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Books > Arts & Architecture > Music > Western music, periods & styles > Romantic music (c 1830 to c 1900)
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A Chord in Time: The Evolution of the Augmented Sixth from Monteverdi to Mahler - The Evolution of the Augmented Sixth from Monteverdi to Mahler (Paperback)
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A Chord in Time: The Evolution of the Augmented Sixth from Monteverdi to Mahler - The Evolution of the Augmented Sixth from Monteverdi to Mahler (Paperback)
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For centuries, the augmented sixth sonority has fascinated
composers and intrigued music analysts. Here, Dr Mark Ellis
presents a series of musical examples illustrating the 'evolution'
of the augmented sixth and the changing contexts in which it can be
found. Surprisingly, the sonority emerged from one of the last
remnants of modal counterpoint to survive into the tonal era: the
Phrygian Cadence. In the Baroque period, the 'terrible dissonance'
was nearly always associated with negative textual imagery.
Charpentier described the augmented sixth as 'poignantly
expressive'. J. S. Bach considered an occurrence of the chord in
one of his forebear's motets 'remarkably bold'. During Bach's
composing lifetime, the augmented sixth evolved from a relatively
rare chromaticism to an almost commonplace element within the tonal
spectrum; the chord reflects particular chronological and stylistic
strata in his music. Theorists began cautiously to accept the
chord, but its inversional possibilities proved particularly
contentious, as commentaries by writers as diverse as Muffat,
Marpurg and Rousseau reveal. During the eighteenth century, the
augmented sixth became increasingly significant in instrumental
repertoires - it was perhaps Vivaldi who first liberated the chord
from its negative textual associations. By the later eighteenth
century, the chord began to function almost as a 'signpost' to
indicate important structural boundaries within sonata form. The
chord did not, however, entirely lose its darker undertone: it
signifies, for example, the theme of revenge in Mozart's Don
Giovanni. Romantic composers uncovered far-reaching tonal
ambiguities inherent in the augmented sixth. Chopin's Nocturnes
often seem beguilingly simple, but the surface tranquillity masks
the composer's strikingly original harmonic experiments. Wagner's
much-analyzed 'Tristan Chord' resolves (according to some
theorists) on an augmented sixth. In Tristan und Isolde, the
chord's mercurial character - its tonal ambivalence - symbolizes
the 'distortion of reality' induced by the Magic Potion. As
Schoenberg wrote, the chord of the augmented sixth stands 'on the
fringes of tonality'. The book concludes with a discussion of the
role of the chord in the decay of the tonal system, and its
'afterlife' in the post-tonal era. This book will appeal to music
analysts by providing a chronological framework for further
stylistic and harmonic analysis. To ensure its accessibility in
graduate classes, the author includes a straightforward
introduction to the augmented sixth and its theoretical background.
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