Harmonic Analysis of Three Arias in John Adams’s Nixon in China (Part 2)

            As Timothy Johnson demonstrates in his book, Adams avoids the traditional functional harmony in favour of chord progressions than can be approached with a Neo-Riemannian harmonic language. He uses chords, both triads and sevenths chords, to represent the emotions of the characters and the evolving attitude of the characters towards each other. To avoid discussing too much of the plot, I will focus solely on the music, and not the text. Adams uses non-functional chords in such progressions that it mimics functional harmony. In certain sections some chords can be called the functional tonic and dominant, while in others, chords serve as different levels of “terraces”, either stepping up tension or releasing it. As with all theories, there are a few holes in Johnson’s analysis of Nixon in China, some of which will be addressed to the best of my ability. I do not believe that Adams composed with this “system” in mind, mostly because it hasn’t been invented yet when he wrote the opera; the theory attempts to fit music, just as grammar attempts to fit language. Some things just do not fit neatly within the Neo-Riemannian context.

Click here to view the Score and Flowchart

Notes for “News has a kind of mystery”

            The first aria, Nixon’s aria “News has a kind of mystery” starts on an Ab major triad. For ten measures (mm. 374 – 386), this chord remains before changing to an F minor chord, a relative transformation. Since this is a basic transformation, I consider is a “non-tension” movement. In the Johnson book, he talks about how the Ab and the Fm are from separate hexatonic systems, but I think that the systems are good for categorizing the different transformations, just not so good at analyzing the chords that are a part of the systems. The “set up” not only makes little sense contextually, but also, more importantly, make little sense aurally. The sequence sounds, in a functional way, like I – vi (and to iii when it moves to Cm later). These two chords are all basic transformations from Ab major, and therefore should considered mere colourations of the “tonic” or what I’m going to call “home” triad.

            In mm. 409, the Ab triad goes through a leading tone and then a parallel transformation, a complex transformation, into C major. This, followed by a crescendo, sounds to me like a real chord change, into a new tonic, effectively making the Ab major triad the tension chord resolving into the C major. The C major then goes through another LP transformation into E major, and C becomes the new tonic before finally going to the new home centre, F minor and Db major. From E major to F minor, the chord goes through a SLIDE transformation, keeping only one note constant. This always sounds like a modulation to me. The system of keeping a home centre around two or three chords continues in this aria, and modulations or tension building occurs on compound transformations.

            Section F (starting mm. 542) has a curious section that uses a new technique to achieve tension. Bichord dissonance set in contrasting registers. I can only describe this section as a flowing tension and release, as the chords are connected by many complex transformations. This does not fit with the Neo-Riemannian understanding of the rest of the aria, and I believe that is why Johnson did not include this section in his analysis. There is another section like this one at measure 616, which Johnson just wrote “transitional section” and moved on. The bichords Abm/Db into Bbm/Gb are true non-functional chords, that only adds colour to the melodic line, which stays solely in Db major. The chord change only then occurs in mm. 553, at the F#m chord. From that point onwards, the Fm chord at mm. 560 only serves to reposition the melody. Then the C#m add major 7 chord melts into Ab+ and Ab, which is the home of the next section. I believe Adams wrote this section to colour the existing melody. The F#m at mm. 553 heightens the tension before falling back to “home” at the Fm chord. Then, the C#m add major 7 is the real climax of this section, falling twice, first halfway to the Ab+, losing the bass note, and then finally back to Ab major. Adams uses tension as levels, not tension and release, which will also appear in the next aria.

Notes for “I am the wife of Mao Tse-tung”

            “I am the wife of Mao Tse-tung” uses the dominant and subdominant transformations. A dominant transformation changes a minor chord into its “tonic” as if the chord was the dominant, for example, Bbm into Eb. The subdominant transformation does the opposite.

            Although we have not seen 7^th chords yet, in this aria, they serve as an added layer of suspension, usually played by a separate instrument than the rest of the chord. The A section of this aria has a Neo-Riemannian section, where the voice leading makes conventional sense. The Bb to Bbm to Eb7 to Ebm goes though parallel transformations at the major to minor switch, aurally sounding like a depression to scare you into the dominant which is actually more of a IV sound to me. The pull is still from the Eb (IV) to the Bb (I) and not, as you would probably have guessed a V to a I, Bb to Eb. The basic transformation of the major to minor, is still only a colour change.

By the end of the aria, during the instrumental coda (mm. 961-end), the chords D7, E7 and the home chord, Bb are used to represent different levels of tension. The D7 and E7, both only sharing one note with Bb serve as tension towards the Bb home chord. Since E7 also has a tritone relationship with Bb, it sounds more jarring in relation to D7. In addition, the way the bass always starts on the 1 of the chords during this section makes the D7 sound like it wants to move to the E7, and in turn, to Bb. Therefore, it can be said the D7 serves as a subdominant function chord, and the E7 and Bb serves as dominant and tonic.

A quirk of Adams in this aria that we haven’t discussed yet is at mm. 832, the dominant sound of the Bb chord, with the E7 chords. The tritone distance makes the E7s sound very jarring, and it can be seen as a secondary dominant to the “resolution”: a Gb chord at mm. 852. This isn’t a V-I though, Adams still steps down to it, through a P and L transformation, after the high note. This climax, you would think, needs a climatic harmony to compliment it., but with the transformations, Adams “side steps” your ear, and modulates into a new “home”. This technique of stepping down into a resolution happens very often throughout the entire, and often at traditional cadential points.

Notes for “I am old and cannot sleep forever”

            I am going to diverge once again from the Johnson. He analyses this aria from the melodic solo line and then moves to describe the function of the bichords and how they serve to harmonise the very dissonant melody. I do not believe that the bichords serve a function in this aria. There is a background dissonance from the lower half of the bichord, that being the chord on the bottom, the lower range, serves no functional purpose. When listening to it, all the “dissonance” that Johnson has analysed sounds only like noise, and not additional notes of the chord. In addition, the bichords share many of the same notes as the main chord, and it can be viewed as extensions. Basically, the bichords colour the melody. Therefore, we can analyse the A section as three distinct colours, without tension between the three. E minor, G# minor and C minor are used to propel the melodic line along, but the shared common tone doesn’t allow for, at least from what I can hear, much tension and release.

            The C section, at the tail end of the opera, uses Eb+/Cm chords, or just a C minor major 7^th chord as the “home” chord. And honestly, I cannot figure the rest of it out. From mm. 907 to the end, just the last couple of bars, I really don’t know what Adams was trying to achieve. We know that the opera is ending, and that Chou En-Lai is struggling with his insomnia and his legacy. The muddy mess of colour and chord that populate the final few bars of this opera sound just like that. No function, no purpose, just… noise? It’s still a mystery.

Additional Notes

            For the flowchart, I decided to just mark the flow of the chords out with the form and sections marked in, since there’s very little cadential action in these arias. In addition, I did not use roman numeral analysis for these arias since that would make very little sense harmonically, due to the whole lack of traditional functional harmony.

            There are still some sections in the flow chart that doesn’t make functional sense. The A prime section in the capo of “News has a kind of mystery” where the E half diminished chord moves to the F# minor then to the D of the B prime section makes little sense to me. I labeled it “transitional period” but that’s just to sidestep writing nothing there. The quartal chord throws me off. And so does the 7^th chord since I’ve been ignoring the 7^th chords in general. I think quartal theory and a deeper dive into the newer papers on 7^th chord in a Neo-Riemannian context will be helpful to understand Adams’s compositional technique there. Of course, the very last section of the opera is still foggy to me. And then there’s the transformations. I have found that basic transformations sound little like real functional chord changes, but then then question arises on what counts as chord function. I have always labeled a chord as the “home” or tonic, but that’s just the chord that begins the aria and therefore, what I start analysing on. Then, perhaps, just like Johnson’s theory, this one is also kind of wrong and kind of wonky at certain areas. Things don’t always fall in place in a functional context, like I thought it would. And unlike a scientific paper, I’m not going to try to make the data fit my erroneous hypotheses.

Minimalism and Word-Setting in Act I Scene II of John Adams’s Nixon in China (Part 1)

Minimalism and Word-Setting in Act I Scene II of John Adams’s Nixon in China

            Nixon in China has helped shape contemporary opera from its premiere in 1987. John Adams’s use of minimalism in his own style mixed with the sophisticated libretto of Alice Goodman makes for a uniquely American, distinctive musical experience. In Act I Scene II, Nixon meets Mao and the two titans of history clash, sharing their political and philosophical opinions. The libretto written for this historical event touches up on various events relevant to that era, and to the meeting. The music accentuates the text and adds subtext, namely, how the characters are feeling and where they want to convey to the other party. This paper will focus on the intersectionality of the text and the minimalist music - how Adams uses his unique compositional techniques to set the text.

Introduction

On the Libretto

            Peter Sellars came to John Adams with the idea to write this opera in 1982 or 1983, and finally started work on the project in 1985. Joined by Sellars’s classmate Alice Goodman as librettist, the opera premiered in 1987 at the Houston Grand Opera. Goodman, well-versed in classical poetry, wrote a libretto that was, as Adams put it, “beyond what was usual in an opera”.[1] This libretto is what interests this paper. Goodman had it all and she could, “…move from character to character and scene to scene, alternating between diplomatic pronouncement, philosophical rumination, raunchy aside, and poignant sentiment.”[2] The libretto in Act I Scene II, contains the best of Goodman’s writing. She takes the original conversation, and rewrites it, into a drama that holds the audience’s interest, without diving deep into specifics.[3] A close look at how she frames the characters, their emotions, and all the little references to history and politics concern the body of this paper.

On Adams’s use of Minimalism

            Nixon in China sounds little like other operas of this style. Compared to such works by Phillip Glass and his opera Akhnaten, or even works by the great minimalist Steve Reich, and it is easy to see that Adams has a unique voice, his own flavour of composition. Unlike Glass, where the music dominates the text, Adams’s musical ideas follows very closely to the text, to the extent that his music will often change suddenly to mirror a change in the characters emotions or the emotion of the scene. Adams shifts away from other American minimalists to write Nixon in China, incorporating both the text and the music as driving plot forces. Adams says in an interview with Thomas May, “I needed to find a musical language that could contain my expressive needs, a language that was formally and emotionally much more malleable, much more capable of a sudden change of mood, one that could be both blissfully serene and then violently explosive within the same minute.”[4] Adams achieves this by rejecting “classical” minimalism.[5] Instead, he uses Neo-Riemannian transformations to quickly change the harmony without adhering to traditional progressions or, in the case of other minimalists, to avoid staying on the same chord for too long.[6] The Johnson book also talks about the use of metrical dissonance in the opera, but it is a topic that is rather simple to understand, and it will be explained in the discussion when an example surfaces.

            Johnson quickly describes the necessary information to understand his analysis for Nixon in China. There are three basic Neo-Riemannian transformations.[7] All three transformations take a triad and changes a note in the triad to alter the quality. The Parallel transformation, denoted by the symbol ‘P’, shifts the 3^rd in the triad by a semitone, while keeping the fifth constant.[8] Basically, a major chord turns into a minor chord and vice versa. The Relative transformation keeps the major third in the triad constant, while moving the other note by a step. It is easier to think of it as its name: going to the relative major or minor. For example, from C major to A minor is a relative or ‘R’ transformation.[9] The final basic transformation is the Leading-tone transformation. Hold the minor 3^rd in the interval constant while moving the other note by a semitone. Since the note moving will always be to the, or away from the leading tone of the major triad, the name makes sense. A C major triad transforming to an E minor one would be an example of ‘L’ transformation. Johnson also speaks to the ‘SLIDE’ transformation, which can be obtained with an ‘LPR’ combined transformation, applying the basic ones in that order.[10] This will be used to turn a major chord into a minor chord a semitone higher.

Analysis and Discussion

            There are two recordings of this opera. The first, with the original cast, conducted by da Waart, and the second, with a new cast conduced by Alsop. Both of which have six tracks for Act I Scene II. This analysis will not use the recording structure or use the structure that is given by Adams in his score with double bars. The libretto is also difficult to create narrative since this scene is rather stagnant in action. Therefore, this analysis will attempt to be linear and mention measure numbers, with the specific edition of the score I am working from included in the bibliography.

            The scene opens with the orchestra playing bichords, a G minor in the upper voice and a G major in the lower voices. Occasionally, a G pedal rings out in the low brass and a bass drum hit. This represents the tension in the room, and the anxiousness that the characters feel leading up to this moment.[11] Adams’s use of bichords, especially dissonant ones represent tension in this scene, for he doesn’t compose tonally and use harmonic tension as other composers do. The idea of functional tension drives all music, and Adams uses various techniques to recreate it without functional harmony.

MAO
I can’t talk very well. My throat...

NIXON
I’m nearly speechless
with delight just to be here.[12]

            Nixon and Mao begin to converse. Mao and his three secretaries sing the first line. Mao, nearing the end of his life and suffering from congenial heart failure, loses the full use of his voice.[13] The three secretaries serve two roles here. The first is to shift our perspective to Nixon, which is listening to Mao speak, while his “back-up singers” sing over him, distorting Mao’s voice and making him harder to understand, therefore putting the audience in Nixon’s perspective.[14] The second is more historical. Since Mao had to use a translator, the secretaries translated Mao’s words in real time, and it made it difficult for Nixon to hear what the secretaries were saying while the Chairman gave his next idea. Nixon responds, and in his first iteration of “speechless”, he sings a falsetto note, a B flat above middle C, to represent his voice cracking from his excitement. He then sings it twice again, correcting himself. Winds flutter as a common motif, above the constant eighth note bass, to represent the anxiety that goes through Nixon’s mind. This motif is played the last time, at measure 58, after which the initial awkwardness is overcome. We see a pattern in the first couple of lines, Adams uses pitch to set words, since he cannot rely on harmony. Pitch as a minimalist compositional technique will come up often, as Adams uses higher pitch for excitement and tension, and low pitch for calm. 

MAO
We’re even then.
That is the right way to begin.
Our common old friend Chiang Kai-shek
with all his virtues would not look
too kindly on all this.
We seem to be beneath the likes of him.
You’ve seen his latest speech?

NIXON
You bet.
It was a scorcher. Still, he’s spit
into the wind before, and will again.
That puts it into scale.
You shouldn’t despise Chiang.

MAO
No fear of that.
We’re followed his career for generations.
There’s not much beneath our notice.

CHOU
We will touch
On this in our communiqué.[15]

            Mao’s next lines soars high into the tenor range, from “We’re even then…” to “…he likes of him.” This is a sign of his still present strength even though he seems weak on the outside. Adams uses the heldentenor, of which Mao is cast as, to sound both loud and stressed in that higher tenor range. The pair then talk briefly about Chiang Kai-shek, before Chou En-Lai cuts them off short with “We will… communique”, since this was only the initial greeting, and photographers were still in the room.[16] Adams uses metrical dissonance, a technique that basically shifts the measure over an eighth note to create either a syncopated or polyrhythmic feel. Since all the music was on the beat before Chou’s interruption, Adams uses the sudden change into a foreign rhythm to accent Chou’s words, effectively silencing Nixon about Chiang Kai-shek.[17]

Adams uses mimicking lines between Nixon and Mao to convey their connection during conversations. In measure 69 to 77, Nixon sings a quarter note triplet rhythm and Mao copies, connecting “You shouldn’t despise Chiang” and “No fear of that”, mirroring a connection between their thoughts, that Mao knows exactly what Nixon is thinking about and follows up.

MAO
Ah, the philosopher! I see
Paris can spare you then.

KISSINGER
The Chairman
may be gratified to hear
he’s read at Harvard.
I assign all four volumes.

MAO
Those books of mine aren’t anything.
Incorporate their words
within a people’s thought
as poor men’s common sense and try
their strength on women’s nerves,
then say they live.

NIXON
The Chairman’s book enthralled
a nation, and have changed the world.

MAO
I could not change it.
I’d be glad to think that in the neighborhood of Peking
something will remain.[18]

            Adams gives stage direction to have the leaders sit down. Mao now speaks to Kissinger, to whom he makes a reference to his travels to Paris. Paris will come up later in the libretto as well, but this refers to his previous meetings with Chou, which occurred in Paris.[19] When Mao sings “philosopher”, his melodic line jumps an octave, signifying his excitement, for Mao himself considered himself a philosopher. The harmony stays constant on E flat major chords. Mao’s next lines about his books are very interesting and shows Adams’s compositional voice. After Kissinger attempts to impress the Chairman with his assignment of his books, Mao sings over dissonant chords, breaking away from the E flat major continuity. It can be argued that Mao dismisses the assignments since it is not enough for his works just to be read by students. He wants them to be “incorporate[d]… within a people’s thought”, for his words to be read by the masses and for Americans to actually follow them in their daily lives. This is disappointing to Mao, and the dissonance, first of its kind in this mini scene, draws the audience’s attention to his words. Nixon then tries to flatter Mao, and a C dominant 7^th chord harmonises his line, a chord somewhat distant to E flat major, needing a PR transformation and only sharing one common tone (ignoring the 7^th), and brightens Nixon’s melodic line, but Mao returns to the dissonance of his previous line, lamenting about his change being restricted to Beijing. This previous section is a watered-down version of a Neo-Riemannian chord progression that we will take a look at in the next paragraph. The PR transformation, as a compound transformation, represents a big shift in the characters, and that is realized when Mao sings. The dissonance and the consonance are precursors of the tension and release of larger forms, as we will see in Chou’s mini aria. 

CHOU
You’ve said
that there’s a certain well-known tree
that grows from nothing in a day,
lives only as a sapling,
dies just at its prime,
when good men raise
it as their idol.

NIXON
Not the cross?[20]

            Skipping ahead to the next compositional technique as the beginning covers most of the normal techniques that Adams uses throughout this scene, we will now be looking for unique passages that highlights word-setting above the simple ways he uses in the first hundred measures.

            Chou, in this scene, tries to describe the concept of liberty as he understands it. Nixon, fully misunderstands, and tries to relate his analogy to Christianity.[21] Although this is humorous, this section actually has cadential form, and it can be looked at on how this philosophical text is set to a sort of “Adams-esque” chord progression. Chou’s short aria of two phrases follows a typical progression that can be described with Neo-Riemannian transformations. Starting off in D minor, a PL transformation takes it to F# minor. These two chords just change the colour of the melody since they have no tension notes. Then a reverse transformation occurs (LP), and we stay on D minor long enough to set up the next chord, a bichord with a F major triad in the upper voice and a B flat minor triad in the lower.[22] This bichord is tension. Chou sings the word “nothing” and Adams sets this phrase very well, since that is the important word in the sentence. The other important word, “tree” is set on D minor, which, looking at this phrase in a traditional sense, is the pre-dominant chord. Instead of using those terms though, I propose that tension can be looked at in steps in the Neo-Riemannian sense. The F# minor chord, our “tonic”, would be level zero on the tension scale. The D minor chord, only slightly different from the F# minor, can be called level one. This chord sets up the bichord, which due to its huge amount of tension, we can call it level two. Then, Adams cadences the phrase on a F# minor triad, returning us to zero. The second phrase is much the same, allowing the important word to go on the “level 2” chord, in this case “idol”, and cadencing on a transformation back to the lease tensioned chord. Here, Adams pulls out the aria style writing to create not only importance on certain words, but also to create structure in the line, to make the audience know that this is a whole idea, and not many short, unjointed ones. The use of three chords with varying levels of connection serves as functional chords in this passage.

MAO
We no longer need Confucius.
Let him rot... no curse...
Words decompose to feed their source...
Old leaves absorbed into the tree
to grow again as branches.
They sprang from the land,
they are alike its food and dung.
Upon a rock you may well build your tomb,
but give us the earth, and we’ll dig a grave.
A hundred years and ears may press hard
to the ground to hear his voice.[23]

            A caesura opens this chorus of Mao and his three secretaries. They sing in unison rhythm, in tight harmony. Mao is annoyed at Nixon’s slowness to understand his words. Mao, in the previous text, talks about how the Chinese is departing from the views of the past, no longer worshiping the ancestors and instead, worshiping the living people. Nixon doesn’t get it, instead wondering if he means Confucius, in which Mao explains, powerfully, that the Chinese no longer need Confucius. The libretto, written here as flowing prose, speaks to the philosophy of Mao. Adams sets this in huge block chords, formed by the chorus. Here, the tension comes from the orchestration, the large doubling of voices works as a great alternative to harmonic tension in minimalistic writing. This becomes even more true in measure 681, where a bichord harmonies the word “dung”, the height of this section. Bass trombones blast the bass line of the C minor chord, while oboes and trumpets squeak out C major ideas, creating this environment of tension that only resolves itself with a “modulation” (SLIDE transformation) into E flat minor.[24]

Concluding Remarks

            To avoid traditional harmony, and to compose in the Adams style, he uses unique techniques to set the libretto, and create audience engagement with the text. His use of tension through dissonance is seen through his use of bichords, acting as pseudo dominant chords, for “resolutions” to the “tonic”. He also creates tension with pitch and orchestration. Cadential lines, used though long passages where traditional composers take advantage of leading tone tension, Adams uses Neo-Riemannian transformations to simulate functional harmony and therefore create word stress. Finally, Adams uses metrical dissonance to draw the attention of the audience towards a certain character or line of text. It is due to these advancements in this opera that Nixon in China is a glowing example in minimalistic word setting, and an opera that advances modernist opera into the 21^st century.

Bibliography

Adams, John. Hallelujah Junction. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008.

Adams, John. Nixon In China. London: Boosey & Hawkes, 1994.

Johnson, Timothy. John Adams’s Nixon in China: Music Analysis, Historical and Political Perspectives. Surrey: Ashgate Publishing, 2011

Lord, Winston. “Mao Zedong Meets Richard Nixon, February 21, 1972.” USC US-China Institute, April 1, 2004. https://china.usc.edu/mao-zedong-meets-richard-nixon-february-21-1972.

Mann, James. About Face: A History of America’s Curious Relationship with China, from Nixon to Clinton. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1999

May, Thomas. “John Adams Reflects on His Career.” In The John Adams Reader: Essential Writings on an American Composer, edited by Thomas May, 22. Pompton Plains: Amadeus Press, 2006.

Schwartz, David. “Postmodernism, the Subject, and the Real in John Adams’s Nixon in China.” Indiana Theory Review 13, no. 2: 112. Accessed November 25, 2021. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24046021

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[1] John Adams, Hallelujah Junction (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008), 136.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Winston Lord, “Mao Zedong Meets Richard Nixon, February 21, 1972,” USC US-China Institute, April 1, 2004, https://china.usc.edu/mao-zedong-meets-richard-nixon-february-21-1972.

[4] Thomas May, “John Adams Reflects on His Career” in The John Adams Reader: Essential Writings on an American Composer, ed. Thomas May (Pompton Plains: Amadeus Press, 2006), 22.

[5] Ibid. Classical minimalism in the style of Reich entails slow and unchanging harmonies and the lack of distinct melody, opting for systematic composition to drive the piece.

[6] Timothy Johnson, John Adams’s Nixon in China: Music Analysis, Historical and Political Perspectives (Surrey: Ashgate Publishing, 2011), 8-12.

[7] Ibid. Adams uses both basic and compound transformations in Nixon in China, connecting the classical style of minimalistic writing with the new. His use of basic transformations (sharing two common chord tones) is closely connected to what early minimalists would have written to move their compositions along, while using SLIDE and other compound transformations is what separates his work from the earlier group.

[8] Ibid., 9.

[9] Ibid., 10.

[10] Ibid.

[11] Ibid., 54.

[12] Text from m. 36 to m. 46.

[13] Ibid., 53.

[14] David Schwarz, “Postmodernism, the Subject, and the Real in John Adams’s Nixon in China.” Indiana Theory Review 13, no. 2: 112, accessed November 25, 2021, http://www.jstor.org/stable/24046021.

[15] Text from m. 46 to m. 80.

[16] Johnson, 55.

[17] Ibid., 56.

[18] Text from m. 80 to m. 120

[19] James Mann, About Face: A History of America’s Curious Relationship with China, from Nixon to Clinton (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1999), 35.

[20] Text from m. 288 to m. 310

[21] Johnson, 171.

[22] Ibid., 173.

[23] Text from m. 644 to m. 704

[24] Johnson, 178.

Additive Interpretation in Schubert Lieder

The term "additive interpretation" is quite literal in its meaning. As opposed to traditional interpretation, where the performer changes tone, tempo, dynamics, and style to personalize his performance, additive interpretation adds notes that the composer has not written to a performance to make it different. While this style of interpretation and performance is common for Handel or Purcell, most performers play, or in this case sing, Schubert as Schubert notated. And yet, there are some rather "unusual" recordings of Schubert lieder with ornamentation.

This recording of Julian Prégardien and Els Biesemans performing the song cycle "Die Schöne Müllerin" is a great example of additive interpretation. Both the singer and the pianist, the pianist on the fortepiano, adds ornamentation to Schubert's original score. I want to explore two ideas here: did Schubert ever want this kind of ornamentation to be "added" to his music, and the more important question, does it sound good?

To answer the first question, we must look into the history of the performance of Schubert lieder. A great paper written by the late Walther Dürr talks about the relationship between Schubert and the singer Johann Michael Vogl. No one can discuss Schubert lieder performance without mentioning Vogl. Their professional relationship can almost be compared to Britten and Pears decades later, although without extending their relationship into something more "personal". Nevertheless, Schubert admired the way Vogl sung and so did Vogl enjoy Schubert's music; many of Schubert's lieder were written with Vogl in mind. Therefore, it can be safe to say that a Vogl performance is as close as we can get to how Schubert would sing his own lieder. In Dürr's paper, the musicologist takes a very close look at different songs in Vogl's many Singbücher, where Vogl wrote down his embellishments for Schubert's songs. He would alter the melodic line only, adding notes or shifting where the text would go on which note. None of his alterations would be drastic enough to change the shape of the line, but sometimes it is hard to tell just how simple the original was. The closest example I can think of is form reduction for Schenkerian analysis. If Schubert wrote simple melodies that just included chord tones, Vogl would "jazz it up" with all sorts of embellishments, but still coming back to the melody notes when it was needed. Dürr also talks about the difference of embellishment between strophic songs and "dramatic" songs. In strophic songs, he says, the text drives the melody. A good singer should change the feel of the individual verses, for the music cannot. Take a listen to the first song in "Die Schöne Müllerin" from the video above. Prégardien sings each verse differently and ornaments them differently too. The first two verses he sings clean, then with each additional verse, he changes the dynamics and, more importantly, adds ornaments in the shape of turns, appoggiaturas, and filling in the melodic line. In the fifth verse, he turns the second phrase around, inversing the melody and the pianist changes her score too to match his melody alteration. This is a refreshing take on the first song in this cycle; nearly all other recordings never dare change the sacred writings of Schubert and the result is a dry and often unmusical performance. But I digress. Saving the opinion for the next section, Dürr also writes about "dramatic" songs, or basically anything that isn't strophic. His writing stays the same, but emphasises that there should be less ornamentation used to vary the text: words should "pop" out of the texture when it is required. Text drives the music, and not the other way around. Taking this in mind, what do you think Schubert what have wanted, being such a big fan of poets such as Goethe?

Therefore to answer the question simply, Schubert would not have opposed additional ornamentation in his Lieder. In Dürr's paper there is a quote from Schubert himself in a letter written to his brother:

"The manner in which Vogl sings and I accompany, how we appear in a given moment to be united into one, is something quite new and unheard-of for these people."

The ornaments that Vogl added in his performanced did not bother Schubert and it seems that he has found them to enhance his music.

From 1865 onwards (Dürr), this style of vocal ornamentation fell out of fashion and less and less performances of Schubert embellish the melody. In the now, it was rather hard to find a version of "Die Schöne Müllerin" that is performed using historically informed performance: to my knowledge the video above is the only version of "Die Schöne Müllerin" performed with ornamentations, with a fortepiano. I don't know why, but it seems that the historically informed performance movement has not taken over the Schubert lieder world as it has taken over the baroque one. Perhaps, and I hope that this is the beginning to a new era of Schubert performance that recognizes the importance of embellishment in lieder, and that new recordings can be made, unique in each one. Ornamentation sounds good, breaks monotony, and makes Schubert sound like how Schubert intended.

Sources Cited: 

Dürr, Walther. “Schubert and Johann Michael Vogl: A Reappraisal.” 19th-Century Music 3, no. 2 (1979): 126–40. https://doi.org/10.2307/746284.

Introduction to Adams' Nixon in China (Part 0)

This opera has captivated all my musical attention for a good part of this year. I started listening to it after accidently finding it on YouTube during a binge of Glass's opera Akhnaten and realised that there were more minimalist operas other than Akhnaten. Nixon in China does something that most operas just cannot do for me: keep my attention span. The libretto is actually well written, and the arias make sense to the story without dragging the runtime. It's excellent English-language opera in the 20th century that appeals to a wide audience. That's its best feature, by the way. The fact is that most people that enjoy classical music will enjoy this opera. This is solely due to its strong roots in tonality. Composers, you don't need to write in an atonal stream for your opera to be taken seriously. Atonal music sucks.

The music in Nixon in China is what keeps making me come back. As opposed to traditional composers writing harmonically focused music, Adams takes rhythm and meter to the foreground and focuses on it, slowing the harmonic rhythm that traditional composers would use to drive interest in their music. It's hard to count how many times I've listened to this opera. There's always something new to discover on every listen through. How he sets the text in such thoughtful word painting that each word makes total sense in the context of the music, even when he's working with the most basic harmonies and melody. How he creates form with just two or three chords and the audience can still organize the songs in their head on their first listen through. Adams creates an atmosphere to his music that is easy to follow, easy to enjoy, and honestly, easy to analyse. And it sounds so good.

It's hard to put how good this opera is into such little words. In the next couple of weeks, I will analyse various sections of Nixon in China that exemplifies the style and character that Adams writes in. Namely, the aria "I am the wife of Mao Tse-tung", and how melody contrasts with form and harmony to avoid monotony in minimalism, the opera in an opera, and how Adams changes how he composes for the "communist/foreign" work, and The Chairman Dances, which although not from the opera itself, are pieces in the same style. The orchestration of The Chairman Dances is phenomenal.

Adams shows that modern tonal operas lead the field (along with Glass) with minimalism, and not whatever atonal composers are doing. At least that's my most honest opinion. I hope you will join me in finding great joy listening to Adams' most popular opera.