Dual 'Urlinien' in the concerto practice of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, as demonstrated in the three concerti in E flat for horn and orchestra: K.417, K.447, and K.495.

Abstract

The term concerto has been applied to compositions written in many styles. We are left with concerti by the Gabrielis, Vivaldi, H and el, Bach and sons, Mozart, and a host of others. The common thread connecting various concerto practices is the concertato concept--the coexistence of multiple distinct sounding bodies within a single musical context. The means of differentiating these musical forces have varied considerably in accordance with changing stylistic norms. Mozart's music lies at the heart of the Classical tradition, the relative stylistic consistency of which provided much of the inspiration for the analytical innovations of Heinrich Schenker. More clearly than any other, Schenker's model of linear/harmonic structure provides a vivid picture of a composition as an organism whose constituent elements exist only in service of the whole. This dissertation provides an analytical view of selected Mozart concerti which reflects their linear/harmonic properties while conveying the distinction between forces without which a concerto movement loses its generic identity. A structural configuration is proposed which adheres to Schenkerian analytical principles, but which is stratified in such a way as to reflect the structural contributions of both participants. In each voice-leading graph, the Ursatz contains co-existing Urlinien which represent the structural activities which reside within the solo and tutti strata. The structure of each movement represents the fusion of two generically indispensable areas of activity into a single cognitive domain. The dissertation demonstrates that the activity within each stratum represents a structurally continuous motion, though the musical surface is marked by periods of apparent inactivity by one participant or the other. The horn concerti represent ideal subjects for this study, not only because of their relative compactness, but also because the participants are active in different registral areas, placing the structural activity of each stratum within a different obligatory register. Because no such registral distinction exists in Mozart's other concerti, the dissertation's final chapter examines the rondo of K.622 for basset clarinet and orchestra, demonstrating the strategies by which the generic separation between the two structural strata is maintained in the absence of such a registral distinction.