First Advisor
Bellman, Jonathan, 1957-
Document Type
Dissertation
Date Created
5-1-2015
Abstract
Chorale as a genre originated in sixteenth-century Lutheran worship music, but
chorales and chorale style did not really enter the vocabulary of secular concert music as
a musical topic until the eighteenth century, as a semiotic code for ideas and feelings
associated with chorales. Although the frequency of use as well as the range of contexts
and implied meanings of chorale topic increased from the eighteenth to the nineteenth
centuries, the scholarship of topical analysis concerning chorales has been vague and
incomplete. Chorales by definition are congregational, identifying and expressing the
sentiments of a group, and their most common associations are of purity, archaism, and
of course spirituality.
When chorales are used topically, the range of their expressive perspectives
broadens considerably, and varies widely depending on the context. Chorale topic can
express a religious or nationalistic “We,” a monumental and impersonal “It,” or an
intimate and personal “I.” Within the category of “I” expressions, chorale topic can
express the irony and despair of the “I” separated from the “We,” or on the other hand,
the comfort, guidance, or transcendence of the separated “I” seeking and finding its
community or communion. Haydn was one of the first composers to regularly use
chorale as a topic in slow movements of his symphonies and string quartets. Nineteenth
century composers—Beethoven, Schubert, Meyerbeer, Mendelssohn, Chopin, Schumann,
and Brahms among others—provide examples of chorale topic of every expressive type
and in many genres, including art song, oratorio, piano sonata, duo sonata, string quartet,
symphony, opera, and piano nocturne. Because of their resonance with actual religious
practice, chorales and chorale topic remain perennially current, inherently accessible, and
easily blended with other styles and topics. Understanding the range of meanings that
chorale topic can carry is thus essential to a solid stylistic understanding and hermeneutic
competence with music of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Abstract Format
html
Keywords
Chorale; Music history; Topic theory
Extent
208 pages
Local Identifiers
Watabe_unco_0161D_10391
Rights Statement
Copyright is held by author.
Recommended Citation
Watabe, Eileen M., "Chorale Topic from Haydn to Brahms: Chorale in Secular Contexts of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries" (2015). Dissertations. 57.
https://digscholarship.unco.edu/dissertations/57