CHARLES ROSEN MUSIC AND SENTIMENT YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS NEW HAVEN AND LONDONPulsed with aster te Aone Bar Lew Fd ‘opt © 2010by Chars Rosen printed in paperback2011 ‘Alig eseved. Ths book may ate eroded in wl op any fae beyond st copying pert Sections 107 od 108 ofthe US, Cope aw and ect y reviewer oe pbc pe) ou ten ‘pun Gorath pala orinfrmation sat than ote Yale UnveriyPre pubictions plate US.Ofice nlesprexayaeala,ylbookcom arope Ofc neve cok” ww glcbocke cok Sein Aro Pro by IDSUK (DatsCosecton) Lad rate Geet Bain by Hob Te inte Li Teton Hampshire ary of Congres Cataloging Pbleton Data Rosen, Cares 927 ‘Mic nd sett / Chace Ren, ISN 94-0 o0-126402 1. Meise ndash 2, Maie—Hitor and eto Lie sss. 2010 yariede2 SON 978.0:40:17803-6 (988) Actalogue econ fort bok itv om th eth Lb. 10987654321 For Kristina MuxfeldtContents LD Preface ix Prologue 1 1 Fixing the meaning of complex signs 5 Il Pre-classical sentiment 37 I Contradictory sentiments 9 IV The C minorstyle n V Beethoven's expansion 7 VI Romantic intensity 100 VIL Obsessions 116 Indes 143Preface Tins book was written feom the conviction that under- standing music does not come from memoriting an esoteric code. Many aspects of musi, ofcourse, benef froma long study, but grasping its emotional or dramatic meaning i cither immediate or equires only becoming familiar with it Understanding masicin the most basic sense simply means enjoyingit when you hea it Iis tue that with musi thats unfamiliar and seems alien at fst hearing, this requires « few repeated experiences oft and, indeed, a certain amount of good wil to risk new sensations. Its, nevertheless are that specialized knowledge is required forthe spontaneous enjoyment that i the reason for the existence of music. However, specialized study can bring rewards by allowing tus to comprehend why we take pleasure in hearing what we appreciate best, and can enlighten us onthe way music ats "upon us to provide delight “These chapters began asthe Willian atten Lectures at the University of Indiana at Bloomington inthe year 2002. *1 enjoyed my brief stay there very much, a itis one ofthe ‘mos impressive centers of the study of music, wth an aston ishing range of activity. T have been less concerned with identifying the senti- iments represented by the music than with the radical changes in the methods of representation throughout two centuries, as these changes reveal important aspects of the history of style. In addition, seeing how the sentiment is represented is more important to our comprehension ofthe than putting a name tag on its meaning. Infact, the significance of the music's sense is best clarified when we know the diferent ways that it eould be revealed. Lam deeply indebted to Robert Marshall, emeritus professor of Brandeis University, for sharing is wisdom on the subject. I owe special thanks to Professor Kristina Maatelat of the University of Indiana at Bloomington fr all her generous aid and friendship. would never have written any book after my university thesis without the stimulus and help of Professor Henri Zemer of Harvard University. I owe a great debt to Malcolm Gerratt at Yale University Press, and am very grateful tothe pres forallits encourage: ment and patience. Prologue wy Ts shakespeare’ The Merchant of Vie, act V scene 1, we ind this ‘exchange beeen the two young lover: sssica Tam never memy when Thea sweet music Lowezo"The reason your spits ae attentive ) —— ‘The opening ofthe finale of Beethoven's Emperor’ Concerto provides a splendid example of the kind of theme that isthe inspiration for this book. A completely unified theme that hangs together beautify it nevertheless portrays vividly a series of contrasting sentiments in a succession that amounts, toa small narrative:‘Thisis not always perfectly realized in performance, due to an error in the tempo marking that has taken almost two centuries to correct. The correct tempo is not simply Allegro, as most editions have it, but Allegro, ma non troppo. The slightly slower tempo is necessary to make clear the radical contrast between the rhythmically complex, heavily pedalled _ortisimo fanfare ofthe frst two bars and the simple German dance rhythm (Teutscher or Allemande) of bars 3 and 4, now soft and certainly intended to be performed with a titing _grazioso, After these four bars are repeated, athied sentiment is introduced with the indication of espresso still within the soft dynamics of bars 3and 4—in Beethoven, as in most of is contemporaries, espresvo generally implied a slight slack ening or freedom of tempo. This espressva lass for two bars and leads directly into a new and different affective atmos- phere, a more boisterous version of the simple German dance rhythm, The espresivo quickly returns: and since it is now marked crescendo, I assume that an intial retum to the ddynamic of piano is intended at fist, but the new indication of crescendo reduces the contrast with the previous bars made by the frst appearance ofthe xpresvo phrase. The orchestra at last takes over the theme, and reduces the contrast between, bars 1 to 2 and 3 to 4, playing the whole theme forte with ‘much more agitated inner voices. The graceful lilt of bars 3 and 4s now assimilated to the decisive energy of bars 1 and 2. All the expressive detail ofthe piano’s fourteen bars are reduced to a uniform fort. This overriding of the affective contrasts and oppositions within the theme is an essential trait ofthe style ofthe period.Is intriguing that such a theme that combines different sentiments with strong contrast does not exist in music before the last decades of the eighteenth century. And it largely ceases to exist after the death of Beethoven. It is then replaced by a different and entirely new kind of complexity in the illustration of sentiment, while still more novel method of representation appears at the end of the nineteenth century. The following pages examine how the change in representing sentiment in music was devel- ‘oped, and what it could mean forthe conception of music = its style and its function. In order to make the subject manageable, I shall treat ‘mainly the initial presentation ofa theme, as any extensive account of the way the meanings of motifs change in the course ofa work would carry us too far afield although ona few occasions I shall have to mention these developments brief Fixing the Meaning of Complex Signs SS Deatinc withthe representation of sentiment in music, shall not often attempt to put a name to the sentiment, so readers who expect to find out what they are supposed to feel when they listen to a given piece of music will be inevitably disappointed. Happily, however, it is mostly quite obvious. That i jolly. Sometimes itis ferocious or funereal and sometimes tender ~ and there is itl dificult in deciding what senti- rent is being represented (but somewhat later we shall discuss the rare occasion and the odd reason fora mistake to be made in our response). The frivolity of naming the sent- ‘ments arises largely from the fact ~ as Mendelssohn once famously observed ~ that music is much more precise in these matters than language. The communication of infor- imation is one ofthe most important of the many diferent functions of language, but not of music (you cannot, for ‘example, by purely musical means, ask your listeners to ‘meet you tomorrow at Grand Central Station at 4 o'clock). some music is sad and some is sHowever, language must seek out poetic methods even to approach at a distance the subtlety and emotional reso- nance of music. ‘The power of music to llustrate sentiment and to awaken emotion in the auditors has been recognized and asserted for centuries, indeed for millennia, In his copy of the 1588 citer of his sais, Montaigne added the following anecdote: Pythagoras, being in the company of young men, and sensing that excited by the festivity, they were plating to violate a respectable house, ordered the band o pla ina different mode, and by a heavy, severe and spondaic msi (that i, a poetic rhythm in which each single syllable is accented], casa spell quit sweetly over their ardor and patito sleep (Pythagoras, extant or compagnie de jeunes hommes, lesquels il sett comploter,echanffc: dela fest, dale viler une maison pudigue,commanda a la mensrée de changer de ton, par ume musique pisant, severe 4 spondaigue, enchanta tout doucement leur ardu, ct endormit) We cannot, however, expect music to be always so effective for erowd control, Shakespeare even asserts improbably (The Merchant of Venice, V, 1) that the sound ofa trumpet will calm agitated wild colts, There is, indeed, along tradition acknowledging the emotional power of music. We should remember, never- 6 theless, that directly experiencing a sentiment in life is very