guitarist in most cases. The other approach of diminished seventh is

where the music theorist decided to use a method known as the complex method. In

this method some of the tones for instance the leading tones are treated as the roots of



the chord. This means that the leading tones are treated as the basic notes of the

composition. The other tones of the chords are then carried as the third, fifth, and

seventh members of that chord.

Diminished seventh chord is an important element that is used in the

composition of different music genre. For instance the bass is believed to be the basic

note of every composition that is it is useful in determining the structure of the song.

The diminished seventh chord borrows it basics that is the bass from the minor sixth

degree.

Diminished seventh can be used as either a leading tone or a normal tone in a

composition. The leading tone is commonly found in the major mode. This means that

every step that is taken in the leading seventh tone it resolves to the major or minor

chord, with a basic root of semitone.

The common seventh tone one chord is based to be the common chord. The

reaming three notes moves by steps. Different chord of the seventh are held to be the

common roots.



There are different types of diminished seventh. In some cases the diminished seventh

does not act as a leading tone nor does it act as common seventh tone. This a unique

feature that this note is has. In this case the diminished seventh plays the linear role

where it skips members moving to the next sonority. While skipping to the next

sonority, it forms three different types of diminished seventh occurs, that is the

leading tone, the normal tone and the passing chord. These types of linear diminished

seventh chord are illustrated in the figure bellow.

The tone in m 45 is the leading tone in that composition, m 41 is the common

tone of that diminished seventh and m 44 is a bridge that acts the joining chord of

sonority 43 to sonority 45. This voices moves by skipping to the next three voices.

Gaf 4623413 Chapter One (Autosaved)

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