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<jats:p>Nicolo Paganini (1782-1840) has long been viewed as an emblem of virtuosity, his music heard, if at all, through the variations and adaptations of other composers. This historical neglect and the Paganini mythos notwithstanding, the twenty-four Caprices, op. 1, published in 1820, establish his place as a serious composer whose innovations must be considered in any assessment of early Romanticism. In the Caprices, two voices seem to speak. The first is lyrical and draws on the vocal and operatic roots of PaganiniÕs musical upbringing. The second I have labeled the questive voice. Romanticism is an aesthetic of distance; the questive voice is a means of traversing the immensity that is the one essential feature of early Romanticism in its incarnations. This immensity manifests itself in the wide registral space opened and explored in the Caprices; in the motivically driven, asymmetrical construction of many passages found therein; and in the extensive harmonic reach of many of the Caprices. This article presents close readings of Caprices nos. 1, 2, 4, 9, and 10, drawing on Schenkerian methodologies and work by Ratner, Caplin, and Burnham to articulate the lyrical/questive dichotomy and interplay between technique and expression in these singular works by a singular composer.</jats:p>

<jats:p>In this essay, I explore historical and theoretical issues germane to an understanding of an 1885 piano composition with an intriguing title: LisztÕs Bagatelle ohne Tonart--a bagatelle "without tonality" or "without a key." After briefly describing the workÕs history and musical associations with other compositions by Liszt, I survey two present-day approaches that reveal ways in which the work defies tonality: octatonic interpretations via set-class examinations, and Schenker-influenced prolongational models. I then turn to focus instead on how the Bagatelle fit within the framework of nineteenth-century musical thought; how its processes were supported by contemporaneously evolving theories of chromaticism. Partly through an analysis based on the practice of Gottfried Weber (1779-1839), I demonstrate that the Bagatelle is not a piece "without tonality" as much as it is one "without the fulfillment of the tonic." It maintains harmonic tension by avoiding anticipated resolutions, as well as by preserving a sense of ambiguity as to what the actual "missing" key is. Next, I consider why Liszt was prompted to write a piece in such a manner. We know that he was a proponent of musical progress--of Zukunftsmusik ("music of the future")--but for this fact to be relevant we must confirm, first, that Liszt had definite ideas about a Zukunftsharmoniesystem; and second, that such a system is reflected in the processes exhibited by the Bagatelle. I argue that the BagatelleÕs traits are indeed in accordance with theoretical views about musicÕs future direction, to which Liszt subscribed. Relevant theories of Karl Friedrich Weitzmann (1808-80) and Fran&amp;#x8d;ois-Joseph F&amp;#x8e;tis (1784-1871) are assessed. Lastly, in a "Schoenbergian epilogue" I explore connections between LisztÕs operations and SchoenbergÕs ideas, addressing historical associations that conjoin their views of composing "ohne Tonart."I conclude that the 1885 BagatelleÕs attenuation of tonality was part of a tradition that extended from the mid-nineteenth into the early twentieth century--one that stretched from Liszt and his contemporaries through Schoenberg and his pupils and beyond, embracing along the way the theoretical prescriptions of Weitzmann, F&amp;#x8e;tis, and Schoenberg himself. The various threads of theory and analysis explored in this article contribute to an understanding of the same strand of musical evolution: the increasing circumvention of tonality to the point that a piece could be written "ohne Tonart."</jats:p>

<jats:p>In recent years, discussions of narrative in music seem to have fallen into decline. This circumstance might register the effects of the strong stances taken by a few influential writers in the early 1990s regarding the extent to which music can be understood as narrative. This article shifts focus to a different concern, the extent to which music can be related to narrative metaphorically. Using narrative as flexible conceptual framework, it considers Charles IvesÕs The Unanswered Question, a piece whose foundational narrative impulse few would dispute. The central narrative aspects include compositional techniques particular to the twentieth century, such as reordered chronologies and the layering of seemingly independent material. These features suggest comparison with various aspects of narrative structure and narration in literary and filmic narratives. The comparison suggests new ways of conceptualizing IvesÕs music, showing how new techniques intersected with narrative forms, and it suggests that a broader case could and should be made for the continued utility of narratological approaches to music of many different kinds. Particular attention is given to IvesÕs short programmatic note of the early 1930s. The existential program, as expressed through this text and amplified by the music, intersects with the language, imagery, structure, and worldview conveyed in Ralph Waldo EmersonÕs poem The Sphinx and IvesÕs "Emerson" essay from Essays before a Sonata. These connections strengthen the notion that both the program and the music were creative reactions to EmersonÕs writings and that some protoversion of the 1930s program existed in Ives mind on composing the 1908 version of the piece. Seeing the presence of Emerson behind IvesÕs original conception of The Unanswered Question helps us to understand the origins of the distinctly narrative aspects of the work and suggests other potential narratives besides the familiar one offered in IvesÕs note.</jats:p>

<jats:p>Certain anomalous events in the history of Franz Schubert's family raise the possibility that he and his family inhabited a more tumultuous and conflict-ridden domestic universe than has been suspected. Among these are a series of painful losses in his mother's early life, the out-of-wedlock conception of Schubert's eldest brother, Ignaz, and Ignaz's subsequent omission from a schedule of heirs to some family property, along with his extended relegation to the lowly post of assistant teacher for more than a quarter century, until the death of his father, Franz Theodor Schubert, in 1830. In the background of these anomalies is the young Franz Theodor's unexpectedly rapid rise to prosperity in his profession, in which he and his sons had the decisive support of Bishop Josef Spendou, Vienna's superintendent of elementary schools, who was regarded as their "benefactor." Spendou's remarkably extensive devotion to the family's interestsÑincluding supplying a "scholarship" for Ignaz and a valued schoolteacher's post for young FerdinandÑopens for inspection several possibilities--that he may have been Ignaz's biological father, and that he and Schubert's parents may have entered into an arrangement whereby he furnished material and professional support to them in exchange for their raising his son as their own. Ultimately, when Franz Theodor died, Ignaz became the sole inheritor of the family's prosperous school, perhaps thereby closing the circle of pledges and obligations that bound Bishop Spendou and the Schuberts together. Left unexamined here are the potential reactions of Schubert and his siblings to their presumed knowledge of these veiled arrangements.</jats:p>

<jats:p>Mussorgsky's Sunless cycle is aesthetically and stylistically an anomalous member of his oeuvre. Its notably effaced, pared-down, and withdrawn qualities present challenges to critical interpretation. Its uniqueness, however, renders it a crucial work for furnishing the fullest possible picture of Mussorgsky as a creative artist. The author of its texts, Golenishchev-Kutuzov (whose relationship with Mussorgsky at the time of its writing possibly extended beyond the platonic) has been identified by recent scholarship as an essential "eye-witness" for those to whom Stasov's populist characterization of the composer does not ring entirely true. Golenishchev-Kutuzov believed that in Sunless Mussorgsky first revealed his authentic artistic self. According to Golenishchev-Kutuvoz, Mussorgsky regarded his signal achievement in Sunless to have been the eradication of all elements other than "feeling." In other words, he had thrown off the stylistic shackles imposed by the aesthetics of realism and relied entirely on intuitive harmonic invention as the sole conveyor of a purely subjective, "affective" meaning in the cycle. This hypothesis forms the point of departure for an investigation of select numbers of the cycle. Analysis reveals that the affective aspect is not the only significant element operative. Alongside remnants of the realist style, there is evidence, of varying degrees of subtlety, for a knowing use of symmetrical pitch organization. Mussorgsky not only adapted the usual referential attachments of symmetrically based chromaticism--typically found in Russian operas of the second half of the nineteenth century--he also, through extremely simple but effective means, synthesized the "intuitive" harmonic and "rational" symmetrical elements of the cycle's pitch organization so that the latter emerges seamlessly out of the former. This remarkable synthesis ensures the cycle's uniformity of tone while also allowing for a reading that extends beyond the generally affective to the symbolically more specific. This symbolic level of reading offers several interpretative possibilities, one of which may refer even to the relationship of the poet and the composer. Irrespective of such potentials for interpretation, the most significant achievement in the cycle remains the synthesis of the intuitive/affective and rational/symbolic elements of its organization. Songs 1, 2, 3, and 6 of the cycle are considered in detail.</jats:p>

<jats:p>Beyond Maurice Ravel's 1910 score, the remnants of the original production of Daphnis et Chloe--one known stage photograph, an assortment of studio photographs, seven known costumes, brief reviews, anecdotal memoirs, and a bundle of pastel drawings--constitute choreographer Michel Fokine's 1907 scenario. These materials are scattered across the globe, preserved in libraries and museums in Russia, Sweden, France, England, and the United States. They compose less a ballet, even the archival detritus of a ballet, than a haunting absence. This article assembles all of these materials in an assessment of the differences between Ravel's and Fokine's conceptions of Hellenic antiquity. The discussion focuses on the draft and revised versions of the literary scenario and the draft and revised versions of the finale of the score, cast in 3/4 and 5/4 meter respectively. The ending of the article offers brief remarks on the music-dance relationship in the original and two subsequent productions of the ballet.</jats:p>