Third-Relations as Structural Elements in Book II of Liszt's "Annees De Pelerinage" and Three Later Works (Schenker, Chromaticism, Tonality).

Abstract

Tonal practices in Liszt's music represent stages in an evolu-tionary process that result in a continuity of tonal development linking eighteenth- and twentieth-century procedures. Employing theoretical principles developed by Schenker, the pieces of the Annees de Pelerinage Book II and three later pieces are examined. A three-stage evolution is illustrated, and the role of third-relationships within it is demonstrated. This evolution begins with tonic-arpeggiating I-III-V-I progressions, wherein there is a correlation between the harmonic and contrapuntal dimensions (a procedure typical of eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century diatonic tonality); proceeds through equal divisions of the octave by successive third-relations, wherein there is a dichotomy between these dimensions (a procedure characteristic of nineteenth-century chromatic tonality); and concludes with equal divisions of the octave by successive third-relations that also unfold an augmented harmony, wherein the correlation between harmonic and contrapuntal dimensions is restored (a procedure most typical of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century tonal practice). Early stages of this evolution are found in the pieces of the Annees de Pelerinage Book II. In these pieces, third-relations of various types play both conventional and unconventional roles. They play conventional roles within contrapuntal prolongations of other hierarchically more structural harmonies, replacing or embellishing plagal progressions, and function as structural harmonies within I-III-V-I progressions. Through mixture (central to the development of nineteenth-century chromatic tonality), successive equal third-relations play unconventional roles forming either incipient equal divisions of the octave, which occur when the inclusion of a prominent penultimate dominant requires that the preceding successive thirds be considered as embellishing an underlying tonic-arpeggiating progressions, or true equal divisions of the octave that function as self-sufficient prolongational progressions when the penultimate dominant is omitted or replaced, leaving the successive thirds as the basis of tonal organization. Three later pieces, the Faust Symphony, Movement I, "Blume und Duft," and "Die Trauer-Gondel I," illustrate later stages of this evolu-tion. In these pieces, successive third-relations produce true equal divisions of the octave that serve as underlying structures, which, in these and other pieces of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, replace conventional progressions as the bases of tonal organization.