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'Form and Orbital Tonality in the Finale of Bruckner's Seventh Symphony'

Horton, Julian

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Abstract

This article investigates questions of form in the Finale of Bruckner's Seventh Symphony, paying special attention to the reversed recapitulation as a problematic category in contemporary Formenlehre. Counterpointing Timothy Jackson's reading of the movement as a ‘tragic’ reversed sonata against James Hepokoski and Warren Darcy's critique of the concept of reversal, it seeks ways of accounting for the movement's novel form‐functional characteristics, which integrate concepts of thematic syntax with a model of chromatic tonality, drawing simultaneously on Schenkerian and neo‐Riemannian theories and the notion of the double‐tonic complex first proposed by Robert Bailey. The argument is contextualised in relation to critical debates about Bruckner's forms that originated during the composer's lifetime, especially claims of material discontinuity and harmonic illogicality, which were common in the symphonies’ pro‐Brahmsian reception and which linger in the discourse up to the present. The article's central claim is that a substantial understanding of both the Finale's form and its critical reception is attendant upon a theory of formal function, which takes seriously the difficulties of harmonic analysis that Bruckner's post‐Wagnerian idiom engenders.

Citation

Horton, J. (2018). 'Form and Orbital Tonality in the Finale of Bruckner's Seventh Symphony'. Music Analysis, 37(3), 271-309. https://doi.org/10.1111/musa.12124

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Aug 5, 2017
Online Publication Date Nov 27, 2018
Publication Date Oct 1, 2018
Deposit Date Sep 15, 2017
Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024
Journal Music Analysis
Print ISSN 0262-5245
Electronic ISSN 1468-2249
Publisher Wiley
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 37
Issue 3
Pages 271-309
DOI https://doi.org/10.1111/musa.12124

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Copyright Statement
This is the accepted version of the following article: Horton, Julian (2018). 'Form and Orbital Tonality in the Finale of Bruckner's Seventh Symphony'. Music Analysis 37(3): 271-309, which will be published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/musa.12124. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance With Wiley Terms and Conditions for self-archiving.




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