Enharmonic Paradoxes in Classical, Neoclassical, and Popular Music.

Abstract

This dissertation explores the role of enharmonicism as a boundary point between diatonicism and chromaticism through the analysis of pieces from different time periods and genres. Enharmonic paradoxes are defined as moments when certain pitch classes are spelled one way to relate diatonically back to a previous key and another way to relate diatonically forward to a new key, which is usually not diatonically related to the first. Though a pitch that is reinterpreted enharmonically can have both a diatonic approach and resolution, its presence forces a shift into chromatic space. Such moments reveal the radically chromatic potential of the diatonic system of tonality, an issue explored throughout the dissertation.

The first movement of Beethoven’s Piano Sonata in F minor, op. 57 (“Appassionata”) is used as a case study to examine previous analytical approaches to enharmonicism, each of which either privileges the diatonic or the chromatic. The current study, instead, strives to emphasize the interplay between the two in the analysis of enharmonic paradoxes.

A method for determining the exact moment of an enharmonic paradox and explaining its origins is presented in this study. Through the analyses of the first movement of Beethoven’s “Appassionata,” Fiona Apple’s “Extraordinary Machine,” the second movement of Poulenc’s Piano Concerto, and C.P.E. Bach’s Fantasy in C major, Wotquenne 59/6, the dissertation explores how common harmonic characteristics emerge that may be associated with enharmonic paradoxes: mode mixture, semitonal and chromatic mediant relationships, and the weakening of tonic through competition with rival keys. Thus, enharmonicism is shown to arise from both diatonic and chromatic sources.

The dissertation concludes with a systematic examination of the enharmonically paradoxical pitches available between any given pair of major and minor keys. This final chapter opens a door to further research into enharmonicism for an even wider range of pieces than is represented in the current study.