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The first movements of Bruckner's third, sixth and seventh symphonies : a moment-by-moment approach to form

University of British Columbia

To date, there has been mixed success in explaining Bruckner’s idiosyncratic style, and new methods are needed to explore his compositional techniques. This dissertation proposes an alternative way of studying the music, by examining the small, moment-to-moment gestures and changes in three first movements from his symphonies. The primary focus is on Bruckner’s manipulation of individual motivic, rhythmic, textural, and harmonic elements that create continuous shifts of tensions at the small-scale level, which sustain the expressive impact of the music. Instead of the teleology of traditional sonata form, these individual moments combine to create an overall dynamic flow in a larger, coherent structure described by Ernst Kurth’s theory of symphonic waves. Additionally, the phrase numbers Bruckner inserted in the autograph scores provide evidence of his organizational intentions. Of the works examined, the first movement of the Third Symphony (chapter 2) comes closest to a standard sonata form, but still displays Bruckner’s unique voice. The movement does not follow Hegelian conceptions common to symphonies by composers like Beethoven, but rather unfolds according to its own devices; the rhetoric is instead one of ebb and flow. The Seventh Symphony (chapter 3) moves further away from sonata form, with the tonal shifts in the first movement not creating drama as typically expected. Dynamic development is impelled by motivic processes rather than by the kind of tonal design that typically supports sonata form. Finally, the Sixth Symphony (chapter 4), long thought of by many as Bruckner’s most conventional use of sonata form, is instead one of the least standard, displaying freer unpredictable variational sections. Continual shifts from one motive or topic to another, ambiguous harmonies, and the wave structure all demonstrate that conceiving of the movement’s structure in terms of sonata form is insufficient. Bruckner managed to develop a highly distinctive style that, when properly understood, reveals his innovation and creativity.

Text

2015-08-27

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 Canada

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/54669

Music

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/ca/