The Interaction of the Tonal-Harmonic and the Monodic Principles in the Melodicism of Anton Bruckner (by the Example of the Andante from the Fourth Symphony)

Main Article Content

Yuri K. Zakharov

Abstract

The article poses the question regarding the formation of special functions carried out by the scale degrees within the melodic line. In order to demonstrate these functions a method of qualification of the stable melodic degrees as the principal, intermediate, first and the second subsidiary, is used. It was elaborated in previous publications by the author. The object of research is formed by the primary and subsidiary theme groups from the second movement of Anton Bruckner’s Fourth Symphony. Demonstration of the balance of the stable melodic scale degrees is connected in the article with a traditional functional analysis of the harmonic system at the stage of its transition from major-minor to chromatic harmony, as well as the “post- Schenkerian” methods of harmonic analysis, which presume highlighting pitch lines of various levels of significance. As a result, there appears a trilaminar analytical model in which Bruckner’s melody appears both as an independent melody with its melodic functions and a component of a polyphonic musical texture in which individualized harmonic structures are joined together.


Keywords: mode, stable and unstable scale degrees, monody, melody, major-minor, thirds ratio, modulation, Anton Bruckner, Heinrich Schenker.

Article Details

How to Cite
Zakharov Ю. К. (2020). The Interaction of the Tonal-Harmonic and the Monodic Principles in the Melodicism of Anton Bruckner (by the Example of the Andante from the Fourth Symphony). Music Scholarship / Problemy Muzykal’noj Nauki, 41(4), 250–257. Retrieved from https://musicscholar.ru/index.php/PMN/article/view/1232
Section
Music Theory
Author Biography

Yuri K. Zakharov, Victor Popov Academy of Choral Arts Moscow, Russia

Yuri K. Zakharov, Dr.Sci. (Arts), Professor at the Department of History and Theory of Music, Victor Popov Academy of Choral Arts