We started with chapter 30 from AHWM:  Diverging traditions in the Later Nineteenth Century.

A general impression of late 19th century paying attention to different "colours" in orchestral music.

Spotify playlist AHWM XXX 

Youtube version with score (Murray Perahia)

We payed special attention to Franck, as an example of late romantic harmony (enharmonic/chromatic) and form (cyclic, thematic and motivic developing, teleological).

Analysis: Franck - Prélude, Chorale et Fugue.

AHWM describes his approach as:

"...blending traditional counterpoint and classical forms with Liszt's thematic transformation, Wagner's harmony, and the romantic idea of cyclic unification through thematic return."

• 3 smoothly connected movments
• The labels refer to earlier times; elements of what used to be a prelude, chorale or fugue are still recognizable, the application is new
• the prelude reminds of the piano music of Franz Liszt and consists of 5 episodes with a A-B-A'-B'-A'' form
• besides the arpeggio texture several musical ideas are presented:
  5-tone motifs: stepwise ornamenting of a central tone, with tone repetition, ascending motif in (left hand)
• the musical ideas are from the beginning submitted to change
• the chorale has a clear quasi majestic pulse; material from the prelude is reused
• the connection from prelude to chorale is special: V7 in E/e to Eb, F# remains, becomes dissonant and resolves ascending to g. 3rd of Eb
• relation between keys of prelude and chorale (B-Eb): (enharmonic) mediant.
• a complete musical sentence is presented in bar 12
• there is no typical feel of a lutheran chorale (strophic)
• the bass has regularly descending scale patterns and is at times very chromatic
• there is a bridge between the chorale and the fugue (poco allegro page 10)
• this bridge anticipates on the fugue and fugue theme
• the fugue theme is very chromatic, and is also presented in inversion (page 14).
• there are episodes based on motivic material
• the first motif is coming from the epsiode from the prelude: the motif with appogiatura.
• the descending scale pattern reminds us of the chorale melody
• come una cadenza reintroduces the arpeggiotextures and the motives from the prelude and the chorale melody
• fuguetheme and chorale melody are presented together
• the overarching tonality is B: starting in minor, ending in major.
• Franck remains true to his motto ("moduler toujours")
• The coda forms an apotheosis of the piece with the descending B major scale in the bass line