Modal Prolongational Structure in Selected Sacred Choral Compositions by Gustav Holst and Ralph Vaughan Williams
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Date
2012
Authors
Francis, Timothy
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Oregon
Abstract
While some composers at the beginning of the twentieth century drifted away
from tonal hierarchical structures, Gustav Holst and Ralph Vaughan Williams sought
ways of integrating tonal ideas with new materials. By analyzing the music of Holst
and Vaughan Williams using a technique expressly designed for the analysis of tonal
musical structure—Schenkerian Analysis—this study looks at ways in which the
composers combined old and new techniques and what that means with regards to our
understanding of their music. To do this, the current study focuses on the sacred choral
repertory because it can form a stylistic bridge between nineteenth-century tonality and
the composers’ more experimental works. This repertory also provides an opportunity
for interpreting text-music connections that help us understand the music at a deeper
level.
In order to establish groundwork for the analytical methodology, I begin the
study with background information on the composers and previous research done on
their music, after which I summarize their most pertinent stylistic features (including
their use of diatonic modes and other pitch collections, their harmonic, melodic, and
contrapuntal techniques, and their formal structures). I then discuss how an analyst can determine prolongational structure in Holst’s and Vaughan Williams’s music by
establishing the tonic or pitch-class center, establishing the context for harmonic and
melodic stability, and following predictable formal patterns. Finally, I apply the
analytical methodology in detail to Vaughan Williams’s Benedicite and Holst’s The
Hymn of Jesus, two substantial single-movement choral works that represent both the
conservative (Benedicite) and experimental (The Hymn of Jesus) sides of the composers’
style. I also compare the analyses with the texts and show how the composers
portrayed religious ideas, even at deeper levels of the prolongational structure.
The modified Schenkerian analytical techniques used in these analyses show that
even though Holst and Vaughan Williams used a number of twentieth-century
compositional techniques, their prolongational structures still follow expected patterns
and closely resemble traditional structures.
Description
Keywords
Analysis, Holst, Prolongation, Sacred, Schenker, Vaughan Williams