Mozart's harmonization exercises for Barbara Ployer.
Item
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Title
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Mozart's harmonization exercises for Barbara Ployer.
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Identifier
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AAI9946210
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identifier
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9946210
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Creator
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Park, Christopher William.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Joel Lester
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Date
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1999
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Education, Music | Music
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Abstract
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This dissertation examines the harmonization exercises in the slender manuscript containing the extent portion of lessons that Mozart gave to Barbara Ployer in 1784. The first part recounts the historical information regarding the manuscript, then proceeds to establish the order in which the exercises were completed. The evidence suggests that Mozart began the lessons with a series of diagnostic tasks from which he determined Ployer's level of ability. I suspect that having found Ployer deficient in a number of areas, he directed her to some remedial exercises, before commencing with the more challenging work of setting a bass to a melody.;The second part investigates the nature of recurring material in the melodies themselves. It appears that this material forms part of larger contrapuntal and harmonic structures that I call voice-leading paradigms. I define each paradigm and show where and how they appear in the exercises. One paradigm in particular resembles Riepel's Fonte, and appears in the harmonization exercises in places analogous to those in his Anfangsgrunde . Schenkerian graphs indicate that the structural function of the paradigms varies from one appearance to another. I argue that Mozart purposely designed the exercises with these paradigms in mind so that Ployer would begin to recognize them and set the melodies accordingly. Throughout, the dissertation reveals that Mozart was aware of structural hierarchies and that he made some attempt to communicate them to his student.;The third part establishes a vocabulary, based primarily on the work of Rameau and Koch, that Mozart might have used as he explained to Ployer the process of how to harmonize a melody. The evidence suggests that Mozart may have recommended an approach similar to that described by Rameau's in his Traite, in which the given melody is examined for progressions that suggest the imitation of different types of cadences.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
