Topical Content in Mozart's Keyboard Sonatas

Author(s): Leonard G. Ratner

Source: Early Music, Vol. 19, No. 4, Performing Mozart's Music I (Nov., 1991), pp. 615-619
Published by: Oxford University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3127924
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 Leonard G. Ratner

Topical content in Mozart's keyboard sonatas

I shall consider here the role of topical content in composer
the to etch sharply with figures that are neatly and
rhetoric of Classic music, using Mozart's keyboard sona- closely spaced, to spin out a rhetoric that is essentially
comic
tas by way of illustration. The term 'topic' here signifies a and witty in its underlying tone. This attitude is
subject to be incorporated in a discourse. A topic canembodied
be particularly in the rapid shifts of topic, of
affective stance, that are so often heard in late 18th-
a style, a type, a figure, a process or a plan of action. Top-
ics can be intra-musical-elements of the language of
century music. Wilhelm Fischer characterized Classic
music-or extra-musical taken from other media of music as incorporating contrast on the smallest scale.' A
biting
expression. The connection between these two aspects of comment on an aria of Paisiello in 1778 is ad-
topical content has a long history. dressed to the prevailing Italian penchant for mixing
Music, in its relationship to the temporal arts- topics. The writer, Goudar, says:
poetry, drama and choreography-has been something I have analysed an aria of the famous Paisiello. I found a great
of a chameleon, if not an actual parasite. Throughoutand
itsfiery imagination in the first phrase; in the second, this
history Western music has repeatedly been taken upcooled
by noticeably; in the third he introduced a disorderly, jan-
the language and theatrical arts as a means of inten-gling noise; in the fourth he made an unpleasant modulation;
sification, to elevate and sustain the effect of the word orthe fifth was entirely from another world; the rest was in
and
theitusual Italian fashion, and upon a very fine text by
gesture. But as music joins with word or gesture
Metastasio.2
gradually incorporates its own syntax, its idiomatic elab-
orations to the point that the word or gesture is absorbed
A wide range of referential materials was available to
Classic composers. These materials formed part of a
into the play of musical rhetoric, especially in extensions
and elaborations. The actual presence of the 'host' (that
musical language understood by composers, performers
and listeners, and constituted a vast thesaurus of'words'
is, the word or gesture) disappears, but its configuration
remains in the contour and the form of the music-a and 'phrases' from which anyone could draw. In this
process comparable to the shape that is given to the fin-
thesaurus we find every level of dignity, from the highest
ished jewel in the lost wax process. to the lowest styles; every locale, from the church to the
This back-and-forth process, in which music is bor-countryside; every degree of specificity, from descriptive
pictorialisms (such as Turkish music, battle music and
rowed and then takes over, finally to be simplified once
again when it becomes too elaborate, has taken place pastoral
a musettes), to characteristic dances, general.
number of times-in plainsong, in medieval polyphony, affective stances, and even small figures that had gestural
in the Renaissance motet and madrigal, and in Italianprofile.
opera of the 18th and 19th centuries. These processes These spectra of associations represented the 18th-
bespeak apt connections between music and other century trend toward codification, toward the ordering
media of expression, both in syntactic ways and in the
of materials and processes, putting them into clear and
sense of what is being communicated. The influencesaccessible arrangements for ready use and immediate
work in both directions-from the image, gesture or understanding. Among the codes listed in critical and
idea to musical syntax and vice versa. That is, musical
theoretical writings we find rhetorical systems, affective
syntax can enhance the word or gesture; on the other stances, locales of performance, degrees of dignity,
hand, the suggestion or the implication of the image, characteristic styles, genres, key and chord relationships,
word or gesture can give colour and enriched content to
poetic metres, and, very significantly, the identification
musical syntax. and explanation of ornamental figures that themselves
The syntactical make-up of Classic music lends itself
had gestural and motivic relevance.
aptly to the interplay of musical processes and topical The theatre was the chief venue for the matching of
references. In the Classic style, the precise trim of caden-
word and gesture with tone. For dramatic truth such
tial formulas, rhythmic groupings, clear articulations,
matching was obligatory. Music without words model-
transparent textures and orderly key schemes allow leda itself to a great extent upon music of the theatre-

EARLY MUSIC NOVEMBER 1991 615

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arias, dances and ensembles-even recitatives. Edward
Dent wrote of this trend:
What the Germans were aiming at in their harpsichord sonatas
(the same could apply to fortepiano music) was the reproduc-
tion for domestic consumption of those wonderful Italian
arias which every Italian soul could hear as often as he liked but
which rarely came the way of the music lover north of the
Alps.3
Dent's reference to keyboard performance can be
applied to the role that the fortepiano played in the life of
the later 18th century. The fortepiano, a domestic instru-
ment, was a complete ensemble in its own right. It often
served as a surrogate for the large ensembles of the the-
atre, church and chamber. It brought the greater outside
world of music into the home, but did so with a differ-
ence. Whatever the tone quality of a specific fortepiano
may have been, it did not match the richness, the full-
ness, the sustaining powers of voices or orchestral
instruments. Thus, it had to compensate with lively
action for what it lacked in full body or sound. When the
fortepiano takes up stances that are modelled on the-
atrical attitudes, it tends to touch upon them briefly and
succinctly, creating (particularly in the music of Mozart)
a kaleidopscopic continuity. The effect is analogous to
cartoon sketching as contrasted with full-colour,
filled-in art.
This flexibility implies a degree of control over the
declamation by the keyboard performer which surpasses
that of performers in ensembles. The fortepiano player
truly rules the action, is answerable only to himself or
herself in matters of interpretation-tempo, dynamics,
ornamentation and nuances. Thus, the fortepiano was a
quintessential locale for the play of topic.4
In many movements of his keyboard sonatas Mozart
delineates a specific topic in the first few bars. Apart
from the minuets that are designated in the titles-the
second movement of the Sonata in E flat major, K282,
and the second movement of the Sonata in A major,
K331-we can recognize minuet style in the first move-
ment of the Sonata in F major, K280, and the second
movement of the Sonata in C major, K545. Other topics
(to name a few) include the gavotte of the third move-
ment of the Sonata in D major, K284, the siciliano of the
first movement of the Sonata in A major, K331, the hunt-
ing fanfare that begins the Sonata in D major, K576 and
Turkish marches in the Sonatas in A minor and A major,
K310 and K331, respectively.
Somewhat less specific, but still strongly suggestive of
their topical content are the first movements of the
Sonatas in D major, K284 and K311, which take up the
616 EARLY MUSIC NOVEMBER 1991
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scintillating, busy manner of the Italian opera overture.
Also in an orchestral vein, the first movement of the
Sonata in C minor, K457, suggests a symphony in a seri-
ous vein as it alternates bold tutti figures with legato
song-like figures in pathetic style; perhaps this opening
phrase group became a model for a similar opening
statement in the Jupiter Symphony written four years
later. A few measures later in this movement the fore-
tepiano hints at a solo concerto layout as it answers the
opening tutti figure with a tirata in the brilliant style.
The opening measures of the sonata in E flat major,
K282, evoke the style and texture of a wind serenade. Dis-
tributed throughout the sonatas are gigues, German
waltzes, contredanses, sarabandes, an occasional polon-
aise or bourree, passages in the singing style, the brilliant
style, the stile legato and the fantasia style-all of these
well known stances or styles in Mozart's time.
Further, we can include specific figures-appoggiat-
uras, tiratas, arpeggios, suspensions, turns, repeated
notes etc.-in the theatrical climate generated by the
constant presence of topical content. These short figures
take on topical character as postures, as gestures that
carry affective value. They enter the discourse as subjects
that surround the more sharply delineated topics.
In ex. 1, the exposition of the first movement of
Mozart's Sonata in D major, K284, there many shifts of
topic, more than 20. No topic is given more than a few
bars; each is sharply etched, set in high relief by juxtapo-
sitions and by contrasts in texture and melody. The top-
ics themselves are drawn from various parts of the
thesaurus-scoring, melodic styles and figures, charac-
teristic bass progressions, and ornamentation.
The relevance of the topical component in Classic
musical rhetoric has several aspects. For the composer, it
is part of the stock-in-trade, material to be identified and
selected. For the listener and the scholar, topical content
presents a kind of informal iconography-figures that
have direct or symbolic meaning. For the performer, the
recognition and projection of topical content is of the
greatest importance. An awareness of referential impli-
cations can have a profound influence upon decisions
for performance. Figures and motives would be sharply
profiled and subtly nuanced. They would be set against
each other in relief by the performer's control of
dynamics, tempo, articulation and emphasis to mark
critical notes and figures for special attention. The result
is an articulate performance.
Attention to topical content can also throw a striking
light upon Mozart's compositional ways. For example,
in ex. i the many changes of stance are managed with the
Ex. 1 Mozart, Sonata in D, K284, i, exposition
Allegro singing style
orchestral unison as a conce

brilliant style murky bass

singing style

trommel-bass

orchestral tutti; concitato

V A .Aj -_

march

singing style; orna-

mentl sile egao billint tyl

tr t .,, f ,.--P
mental stile legato brilliant style

chaconne- type bass

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 tutti-solo
rubato

L I 1I1

tutti-solo rubato

recitative oblig6 brilliant style

fanfare singing style

fanfare singing style

orchestral unison coups d'archet singing style

-z -i, -- "..-- ------ --TI- '----- _-:L

fanfare
orchestral unison

618 EARLY MUSIC NOVEMBER 1991

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greatest deftness and skill. Mozart weaves threads of suggest, and you have made the matter eminently clear.
connection that link contrasted sections and figures by But one thing disturbs me: whereas most of your topic
single notes, by overlaps in cadential action, by shifts of definitions are quite specific, there are many you refer to
stance within cadential formulas. He veers again and as simply'singing style', in spite of the fact that they seem
again at surprising tangents, but always turns upon a to me quite disparate in character.
point of leverage between the juxtaposed topics. The
support for such local contrasts is maintained by the LEONARD RATNER I'm using 'singing style' in the sense
long-range harmonic and period trajectories that he and used by the theorists of the time; and I should say that
his contemporaries used as frameworks for local action. this sonata is among the most compact in terms of the
Topical references, precise as they may be, are essen- topics it uses. In other sonatas a single topic may be
tially connotative; they are suggestive within the context extended for 12 or 13 bars; it's not the length that matters
of an ongoing discourse. Once recognized, they add a but the notion of character in the writing.
final touch of imagery to the coherence and design of
tonal patterns. In this process, Mozart, with his incred- ROBERT LEVIN I think it is absolutely essential that per-
ible skills and his ability to incorporate and synthesize formances of music of this period should communicate
elements from the various styles of 18th-century music, the surface tension created by details, whose purposeful
was the greatest master. This aspect of his style calls for opposition is nevertheless integrated into a whole. Now
fuller treatment that it has hitherto received in perform- this is certainly not limited to these character distinc-
ance practice studies and in performance itself. tions you have laid out, which I find enormously helpful;
it applies also to the articulatory surface of the piece.
Leonard G. Ratner is professor emeritus of Stanford Uni- This goes back to George Barth's paper, and is the whole
versity. He is the author of Classic Music: Expression, problem with the 19th-century editors putting all those
Form, and Style (1980) and Romantic Music: Sound and slurs into their editions. Precisely in the interests of
Syntax (forthcoming). stressing the organic unity of the composition, the sur-
face was dispensed with because it was too inconvenient
Discussion with its articulations, too lively and contradictory. You
have to hear the greater shapes, of course, but you also
WILLIAM KINDERMAN I would not in any way contradict
have to integrate the detail with all its apparent built-in
your main and important point about the evocative contradictions.
nature of Mozart's musical language, and our sense that
in these sonatas we are confronting a microcosm of 'W. hisFischer, Studien zur Musikwissenschaft, iii (1915), p.25
art. But I want to express a concern about the matter of
2 H.a C. Koch, Journal der Tonkunst (1795), p.197
3E. Dent, Sammelbiinde der internationalen Musikgesellschaft, xiv
topic being confined to a few bars and about the impres-
(1912-13), P509
sion that might be conveyed that we are listening to a
4 C.P.E. Bach led the way in exploiting the freedom and flexibility of
whole stream of motifs without taking note of thethe keyboard performer to
fact the extreme in his Sonatas und Fantasiasfiir
Kenner und Liebhaber (1779-85). He takes advantage of the solo role of
that Mozart of course binds all these up into larger units
the performer to juxtapose the boldest contrasts in topical content.
that have a unity of tone and an involved structural Bach's
inte- keyboard music bears witness to the hegemony of the per-
gration. If you look at the section up to bar 21 informer;
this it displays more flexibility and unpredictability than the music
of any other major composer.
movement there is a steady and subtle hand bringing
together all the units you describe into a larger whole.

LEONARD RATNER I don't see any problem in integrating

what I have to say with what you have to say: you are
simply taking the topics and assimilating them into an
analytical framework. But these basic materials have not
in my experience been fully understood and expressed
by performers, and it's performance I'm interested in
rather than analysis.

MALCOLM BILSON I've always thought along the lines you

EARLY MUSIC NOVEMBER 1991 619

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