"Plays of Opposing Motion": Contra-Structural Melodic Impulses in Voice-Leading Analysis

[1] Rameau's seminal treatise of 1722 opens with a powerful declaration: the science of music is divided into melody and harmony, but, he says,...a knowledge of harmony is sufficient for a complete understanding of music (Rameau 1971, 3, editorial fn. 1).Indeed, an annotation in a contemporary copy adds that this makes a "remarkable statement: harmony and melody are inseparable" (Rameau 1971). It is a remarkable statement, especially when understood in light of Rameau's progression of the fundamental bass, the progenitor of all later theories of harmony. Rameau's cadence parfaite gathered together the contrapuntal threads of individual melodic lines and made them subordinates of, or at least co-conspirators with the root progression, which is a much more ideal concept.(1) Almost two centuries later, Ernst Kurth tried to detach melody entirely from harmony, hearing in Bach's melodic lines an unbridled energy, careening about unrestrained by the bounds of harmony (Kurth 1917). This was an extreme swing of the pendulum, but it did serve to restore an independence to melodic trajectory that had been deeply neglected since music theory turned to harmony and then form as its major preoccupations.[2] It is ironic that just as Kurth was about to burst onto the scene, another theorist was formulating an elegant new way of redressing the balance between melody and harmony. In the theories of Heinrich Schenker, harmony and counterpoint were shown to have an interdependence unprecedented in prior theory. Indeed, many would feel that the strength of Schenker's approach is precisely the weight it gives to the melodic line, that is, to the integrity of linear motion in and of itself, and, equally, to the synthesis of the linear and the harmonic.[3] Nonetheless, by the very nature of that synthesis, Schenker's theory of tonal structure privileges those melodic motions most strongly governed by harmonic progression. Indeed, that the deepest level of melodic fluency emerges as a descending motion is ultimately determined by the harmonic cadence, and is a reflection of the root meaning of cadence itself. In this aspect, Schenker is (ironically) a descendant of Rameau. However, what is not sufficiently recognized is that Schenker could place great importance on melodic directionality and impulse as independent elements, even when they run counter to the harmonic setting or to the descending trajectory of the Urlinie.[4] Indeed, there are moments when Schenker can sound a great deal more like Kurth than he would have ever admitted. An example can be found in Schenker's analysis of Haydn's Emperor Hymn. In his Tonwille essay, Schenker uses the language of energetics(2) to describe how the process of Uberhohungen (a term translated by Joseph Lubben as "superelevation") causes the upper voice to surpass the Kopfton D:The constant pressure manifested in these superelevations pushes upward to g2...from which a compensation in the falling direction is sought.This force crowns itself with the peak-tone g2, and also with the justness of the descent... (Schenker 2005)[5] Schenker goes so far as to subordinate a possible arrival of the Kopfton in measure 4 to what he calls, "the motive of the superelevation", which he regards as an essential part of this work's synthesis (Schenker 2005, 136). Later, in Free Composition, Schenker revisits this analysis, which now takes the form of Example 1b; while taking pains to distinguish a "genuine linear progression" from other melodic activity, he nonetheless highlights what he calls here "the peak tones of the diminution," and explicitly acknowledges that they do "relate to one another in a different sense."(3)Example 1. Examples from Schenkera) Free Composition, Figure 124, 2aExample 1. Examples from Schenkerb) Free Composition, Figure 120, 6a and 6b(click to enlarge and see the rest)Example 1. …